Carnivals: June 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

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.