Carnival Real Estate #171

This week's CORE brought 24 submissions that ran the usual gamut of self-promotion wrapped up in the absurdly obvious to insightful posts with fresh perspectives and topics. The following are the 3 picks I've selected from the submissions. There were some great hyper-local topics as well. I'll get them all posted to the CORE site soon.

#3. 10 Myths About Reverse Mortgages - James Staine
I would imagine the average person's knowledge of reverse mortgages starts and ends at a 30 second commercial with a geriatric t.v. personality. James Staine of the Oregon Mortgage blog does a great job of summing up what most people probably misconstrue as the process and reasoning behind them.

#2 HUD offering mortgage relief to homeowners with Chinese Drywall problems- Sam Nash
Sam Nash of the Real Estate Dispatch blog writes about an issue that could have a potential impact on a large and growing number of homeowners.

#1 Winner CORE #171 - The Future Of Your Future Is Psychographic. Read All About It. - Ken Brand
I almost didn't select this post as the winner for 2 reasons. One being the fact that everyone knows what a good friend Ken is and I didn't want it to appear it was selected due to that fact (it was not). The second was due to the usage of so many acronyms and terminology that seem to frustrate so many real estate professionals. In the final analysis, it is still the most timely and best information of all the posts submitted as it relates to the contemporary real estate professional. It's worth taking the time to read and understand if you're involved with social media as part of your overall strategy.

If you would like to see your real estate blog content featured in the Carnival of Real Estate, submit your best post of the week. You can also get involved by being a Carnival Host and much more! It's a great way to bring attention and traffic to your real estate blog!

Carnival of Real Estate

I'll be hosting Monday's CORE. Be sure to submit your best posts!

Carnival of Real Estate #147 - Get Out Your Shades

Ah summer time! Most Americans are getting excited about vacations, camping, boating, fishing, swimming and carnivals... in other words, sunglass weather - gotta watch those UVA's. - Real estate professionals typically get excited about the short couple of months where the offers are multiple and the closings bountiful. Of course, for most that's a distant memory of summers gone by. So what are most doing to fill the void? Sharpening the saw. Right? Learning new skills, joining the social networking craze, reading blogs etc. The Carnival of Real Estate is an invaluable resource for the latter because it protects sensitive eyes from viewing blog posts that cause time loss and retinal damage from exposure to poorly written pabulum and overtly self-promotional content. It's with that in mind that this weeks carnival theme assigns the FDA's new UVA rating of 1 to 4 stars, (4 being the most protection ).

I picked Dave Smith as the overall winner because I feel so strongly that there exists huge opportunity in finding creative ways to deliver great community content that is part of the RE professional's own intellectual property, not just linking to the same information or using template content that does nothing to set you apart as the location expert in your area. Good stuff Dave!

Overall Winner, 4 Star UVA Protection

Dave Smith - Real Estate Blog Lab

Post Title: Loosen Up, Look Around, Sell Your Town

3 Star UVA Protection

Jack Schmidt - Sector Matic Money Journal

Post Title: Making Money? "Trust Me: I'm In Real Estate"

2 Star UVA Protection

Tina Merritt - Hampton Roads Virginia Real Estate - Tina in Virginia

Post Title: The Ten Commandments of Commenting - Thou Shalt Not........

1 Start UVA Protection

Jay Thompson - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

Post Title: The Perils of a Part Time Agent

Thanks to everyone ( except the spyware removal tool spammer guy - jeez!) for submitting your entries to CORE. If you enjoy CORE as a resource as much as I do, visit the site to see how you can get involved!

CORE #147 - Carnival of Real Estate Hosted at Mike's Corner

I'll be hosting the CORE (Carnival of Real Estate) next week. This will be the 3rd time the Carnival has stopped at Mike's Corner here in H-Town. The uninitiated should take the time to check it out. Why is it called a carnival?. Rembember when you were a kid? The carnival would show up in your town. In my case we would cut grass, hunt down pop bottle refunds and suffer the indignity of baby sitting my little sisters only to find out the carnival was bout to pack up go to another town that was way to far to ride our bikes. In the case of CORE, the town happens to the location of a selected host blogger and the stay is for a week starting every Monday. The carnival host accepts submissions of the best post(s) of the past couple of weeks from other real estate bloggers from across the web. The host then selects the best of those posts to showcase and provide awards. In my opinion, if the Carnival Host is doing things correctly, there will always be a clear winner.

Over the last couple of years the hosts have been very creative with themes for hosting the CORE, usually based on a holiday taking place at that time or just a generally entertaining way to introduce what the host believes to be the best in real estate blogging content.

When if first stumbled upon the real estate version of CORE if found it to be just the tool I had been searching for to help me in my quest to keep up with great content. As the real estate blogging community has grown, so have the number of top notch blog destinations. It can be a daunting task to search out and read only the best. CORE helps that effort in a big way.

MLBroadcast hosts a great audio podcast for the Carnival of Real Estate. From time-to-time the folks at Zillow will interview the CORE host for insight on their picks, criteria for selection, themes and more. Get a free subscription here (iTunes). You will enjoy the conversations.

Submit your best post(s) between now and this upcoming Saturday. If you ned to get your submission in a little late and the form is not working you can e-mail it to me. Be sure to include all of the required information. I will start making selections Sunday afternon. If you're interested in becoming involved with CORE, check out these links:

• Host a Carnival
• Promote the CoRE
• Write for CoRE

Carnival of Real Estate # 97 Up At Trulia Blog

Rudy at TruliaBlog posts his picks for this week's CORE 4th of July style. Transparent Real Estate hosts the next Carnival of Real Estate. Click here to submit your best posts.

Mike's Corner Hosting The Carnival of Real Estate

Mike's Corner is hosting the 94th Carnival of Real Estate. Visit the Carnival Submission Form and submit your best post.