It’s hard impossible to grow up in a former British colony in Africa — at least this one — without becoming an avid soccer fan. (In answer to your next question, no, I am not responsible for this.) What I am responsible for is this week’s Carnival of Real Estate, and since that means I get to write this week’s rules, I have decreed a “World Cup Soccer” theme, and, in a nod to the continent that missed birthing me by 6 weeks, but where I nonetheless spent 2/3rds of my life, the theme specifically is “World Cup Soccers stars of African origin.”
The world’s most famous soccer player ever is arguably Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé. But wait, you say, isn’t he Brazilian? Indeed he is…but I sidestep that one nicely by pointing out that he is of African origin.
The Pelé award this week goes to Danilo Bogdanovic of Real/diaBlog with the discouragingly-titled but well-written post How To Be A Successful Agent In One Of The Worst Real Estate Markets Ever. While Pelé was well-known for taking nearly impossible situations and turning them into artful goals — witness his famous goal from behind the halfway line when he took advantage of an errant goalkeeper — Danilo recommends turning the difficult situation in many markets into a profitable business. He says:
With foreclosures on the rise, agents should be reaching out to lenders and banks to get on their “approved list” in order to sell their foreclosure listings. Foreclosures are going to be a key part of every successful agent’s business strategy over the next few years…
[On the buy side] agents should be focused on investor clients to take the place of the missing traditional buyer traffic.
The second place award, named after Liberian international soccer player-turned-public-servant George Weah, goes to Jim “Real Estate Tomato” Cronin for his article What is the Future of the Real Estate Blog? Weah put his knowledge, talent, and finances to work for his war-ravaged nation Liberia; Jim Cronin, on the other hand, churns out a steady stream of articles of great help to the real estate blogging community; this article is simply one example. He highlights some future trends — for example, video — and some future pitfalls — for instance, broker-domination, and Google’s finicky-ness.
The third place award is the Zenedine Zidane “I’m Sick and Tired of Your Behavior and I’m not Going to Take it Any More” headbutt-into-reality. Ines Hegedus-Garcia writes Home Sellers Can’t Handle the Truth and rants about sellers choosing a Realtor not on the basis of skill or truth-telling, but on the basis of making unfulfillable promises. Unlike Zidane’s headbutt-inspired send-off in the finals of the last World Cup, we applaud Ines’ attempt to head-butt sense into stubborn sellers. (Sidebar to purists: Zidane, though on the French team, is of Algerian origin, and hence fits with the theme.)
Among the remaining 20 articles, an honorable mention stood out:
The Nwankwo Kanu award, bestowed on the author with the article most reminiscent of Nigerian International Kanu’s fabled creativity on the field, goes to Scott Ficek with Reverse Prospecting for Tenants. Who hasn’t thought of using Craigslist to list properties, to find properties, or to find a rental? Scott suggests using Craiglist for something completely different — reverse prospecting for tenants.
Thanks to everyone else for your contributions!
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10 responses so far ↓
1 ines // Nov 12, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Kevin - did you know I LOVE soccer!! ……Now that Zidane analogy is genius (although the whole headbutt incident really ticked me off during the last World Cup…..maybe the same way that certain sellers are ).
Thanks for the creative take on this Carnival, talk about a kick!
2 Shailesh Ghimire // Nov 12, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Loved the theme Kevin. Learned a lot about you.
So, is an African country going to win the WC in 2010 South Africa? That would be cool wouldn’t it…
3 Trulia Blog » Carnival of Real Estate // Nov 12, 2007 at 4:00 pm
[...] Oceans Real Estate hosts the 67th Carnival of Real Estate this week and judge Kevin Boer has declared a ‘World Cup [...]
4 Carnival of Real Estate #67 - Zillow Blog - Real Estate News and Analysis // Nov 12, 2007 at 4:02 pm
[...] the San Francisco Bay Area” (love that) — used a World Cup soccer theme for the 67th edition of the Carnival of Real Estate. For anyone who knows soccer, the ultimate player is Pelé, so the [...]
5 Carnival of Real Estate #67 | Carnival of Real Estate - Real Estate Blogging Tips and Tricks // Nov 12, 2007 at 4:09 pm
[...] Serving the San Francisco Bay Area” (love that) — used a World Cup soccer theme for the 67th edition of the Carnival of Real Estate. For anyone who knows soccer, the ultimate player is Pelé, so the [...]
6 David G from Zillow.com // Nov 12, 2007 at 4:21 pm
Great carnival! Now, about this cousin of yours who inherited $532 Million they have to get out of Nigeria …
7 Kevin Boer, Broker Owner, 3 Oceans Real Estate, Inc. () // Nov 12, 2007 at 4:50 pm
David, I take it you’re referring to “Mr. Festus Gibbons”? I thought he was one of your pals, actually! Should I not have sent him my social security and bank account numbers?
Ines — glad you liked the reference. That has to be one of the most memorable, and unfortunate, events in recent soccer history.
Shailesh — I will, as always, be cheering primarily for Nigeria, if they make it to the event. If not, I’ll root for Bafana Bafana.
The teams from Africa have an unfortunate tradition of choking on the big stage — witness Nigeria, Senegal, and the Cameroons, for instance. Considering most of the African teams can now field 2 full squads of well-paid European-based professionals (with the occasional “World Player of the Year” thrown in for good measure), it’s only a matter of time before the World Cup winner comes from Africa.
Funny enough, in the last French World Cup side, a distinct minority of the players were “Gauls” if you will. Everybody else was either an immigrant or a child of immigrants. Part of the French team was practically interchangeable with the the Senegalese team! Ah yes, globalization.
8 Lani Anglin-Rosales // Nov 12, 2007 at 7:41 pm
You could have written that all in Swahili and I would have understood it just the same… I’m in Texas where college football is LIFE
Regardless of my soccer ignorance, I think you’ve chosen a really great bunch- congrats to the winners!
9 Danilo Bogdanovic // Nov 13, 2007 at 8:46 am
Thanks for the honor! Definitely a tough crowd to go up against - those are excellent posts by Ines and Scott!
10 fahmi yemenie // May 10, 2008 at 8:08 am
you knmow guys is Zenedine Zidane is the best player in the world
? no non no matter what
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