The Carnival of Real Estate made its way to Active Rain, one of my favorite online addictions. Aside from the carnival posts, Active Rain is a huge repository of real estate- and mortgage-related information from those in the trenches. One of the unique features for those outside either of the two industries are the number of tips shared among those of us in those industries - call it an inside look at how we do what we do.

Tobey and I made the cut for our article on Zillow, "The First Taste is Free." Here's the rest of this week's top 10:

Brian Brady's light-hearted article with the heavy name, "The Six Stages of the Long-Term Real Estate Play."

Kevin Boer at 3 Oceans Real Estate, "Wow! You Leave for an Hour and Zillow Changes the World."

Gerhard Ahe provides a masterpiece in "Real Estate Theatre."

Evan Kane, writing during the Open Mike segment at Sellsius, on "Broker Gets MLS Grief for $1 listing."

Toby Boyce on "When is TMI ... well ... TMI?"

Elizabeth Weintraub at the Real Estate Tomato on "What Buyers and Sellers Expect from a Real Estate Agent."

John Novak in Henderson, Nevada on what sellers' agents can do in "Don't Take it Personally ... It is what it is."

And last but not least, Mary McKnight at RSS pieces on "How to Write a Blog that Generates Leads."

(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes

Todd Waller at S.E. Michigan Real Estate posted the top eight reasons to list a home during the holidays. For those looking for the Cliff's Notes version, here were the eight reasons:

1. Less Competition
2. Serious Buyers Shop During the Holidays
3. The Best Agents Continue to Work During the Holidays
4. Relocation Buyers Move This Time of Year
5. If it Does Not Sell During the Holidays, You are Ahead of the Others
6. Not Lost in The Spring Shuffle
7. Your Home Looks Great This Time of Year
8. Buyers are More Sensitive to Scheduling Appointments

I agree with all of the reasons given except for #5 ... with our wonderful local MLS unflinchingly posting accumulated days on market, not selling your home when it is on the market regardless of the season only can be a detriment as every buyers' first question is "how long has it been on the market?"

The best agents, or at least the most serious about their chosen profession, do continue to work through the holidays and those who are out looking are serious about the purchase, not the dreaded looky-loos - I can point you toward a half-dozen buyers I'm currently work with on their home purchases, and I expect several to be under contract before Christmas.

Incidentally, Todd's post was one of the featured posts in this week's abbreviated Carnival of Real Estate posted at Bigger Pockets.

(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes

The 19th Carnival of Real Estate has been posted at Ubertor and, what do you know, Tobey and I are back in the saddle with one of the week's top 10 entries. I suppose that BA in Journalism from Arizona State is paying off in some small way.

Others in the top 10:

• Pat Kitano, Transparent Real Estate
• Dan Melson, SearchlightCrusade.Net
• Douglas Heddings, TrueGotham
• Joel Burslem, The Future of Real Estate Marketing
• Liam Lavery, ZillowBlog
• Kyle Else, The Tour Sheet Blog
• Greg Tracy, BlueRoof
• Kevin Boer, 3 Oceans Real Estate
• Jim Cronin, The Real Estate Tomato

These are definitely worth a read, especially Kevin Boer for helping puncture the myth that the Internet will put all of us Realtor-folk out of business.

More to follow later ... I'm playing catch up on new listings, new blog topics and a half-dozen other things today and tomorrow.

And, in light of Saturday's game in Tucson, we provide you some memories of Arizona State football before the hopefully soon-to-be-ending Dirk Koetter era arrived.

(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes

... has been posted at hotpads.com. You have seven articles who made the first cut, and another 13 in the list of Honorable Mentions, including our article arguing real-estate professionals are going to divide between those whose core message is price and those whose core message is service.

Next week's Carnival will be at the Central Virginia Real Estate Blog.

(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes

Inman News has posted this week's Carnival of Real Estate, and we're proud to say we made the Top 10 four our article about procuring cause and how it can impact consumers as well as agents.

Top spot was Bloodhound Blog's plans for flat-rate buyers' representation, an argument that's well-written but (at least to my mind) still somewhat misguided. Many of the other usual suspects make an appearance, including Bryant Tutas' assertion that he's a real-estate professional, not a taxi driver.

As for this week's carnival ... I know we're having one, I just don't know quite where yet. But I'm sure I'll find it from the sound of the calliope.

(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes