Taking the Journey With This Week's Carnival

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"Don't Stop Believing" is a classic soft-rock anthem by Journey that has experienced a recent rejuvination after appearing in the finale of The Sopranos and before that appearances on Family Guy and Laguna Beach in the same week, that actually had the song in the iTunes most-downloaded for the following week.

However, for consumers considering purchasing a home it can be seen as the motto of all the REALTORS out there.

"Some will win, some will lose," Steve Perry sings in the original 1981 lyrics. "Some were born to sing the blues. Oh, the movie never ends. It goes on and on and on and on ... "

1. I'm a geek and I admit it. However, for some reason, I've never really been a fan of flow-charts. However, Silicon Valley Blogger presents "The American Nightmare: An Illustration Of The Subprime Lending Mess and Borrowing Bust" posted at The Digerati Life, and does an amazing job. He says, "This post shows a flowchart I made that demonstrates how the subprime lending process affects consumers," and it does exactly that. It was a little older than I would have liked for the winning entry, however for many consumer this is still the world in which they are living. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, this flow chart is worth 1 million.


2. Jay Thompson presents "Ask the Agents: Where are the Good Neighborhoods?" posted at The Phoenix Real Estate Guy. There is a fine line between "serving" your clients and "steering" them and it is one that every practicing agent walks every single day. As a consumer, Jay does a great job of explaining why your agent is "elusive" on answering your questions.


3. Kristen Munson presents "Selling Your Home? How Good is Your Listing Agent?" posted at LoanShak, saying, "How to choose the right listing agent if you want to sell your home." She has some good points, this topic is obviously on my mind this week as well, and she does a good job of supporting other ideas.


4. Dan Melson presents "The Division of Labor Between Buyers and Their Agents" posted at Searchlight Crusade. Often buyers neglect to "interview" agents but rather simply chooe one, Dan gives them a great "how to" guide for working with a successful agent.


5. Oliver Muoto presents "How the iPhone can Revolutionize Real Estate" posted at vFlyer Blog, saying, "The Apple iPhone has the potential to revolutionize how consumers interact with real estate services." I think the logic is a little flawed as I think iPod revolutionized what had been an industry that was stuck in the 20th century; however I don't know that iPhone is having the same impact. Also, Apple's marketing strategy is exclusivity - hence only one carrier - which will limit the ability of this product to revolutionize the world.

The best of the rest:

Dan Melson, "Real Estate is More Local Than Most People Think", Searchlight Crusade;

Ant, "10 Biggest Mistakes Everyone Makes When Buying/ Selling Real Estate", The Beef Jerky Blog;

Matthew Paulson, "Business News: Who Not To Listen To", Getting Green; and

Tushar Mathur, "How much should your Monthly Mortgage Payment be?", Life of a Resident Alien...

That concludes this week's Carnival. Be sure to submit your entries for the July 24th Carnival which will be hosted by Kevin Boer's 3 Oceans Real Estate

"Some will win, some will lose," Steve Perry sings in the original 1981 lyrics. "Some were born to sing the blues. Oh, the movie never ends. It goes on and on and on and on ... "

We had a little technical difficulty when I originally posted this last night, and I apologize to anyone that was looking for this last night.

Getting By With My Friends at This Week's Carnival

What would you do if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key.Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends

"A Little Help From My Friends" is a great tune originally performed by the Beatles and by Joe Cocker and used as the theme song for the classic show "Wonder Years".

Cocker has an amazing voice and his performance of this song at Woodstock is legendary, however it was lost for years to a younger audience that knew his voice as the "Wonder Years" guy. But a search on YouTube and you'll find his performance re-emerging.

So what does this have to do with the Consumer-Oriented Real Estate Carnival?

When Toby entered into the real estate world it was one of the toughest markets anyone had seen in 15-20 years. He knew he couldn't do it alone. He counted on his broker to help and he did. However, Toby wanted to be a little different and he found Active Rain and the network of amazing agents and brokers changed how he viewed real estate, and via the consumer-focused real estate carnival he is hoping to provide consumers insight into the minds of these amazing agents.

Don't settle for mediocrity when you are paying for the best.

We had a lot of great entries for this edition, considering it had been a couple of weeks, so I'm limiting it to the top five submissions.

1. Larry Cragun's Real Estate Undressed provided us with this edition's winner "Should You Lock Today? Usually Yes. Maybe No. It's a Crapshoot." Why is this the winner? If you are buying a house you need to read it, study it, and read it, yet one more time. Mr. Cragun has captured the roller-coaster ride that is interest rates.


2. Dan Melson's Searchlight Crusade offers the consumer a great-view into the world of real estate and the value a true professional can - and will - provide you and that the cost of this can be invaluable in his article "The Best Ways to Create Problems in Real Estate"


3. "6 Questions to Ask At An Auction on Lake Martin" is a focused post to the Lake Martin community, but the rules that John Coley, of Lake Martin Voice, outlines can - and should - be used everywhere. Luck is very rarely truly luck, but rather where education meets opportunity and an auction is a great opportunity to find a nice piece of property, or over-pay, just like any other transaction.


4. "Shoot What Buyers Want to See" is the 11th part in a series on good real estate photographs being published on REagent in Connecticut by Athol Kay. On the surface this post doesn't seem to fit the "consumer-oriented" model of the carnival, however it is a special submission from Cecilia Hutchings that really takes this entry to the next level. And I'm sure there are a lot of consumers out there that agree with Cecilia.


5. Zillow Blog's Matt Johnson takes on the idea of paying down your mortgage in "To Pay, Or Not To Pay". The idea is interesting, basically according to outside research, the idea is that you can make more money by having your money in other areas than paying down the debt on your home. I was dissapointed that Matt didn't advance the discussion but rather filled the post with caveats -- however the concept warrants inclusion.
   

Thanks for visiting this edition of the Carnival and be sure to submit your entry to the next issue of the Consumer-Oriented Blog Carnival. If you are interested in hosting an issue, please drop us a line.

Joe Cocker - With A Little Help From My Friends

A little music to go with this week's Consumer-Focused Carnival of Real Estate.

A New Carnival of Consumer Real Estate

Welcome to the June 5, 2007 edition of consumer-focused real estate carnival. A few days late, but we are back on track. Hopefully, the world of consumer-oriented real estate agents are working hard with consumers.

Consumer Information/News

• plus6 presents Selecting a Home Warranty posted at Plus6 Personal Finance, saying, "When I bought my house about four years ago the REALTOR included a home warranty with the house. So for the first year I had a home warranty through Old Republic. I live in an older home (built in the 50’s) so I figured the warranty would be of some use."
• Dan Melson presents Refinancing When You're Upside Down on the Mortgage posted at Searchlight Crusade.
• Joshua Dorkin presents What’s the difference between ROI and CAP Rate? posted at Real Estate Investing For Real.
• Nigel Swaby presents Condo Questions You Shouldn't Forget To Ask posted at Salt Lake Real Estate Blog.
• Maureen Francis presents Do you want to be sold as a “lead?” posted at MiOaklandCounty.com.
• Larry Cragun presents What Turns A Buyers Market Into A Sellers Market? (With A Minnesota Twist) posted at Teresa Boardman.
• Jennifer Kirby presents To Basement or Not to Basement... posted at Minneapolis Real Estate Blog.
• Teresa Boardman presents Web sites confuse home buyers posted at Teresa Boardman.
  

Market Trends

• Teresa Boardman presents Don't let the big one get away posted at Teresa Boardman.
  

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of consumer-focused real estate carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.Technorati tags: consumer-focused real estate carnival, blog carnival.

Researcing This Week's Carnival

This week's Consumer-Focused Real Estate Carnival was hosted by Mike Simonsen's Atlos Real Estate Research Insights.

Mike did a great job this week and gave the top nod to Jay Thompson from Phoenix with "What the heck is a buyer's market" and runner-up went to Toby and Sadie's entry "Nobody likes foreclosures in Delaware Ohio".

Head on over to Atlos to see the great honorable mention entries.

• Want to host a Carnival? Contact Toby!
• Want to submit your Entry? Send it Today!

NOTE: With summer upon us, most placebloggers are spending more time selling than writing. So we'll head to a bi-monthly schedule until Labor Day. Thanks!

Going Back to School With this Week's Carnival

Minnesota Luxury Real Estate's Jennifer Kirby hosted the Consumer Focused Real Estate Carnival this week and took us all back to school.

She did a great job and took our Carnival to a new level. Check out her entry and get your assignment.

Infants & Teens Dominate This Week's Carnival or Real Estate

In honor of my new niece, we are going this week's Consumer-Focused Real Estate Carnival will focus on those that haven't been regular contributors to the Carnival party.

The Infants

1. Colleen Corgan presents Renting in the Real World posted at HotPads Daily :: The Official Blog of HotPads.com, saying, "With graduation right around the corner, many soon-to-be college alumni are facing a new experience: renting in the real world. While many college students rent off-campus houses or live in apartments near campus, renting in the real world is a whole different game... and there are different rules that dictate how that game is played."


2. Maureen McCabe presents I like home inspectors with small shoulders posted at columbusbestblog.com. Maureen is a favorite of mine and she's joined us this week with a great entry on the inspectors that buyer's hire.


3. Jennifer Kirby presents Want instant Value in Your Home? posted at Minneapolis Real Estate Blog. Trees, Money. What else do you need?


4. Kristen Munson presents Great Places to Live posted at Shak & Jill. A very interesting collection on the best places to live from Kristen.


5. Steve Faber presents 4 Steps to Get a Better Mortgage posted at DebtBlog. Steve looks at the key thing in today's lending market: Credit Score.


6. Darius presents How much worse can housing get? posted at Related to Mortgage. Very interesting article that doesn't answer any questions, and that's why I like it.


7. Brian Brady presents What's my rate? It looks like I gotta WACC you! posted at The Most Opinionated Mortgage Broker. Brian took me on a trip back to Dr. Patricia Matthews' class at Mt. Union College and he'll do the same for you. And his point is basic: Know who you are working with and their level of expertise.

The Teenage Years -- Now, it wouldn't be fair to leave our veterans out in the cold this week.

1. Diane Tuman presents Why Pre- and Post-Possession is a No-No posted at Zillow Blog. An interesting comment for the reason for not moving into that new home - before you actually own it!


2. Dan Melson presents Property Cash Flow Versus Balance Sheet Accounting posted at Searchlight Crusade. Real Estate investing infants would do very well to read Dan's entry.


3. Steve Leung presents Emotions in Real Estate: From Fear to Elation posted at 1SiliconValley.com, saying, ""It's yours!" And after those two words, the only thing on the line was stunned silence! A combination of elation, shock and achievement. You could feel the excitement echoing through the airwaves but the quiet could have put out a candle. How great would it be to come home every night to something that makes you feel just as good? And what are reasons people are afraid of it?"


4. Nigel Swaby presents Don't Make This Mortgage Refinance Mistake posted at Salt Lake Real Estate Blog. Another horror story about financing and being scammed.

Don't worry about the spit-up and be sure to submit your entry for next week's carnival which will be hosted by Jennifer Kirby's Minneapolis Luxury Real Estate.

We are looking for hosts, if you are interested contact Toby for more information!