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 #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.

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

Community is The Core of CoRE

It's hard to believe there have been 105 CoRE posts. This week's host, Toby Boyce posted earlier this evening on Twitter (@realtortoby) that He thinks that CoRE may have "jumped the shark" due to the amount of traffic to his blog as compared to his original CoRE hosting experience. I don't think that's entirely the case, but I do think those involved with the CoRE community as a whole have become busy and maybe a little complacent in their support and promotion. I will be the first to admit I am guilty recently of not writing posts like this one to draw attention to the weekly CoRE. The submission that I made this week was also my first in months. To top it off I fell behind in our volunteer duty of updating the podcast feed of CoRE audio interviews, which are actually very popular. I've taken care of the update and even decided to create the podcasts in an enhanced format. In the future I will be adding chapter markers that will make listening to the podcasts more enjoyable along with graphics and hyperlinks designed to draw a little more attention and traffic to the host via iTunes.

So, if you're a Carnival of Real Estate fan, help the community out by writing a CoRE link post once in a while, make sure you have it in your blog roll, and please submit your best stuff every week. I think the most important thing to consider is your role as a host and your responsibility to showcase the best of the best in the RE.net. That's kind of hard to do if you don't have enough to choose from. CoRE is one of the few community based efforts without a bigger corporate agenda and exists in a completely transparent fashion. If you look at the CoRE site you will find nothing in the way of self promotion for the founders and hosts. Zillow has put a lot into it in the way of resources (Including a great redesign just a couple of weeks ago). There are a number of extremely successful and popular blogs in the RE.net that have received a tremendous boost, or even been put on the map because of CoRE. This blog owes a great deal of it's success to CoRE and that's why I am stepping up to help make sure it continues to do it's chartered duty, expose the best of the best in the RE.net to the rest of the world!

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.

CORE #96

The 96th edition of the Carnival of Real Estate is up at Renthusiast.Com. Next week's carnival will be hosted by Trulia Blog. Get your posts in by Sunday to be considered. Be sure to subscribe to the CORE Podcast as well.

The 94th Edition of The Carnival of Real Estate

Welcome to the 94th edition of the Carnival of Real Estate. I had the pleasure of hosting the 34th CORE and I am finding it interesting to create a frame of perspective based upon the experiences at a 15 month interval. I think having the original hosts back a year later is a great idea and I would love to hear more in the host podcasts about the progression of blogging in the RE.net.

I received 28 submissions for CORE 34, this time I received 23. The posts this week predictably centered around the topics of foreclosure and tough market conditions. As many of you know we had a pretty crazy week due to an explosion at MLBroadcast's data hosting facility, I budgeted time to really concentrate on the content and didn't have time to craft a cool theme. In hindsight should have taken a cue from Jay Thompson and put out a theme idea request on Twitter. Guess I'm just not the Twit Jay is. :) (He will get me back for that.)

This Week's Overall winner is Stephanie Edwards Mussa, a Realtor here in Houston with an awesome blog that is focused on Green living. I think she did a great job of explaining how energy efficiency could be used as a key marketing factor in helping a listing stand out. These days when you have perhaps a half dozen houses or more for sale in close proximity it can be difficult challenge to draw eyeballs. The one thing on the top of everyone's mind these days are energy costs. If you have a listing that has the ability to identify what Stephanie points to as the cost vs. value factor, it just might be what is needed to win the tough battle.

Stephanie Edwards-Musa presents Which Home Is Yours? posted at Turning Houston Green, saying, "Setting your home apart when advertising it for sale. It can be more than countertops and hardwood floors."

Second place goes to another energy related post from Roberta Murphy of Luxury Home Digest. She starts off with a story about her grand father and his decision on where to live in Deadwood South Dakota in the late 1800's. It's a great read and really drives home the importance of the influences that drive decisions in real estate. My wife has a real estate photography business and one of her long time clients is a specialist in Mid Town Houston real estate. I remember taking a ride with her in the fall of '06 to do a shoot for that client. We were making small talk as he measured the property and I brought up how frustrated I was with rising gas prices. He looked up from corner he was bent down in and let the tape measure snap back into place, smiled, stood upright and said, not me! Every time gas spikes a nickel a gallon I can count on twice as many showings. All of those downtown commuters from up north where you live start to think about how much they can save by living closer to work and they call me! Roberta's post brings that fact into perspective really well.

Roberta Murphy presents A Radical Proposition for Real Estate posted at Luxury Home Digest

Third place goes to John Harper of The Harper-Mees team. His post on the four truths of real estate uses a Buddhist twist on the issue of a tough market place and how to deal with the suffering. I'm not a Buddhist, but I have studied it a little and I respect many of its tenets, especially the accountability and tough love aspects that seems to be a common thread with some of the teachings. When the going gets tough, sometimes we just need a simple reminder of the things we must do on a daily basis to get back to where we once belonged.

John Harper presents Four Noble Truths of Real Estate posted at San Ramon Danville Dublin CA Real Estate.


There were some other good posts that deserve honorable mention and a ton of foreclosure posts that are just getting lost in the din of 1,000's of other "what, where, why how and when" posts.

Here are the Honorable Mentions:

APH presents Landlord Finally Free to Live in His Own Home posted at Market Urbanism, saying, "After battling in court since 2003, this family is finally able to turn their 60 room apartment building into one gigantic home for themselves. Of course, the beneficiaries of the rent-controlled apartments don't believe the owner's family should have the right to live in their own building."

Jay Thompson presents "Marketing on Twitter" posted at The Phoenix Real Estate Guy.

Dan Melson presents Protecting My Buyer Clients Good Faith Deposit posted at Searchlight Crusade.

Craig Schiller presents 5 Simple Factors That Keep Your Home From Selling posted at HOME STAGING, Rants & Ravings

Tracy Coenen presents Auditor reveals how risky mortgages were allowed to go through posted at FRAUDfiles.

Nickel presents Second Homes and Tax Nightmares posted at fivecentnickel.com

John Lockwood presents Verbal Acceptance Isn’t Worth the Paper It Isn’t Printed On posted at Sacramento Real Estate Blog, saying, "This article digs into a whole host of problems caused when we first start entertain the idea that we can accept an offer verbally.

Larry Lohrman presents Propvid.tv Sets A High Standard For Property Video posted at GeekEstate Blog.

Doug Willis presents Pasadena Real Estate Broker Announces the Secret, Mankind to Benefit posted at Up2Date.

Cliff Jacobson presents Be Careful What You Wish For, The NAR And The DOJ. posted at Clifford Jacobson, saying, "What next for the NAR and the Real Estate Search Engines?"

Nate Moch presents Upside Down Auction...Not For the Faint of Heart posted at Zillow Blog.

CORE95 will be hosted by one of my favorite RE.net bloggers, Maureen Frances of the MIOakland County Blog. Be sure to get your submissions in before Sunday.

Technorati tags: carnival of real estate, blog carnival.

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.

Tomato Talk

Some of you may not be aware of the Carnival of Real Estate Podcast. Each week, the Carnival host has the opportunity to do a follow up podcast interview. It's a great way to gain insight to the selection process and more.

Last week's host is Jim Cronin of the Real Estate Tomato. I stepped in as this week's CoRE host to find out more about Jim's unique theme and the thinking behind his selection criteria. Check it out!


Click Here To Listen
Click Here To Subscribe In iTunes

Carnival of Real Estate #62

This week's CORE is hosted at the VFlyer Blog. I really like how they defined the categories. In fact, I think it would be a good reference for any future CORE hosts. I am also blushing because for the first time we took the blue ribbon. Finally, a carnival bride instead of a bridesmaid. Sniff, sob... I'd like to thank my agent, all the little people who keep me in their hearts and feed readers, my spell checker....oh my spell checker, where would I be without you....

Seriously, thanks guys, I am humbled.

Carnival of Real Estate #58

Danilo Bogdanovic of real/diablog hosts this week's CORE. EKDAY is on deck as the next host. Submit your best post by Sunday.

Carnival of Real Estate

The CORE is hosted at GeekEstateBlog this week. Drew did a great job of selecting this week's posts but his photoshop skills are different story:)

The CORE podcast was also updated with the latest interview taking place with #55's host, Allan Shannon of TheLandJournal.Com. Click here to subscribe in iTunes.

Carnival of Real Estate #53

Larry Cragun's blog "Real Estate Undressed" is the latest host of the Carnival of Real Estate. CORE is one of the most popular of all blog carnival destinations. I think the success can be attributed to the variety of blogs that host from week to week. The fact that hosts are booked up several months in advance is a clear indication. Each carnival host uses their own criteria for determining which links you will have the opportunity to read. From week to week I have had the opportunity to be read blogs that I would have otherwise never been exposed to. The concept of blog carnivals was established for this very purpose. If you've never participated in the CORE, I encourage you to submit one of your posts. This blog owes a great deal of it's success to having posts selected for inclusion by several CORE hosts. Don't get discouraged if your post isn't picked, it's not a popularity contest. In fact, it's not a contest at all. It's a community. A community of people with diverse opinions of what they view as good blogging content. You can also listen to the audio podcast hosted by CORE (link requires iTunes) that features interviews with past carnival hosts. These interviews give insights into the reasons behind their selections and more. Very entertaining indeed.

Carnival of Real Estate #49

CORE #49 is up north in Alaska at ValleyMarket blog. Don't forget to check out the Carnival Podcast (Open in iTunes).

Carnival #46 At Home Staging Rants & Raves

The 46th edition of the Carnival of Real Estate is live at Home Staging Rants and Raves blog. A colorful theme that has Mike's Corner seeing green!

CORE Expands Efforts

Drew Meyers at Zillow wants to take the Carnival of Real Estate to a new level. He has a lofty goal to for CORE to become a destination for "All Things Relating to Real Estate Blogging". I've had the opportunity to get to know Drew over the last few months and I have no doubt that he will be able to meet his goal. The guy has an awesome work ethic and a keen grasp of the RE.net. Drew is currently asking former CORE hosts to apply for an opportunity to be a contributor to the CORE blog. Shaun from EkDay has already posted and I'll be submitting my first post soon and I would encourage other previous hosts to discuss the opportunity with him.

Speaking of CORE, #45 is live today at Christian Real Estate Network Blog.

Carnival # 43

Real Estate Carnival # 43 is up at the Homethinking blog.

Carnival of Real Estate

This week's carnival is up at RSS Pieces. Don't forget to check out the Carnival Podcast too! Click here to listen on the web. Click here to subscribe in iTunes. The podcast features interviews with past Carnival hosts. Check it out!

Promises, Promises

It's not like me to break a promise but I just haven't been able to get to the blog. Getting caught up from series of unfortunate events including a week of being pretty sick has been tough, it hasn't been all bad though. Business has been great and is getting better.

Along with a legal pad of scrawled post ideas, I have the next installment of the Marketing Monsoon post about half written and a promise to interview Drew Meyers at Zillow about the new tools available to agents. Hopefully I can get things jump started later this week.

In the meantime, check out Real Estate Carnivals number 40 (good job Pat, sorry I didn't post a link sooner) and 41.

Carnival 36 - Drinks & Dining in NY

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, it's been very busy. This week's carnival of Real Estate finds it's way to NY @ NYHousesForSale. Trulia's interview with the Queen of NY real estate, Barbara Corcoran takes the top spot. More posts are coming in the next couple of days. Stay tuned, and don't forget to check out the CoRE podcast, it should be updated soon as well.

The Motown Carnival

The 35th Carnival of Real Estate is up with a Motown theme at MiOakland County Blog.

Carnival of Real Estate #34

Mike's Corner is proud to host this week's Carnival of Real Estate. Submissions trickled in during the week with most showing up Saturday and Sunday. We only received a total of 28 entries. I'm assuming it's due to the fact that it's spring break in many parts of the country.

Congratulations to this week's winner, Trulia Blog for the funny 3 part series that chronicles the sale of a Trulia team member's property. Our number 2 selection is from Brian Brady of the Bloodhound blog for his take on the sub-prime meltdown and its effect on retirement income. Pick number 3 is Pat Kitano of Transparent Real Estate's philosophical waxing regarding the RE.Net and cooperation amongst bloggers. While I disagree with Pat on his opinion that non-blogging Realtors will eventually be invisible to search engines, I whole heartedly agree that diplomatic networking amongst bloggers will become critical to the RE.Net as whole.

Win: Heather Fernandez presents (Mis)adventures in home selling, part 3: The End posted at Trulia Blog"Roger, a software engineer at Trulia.com, chronicles his home selling (mis)adventure on TruliaBlog in funny three-part series. His experience included fielding low ball offers, MOLD (the inspection scare du jour) and finally the Escrow close."

Place: Brian Brady presents BAD LOANS: Buried In The Back Of The BreadBox posted at BloodhoundBlog

Show: Pat Kitano of Transparent Real Estate presents Spirit of Community

Other Selections In No Particular Order:

Craig Schiller presents THINK CRUSTY THOUGHTS...when taking pictures of homes for sale posted at HOME STAGING, Rants & Ravings, saying, "Knowing that photography is going to get to be MORE AND MORE critical in marketing properties online...

Steve Faber presents Subprime Lenders Reaping What They Sowed posted at Debt Free

Nigel Swaby presents Who Does a Down Payment Benefit? posted at Salt Lake Real Estate Blog.

David J Edwards presents The Do-Not-Mail Movement is a Bad Idea posted at Renton Real Estate Info Source

Daniel Rothamel presents When You Are Being Judged By Your Actions, Act Accordingly posted at The Real Estate Zebra

Silicon Valley Blogger presents 6 Ways To Protect Yourself From Different Types Of Mortgage Fraud posted at The Digerati Life

A. Grey presents Linking Real Estate Content With User Context: Basic Concepts of Data and Metadata posted at For Sale By Locals: A New Real Estate Approach

Thanks to everyone that participated. Next week's host is Maureen Francis of the MiOakland County Blog Be sure to get your submissions in by Sunday to give Maureen plenty of time to evaluate your excellent content. Cheers! ~MP

33rd Carnival of Real Estate

One of my favorite real estate bloggers, Jay Thompson, is hosting this weeks carnival. Jay is a nice guy and really loves his wife, Francy. His selections theme is based on the card game, Texas Hold Em. I happen to enjoy the game myself. I'm hoping when I make it to Phoenix we can get a game going with Greg Swann and a few other folks. Take a look at the excellent picks that Jay has for us this week. Mike's Corner will be hosting the carnival for the first time next week. I look forward to the challenge!

Carnival Of Real Estate

Sorry for the lack of activity on the Corner the past few days, I actually took some time off to travel and see family. Just rolled back into Houston and I am wading through messages and e-mail. I have a few posts waiting in the draft bin to be wrapped up, so expect something new in the next day or so. Until then...

This week's carnival of real estate is up. It's hosted at The Salt Lake Real Estate Blog. The theme isn't real original but the selections are good. It looks as if the host placed some weight on spelling and grammar. I'll be hosting on 3/19. Have no fear if you're considering a carnival submission, I will be looking for great content. I have no plans to spell check any documents and I am not qualified to "red pen" any grammar:)

Nation’s 4th Largest Real Estate Broker To Provide Video Podcasting Services

HOUSTON (Feb. 28, 2007) – Real Living, the country’s 4th-largest real estate brokerage, has partnered with MLPodcast to provide their agent network with listing and community video podcasts. Using existing still photos, listing data and marketing copy, MLPodcast produces high quality music videos with professional voice narrations.

Michael Price, MLPodcast’s president stated: “The relationship we have with Real Living allows any agent or broker to order a video podcast production with little more effort than entering an MLS number in a Web form, along with a few mouse clicks. By connecting our Web services applications together, we have established a solid infrastructure for the creation and delivery of content. It’s an unprecedented vendor-client relationship.”

Video podcasting takes the concept of a virtual tour to the Web 2.0 level by adding the power of broadcasting and syndication. Consumers can gain access to listing enhancements through free subscriptions that push new content to Web browsers, video-enabled cell phones, iPods™ and other video-enabled mobile devices automatically. MLPodcast has also amassed a network of destination sites specific to the podcasting platform. Each client podcast is distributed to this network, which includes Apple’s iTunes podcasting directory, Podcast.Yahoo.com and more. This distribution greatly improves organic and direct referral Web traffic from search engines.

"We are very excited to work with MLPodcast," said Kaira Sturdivant Rouda, chief operating officer of Real Living. "Today's consumers want an experience, and they want it online. With MLPodcast, our agents are able to podcast community videos and property listings - giving the consumer a better view of their new potential home or community and making the agent more marketable."

One of Real Living’s Chicago area franchises, Real Living Helios Realty, is an early adopter of MLPodcast’s service with more than 25 active listings currently hosted in their broadcast feed.

“Podcasting our listings has really given us an edge,” said Joe Magliochetti, principal broker of Real Living Helios Realty. “Today’s market is characterized by increasingly tech-savvy home buyers looking for detailed, on-demand information, so putting these podcasts to work can be the difference needed to get homes sold faster, to the right buyer."
Visit www.mlpodcast.com to find out more about video podcasting for real estate. To learn more about Real Living, visit http://www.RealLiving.com.

The Real Estate Carnival - Slam Dunking With The Zebra

The real estate carnival finds it's way to Central Virginia this week. The host is one of my favorite Realtor® bloggers, Daniel Rothamel of the Real Estate Zebra, so dubbed because Daniel is a basketball referee. His carnival picks have been assigned in the spirit of the upcoming NCAA tournament. This blog is proud to have made it to the Semi-Finals. Score some great content by visiting the Zebra now! And don't forget to check out the host interview podcasts. Subscribe in iTunes here.

MLPodcast Hosts CoRE Podcast

In an effort to do our part for the RE blogging community, MLPodcast recently offered to host the new Carnival of Real Estate weekly host audio podcast, which was graciously accepted. Working with Drew and David at Zillow the past few days has been a wonderful effort and I'm glad to have met them both, if only virtually. If you haven't listened to the first two podcasts, you're in for a treat. David does an exceptional job as an interviewer. The give and take is fluid and the questions/commentary are spot on. Take a trip to the Carnival and have a listen.

Carnival 30 is In Pittsburgh

The Carnival of Real Estate lands in the river city of Pittsburgh this week at Pittsburgh Homes Daily. Robert Melton who hails from the the Allegheny West area has bestowed this week's winners with Valentine themed awards. This blogger is graciously accepting the number 3 nod and the "dozen roses award" that comes with it. Enjoy.

The Carnie Awards - A San Francisco Treat

ReyEstate hosts this weeks Carnival of Real Estate. The selections are done in the spirit of the Grammys, as "Carnie Awards".

The Canine Brigade & Carnival # 28

The Bloodhound gang is all dolled up to host this week's Carnival of Real Estate. Decision by committee was the order of the day and it looks like the menu selection was full of choice meats, no kibble here. Due to our recent windfall of work, I had nothing worthy to submit. Looks like I have plenty of reading to do though. This week looks like it will shape up to be just as crazy but we promise some new blog content real soon. Until then the Carnival should provide you with some "no byproduct" filler.

The Tent Stakes Are in For Carnival 27

1st Million at 33's blog is hosting this week's Carnival of Real Estate. The word on Blog street says the Hound is hosting next week's show. Check your grammar, make a good point, don't show the dog any sense of fear and whatever you do, use some Latin. If not, your submission may find it's way into that hole where the Hound buries whatever's left of things he's torn to shreds. :)

RE Carnival Number 26

The Real Estate Carnival is back in town for it's 26th stop on the whirlwind tour of everything real estate in the blogging world. This stop is in the Twin Cities at the Minneapolis Real Estate Market Update. As usual, we're a bridesmaid as a runner-up, but we're not complaining, we'll get to be the bride some day :) Check out all of the great posts this week. Also, thanks to Zillow for hosting this Carnival at about a little over the half year mark. I'm sure it requires some resources and I think I can speak on behalf the RE.Net in saying job well done.

The Carnival Is Back From Vacation

After a holiday hiatus, the Carnival of Real Estate is back. Our real estate blog swap article is featured. Check out Carnival # 24 @HouseValues. Cheers! ~MP

Carnival # 23 is in Seattle

The 23rd edition of The Carnival of Real Estate is live. This week it's hosted by Seattle Real Estate Professionals, a blog feature of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper. There were some interesting selections, including some several posts regarding our favorite subject, video podcasting.

Active Carnival

The Carnival of Real Estate is back. This week Matt Heaton of Active Rain was tasked with hosting the carnival and he had a great crop of posts to review (especially that second post, who penned that masterpiece? :). Click here to see the posts of Carnival #22.

R.E. Carnival #21

The Real Estate Carnival is up at Property Monger. 10 posts today with 11 more to come tomorrow. The top post is certainly a deserving one. Stefan J. Scholl, a Realtor in MI pens a great article in his Northern Michigan Real Estate Blog on the recent DOJ opinion regarding anti-trust.

"From what I can gather, this case is only just now getting started, and its ramifications will most likely be far-reaching. With this decision, I feel that NAR's prospects of maintaining the status quo have all but evaporated. I believe that this case (and more than likely even this Opinion), will in all likelihood accelerate the changes and innovations which we have been seeing in the marketplace, resulting in a transformation of the real estate industry as we know it. As far as NAR's antitrust problems go, this decision may just be the tip of the iceberg."

Carnival of Real Estate

This week's carnival is at True Gotham. I didn't have time, or a worthy post to submit this week. In fact, until today I've been nursing a bad back. I'm vertical today, but not completely tactical.