April fools!

It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for, the winner of the first annual VARbuzz Real Estate Blog Brawl. From 60 competitors you have narrowed the field down to two, and now to one.

I am pleased to announce that FosterCityBlog.com is the victor in the inaugural Blog Brawl. Jim Minkey’s readers turned out in force to put this California based blog on top of the heap. Congratulations to Jim for a job well done.

FosterCityBlog.com will receive a link from VARbuzz for the entire year as well as a nifty image file that he can place on his blog as proof of his victory.

Congratulations also to TheXBroker for making it this far into the competition and all of the competitors. Everyone who made it to the sweet sixteen or better will also receive an image file to denote how far they made it in the competition.

Thanks to everyone who voted and for making this first ever blog brawl a huge success!

Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve narrowed the field to four, and it seems the home court advantage for the Virginians has expired. The three remaining Virginia real estate blogs were knocked out in the round of eight, but the show must go on. Below, you’ll find the last four competitors. Voting for this round closes at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, March 26. Vote now!

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Oh, how the mighty have fallen! All four number one seeds have been knocked out in the round of 16, and in Zone 4, we have an 11 seed going up against a 12 seed, one of which will move on to the final four. In addition, we have a Cinderella in Zone 1.

Round 4 voting is now open and will end at 11:59 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 23.

And your vote counts! We had nearly 300 votes cast in round three, and quite a few contests were decided by between one and five votes.

So, vote early, vote often from multiple computers if you like, and spread the word to your friends, fellow REALTORS, clients, neighbors, relatives and anyone else you can think of!

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We’ve seen two juggernauts in the real estate blogosphere fall in early rounds of the VARbuzz Real Estate Blog Brawl, and this next round offers up some very compelling match-ups. Many of those who have made it through to this round are taking the competition very seriously, asking their readers to vote for them and even offering incentives for votes.

Zone 4 could be called wild card zone, with the number one and two seeds going up against 12 and 11 seeds, respectively. The top four seeds in zones two and three have made it through to the sweet 16, and a number 10 seed pulled an upset to reach the third round in zone 1.

Voting for round number three ends at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18.

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Zone 1

• #1 NRVLiving def. #9 RenoRealtyBlog
• #4 StPaulRealEstateBlog def. # 10 MIAMISM
• #3 AgentGenius def. #6 DaltonsAZHomes
• #10 MIOaklandCounty def. #2 BrianBlock.com/blog

Zone 2

• #1 PhoenixRealEstateGuy def. #8 RainCityGuide
• #4 VirginiaRealEstateTalk.com def. #5 ScottPRogers.com/blog
• #3 MyTucsonBlog def. #6 JulieEmery.com
• #2 FosterCityBlog def. #10 REAgentinCT.com

Zone 3

• #1 RealEstateZebra def. #8 ColoradoSpringsRealEstateConnection
• #4 TheXbroker def. #12 BlueRoof
• #3 DothanCityBlog def. #6 RealCrozetVA
• #2 MyCharlottesvilleBlog def. #7 TheArlingtonDirt

Zone 4

• #1 RealCentralVA def. #9 MaxSell.com
• #12 SanMateoRealEstateNews def. #13 Cindy Jones on ActiveRain
• #14 NOVAproperty def. #6 HouseBlogger.com
• #2 AllAboutAthensGA def. #10 FocusOnCrofton

[blogmaster's note: Re-posted with fresh content] 

Think the Real Estate Blog Brawl competitors aren’t taking this little contest seriously? Think again! One is offering people who vote for him a party and dancing, another has designed a silly tee shirt, still another is offering free Skittles, and some have been just as enthusiastic in their asks for votes, even if a little less creative.

We don’t endorse any of these contestants, of course, but will be happy to link out to anyone linking in for round two the Blog Brawl.

***UPDATED 3/10/2008 at 5:30 p.m.*** And we now have a Starbucks offer.

***UPDATED 3/12/2008 at 11:56 a.m.*** More vote begging. Here’s a link love bribe. One of our less creative contestants has upped his ante with an offer of virtual puppies or kittens. This must be the strangest incentive: One contestant is offering bags of red Georgia clay to induce votes. And finally, this contestant’s members-only post on Active Rain has perhaps the most inventive incentive yet.

Vote by 11:59 p.m. tonight, March 12!

Below is the voting form for Zones 1 and 2 in the VARbuzz Real Estate Blog Brawl. After completing this form, you’ll be taken to the Zones 3 and 4 voting form. This round, we’ve improved the form so that you can check out each of the blogs still in the running. Clicking on a link will open the blog in a new window. Good luck bloggers! This round of voting closes on Wednesday, March 12 at 11:59 p.m.

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Reminder, this round of voting closes at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12. Clicking on links in the form will open the blogs in a new window or tab. After completing the form, you’ll be redirected to the Parking Lot.

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This is a quick post to announce the results of the first round of voting for the Blog Brawl. Voting for round two will be available on Monday at the latest, but in the meantime, here are the results. Reminder, gloating and high-fiving is encouraged in the parking lot.

Here we go! The first annual VARbuzz Real Estate Blog Brawl has begun!

We had nearly 2400 distinct nominations for over 70 real estate blogs. We whittled the field down to 60 blogs because we had to exclude a few non-REALTOR blogs. Sorry to any mortgage brokers, technologists, etc. who wanted in, but we are tying to keep the contest strictly REALTOR-focused.

Several blogs received an identical number of votes. Blogs that received the same number of votes were seeded based on the nomination’s first timestamp. In other words, if two blogs got 10 votes each, whichever blog got the first nomination got a higher seed than the one with the later nomination.

Congratulations to the NRV Living, Phoenix Real Estate Guy, Real Estate Zebra and Real Central VA blogs for attaining number one seeds. For their strong showing during the nomination process, they have been issued first round byes. Here’s an interactive spreadsheet, complete with hyperlinks, of the brackets filled in for you (note that there are four worksheets for the four zones).

The Blog Brawl is broken up into four zones of 15 competitors. Below is the voting box for Zone 1. RSS subscribers may need to click through to vote. Voters must complete the entire form in order to proceed. Once you’ve completed voting for Zone 1, you’ll be directed to a new page where you can vote on Zone 2, and so on. At the end of Zone 4 voting, you’ll be redirected to the Parking Lot, where you can smack-talk discuss the competition.

Contestants: You can use any legal and ethical means at your disposal to win the Blog Brawl, but unlike the nomination phase, the tournament rounds are limited to one vote per IP address.

Okay, may the best blog win! Deadline for this round of voting is 11:59 p.m. EST on Thursday, March 6. Vote fast!

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