Week 3 of the Carnival of Project Blogger

The submissions were in by Friday night.. but I will admit that I didn't read them until last night. Let's just say it's been a very busy week which ran into the weekend.

My heart is torn and I want to mention all the articles, as they were all good. If yours didn't make the the 5, please don't take it as being that it wasn't good or worthy. I really did struggle with which ones to write about. Am I forgiven? :)

The articles mentioned below are in no particular order.. and are the top 5 from the submitted articles. Since there is no set criteria on what makes one blog better than the other, I'm going with my overall feel for the post and my thoughts after reading the post. They were all printed without the names and I wont consider site design or other aspect of the presentation aside from the actual article/post.

In no particular order... here are my top 5 recaps and thoughts.
Along with some link love :)

Jackie Colson-Miller (posted on the Real Estate Sizzle) -"How to Be a Good Neighbor on Haoward Avenue in South Tampa"

Jackie writes about a local hotspot in Tampa that comes alive with people but falls short of parking spaces. The problem is that some stores which are closed during certain hours don't allow parking for the patrons to neighboring stores that really explode during later hours. Shouldn't business neighbors help each other out? I guess that grocery store with all the golden parking spaces doesn't think so.

I enjoyed this post cause it stands out for what is right and considerate. I got a little feeling of rebellion and I wouldn't buy from that supermarket after reading this. I think Jackie got her feeling of 'boycott' to me after reading this article!

Terri Lussier (posted on the Brick Ranch) - "Project Brick Ranch - Elsa Shows Us Her Life, Her House"

Terri tells of an inspirational story of a lady named Elsa. Throughout the narrative story we find that Elsa has nothing but tough breaks.. bankruptcy, divorce, unemployment, moving from state to state, welfare and then moving back home. Elsa hangs tough through it all, repairs her credit, makes some good decision and backs them with hard work.

An inspiring story to never give up or take the short route. Elsa has recently purchased a house and it seems that it needs a little work and she has agreed to keep Terri posted. Terri seems excited about this since her blog is all about people sending her pictures of 'dinged' houses, before and after.

All I can say is that I'm a sucker for inspiration. Life has so many twists and challenges and sometimes we feel all the weight on our shoulder. Anytime I hear about someone's struggle and victory, it makes my journey a little easier and turbo boosted.

Julie Ferenzi (posted on herActive Rain Blog) - "What makes a House a Home, Plainfield, IL"

Julie discusses the simple idea of this title. "Can you have 'wings' and 'roots'??" is the question she poses. She brings her personal life experiences and thoughts into her post by including her family and past moves.

Although a simple post, the layout was easy to read, short and sweet. A good format to capture the reader and get a point across. I also took note of certain aspects of her presentation of suttle SEO, unlike your's truly over here. I thought it was a good outline for understanding effective posting.

Ines Hegedus-Garcia (posted on her Active Rain Blog) - "Real Estate Questions Answered with Conviction"

Ines brings us along with her on a property viewing with some buyer clients. They are viewing a 'renovated' home and begin to inquire about the windows.. "Are they impact resistant?" is a question bound to come up here in South Florida. Since the answer was "no", Ines brings up a great point. They should be since that is what code requires, so that mean this wasn't done with permits. This could be a potential liability to the buyers if they choose to purchase this home.

The next example Ines provides is regarding electrical cables that are buried underground rather than hanging from an electrical pole. Seems like the listing agent wanted to impress the potential buyers by stating that the owner had buried the cables for safety purposes. Ines was there to point out that "it's code" to do so. The city won't allow electrical cables to by dangling over the pool.. hheeeeeelllo??

As an appraiser I can appreciate this aspect of permitted vs, non-permitted work and the potential headaches from backed taxes to inadequate workmanship of the renovations or addition. Understanding your local codes allows you to provide a better service to your buyers, and Ines clearly did in this post.

Mary Pope-Handy (posted on her blog Live in Los Gatos) - Great Neighborhood: Surrey Farms in Los Gatos

Mary tells of an exclusive neighborhood in California consisting of larger lots, wide open spaces, green areas and other enticing neighborhood characteristics for those looking for some serenity. Mid post the topic shifted into discussing 'water and drainage' which surely is a big topic in those parts of the country. Keep that water away from my house!! Mary explains what the situation is and how to take steps to overcome them. Definitely a good read for anyone buying property on a mountain or hilly area such as in California.

This made the top 5 because living in Florida, we don't see or have mountains or hills. It's all flat around here..(except for some landfills) so I found this post interesting. I was engaged by the picture Mary painted of this exclusive neighborhood and then I was interested in the water drainage topic. Just a personal preference, but its always interesting to learn something new.

Thanks for your submissions and the opportunity to host this week's carnival of project blogger. I hope that I was able to meet your expectations and still getting some love from all the contestants that made the effort to write and took the time to submit an article.