United Nations election officials (or perhaps it was just me) today certified as "clean" and "without improprieties" a vote to decide a heated online real estate debate and declared Greg Healy the winner.
At 1:13 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Healy, vice president of operations at ForSaleByOwner.com, a Web-based company that markets the homes of independent sellers, was officially handed the title, with 66 percent of the votes. His debate counterpart, Jay Thompson, a blogger and real estate broker in Phoenix, received 34 percent.
The parties competed in the "Housing Rumble," a regular feature on U.S. News's Home Front blog that matches up opposing sides of an issue in an online debate and lets readers decide the winner.
The subject of this Rumble was: "Do you need a real estate agent to sell your home?"
Housing Rumble commissioner Luke Mullins issued this statement after votes had been tabulated:
"The Home Front would like to congratulate Greg Healy and Jay Thompson for passionately and intelligently articulating their positions. Both men demonstrated themselves to be classy and tough competitors.
"Healy should expect to receive his Housing Rumble championship belt in the coming weeks, after it has been smelted and insured. We trust he will accept our invitation to defend his title."
Here's a recap of the action, in case you're just tuning in:
Day 1 (Thompson)
Day 2 (Healy)
Day 3 (Thompson)
Day 4 (Healy)
Day 5 (Thompson)
Day 6 (Healy)
Housing Rumble Polls Open
Brett Tousley of WA @ Aug 06, 2008 15:41:29 PM
Regina of IL @ Jul 30, 2008 12:13:45 PM
Jay Thompson of AZ @ Jul 29, 2008 19:45:46 PM