Carnival of Real Estate #166

Thanks to Drew Meyers for giving me the opportunity to host Carnival of Real Estate #166 this week.  We had a lot of great submissions, and it was extremely difficult to pare it down to the 5 best.  Nevertheless, here are the top 5 real estate posts of the week (in no particular order):

How Much Do Real Estate Agents Make? – Jay Thompson of PhoenixRealEstateGuy.com

Some facts:

• At the end of 2008, there were 33,500 agent subscribers to ARMLS.
• 20,466 of those agents (61%) had at least one sales transaction.
• Conversely, that means 39% of agents in the Phoenix area sold nothing in 2008.
• 7,156 agents (21%) had $1 million or more in sales volume.
• Those 7,156 agents had $23.6B of the areas $29.4B in sales transactions (80.1%)

A 7-Day Plan for Aspiring Real Estate Investors – Shae Bynes of BiggerPockets Blog

(This blog post is for the newbies, but for those who have crossed the line into actual real estate investor, I believe there’s something in here for us all!)…

If you’re feeling stuck in a seemingly unending “aspiring” spiral, I want to urge you to take the next 7 days and immediately do the following things to help you practice self-discipline on the purpose of being a successful real estate investor:

Sellers Gain Tiny Bit of Traction in Sept., but Buyers Still Negotiating Thousands Off Home Prices – Katie Churnette of Zillow.com

The negotiating power of homebuyers slipped a tad in September, but buyers in most markets were still negotiating thousands of dollars off the last listing price of homes. Buyers nationally negotiated a median 2.9 percent off the final listing price…

Not All Cheap Houses Are True Bargain Homes – DigeratiLife.com

A bargain is synonymous to a “great deal” — something that has value and has an ROI. The truth is, not all cheap houses are great deals; in fact, some are considered liabilities…

…These days, cheap homes are everywhere, especially in certain residential communities that have fallen into foreclosure…

Home Improvement Survey Results – Jessica Gopalakrishnan of Homegain Blog

HomeGain.com recently conducted its third nationwide home improvement and home staging Home Sale Maximizer™ survey (previously conducted in 2003 and 2007) to reveal the top 12 low cost*, do-it-yourself (DIY) home improvements for people getting their home ready to sell.

Nearly 1,000 REALTORS® responded to the survey.

Thanks to everyone who submitted their posts this week.  It was tough to pare it down to just five!