This week’s Carnival of Real estate was hosted by the Property Monger, and the ten winners are highlighted here.

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The good folks at Ubertor took the helm at the Carnival of Real Estate this week, wading through a ton of good entries to narrow it down to 11.  Pat Kitano of TransparentRE rightfully won top honors for his entry on first mover advantage in a Web 2.0 world, a much-discussed and dissected article (see the comments) on how difficult it is to stay ahead of the game technologically these days.

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With New Orleans already alive with NardiGras, I’m expecting some more choice outtakes of Realtor.com’s Alan Dalton criticizing Zillow to come out soon.

Why is he so against Zillow? Is it, in fact, out of some sort of principled commitment to the way online real estate should be conducted?

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Lest I give the impression that Alan Dalton is all bombast and no substance, consider the following clips, also from his recent address to the home crowd at the California Association of Realtors.

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The National Association of Realtors and its state and local affiliates are masters of the rile-up-the-troops-and-get-out-the-vote routine.  Two years ago I trekked up to Sacramento for the California Association of Realtor’s annual Legislative Day and had my eyes opened to the world of lobbying, politics, and how legislative decisions are made.  2000 Realtors from around the state descended on the capital and met with their local state representatives, “educating” them about upcoming real-estate related legislative issues and “how they should vote.”  Our local NAR affiliate, the Silicon Valley Assocation of Realtors, is equally effective on local issues — with a day’s notice, it can mobilize several dozen, perhaps even a few hundred, local Realtors to show up at a city council meeting to voice their opposition to some new measure.
Don’t get me wrong — every trade association in the country lobbies, and the Realtor lobby just happens to be better funded, organized, and influential than most.  NAR’s express purpose is, and should be, to protect the interests of its members as it perceives them.

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I rarely have a need to go to Realtor.com, but when I did so last night I had quite the surprise — there were not just active listings, but recently solds as well!  Their source for that data?  Not the MLS, but a 3rd party data aggregator called OnBoard.  I’m getting a headache.

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Rumors abound of a Jerry Springer-like dust-up between Lloyd Frink of Zillow.com and Alan Dalton of Realtor.com on Tuesday at the California Realtor Expo — see here, here, here, and here. Unfortunately, there does not (at least yet) appear to be a transcript or recording of the event — not even at the California Association of Realtors’ web site — and no mention either at the Zillow Blog or at Realtor.com itself. Youtube, where are you?
I’ve heard Dalton speak a few times, and he’s an engaging, if somewhat excitable, character. For somebody so associated with the old guard, he really does, I believe, “get” technology. If you can wade through his somewhat verbose writing, this article in a recent issue of RIS Media highlights his thinking on real estate and the Internet and demonstrates that he’s not just some old fuddy-duddy. Money quotes: (more…)

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