The Ten Best in RE.net This Week: Mar. 6, 2010 Edition

1 ) CDPE – Certified Disaster of Proportions that are Epic – So I don’t make it a secret that I am not a big fan of designations. I think designations are mostly a way for NAR to make money every year with renewal feels for continuing to use those designations, than they are a good education. One of my biggest pet peeve designations — CDPE — that is why I love this story.

2 ) Roost Launches Free Real Estate Facebook Application – I have always thought of Facebook and fan pages as a better way to stay in touch with your sphere or your farm than it is to promote real estate. This new application is the first one I have seen that makes me say ok, maybe I should add it to my niche fan page.

3 ) Realtor Facebook Fan Page Strategy Gains 4,000+ Local Fans in 12 Days – He is now over 7,300fans in 17 days. I first mentioned what Dale Chumbley was doing in my Top 10 list on day 2 of his 365 day project. I thought it was going to be a hit, but nothing like this.

4 ) HAFA brochure from the NAR – When I see all of my dues money being used to promote HAFA, I start getting more than a little upset. This fancy new brochure that NAR has put out on the HAFA program is just the latest to get me going. I am still convinced, as I have been since November when I did my first video on it, that NAR president Vicki Cox Golder has not read this. Any reasonably intelligent person who reads the whole thing will see it is just another fine government program that will have the same effect as the last few useless programs.

5 ) Home Shoppers Unlikely to Obtain Estimated Good Faith Estimate – HUD wanted the GFE to be a tool to rate shop, but because lenders are locked into what is on the GFE (and things change quickly) they are reluctant to give one out.

6 ) The seller didn’t submit my offer to the bank on a short sale… – One of my favorite subjects, or should I say one of my top pet-peeves when it comes to short sales. Who owns the house? It is not the bank, they are not a party to the contract.

7 ) On Admin Fees and “Commission” – Another local agent and I were talking about this just this week. We came to the same conclusion that brokers should not be charging an administration fee on top of commission. Interestingly, Jonathan finds a court case which may make it illegal to do so.

8 ) Homeowner Estimates as Good as Zillow? Appraisal Academics Think So – Zillow estimates are horrible if you are trying to figure out how much a to list a house for, but Zillow even admits they are not perfect and they are intended to be a rough estimate of a value in an area.

9 ) The Most Effective Realtor Marketing Tool – Many agents who read this are going to say Twitter, or Facebook or my blog. Eric takes a look at why a good drip campaign may be your best marketing tool.

10 ) Foreclosed Borrowers May Get Loans Again – With the amount of short sales and foreclosures in places like Florida, California, Arizona and Nevada something is going to need to change.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.