Carnivals: January 2008 Archives

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.