Carnival of Real Estate #165

This week's edition of CORE had 17 submissions. Here are my picks.

Honorable Mention - Matt Swanson - GeekEstate Blog

How To Eliminate The Guesswork From Site Design

While I personally think there are many more intracacies and nuances of establishing a winning web presence, Matthew does a great job of exposing readers to some fantastic analytic tools and links to other posts that, when combined, create a tremendous resource for understanding what does and doesn't work in your real estate web presence.

Honorable Mention - Erion Shehaj - ErionShehaj.com

The Ray Kroc Principle

If you've never had a chance to read Erion's posts on his blog and over at AgentGenius, you're missing out on one of the best voices in contemporary real estate. Erion is someone I classify as one of the good guys. Not only is he one of the more pleasant people you will encounter in this industry, he says what he means and means what he says - without reservation.

Erion gives us what I look for in a great blog post. It's concise, to the point and leaves you with something to ponder. In this case it's simple, "Show me that it works". I agree completely.

3rd. Place - Cindy Jones - VARealestateTalk Blog

The New "Deed For Lease" Program Hits A Neighborhood Near You

One of the newer and lesser known options for those facing foreclosure is the "Deed For Lease" program that essentially offers someone the ability to turn over their Deeds in exchange for a 1 year lease in their homes. Cindy does a good job of explaining the program and its potential impact on the Real Estate industry.

2nd. Place - Stan Humphries - Zillow Blog

New Homebuyer Tax Credit Proposal: Impact on the Housing Market

There were several posts regarding the Tax Credit extension. I think Stan's information and analysis was the best of these posts. Like so many things being established via legislation, the long term impact of this program is going to have a huge detrimental impact if it is not coupled with a strong and concerted effort to create jobs and programs designed to TRULY support small businesses.

The banks that gobbled up the stimulus coin need to start lending it to the engine that really keeps our economy thriving. To me that engine is defined as the sole proprietors and entrepreneurs with a handful of employees that put passion and endless energy into the dreams they have built for themselves. One of my big fears is that the current administration doesn't really understand the definition of small business. So many things are happening now that could have many of them throwing in the towel because it just doesn't make fiscal sense to even try. Stan says "...so they can start hiring now that the economy is officially growing again." There are a lot of reports surfacing that the "official" numbers were left to bake in the oven a little while. It will be official when your conversations with friends and family are about how well everyone is doing, not about who got laid off or had to shutter their business.

1st. Place - YOU!

I've intentionally left the winning spot open. I want to take an opportunity to use it to help breathe some life back into core and draw attention to what a tremendous resource it can be for any real estate blogger.

The Carnival of Real Estate was established by Zillow to allow the RE.net to take advantage of the popular concept of exposing the best blog posts in a particular vertical. The weekly hosts of CORE receive great exposure and the highlighted posts receive traffic they may not have otherwise received. As the folks at Zillow become busier, they don't have the resources to do as much promotion for CORE as they once were able to do. It's up to the RE.net community to take ownership and breathe some new life back into a tremendous resource. I know when I first started blogging almost 4 years ago, I turned to CORE as a tremendous way to help me find the best content to engage with. If you have ideas, want to be a host or just forgot that the CORE was out there as place to promote your best writing - get involved again. I'll have more to say in future posts on CORE and GeekEstate. Until then, let us know what you think and get involved.