Recently in Carnivals Category

The guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

Folks, this was pathetic. I've got two usable articles this time. Everything else was a thinly disguised commercial solicitation - or even lacking the thin disguise. That's not what this carnival is about.

If this continues, the carnival will go monthly, or stop altogether.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

There were no strongly recommended articles this time.

RECOMMENDED

Silicon Valley discusses The Nuances of Real Estate Contingencies

An article taking a humorous approach to what goes wrong: Top Ten Reasons You Bought The Wrong House

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

What a post about Mommy's Medicine Bag has to do with real estate, I don't know. Some things are just beyond mortal ken - such as any possible excuse for submitting that post to a real estate carnival.

For those who might object to the treatment their submission received, the relevant information has been in the guidelines since before submissions were being accepted for this carnival. Having been told to read the guidelines, you willingly submitted these posts. Live with it.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (July 16th, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be July 14th. If I do not get a minimum of six usable articles for that carnival, the carnival will go monthly.

UPDATE: Everything submitted as of July 14th was either vapid spam or contained errors too big to ignore. Therefore, the next carnival will be July 30th, and the carnival will thereafter be monthly.

The guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

We have a Host's Choice Award! Yay!

Dothan Home Search sends us Five Ways to Generate a Low Ball Offer. Not only are they funny, I guarantee you these will work every time. Ergo, the Host's Choice Award.

My submission, Agents "Buying" Listings: Promising the Undeliverable and Hurting Their Clients was written independently and is less humorous.

RECOMMENDED

How to Get the Most for Your Home When it is Time to Sell by Making a Good Impression. Or how to sell, period, when other properties aren't. This can't be said too often.

For the humor value: You Know That You're a Real Estate Investor When . . .

My contribution to the list: "You read about a plan to help rescue homeowners in trouble and cry out "NO! THEY CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!"

MET GUIDELINES

Renting vs. Owning in Retirement neglects about a dozen obvious questions, such as future value of rents, future value of property, need for the cash flow, etcetera that accompany a reasonably intelligent answer. It's also reporting on what someone said, rather than saying anything of particular importance itself. But it meets guidelines.

Tallahassee Real Estate Blog discusses the expiring temporary loan limits (In the absence of new legislation, they go away December 31st, 2008)

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

A site named "Goal Setting College" wanted me to advertise free magazines in the carnival. The only way to make that type of magazine useful is to print it upon toilet paper. Well, I suppose paper towels might work, also. And I suppose if you have a dog, even newsprint might be useful. But as far as actually reading this stuff, I have one word of advice: Don't.

For those who might object to the treatment their submission received, the relevant information has been in the guidelines since before submissions were being accepted for this carnival. Having been told to read the guidelines, you willingly submitted these posts. Live with it.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (July 2nd, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be June 30th.

The guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

There were no strongly recommended submissions this time.

RECOMMENDED

Asheville Mountain Real Estate submits Four Essentials From the Eighth Grade for Buyers & Sellers. I disagree with point four, because the dollars for your loan are numerically constant and not subject to inflation. In other words, the table is factoring out something that should be left in. But it's a solid basic article otherwise.

How To Analyze Real Estate - The Real Estate Stack is a good, if basic, measurement of a property's likely cash flow. If net cash flow is positive, it's very hard to go wrong - it's really more a question of "How long until things go right?" On the other hand, many properties with negative cash flow are nonetheless excellent investments.

Your host presents Why Cost Is As Important As Rate For Mortgage Loans

MET GUIDELINES

Restoring Your Finances and Your Faith presents Baby Steps to Buying Real Estate

I'm going to give this one the benefit of the doubt, as it really seems aimed more at agents and professional photographers, but sellers could benefit from it: When Your Wife Stabs You With a Fork You Learn to Pay Attention.

Is it Better to Rent or Buy? That is The Question considers only one variable in determining the recommendation. Regulatory situation? New Housing Supply? Demand trends? Macroeconomic support levels? What's likely to happen with rents in the future? Interest rates? Paying attention only to rent ratio is a good way to get yourself into serious trouble. But it does meet guidelines.

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

"Building a Strong Financial Foundation" actually managed to mention real estate in passing. On the other hand, elementary mistakes and misunderstandings of financial planning principles indicate that the author of this piece is operating by luck. Not everyone has good luck.

"Are You Really Buying Domestic Goods?" Did not so much as mention real estate, or any problem solving whatsoever. Four paragraphs expanding upon one stupid question which is irrelevant to this carnival. Kind of like the idiots that keep asking "Why?" no matter how good the answer. At a certain point, it becomes justifiable homicide.

American Consumer News has decided to act like all the other spam bots on the internet. Despite the fact I've blacklisted their email, they start sending more irrelevant (and wrong) claptrap from other email addresses. Nice of them to label themselves as purveyors of spam.

To prove you can't keep a bad idea down, the also banned and blacklisted KC Lau also sent an article about from another email address. If he read the guidelines or the carnival, he'd stop the submission spam. Once again his submission was irrelevant to this carnival, once again it was bad information, and once again his email was added to carnival blacklist.

"The Quest for Making Money Online" has nothing to do with real estate whatsoever. They claim it's not easy to make money online, and if you're finding it difficult to read carnival guidelines, I have to agree. By the way, the information contained in the post was a waste of time to read.

For those who might object to the treatment their submission received, the relevant information has been in the guidelines since before submissions were being accepted for this carnival. Having been told to read the guidelines, you willingly submitted these posts. Live with it.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (June 18th, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be June 16th.

The guidelines for this carnival. Frankly, the submissions this time were (as a group) pathetic.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

There were no strongly recommended posts this time

RECOMMENDED

Frankly, I'm embarrassed to be part of this carnival, but there's got to be one entry worth reading, so I'm submitting A Good Listing Agent's Most Important Responsibility

MET GUIDELINES

"Demystifying" The Subprime Mortgage Crisis And Other Questions; An Interview With Dan Crittenden is one of the largest whitewashes that I've read in recent memory - but it meets guidelines. Anybody selling mortgage accelerators isn't exactly some kind of uber-analyzer looking out for the best interests of the public.

Buy a House for $100 a Month falls short of being recommended for several reasons. It doesn't make a case as to what the benefit - or potential benefit, anyway - will be. Not to mention that there is no such thing as a no down payment purchase for investment property. I never did have a single lender willing to do 100% of value on an investment property. You also have to consider alternative uses for the money, and make an allowance for repairs. It certainly doesn't consider the risk involved. Landlording is not a simple business, and focusing on cash flow only is an invitation to disaster. But with all of that said, there are many areas of the country where investment property makes sense in ways that it has not for several years.

Minimizing Risk & Reducing Stress While Buying a Foreclosure in the Poconos might have made the recommended category if not for the direct solicitations in the article.

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

"Community Disaster Preparedness Tips - Plan Ahead of Time" wasn't prepared for the disaster of not meeting guidelines. Not that it's not a good idea, just that it's not appropriate for this carnival.

"What I like about Credit Cards" was even worse. Spam spam spam spam spamity spam. Couldn't be bothered to read guidelines or submit something that was even vaguely on topic. Somewhere there's got to be an empty oubliette that can be used for this sort of "author"

"Micropayments Make Cents" was generic garbage. Strike One. I've probably seen fifty thousand better articles with more specific, more useful advice on paying off debt. Strike Two. Nor was it even close to the guidelines. Strike Three, and they're out of here. Loser.

Dang. And I was so happy not to have any of those last time.

For those who might object to the treatment their submission received, the relevant information has been in the guidelines since before submissions were being accepted for this carnival. Having been told to read the guidelines, you willingly submitted these posts. Live with it.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (June 4th, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be June 2nd.

I'm a lot less happy about this one than the one two weeks ago. On the one hand, nothing that came in was so obviously inappropriate that I had to ridicule it in the SPAM section. On the other hand, only four entries came in where the information they contained actually outweighed the nonsense and just plain bad information, and several were link chumming. This is pathetic.

The guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

There were no strongly recommended entries this time.

RECOMMENDED

Tallahassee Real Estate Blog The "No Brainer" Investment. I do question some of the numbers and assumptions, and they just wouldn't work in many areas of the country, but it's a worthwhile idea.

Why Buyers Should Avoid Short Sales

MET GUIDELINES

50 Year Mortgages - A Compound Interest Nightmare. I agree about the fifty year mortgage, However, sacrificing other investments to pay the property off in 15 years (or 10) isn't very smart either. Haul out a calculator and or spreadsheet and do the math.

How to Make Sure this is your Dream Home: 7 Practical Tips The numbers in tip number four are flat out wrong, at least for the US, but it's still a good point.

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

Blessedly, there were none of these submissions this week, although one submission praising Negative Amortization loans almost got the super-special treatment. I've written many times about the downsides of the Negative Amortization loan, and it's extremely difficult to construct a scenario where it actually benefits a prospective borrower.

For those who might object to the treatment their submission received, the relevant information has been in the guidelines since before submissions were being accepted for this carnival. Having been told to read the guidelines, you willingly submitted these posts. Live with it.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (May 21st, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be May 19th.

I'm happy this time. The submissions I get were mostly pretty good, and I only had to make fun of one submission down in the Spam section. Short carnival, but I've said I'd rather have a short one that people will think is worth reading so they come back.

The guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

We even have a Host's Choice Award this time! Selling Your Home - Single Most Import Fact You Must Know talks about the a cold hard fact in any real estate market: The property is only worth what someone will pay you for it.

Your host presents Pretending the Service Equation is Simpler Than It Is, a cautionary tale about money and oversimplification.

RECOMMENDED

House Stealing: Identity Theft + Mortgage Fraud = Big Problems This is why notaries are requiring thumbprints in California now, among other things.

Preserve Your Credit discourages people from acting irresponsibly and torpedoing their own future.

MET GUIDELINES

How I Saved Over 3,000$ In One Hour talks about taking action in a timely fashion while the rates to help him were available.

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

A site named Life Money Development is evidently stuck in some pre-adult developmental cul-de-sac, as their post "The 7 Attributes of Leadership" did not so much as mention real estate. Did they violate their own guidelines as well as the carnival's? Survey says Yes! Is "Herrera" going to fire himself and go away? Somehow I doubt it.

For those who might object to the treatment their submission received, the relevant information has been in the guidelines since before submissions were being accepted for this carnival. Having been told to read the guidelines, you willingly submitted these posts. Live with it.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (May 7th, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be May 5th.

The guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

The Host's Choice Award: Texas: The Next Real Estate Boom? takes a look at the market in parts of the Lone Star State from the point of view of where it's going, not where it's been. PS Fort Worth was just rated one of the top five places to get a job in the country by Forbes, and it was joined by another couple Texas cities. What do you think happens next in an economy like that?

Gosh it's nice to have someone submit an article like that! Makes a great change from all the spam and shill stuff! Thank You!

Your host submits The Difference Between Note Rate (APY) and APR

RECOMMENDED

Why Buying a Home is More Important than You Think is a basic post that cannot be repeated too often, and it makes some very valid points. The answer to his ending question is, in general, "no."

MET GUIDELINES

Mortgage Brokers Not Happy With U.K. Interest Rates Decision is really nothing worth reading, but it did meet guidelines, talking about how it effects consumers.

How And Why To Consider A Purchase Money Mortgage fails to note the drawbacks, but does meet guidelines.

How to dodge stamp duty talks about some peculiarities of Australian tax code. I have no idea how correct they are, so I'm just going to pass it along without a recommendation. Nothing like reading something brain damaged to let you know how good we have it in the US!

To float or not to float, that is the question! considers the situation in India. What I said about the previous article goes here as well. Nothing like seeing something this brain damaged to let you know how good we have it here in the US

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

A site named Pasadena Financial Planner submitted a shill post called "Your family financial planning process" All kinds of credentials and buzzwords to make himself appear knowledgeable, but not one word about real estate. If he can't be bothered to read the guidelines, how professionally is he likely to behave towards you? How much due diligence do you think he might leave undone? In my opinion, prudence calls for giving this alleged professional's advice a pass.

A site named Best No Load Mutual Funds (with a very similar design to the previous) submitted a post entitled "The Best Mutual Funds Have NO Sales Loads and NO 12b-1 Fees" He's not only wrong, he's willfully ignorant if not actively lying, as those who have read the seminal DALBAR reports can attest. Somebody revoke his internet access, please ("Box it up and ship the whole thing back. You're too stupid to own a computer" to quote a popular joke). He's actively dangerous to innocent bystanders, not to mention clueless of the fact that submissions to this carnival should write about real estate.

Skilled Investor's skills do not extend to due diligence, failing to read either the guidelines or to consider the title of the carnival, which is really quite instructive. His submission fails to mention real estate at all, contains lots of meaningless buzzwords, and the fact is that financial planning has a certain amount of Art to it as well as hard numbers. Not to mention that this was a duplicate submission from the same author as the first post in the category. Mr. Larry Russell, you're negative 2 for two this time. (Actually, he's negative three for three, because he just submitted another irrelevant buzzword laden article, and guidelines say one post per author per carnival, so he should really be negative three for one - like he went up to the free throw line, and somehow managed to dock his team three points. How bad do you have to be to do that?)

KC Lau's Money Tips is evidently unable to afford a clue. Post fails to mention real estate at all. His comprehension is so endemically bad that he wins the race to be the first person whose e-mail is banned from submission to this carnival, and whose URL will no longer be considered.

Money Blue Book's Post did not so much as mention Real Estate, and he had some significant inaccuracies about credit scores, as well as trying to sell or recommend credit check services. Kind of like using a shotgun to shoot that apple off your kid's head - William Tell he's not, and his advice could well do significant damage.

American Consumer News not only resubmitted an article I made fun of last time ("submitted a straight shill post. This is not consumer news, except by how many people you can sucker into making a major financial mistake. Absolutely no understanding of the business model of the business they're pitching, or even just the basic facts of the situation. These people have about as much concern for American consumers as Osama bin Laden.") but they submitted a blatantly wrong post called, "Five Ways to Increase the Value of Your Home - For Under $100" and only one of them can plausibly be done for under $100, and that one ends up costing way more once you've actually done what was recommended. Do yourself a favor and just stay away from this website. Consider them second place in the race to get banned and blacklisted - which makes them double losers.

For those who might object to the treatment their submission received, the relevant information has been in the guidelines since before submissions were being accepted for this carnival. Having been told to read the guidelines, you willingly submitted these posts. Live with it.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (April 23rd, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be April 21st.

The guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

Unfortunately, there were no "strongly recommended" articles submitted this time, and therefore, no Host's Choice.

RECOMMENDED

Never Pay the Dealer Up Front has some words of warning about pre- and during construction purchases.

Buying a Foreclosure Property is a little short on analysis and how to put the odds on your side, and some of the details are incorrect, but it's a good article for consumers to have read.

Your host presents Non-Exclusive Buyer's Agency Contract - A Bet Consumers Can't Lose

MET GUIDELINES

Adfecto Abundantia - Aspire 2 Wealth submits House Lust. He's going about it in a way that's practically guaranteed to end up hosing himself (setting himself up for all the classic traps), but it does meet guidelines.

Tallahassee Real Estate - Area Analysis is very specific to one metropolitan area.

How to Make Sure this is your Dream Home: 7 Practical Tips gets the permissible debt to income ratio wrong, but it's a solid basic article otherwise.

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

A site named Bond Index Funds wants to sell you bond index funds. Unfortunately for them, that has nothing to do with the carnival at hand. But their advice would be hazardous to your financial health even if it was germane. You might be better off claiming to be the long lost relative of a dead Nigerian millionaire.

American Consumer News submitted a straight shill post. This is not consumer news, except by how many people you can sucker into making a major financial mistake. Absolutely no understanding of the business model of the business they're pitching, or even just the basic facts of the situation. These people have about as much concern for American consumers as Osama bin Laden.

KC Lau needs to buy a clue. He can't keep to the one submission per carnival guideline, and he can't or won't comprehend that the post must be related to real estate. I wouldn't trust my money to the advice of someone like that.

No Load Index Mutual Funds submitted a straight shill article that had no relation to real estate. my thoughts about index funds are that they're for market timers, and that's about it. Just Say No to clueless internet shills.

For those who might object to the treatment their submission received, the relevant information has been in the guidelines since before submissions were being accepted for this carnival. Having been told to read the guidelines, you willingly submitted these posts. Live with it.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (April 9th, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be April 7th.

The guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

Despite misinformation about deferred annuities, I'm going to give a strong recommendation to The Good, The Bad, and The Reverse Mortgage. The author doesn't know nearly as much about deferred annuities as they think they do. For instance, NASD rules explicitly prohibit investing with borrowed money, so only a fixed deferred annuity is possible. The so-called "Equity Indexed Annuity" is the prime culprit in these schemes, and there have been recent rulings making those substantially more difficult to sell without an NASD license that puts the seller under the purview of NASD rules. Any of these instruments can still be annuitized without penalty, so the money is not out of reach. I could go on, but the primary thing here is the reverse mortgage - on which I agree completely. If you think you have a need the reverse mortgage, you are so much better off "swapping down" or even just selling completely that I have yet to find a scenario where a reverse mortgage makes financial sense for the client. Selling the family home, that your kids grew up in, can be emotionally difficult, I know. However, RAMs are costly, high interest rate loans, and the numbers speak eloquently against them. But since they're high commission products also, people interested only in a commission check will try to sell them - and they're often not telling "The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." I have in the past made jokes along these lines

Q: How do you know someone trying to sell a RAM is an unethical shark selling an overpriced worthless product?

A: By the fact that they're trying to sell a RAM!

I have yet to see any exceptions. However, there's an eventual bright side to the whole equation. Demographic trends are looking likely to hurt lenders who do RAMs worse than ordinary subprime mortgage companies' worst nightmares. The whole RAM industry is starting to look like a Ponzi scheme, at least in my opinion. I'm not exactly a member of the Council of Economic Advisers. But when numbers calculated on a ten to fifteen year remaining life expectancy start encountering a 25 to 30 year remaining life expectancy paired with long term care expenses so the mortgagees max out the draw, the ability to make a profit in the industry is going to be closely correlated with the ability to find a bigger fool to buy the note.

Your host presents Real Estate and the Four Levels of Competence

RECOMMENDED

Personal Financier has an article on Understanding Important Hidden Psychological Aspects of Rent vs. Buy Comparisons. It's a little older than I like to see, but I do think it's worth reading. He overstates his case a little - it is sufficient that the properties be functionally equivalent.

Tallahassee Real Estate Blog submitted Rent Versus Ownership - A Tallahassee Real Estate Case Study. Unlike most of the country, the rent there more than covers ownership costs. He neglects a few variables, but it shows just how easy the question gets when rent covers mortgage.

Salt Lake Real Estate Blog submits New Loan Limits - Are There Strings Attached? having to do with underwriting standards on the new "Jumbo conforming" loans from Fannie and Freddie. I have some email from some wholesalers that I haven't had a chance to write an article on yet, but reading between the lines of what Fannie is saying, I get the strong impression they do not want to fund these loans and will be pretty hardnosed about their requirements.

MET GUIDELINES

Paying Off Your Mortgage is basically a good article that makes one major mistake (market timing is a matter of luck, not skill - as any number of studies have shown) and does get way too commercial with what are probably paid links, including to applications to a money merge account that wastes your money. On the other hand, even with the mandatory deductions, I think it meets the guidelines..

The Foreclosure Crisis Continues from the Tri-State Better Business Bureau doesn't really give any useful information. But it does meet guidelines.

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

A site named "Life. Money. Development." submitted "Diet Tips for Preventing High Cholesterol Levels" How this relates to real estate is a mystery to me. Gotta watch that lead paint, and those old asbestos tiles are murder. Maybe he should add "Illiteracy" to the title of his site.

A site named 401 Lookup submitted an article called "A Close Look at 401k Retirement Plan - How It Works, Contributions, Withdrawals, Advantages/Disadvantages". Since they don't understand elementary written guidelines, it's not surprising that they're full of fecal matter on 401ks as well. Please people, don't believe everything you read on the internet. This is the sort of article a C minus high school student would write - including about a third of it being errors and glaring omissions.

A site called Public Flirt wanted me to link an article called "How to Use Compliments With Women". So they'll offer more for your property? So they'll let you have it for less? Sadly, no. Public Flirt was too busy flirting with women to read the guidelines for the carnival. Not to disparage the skill, the pasttime, or the intended end result, but it has nothing to do with the subject matter here. Let's all refrain from the obvious sexist comments, and hope that they keep to their red light district in the future.

KC Lau's Money Tips seems unclear on the concept of the "Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate," submitting a post about how inflation is bad with no consideration of real estate. For instance, considered strictly on its own, inflation is a good thing for a homeowner with a fixed rate mortgage, and still mostly good even if the interest rate on their loan isn't completely fixed. Inflation is one of those two-edged swords - a winner for every loser. I'd be extremely leery about following the money advice of someone who doesn't understand that.

Celebrity News and Gossip can't read guidelines either, submitting a vapid article about celebrity homes. While it did mention real estate, it had nothing to do with consumers, gave no information about actual real estate, had zero educational value, and just plain had no value unless you're one those folks who keep paparazzi in business. When aiming for the lowest common denominator, be prepared for the occasional division by zero.

I have been far too kind to some sites in the past, who submitted not only spam but something that was merely rejected, and so I let the spam slide. American Consumer News is one of those sites. Well, Mr. Nice Guy is over. 'How To "Go Green" And Mean It' doesn't even mention real estate. Their brains must have gone green some time ago, oozing out their ears and forming a slime pool for them to slip on the floor. Laying such a trap must be the best way for the zombies who evidently write for the site to catch prey ("More brains!"). Luckily for the rest of us, the zombies are more likely to slip on the slime than we are. From what I've seen of this site's expertise on subjects where I have professional knowledge, I wouldn't trust their writing on anything.

For those who might object to the treatment their submission received, the relevant information has been in the guidelines since before submissions were being accepted for this carnival. Having been told to read the guidelines, you willingly submitted these posts. Live with it.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (March 26th, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be March 24th.

The guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

There were no strongly recommended articles this week, and hence, no Host Choice Award.

RECOMMENDED

I know zero about mortgage and property markets and procedures in the UK. But Avoiding Home Repossession from Finance Blog covers some of the high points.

Trusted Advisor sends us Decaying Social Trust and Moral Indignation. For the record, HR 3915 was a bad bill. But he's right that people looking to evade the consequences of their own actions is a large part of the problem, and it's hurting others. The woman described is on the hook for $200,000 of other people's money she could afford to pay but is protected from collection by California law intended to protect primary residences only, has likely been bailed out of the tax consequences by special legislation, and is griping that her credit score is going to drop? Brother Maynard! Bring out the Holy Hand Grenade!

5 Mortgage Lessons to Learn from the Rich makes some points worth making, even if it was mostly pulled (with credit) from another article.

7 Reason You Fail To Sell Your Home is nothing new or original, but some things just cannot be said too often. PS: I wouldn't list with an agent who sold 20 properties per month. I wouldn't even list with an agent who had 20 listings, and probably not one who had 10. There aren't enough hours in the day to understand that many transactions. But the principle remains valid.

Real Estate broker Issues Why would an agent recommend a post that debunks the usual agent talk about what a great investment real estate is? Quite simply, because it takes the focus in choosing an agent off general market return an onto "how good is this agent?" Had he taken it a very small amount further this post had the potential to earn a "strongly recommended"

MET GUIDELINES

Reba Haas submits The psychology of setting a list price?

American Consumer News sends us Practical Tips for Staying Safe in A Winter Storm

The Financial Bullet sends us Mortgages & Credit Unions. Credit unions aren't very competitive on first mortgages. Every time my wife brings home one of their "specials" to talk about I've got a better loan available. The same applies with the other two credit unions I'm a member of. Furthermore, the study cited is misleading because credit unions originate relatively few loans, and sell almost everything they do originate to banks. Once those loans are sold - so the credit unions can originate more loans for their other members - they count as bank held. Credit unions actually hold only a small fraction of 1% of first mortgage loans in the country. However, the home equity market ("second mortgages", or home equity loans and lines of credit) is a market in which credit unions can be very difficult to compete with, and you should definitely shop your credit union if you're a member of one. I'm not ashamed to say they beat the best HELOC I could do for myself a few years back, so I got theirs instead of mine.

A site named Cubicle Dropout submits Secrets to Real Estate Success. Note: The public cannot access the actual MLS for an area because it contains sensitive information. But there's a public version without the sensitive information that can be accessed by anybody, and this is what most non-agents are talking about when they say they've accessing MLS.

What is the State of The Housing Market? (Multiple Choice) makes a decent point about how it depends upon who you pay attention to, but nobody buys or owns property in a national housing market. Any time you start talking about one specific property, you need to consider the local market. Some local markets are doing well, others less so. Consider what is going on in your local market, not the effect of a national index that will mislead you as to what's going on in your local market.

San Mateo Home Sellers in Trouble #10 - The House of Cards is Coming Down gives some very erroneous advice at the end - don't ever simply mail the keys back to the lender. Even if you're going to lose the property, there are better ways to handle it. Furthermore, lots of people get surprised by how much property costs them after they walk away. Don't ever think you're done until everybody involved agrees that you're done.

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

I'm not even going to name the site, but I did get a submission advising people they may be able to keep the property even if they stop paying the mortgage due to lender confusion. This is either pure ignorance or a deliberate lie. All you can do by taking this tack is delay the inevitable slightly while making it worse. And I was really hoping not to have a post in this category for a while.

For those who might object to the treatment their submission received, the relevant information has been in the guidelines since before submissions were being accepted for this carnival. Having been told to read the guidelines, you willingly submitted these posts. Live with it.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (March 12th, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be March 10th.

The Guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

There were no submissions that made it into the Strongly Recommended category, and hence, no Host's Choice Award.

RECOMMENDED

A Case of Too Much Information? Real Estate and Stock Investments Compared talks about comparative mental effort and stress involved in real estate versus stock investing, and the irrationality of people who act thus.

Until the last paragraph, I was going to reject Being an agent isn't always a safe job... see the recent warning notice below, but that last paragraph has an important warning for owners of real estate that I think makes it worth reading, despite the fact that most of the article talks about being an agent.

Withdraw EPF Money for Home Loan Installment: How it affects your Retirement Fund deals with an way of using your pension fund to invest in real estate - at least if you live in Malaysia.

Your host presents The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Lender Fear, talking about the current macro-economic state of the loan market and its effects upon consumers.

MET GUIDELINES

Five Considerations For Refinancing Your Mortgage does no research, no calculations, doesn't consider reduced cost of interest when it talks about extending the term, and links an online quote site, which is a highly misleading way to end up with a rotten loan. Nonetheless, it does meet guidelines as it doesn't actually shill or make any explicit errors of fact.

Effects of the Mortgage Crisis reads like a laundry list you can find any of hundreds of places. No thought, no recommendations on what to do about any of this. But it does meet guidelines.

Get HUD Homes For Sale - 50% Off!. The title says it all - but you have to be a police officer, fire fighter, or teacher to take advantage of it. Not to mention that these homes are generally not in anything like "move in" condition - and it's usually not just cosmetic, either. You want a fixer? I can find better than most HUDs at a lower price, and I'm not the only one.

Buy Solar Cells: Be Your Own Power Plant and Get Rid Of Your Electricity Bills talks about using solar to cut your electricity bills. My question is: What's the tradeoff? Being green is nice, and worth some bucks to me, but if it costs more than you'll save for the lifetime of the solar system, is it really to your benefit? Is it even to the environment's benefit? If you borrowed the cost of the solar system, would the reduced bills pay your cost of interest? Is it possible that the people who design solar systems need to lower the cost and raise the efficiency?

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

A site named FYI About submitted a straight shill pitch that wants to sell major appliances. This article did not so much as mention real estate. Completely clueless about the nature of the carnival, and probably a paid shill post as well. Zero research, zero thought, zero value.

A site called Rob Moshe submitted a post talking all about his future plans to "help" people that did not so much as mention real estate. Somebody bragging about plans to "help," who doesn't actually submit a post with any useful information or thoughts. Why do I wonder if his plan to "help" people involves countries with asset hiding banking regulations and no extradition agreements?

You'd think a site named Heart of Wisdom Blog might have some kind of clue that a carnival named "Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate" might expect there to be some information that's useful for consumers of real estate in something you submit, as opposed to vaguely religious talk about a relationship with god. You'd be wrong. I don't know about Heart of Wisdom, but Brains of Wisdom are evidently some kind of black hole.

A site named Money Blue Book submitted a shill post advocating paying your mortgage with a credit card for the rewards. Of all the stupid tricks people can pull with their money, this one ranks right up there with, "Borrow money so you can convert it to cash and set it on fire" Come on people, this isn't some game show for inbred imbeciles where the stupidest possible answer is greeted with applause and cries of "good answer!" Every link in the article "just happened" to go to a credit card application page. Even if you paid the card off in full every month, the higher Rate Cost Tradeoff you're stuck with will more than eat any possible reward. If I didn't have an "as family friendly as practical" policy, I'd say a few truly pungent things. Some people will fall for the most idiotic schemes as long as you give them cash. This is the same basic "come on" as mortgage accelerators, but is even less intelligent. Please people, apply a little skepticism to what you read on the internet!

For those who might object to the treatment their submission received, the relevant information has been in the guidelines since before submissions were being accepted for this carnival. Having been told to read the guidelines, you willingly submitted these posts. Live with it. You might try submitting a higher quality post, or one that's not spam.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (February 27th, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be February 25th.

For the second time, Searchlight Crusade plays host to the Carnival of Real Estate.

I want to mention that Searchlight Crusade is also the keeper of the list for the Consumer Focused Real Estate Carnival, which appears on alternate Wednesdays and highlights the best (non-commercial) posts aimed at individual buyers and sellers and owners of real estate. Guidelines for submission are here. Please consider submitting any appropriate articles you may write, and we could also use some future hosts.

With that said, on the the carnival submissions. Let's start with the ones that "made the cut" In no particular order:

Silicon Valley Real Estate Guide talks about Licensee Working for the Know-it-All Client, or Not: "Sir, How Long Do I Have to Keep Making You Look Good in Front of Your Wife?". We've all had the client with misinformed opinions that completely armor their skull, rendering it completely impervious to real information.

Investment Property Insider submits Create Personal Wealth Beyond Your Small Business, Part 3, discussing the decision to lease versus buy commercial real estate.

Sacramento Real Estate Gal sends us REO Buyers: Three Things to Watch For, discussing dealing with lender owned property.

Best Home Selling Tips sends us HUD 1 Form - Real Estate Settlement Statement Explained, discussing the only form in the whole process with a real requirement to be correct.

Minneapolis Luxury Real Estate Blog talks about why Why City Councils Should Stick to Business, or rather their own business, rather than trying to make life difficult on lenders.

Real Sage Advice asks the burning question: Senior Housing Wish List-What do Boomers Want? The answer is everything, but only when they want it. Nor do they want to pay for it.

Single Guy Money submits The Real Cost of Homeownership, discussing costs of home ownership.

Salt Lake Real Estate Blog sends us Fed Rate Cut Fallout, which is really more of a discussion of macroeconomics and psychology.

The second level of the ziggurat is next. Now we get to the posts that might have been worthy of consideration as top post of the week. Again in no particular order:

Mortgage Rates Report sends us A Nation of Subprime Borrowers?. I disagree with Brian about the state of the southern California economy - I see a lot of very strong indicators on the state of the local economy. A large part of it seems to be major media spin - they were reporting worse numbers as wonderful a very few years ago when a different president occupied the White House (really - check for yourself!). But let Brian make his case.

Fiscal Musings sends us Why I Like Real Estate, Part II: Leverage. Leverage can either help you, as illustrated in the article - or hurt you, as many people are discovering now. Usually it's helpful, though.

Your host presents Dealing With Looming Foreclosure - Get Out of Denial, from my other site. The sooner you face the reality, the less it's likely to damage you.

Columbus Real Estate Voice with 4 Ways Buyers Sabotage Their Perfect Home Purchase

Next we come to the hardest decision I had to make, between two excellent articles on entirely different subjects. Unfortunately, I could only choose one, but silver is still excellent:

Real Estate Radio USA brings us The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy, a look at the factors controlling competition in the real estate business, and how the NAR may not be the best body for determining the future of the industry.

We've all been waiting for this moment, and now I'm happy to announce that we have a winner!

Up2Date talks about Rent Control - The Property Owners "Right to Life" Issue. One consequence he doesn't mention is that with rent control, there is little incentive to maintain rental property, or to build more of it. In fact, property owners begin looking for alternative uses for the property - causing a further constriction of the rental supply. In short, the "cure" only makes the disease worse.

Thank You for joining us. If you've never been to this site before, please take a look around. If you write articles focused upon the consumer end of real estate, please consider submitting (one per carnival) to the Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate. The Carnival of Real Estate will return next Monday at Property Grunt

The guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

STRONGLY RECOMMENDED

There were no posts that made this category, and therefore, no Host's Choice Award for this carnival.

RECOMMENDED

Home Seller's Pain Is My Gain As A Renter - Taking Advantage Of The Mortgage Crisis Makes some good points about short term effects of the mortgage meltdown. In the longer term, however, it's going to put upwards pressure on rents, particularly in densely built areas.

Heard about disgruntled buyer's suing their agent? Your host discusses Buyer's Agency, Due Diligence, and the Illusion of Comity

MET GUIDELINES

Why Buying a Luxury Car is Smarter than Buying a Luxury Home manages to completely miss all of the points, despite directly acknowledging one. Luxury Real Estate appreciates, and for at least the past thirty years it appreciates much better than an average home because they are a scarce resource. You buy a luxury car, and you've got a depreciating status symbol. You buy a luxury home, and you've got a status symbol that will predictably appreciate in value, often at rates that outdo the effective rates on other investments. Not to mention social requirements of those who can afford to purchase luxury homes usually dictate that they do in order to maintain their level of income.

Are you covering more than your rent encourages renters to get renter's insurance, mentioning the so-called HO-4 policy, the standard form for the policy as recommended by NAIC and adopted by most states.

5 Reasons to Invest in Land makes a couple of errors, but it does meet guidelines even with the hit for mistakes.

Housing Crisis - There's Light at the End of the Tunnel really needed some more work and specifics. Keep in mind we don't have one national housing market, we have hundreds of local ones.

Jumbo Mortgage - Stimulus Package may Save You Money discusses a hypothetical boost in the conforming loan limit that's being considered in Congress. It's far from certain it will be passed, and it's far from certain Fannie and Freddie would be able, much less disposed to buy such loans. Will Congress raise Fannie and Freddie's market limit to match? Will Fannie and Freddie want to buy bigger loans? I'm not sure I would in their shoes, and I was lobbying a bit for a conforming boost of a much smaller magnitude (10-15%, as opposed to 75 percent all in one fell swoop). Fannie and Freddie both passed on voluntarily raising their limits only a couple of months ago. Check back in a couple of months for hard information..

SPAM AND OTHER RIDICULOUS SUBMISSIONS

A website called Seasoned Tradelines submitted a solicitation post containing several errors. The article advised purchasing tradelines, which just happens to be what he does with that website. FACT: Fair Isaacsson has recently revised their credit model to remove the benefits to adding existing tradelines. The article advises people to put cashed out equity in a savings plan at 5%. FACT: If you still have cashed out equity, you can use it to pay your mortgage down or to enable refinancing, not put it in a savings account at 5% when your mortgage is higher than that.. Rates are great right now if you can qualify, and this can make a difference. Nor were these the only areas where the advice was questionable, to say the least, but two major issues where you are factually incorrect isn't exactly a recommendation for your services, even if you were selling something of value, which he isn't.

A site named Stephen Dean's Blog submitted a post entitled "Deciphering Cosmopolitan Magazines", which had nothing to do with consumers of real estate, or even with real estate at all. Why he might have thought it was appropriate for this carnival is something that my merely human brain is incapable of understanding. If he can not or will not take the time to comprehend carnival guidelines, how good of a writer is he likely to be?

A site named FYI About submitted a straight shill post for Hawaii vacation rentals. Hello! A hotel by any other name is still a hotel - even if it's in a roach infested eyesore where you have to spend two extra hours traveling to anywhere you might want to go.

A site named KC Lau's Money Tips submitted a post looking for financial planning apprentices. Why anyone would want to apprentice to someone too busy to read carnival guidelines is beyond me. It even came complete with corporate attitude posters. Quite frankly, a visit to despair.com/ is likely to do you more good with less time and money wasted. You can even build your own Demotivator. Having worked with a more than sufficient number of people with attitudes such as evidenced by writing that article and submitting it to this carnival, you'll end up wasting less time and money my way. Not to mention that the "Upcoming Hot Careers" articles I've seen from credible professional organizations do not tag financial planner as likely to be hot any time soon, and competent financial planners don't have to advertise for apprentices. This Demotivator seems particular apt in this context.

For those in the last category who might object to the treatment their submission received, the relevant information has been in the guidelines since before submissions were being accepted for this carnival. Having been told to read the guidelines before submitting, you willingly submitted this fertilizer. Live with it.

(What I really want, of course, is not to have this obviously inappropriate material submitted)

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (February 13th, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be February 11th.

the guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry.

ANNOUNCEMENT for the carnival: Effective with the next Carnival, I'm going to start a "Spam and Other Ridiculous Submissions" section. At the host's discretion, there may or may not be an actual link to a site (it all depends upon the host's judgment as to whether the public shame will offset the search engine value of the link), but I'm going to mercilessly flay the ideas. The guidelines have been updated.

I'm just tired of getting the same things that are solicitations for business based upon ideas that are incorrect, poorly researched, and often, just plain wrong. I'm not intending to use it for anyone that I believe might have been made in good faith with attention paid to the guidelines, but the submissions I've been getting just cry out for some kind of answer. You're willingly submitting this garbage, or having your agent do so. Deal with it.

There were no "Strongly Recommended" articles this time, and therefore, no Host's Choice Award.

RECOMMENDED:

From Canada, Reverse Mortgages warns about a very real threat. The math very strongly favors downsizing over Reverse Mortgages. In the United States, if you must do one of these, please look for one that meets FHA guidelines.

Mortgage Loan Calculator gives us a few basic flaws with Rent to Own from a buyer's standpoint in Do Not Fall for Rent to Buy Mortgage Loan Schemes, but what he's really talking about is Lease with Option to Buy. With a little more work, this could have been a really excellent article, but it's worth reading as it sits. There are problems with Rent to Own, even though they are surmountable. Nonetheless, it's a good idea to know what the problem areas are.

Boozwatt presents How To Estimate & Determine A Property's Value Accurately!

You host submits Real Estate Agents and Mortgage Loan Officers Don't Want to Compete, and covers why you should make them do so.

MET GUIDELINES

Understanding Closing Costs

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (January 30th, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be January 28th.

Here are the guidelines for this carnival.

As always, I arranged the entries that met guidelines into three levels, based upon originality, usefulness to the consumer, and how much thought and effort and research went into an entry. Unfortunately, nothing made the cut for the highest category.

Due to the season, I wasn't expecting a lot of entries,and indeed, there were only eight, of which four were essentially advertisements and link-chumming, while one was a business post. There was no Host's Choice this time.

Recommended

Salt Lake Real Estate Blog gives us Safe Real Estate Investments for 2008, some advice for investors that cannot be repeated too often. It can be very hard to meet, but that's what it takes to be safe.

Your host submits Getting Another Mortgage Loan After A Short Sale

Met Guidelines

Debt Free sends us Tips For Selling Your Own House, which isn't bad advice, but is so general and so vanilla that it won't help. It also makes a couple of minor mistakes and omits a lot that's more important than what it does say.

Consumer Focused Carnival of Real Estate will return in two weeks (January 16th, 2008), here at Searchlight Crusade, unless someone else wants to host. Deadline for submissions will be January 14th.