Carnival of Real Estate: 62nd Edition

by omuoto

So what in the world is a Blog Carnival? Basically is a type of blog event, dedicated to a particular topic, that comes out weekly (or monthly) that tries to summarize the best blog posts that week on that subject. In the past, we have been a contributor to the the Carnival of Real Estate, this is a real estate specific carnival aimed at bringing together the best real estate bloggers from around the country (and world). This week, vFlyer has the honor of hosting the 62nd edition of the Carnival of Real Estate on our blog!

Determining the best posts of the week is no easy task as my experience judging Project Blogger taught me, and guidelines aren’t always very helpful. First of all, you get a bucket load of submissions (30+) that really span a broad range of topics – so two factors tend to jump out at you – overall quality and area of interest. What was interesting about the posts I read was that they pretty much fell into one of nine comprehensive areas of interest (I felt too limited by the carnival’s 3 default categories), so decided to highlight what I thought were some of the best posts along those lines:

	Big Picture: Michael Price’s post Real Estate and The Social Network Effect was my favorite. This big picture pieces does a great job of examining how the real estate social networking landscape is evolving in light of recent development in the space. If you haven’t been keeping up with has been going on, you should read this piece.
	Technology: Larry Lohrman presents Photo Manipulation – Where Do You Draw The Line? Technology has always been a favorite topic area of mine, and Larry touches on a important and controversial trend that needs addressing. Technology is great, but too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
	Hints and Tips: We all like hints, tips and how-to’s. The Silicon Valley Blogger presents Rent vs Buy A House: How To Evaluate Your Options which revisits the age-old question of renting vs buying, in the context of today’s economy. I also thought that Morgan Brown post titled 5 Things to Do Right Now if Your ARM is Going to Reset Soon was very applicable, given what is happening in the sub prime real estate market.
	News and Opinion: We all have our opinions, and Shailesh Ghimire definitely expresses his in Suze Orman’s Credit Advice Falls Flat. I also liked Matthew Paulson’s take on Why the Real Estate Market Slowdown is great for Consumers.
	Finances and Investing: Many times real estate is a numbers game and John Crenshaw does a good job of showing us the math when it comes to Pay Off Mortgage, Lose Tax Deduction? Honorable mention goes to John Barker’s call to action in FHA Bans Gift Down Payment Assistance Programs.
	Trend Watch: Trends, trends, trends. It seems everyone these days is trend spotter. Raymond of the Money Blue Book exposes some of The National Association of Realtor’s Wacky Predictions in his post.
	Humor: We all need a little humor and Cindy Lin’s post What Britney Spears Taught Me About Staging to Sell A Home shares some great insight with some funny, yet applicable, references to pop diva Britney Spears. I am sure you’ll love the photos!
	Regional Outlook: I had to choose from several great regional real estate outlook posts. In this category, I thoughts that Toby Boyce provided a fairly comprehensive look at what is going on in Downtown Delaware in this post Q&A: What is Happening to Downtown Delaware Ohio? Denny Oh’s look at the San Diego market is also worth checking out.
	International: The Carnival or Real Estate tries to cast a global net on real estate blogging, so I thought it was appropriate to include an international entry – Owning a condo in Thailand by Adam Bryan-Brown that makes a case for owning real estate in Thailand!
	My overall favorite (aka the winner) was Michael Price’s post on Real Estate and The Social Network Effect. Being an idea guy myself, I have a confessed weakness for big picture pieces. Overall the quality of the posts was great and as I have explained before the process of judging is always a subjective one – in my book, anyone who tries is a winner!