It looks like Athol Kay of RE Agent in CT blog had a very busy Father's Day in which he styled the 47th edition of the Carnival of Real Estate after what his hometown, Bristol, Connecticut, is known for: the home of ESPN. So, as ESPN has their "Top 10 Sports Plays of the Week," Athol unveiled his "Top 10 Says of the Week.” (Question: Does Chris Berman really live in Bristol?) Take a look!

BTW, we love Athol's " Bad MLS Photo of the Day" feature that he plucks from the MLS or gets from his reader base.  Just a heads up that you need to click on each URL to see the photo; the photos do not appear on the category page.

The next carnival will be held on Monday, June 25, at Altos Research. Please submit your best post by Sunday, June 24, to be considered. Are you a real estate blogger and would you like to host a future edition or take a more active role in carnival administration? If so, get instructions on how to do so here. Please check the complete FAQ list if you have other questions as to how to participate.

Recently, I went to my Harvard college reunion. It was a lot of fun seeing what people are up to. As you’d expect from Harvard grads, it was a mix of Wall Street types, lawyers, doctors, and occasionally someone with a more interesting job like filmmaker or writer (or online real estate entrepreneur). I was very pleased that most of my classmates had heard of Zillow and had lots of great stories about how they had used our website.

I did learn an interesting, though somewhat concerning, piece of information about my alma mater. Harvard is a notorious fund-raising juggernaut with a $30 billion endowment (by far the largest of any academic institution in the world). During this reunion, I learned one of their tricks: apparently they have software that queries public real estate transaction records nationwide and checks the names against their database of alumni. When alums buy big houses, then it’s time for a call from the good people at the alumni office, looking for a bigger donation. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they’re also “Zillowing” their alumni to compare our generosity with our real estate net worth…  Ah, Harvard.

Soon, we will be launching the capability for brokers to automatically upload their active listings for free to Zillow, reaching the more than 4 million people who come to the site every month -- more than half of whom are in the market to buy or sell. 

Even when we first launched the ability for listing agents and brokers to add their listings for free to Zillow last December, we knew we wanted to find ways to make the process even easier. We have talked with numerous agents and brokers around the country -- and we have heard over and over that you want to send us listings through a direct broker feed. As I type, our developers are wrapping up work on a very simple tool that will allow brokers to automatically upload listings to the site and keep those listings up to date.

If you'd like to be one of the first to know when you can send us your feed, please follow this link & fill out the form. Just like today, any and all contacts agents or brokers receive from listings -- be it email, phone calls, or clicks to their website -- are free.

Last week we added Bird's Eye View for 14 additional counties, bringing our total Bird’s Eye coverage to almost 40 million homes, more than half of all homes on Zillow.  The biggest addition was Chicago, which is famous for its amazing architecture. With Bird’s Eye View, you can now do fly-bys and think about all of the cool places you could live, like Marina City Towers (pictured above). Or consider a place in the John Hancock tower, with views of Oak Street Beach.

Or perhaps a condo on Sheffield Ave., with views straight into the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field from the rooftop bleachers.

If city living isn’t your thing, check out some quieter beach front properties along the coast of
Charleston, SC, like this one.

For me, the most interesting way to look at Bird’s Eye View images on Zillow is to view the combined satellite map and bird's eye view on the site.  When on the Bird’s Eye View tab of an individual home, just click the "See Bird's Eye & Map View" link above the picture.  From there, you can move around both images simultaneously.  If you get to an edge in this view, just follow the "Click to see more" link.

• Cook, IL (Chicago)
• DuPage, IL( Naperville)
• Lake,  IL (Waukegan)
• Oklahoma, OK (Oklahoma City)
• Ventura, CA (Oxnard)
• Charleston, SC (Charleston)
• Berkeley, SC (Goose Creek)
• Dorchester, SC (Summerville)
• Montgomery, OH (Dayton)
• Dona Ana, NM (Las Cruces)
• Calvert, MD (Lusby)
• Saint Clair,  AL (Pell City)
• McMinn, TN (Athens)
• Lewis, NY (Lowville)

We are excited to announce that Zillow has been selected by Washington CEO Magazine as one of "Washington's Best 100 Companies to Work For."  The selection process included a lengthy questionnaire completed by our employees ranking our company on every thing from benefits to culture and recognition.  It must be all the fun we seem to have around the office!

We still have plenty of job openings if you are interested in joining the team! 

You may have noticed that we quietly added a link to our footer: NEW For Lenders.  It’s true.  We’re working on a new loan service we'll be launching later this year. Yes, we are being somewhat cryptic as we don’t want to ruin the surprise.  But while we can’t tell you much more now, we encourage all mortgage professionals to sign up for our e-mail to ensure that you are one of the first to know about it.  Stay tuned for more!

  I, as well as eight million others, spent Sunday night tuning into what was one of the most anticipated series finales in some time, and said good-bye to The Sopranos.  Whether or not you agree with the way it all ended ( that's another blog post altogether), there is no denying the show's place in history. To mark the occasion, we found the New Jersey home from the show in our database.  While you can't see any ducks in the pool, you will recognize the driveway that Tony walked down every morning to get his paper.  Ah... the memories!

Kermit the Frog once claimed "it's not easy being green."  Well, Kermit, not anymore.  All over the country building green, rehabbing green, driving green and even green weddings are becoming increasing popular. Here in Chicago, you can find many examples of sustainable living.

Sheila Burt from YoChicago interviewed engineering consultant George Sullivan, principal and CEO of Eco Smart Buildings, to find out more about green construction.  Sullivan is currently working on Clybourn Green, an 18-unit rehab in Chicago, which is expected to use 80% less energy than a conventional building.  Features of this green rehab project include:

• New plumbing and electrical wiring
• A stronger building shell that allows for fewer air leaks, reducing heating and cooling costs
• 1.1 gallon shower heads that use 70% less water
• Energy efficient light bulbs that use 8% of the energy of standard fluorescent lights, but generate the same amount of light
• Energy Star appliances
• Eco-friendly oak/maple hardwood floors certified by the Forest Stewardship Council
• Recycled glass or granite counter tops
• Testing for energy leakage by an outside party before the building is complete

Does it cost more to build green?  Yes and no, according to the interview.  Sullivan estimates that Clybourn Green will cost about 25-30 cents more per square foot compared to a standard gut rehab.  However, he figures with the eco-friendly tax reductions of $1.80 per square foot, developers can actually earn $1.55 per square foot more compared to a standard gut rehab.

Another project, Emerald, located on Green Street in Chicago, is not only appropriately named and located, but is also eco-friendly.  Emerald is installing many earth-loving, but stylish finishes such as bamboo flooring (a renewable resource that is 25% more resilient than wood), recycled glass terrazzo flooring, low VOC paint and designer fabrics made from recycled raw materials.  The 4-pipe HVAC system is economical and user-friendly while the floor-to-ceiling windows are energy-efficient, yet allow lots of natural light into the space.

Not ready to totally gut your home to conform to green living?  Why not at least start with your roof and follow Chicago's City Hall example of planting a roof garden (photo above).  City Hall info states that the roof surface has had a temperature reduction of 70 degrees and an air temperature reduction of 15 degrees because the garden absorbs less heat from the sun than the old tar roof.  This means City Hall is cooler in the summer and needs to use air conditioning less (I am still waiting for this savings to appear on my tax bill).  The garden also absorbs and uses rain water.  It can retain 75% of a 1-inch rainfall before there is storm water runoff into the sewers.  Overall, the rooftop garden is improving air quality, conserving energy and reducing storm water runoff.

City efforts, such as rooftop garden grant initiatives and programs at the Chicago Center for Green Technology, have brought great exposure to the rooftop garden.  At last count there were more than 250 public and private green roofs totaling more than 1 million square feet in Chicago.  So while it still may not be easy being green, it has definitely gotten a lot easier and is trendier than ever!