ActiveRain week in review #3

This is the third edition of the ActiveRain week in review where we'll highlight some of the most discussed topics and blog posts made during the last week.  You can find an archive of the past week in reviews here.  Feel free to repost the ActiveRain week in review on your non ActiveRain blog. 

Reminder: If you want to get some additional exposure, submit your best blog post to the weekly Carnival of Real Estate today.

Mortgage Blog Wars:

This week saw a major "blog war" among a number of ActiveRain members in the mortgage industry.  Blogging is a great way to share dissenting opinions in a public environment and Mary McKnight has pointed out, can be a great way to increase traffic through controversy, as long as it doesn't become too personal.  It all started with Jeff Corbett's aptly named blog post The Morgage Industry's Internal Civil War where he shared some of his often controversial views on the morgage industry and registered almost 120 comments.  Over the next week there week there was salvo apon salvo of well written rebuttles fired off by a number of mortgage brokers on ActiveRain.

• A Realtor's Guide to Price Fixing Commissions: - By Jeff Belonger
• Price Fixing: Un-American.........What Say Ye? - By Ron Withers
• The Peoples' Mortgage Kollectiv - Brian Brady
• Price Fixing Brokerages? Seen it, Done it, Been there - Tommy Gibson
• A Little Rain Can Clean The Air  (Members Only) - Jeff Corbett
• Answers to Question (Amended)  (Members Only) - Jeff Corbett

NAR Wrap-Up Posts:

The big NAR conference in New Orleans also ended early this week, so ActiveRain featured a number of very good blog posts summarizing the conference by members who where there.

• NAR in the rearview: what happens at NAR stays at NAR! - Mary McKnight
• NAR wrap-up (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4) - Matt Heaton
• NAR Convention Final Report - The Trade Show! - Linda Davis

Real Estate "Technology" Companies:

• Redfin and the end of real estate as we know it? - Kevin Boer
• The fear of Trulia - Matt Heaton
• Cyberhomes.com - Zillow with a 1999 -style name - Patrick Kitano
• Eppraisal.com Launches at NAR Convention - Ginger Fawcett
• Real Estate Website Scam Revealed - Mary McKnight

Great Consumer Content:

As we've mentioned previously we are doing a lot of work in positioning content on ActiveRain to begin to draw buyers/sellers into the mix.

• Miami Shores - The Village Beautiful - Rick & Enis
• The Largest Soccer Complex in The World...right here in Colorado! - Kristal Kraft
• Garden of the Gods... The Camels ARE Kissing! - Mariana Wagner
• Rent to Own...deal or no deal? - Kristal Kraft
• Adventures in 1st Time Home Buying: "Tips for Home Tourists!" - Rich Jacobson
• Finding Silverdale Real Estate - Mark Flanders
• Old Schools - New Life - Ann Cummings
• Pottery, Petty, and a popular zoo - Tracy Sandrock
• Greater Asheville (Buncombe County and Surrounds) North Carolina~ Adventures in the Dazzling Provinces of the Blue Ridge (1).. - janeAnne Narrin

* Again I could have just kept this list going but just stopped when I had added about 10 posts...

Most Discussed Posts (not already mentioned)

These are some of the posts that had the most active discussions both in terms of comments and spinning off other related posts.

• Hired Bloggers  (Members Only) - Scott Gormley
• Blinded by False Hope! - Bryant Tutas
• A Realtor's Guide to YSP (Yield Spread Premium)  - Brian Brady
• The Secret Life of a "Generation X" Consumer ... My Story. - Mariana Wagner
• What are your odds of selling? - Kristal Kraft
• FSBO wants escrow: Contract never executed!  - Scott Daniels
• Craigslist wins law suit  (Members Only) - Eileen Landua
• Negatives Can Be Turned Into Positives If Everyone Works Together.  (Members Only) - Goerge Souto

Great Posts from New Faces:

Some highlighted posts from members who just recently started blogging on ActiveRain.

• Absorbtion Rate? Or Just Supply vs. Demand? - David Wiggins
• Why the Internet will never disintermediate Realtors - Part 1: It's the relationship, stupid -Kevin Boer
• The Last Stand of the 6-Percenters? - Chichi Ahia
• What a shame  (Members Only) - Yael Warman
• Niche Marketing on the Web - Pierre Calzadilla
• Desperate Roadside Realtor  (Members Only) - Michael Mackey

And that wraps up in the week in review.  There are a TON of great posts that didn't get mentioned, and on many of this lists I just stopped adding posts after I got 5 or 6 of them.  So if you didn't get a mention we'll probably catch you next week.

-Matt Heaton (ActiveRain CEO)