Carnivals: February 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.

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