Carnival of Real Estate #117 Winners

CoRE #117:

Today, we are proud to host the 117th Carnival of Real Estate where instead of elephants, freak shows, ferris wheels and stuffed tasmanian devils, we delve into real estate blogs in all their glory. Real estate bloggers from across the globe submit their single best work from the previous two weeks to compete for the top spot in the weekly Carnival of Real Estate.

As a bonus to the winners, each will be automatically given a spot in the AG Sphere- how cool is that?

Fifty five articles were submitted (here is the full list) and judged according to the five major blogging criteria that the writers here teach and demonstrate every day on Agent Genius. Scroll to the bottom to learn the judging criteria- you may just learn a little somethin’ somethin’.

And the winners are…

Irina Netchaev of Pasadena, California takes 5th place for Nine Stupid Things Buyers do to Mess Up Their Home Purchase. Number two is classic, “home buyers – honestly – sometimes, you just talk too much. Some of you have a tendency to talk away with the home seller prior to getting your offer accepted and disclose a ton of material information that should be kept confidential.”

Marlow Harris of Seattle, Washington takes 4th place for Redfin Bubble to Burst. Marlow is in the epicenter of the Redfin-induced real estate drama and always provides great coverage of surrounding events. This article evoked the likes of The Tim, so be sure you don’t miss the comments.

Raymond in Washington, D.C. takes 3rd place for What is My Credit Score and How is My FICO Calculated? Raymond helps consumers (and new agents who don’t yet know) out by outlining exactly how a FICO score is compiled and gives suggestions as to how to improve scores. In light of a credit crunch, this article is very helpful.

Jayson Gibson of Phoenix, Arizona takes 2nd place for Hope For Homeowners Act of 2008. Jayson outlines what the Act is, what impact it will have on our nation and our industry while simultaneously providing a great outline of the current state of the real estate union.

Ken Brand of The Woodlands, TX wins 1st place in this week’s Carnival of Real Estate for Why Are Home Buyers and Home Sellers Frozen on the Fence and What You Can Do About It. Ken’s article was the best fit for the five criteria we used in judging and is a must read for the industry as we witness a major shift in consumer attitude and Ken helps fellow agents with captivating writing, aesthetics and most importantly solutions.

How articles were judged:

Fifty five articles were submitted (the entire list can be found here) to this week’s carnival and we selected the top five articles based on five main criteria based on how a consumer would perceive the effectiveness of each submission:

1. Aesthetics- was attractive imagery used to reinforce the story? Did we have to scroll down the page to find the article? Were bullet points or header tags used to visually break up the article or was it a wall of text?
2. Title- was the title captivating and productive? Did the title properly summarize the point of the article?
3. First paragraph- did you lose us at the first paragraph? Did the first paragraph grab us and make us want to read the entire article or was is overly boring or overly excited?
4. Writing quality- was the writing sloppy? This has nothing to do with writing skill, but was a spell checker used? Did the writing engage the reader or was it dry? Was the article great?
5. Solutions- did the article address a problem and suggest a solution? Did it further any goal the reader/consumer could be looking for or was it a rant? Was the writing so technical that the reader couldn’t understand the topic or was it a strong argument for how to problem solve?

Congratulations!

Congratulations to all, this was an extremely difficult task as so many great articles were submitted. Keep up to date with future RE Carnivals at carnivalofrealestate.com and let them know if YOU want to host!