It's awfully early so I'll skip the prologue and get right into this week's reading list:

From my Active Rain blog (which I of course recommend putting in your RSS viewers), I wrote a brief story about my own encounters with affordability in housing, before I became a real estate agent.

Over on the Blooghound Blog, Greg Swann has provided the September absorption rate figures for the entire ARMLS - a little different than what I've been tracking (and even sometimes posting - have to get it updated today), but good to see someone else is watching the trend the same way I am versus listening to the bubblers.

On the Rain City Guide, Ardell gives a teaser on her own thoughts about the blogospheric debate over what buyers' agents charge their clients, or if buyers really are paying their commissions in their sales price after all.

Last week's Carnival of Real Estate led us to YoChicago - if there's anything you want to know about what's going in the Windy City, it's most likely here.

Jay Thompson on his blog answers a question posed on Active Rain - what would you like to see in the ultimate real estate portal? (Personally, I think Dalton's AZ Homes is a fine start but I might be biased.)

If you read anything about real estate you've most likely heard about the Department of Justice's complaint against NAR. It's spun off some interesting debates, including several that have nothing to do with the issue at hand. Here's the actual complaint, if you're curious.

Sellsius has added to their list of "unzillowables" this week - properties with characteristics that make it impossible for Zillow to determine the value. We have a few such items in the Valley as well.

And last but absolutely not least, Pittsburgh Homes Daily compiled a list of the top 500 real estate blogs organized by state. We're happy to say we made the list. If this doesn't overload your RSS viewer, nothing will.

Have a great weekend everybody!

(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Daltons Arizona Homes

Lord, grant me the serenity to read other local blogs without screaming or fuming or raging and grant me the wisdom to count to 10 before I begin my responses. Oh, and I'll also take a few more readers while you're at it.

It was suggested to me this past Friday that I'm rather passionate about real estate and even more so about the ever-growing real estate blogosphere, both local and national. I don't disagree with this analysis.

It also was suggested by someone reading my articles, particularly those on my Active Rain blog but also the general tone of my most recent reading list, that I take some of the real estate debate far too personally. Again, I don't disagree.

When I initially started this blog in January I had little idea what I wanted to do with it. I'd read discussions about the need for a blog but never understood why I needed one. Most of the blogs I read and most of the comments I saw seemed to be about self-congratulation among the blogging set, which interested me very little. And so my blog sat untouched for about six months while I contemplated what I wanted to do.

Fortunately, I ran into Ardell DellaLogia, her blog, and the Rain City Guide. Between her advice and her blog, and the larger Seattle based blog to which she contributed, I got a sense of what a blog could be - articulate, meaningful, educational. And that's what I decided I wanted and what I've strived for, with mixed success.

As I've written I have read. And here's where the frustration has started, because I am both a Realtor and a writer. For every well-written, well-articulated, intelligent blog I have found - Greg Swann's Bloodhound Blog (with which I rarely seem to agree but can't help but read - call it the Howard Stern theory), Jay Thompson's Active Rain and local blog, the good folks at sellsius and The Real Estate Tomato and of course Ardell's - I have found a half-dozen others that are either very poorly written, thoroughly illogical and ill-founded or just plain incorrect.

I'm concerned as a writer about the demise of the English language - I'm far from perfect, but ever since I took a professional writing class in college, poor usage and grammar and incorrect spelling has become the literary equivalent of fingernails dragged across a blackboard. And I'm concerned as a Realtor because of the sheer volume of faulty information being posted to the blogosphere for all eternity.

In some cases, I admit, my view of the post quality has been colored by my own opinions. But in other cases, such as a recent Active Rain debate about whether advertising commissions runs afoul of anti-trust laws, the information provided is simply incorrect. Yet it's there for the general public to consume.

The goal for my blog has been to educate, to enlighten and to demystify the real estate process. In some cases I think I've succeeded and in other areas I feel I have a long way to go. And with the month of December looming - the longest of all months in real estate as there's little business to be found - I expect to bring this blog closer to my ideal in the fairly near future.

While I once said participation in the blogosphere was pointless unless it directly led to more business - time is money after all - I've learned there are larger issues at play. I've also learned I might be earning the business of folks who have acquired a better sense of who I am and what I offer, people who wouldn't respond to the usual marketing pablum. It's harder to measure - there is no "I Want to Sell!" button on this page, and that's by design, but I believe it's a definite possibility.

Ultimately, I hope my readers will find this blog to be a place where they can learn about the local real estate market and the industry without the typical hysterical bombast so common to the local news media and other local blogs - especially the Bubble Boys, who still believe the market will return to 2004 levels any day now. And I hope my readers - all of you - continue to pass this page along to your friends and family, so they too can enjoy a more balanced, more thoughtful perspective.

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

Well, this hasn't been the best week for searching the blogosphere so today's reading list necessarily will be a little shorter than last week.

Tooting my own horn, I published two articles on Active Rain - the first deals with keeping an eye on the prize vs. trying to "win" while negotiating; the other takes a look at myths surrounding what agents can discuss or advertise when ti comes to commission. The second may fall into the vast category of topics that only interest other agents, but we'll let you make the call.

We've had our share of misguided notions this week ... in this local blog, presumably in an effort to drive additional business, the author has driven to the edge of bubble-dom to paint a bleaker-than-real picture of the Phoenix real estate market.  I'll soon be adding Q3 average sales by subdivision to my website for Glendale, Peoria and Surprise (Peoria still needs updating through Q2 but the other two are updated) - you can see the numbers and judge for yourself whether "most" areas have depreciated.

Jay Thompson provided some details on the blogathons of the past week ... first sellsius posted 50 blogs in a day, then Greg Swann and Ardell DellaLoggia posted over 100 each over a 24-hour period. And amazingly, almost all have some excellent content.

Speaking of Greg, it sounds like he caught some heat for an article in today's Republic discussing the idea of buyers negotiating commissions with their agents. As I added in my comments, the tone seems to suggest more agents are unwilling/unable to discuss their commission upfront in such cases. I don't have that issue. And from the comments of past clients, apparently I have some idea what I'm doing and provide an appreciable level of service.

And that's about it for this round ... perhaps not the greatest week real estate blogging has ever seen.

Then again, that's only the opinion of someone who rather would build than destroy, who believes you can build your own business without painting your competition as the villains. Some days, it's easier than others.

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