This month, Inman News is focusing coverage on the issue of percentage-based real estate commissions and other industry compensation practices.

We value your views and insight. Tell us about pressing problems in real estate compensation practices; what is working or isn’t working about commission-based services; compensation trends in your market area; and alternative compensation models — or pick your own topic related to compensation.

We are awarding one free pass to the upcoming Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco to the author of every guest contribution that is published in full at Inman News.

We are looking for contributions in the range of 500 to 1,000 words, though we will consider entries with more or fewer words. Please do not use these essays as a marketing tool to promote your company or product — such entries will be disqualified.

Some questions to consider:

1. What, if anything, is broken or dysfunctional about compensation practices in the industry? What changes or fixes would you like to see in compensation practices? What are the major barriers to change?

6. Has technology had any impact on industry practices? Explain.

Please join in the discussion: Click here to share your views and insight with Inman News readers, or send us e-mail.

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Congratulations to Alisha Alway Braatz, a real estate professional in Bend, Oregon, who submitted the winning Roadmap to Recovery essay "Revolutionary thinking for real estate."

Alisha walks away with the $500 check for her efforts.

Licensed in 2006, Alisha Alway Braatz is a sales associate with Cushman & Tebbs Sotheby’s International Realty in Bend.

Formerly with Sun River Realty, Alway Braatz briefly worked for a small boutique real estate firm before joining Sotheby’s.

To read Alway Braatz’s essay along with the other nine finalists, download the Roadmap to Recovery Top 10 special report; which available for free to Inman News Premium Members.

If you’re not already an Inman News Premium Member, upgrade your account today!

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In another casualty of the housing bust, The Shire, a Lord of the Rings-themed development in Bend, Oregon, has fallen into bank hands, according to the The Bend Bulletin.

The 6-acre property, which only has one-partially completed home and 14 vacant lots, is now on sale for $1.3 million. A public auction in December resulted in no bids which forced lender Umpqua Bank to foreclose in mid-January.

Umpqua had originally loaned developers $3.4 million in 2004 to build out their fantasy "village".

The Shire was conceived as a place where Lord of the Rings enthusiasts could congregate and, as such, the codes, covenants and restrictions of the project reflected this goal.

The CC&Rs promoted the use of English architecture, including unique stonework, artificial thatched roofs, terraced gardens and a network of streams and ponds with a pathway leading to what was called The Ring Bearer’s Court.

In all likelihood however, this vision will never be realized, according to the listing agent.

“The bank is trying to sell it to a single developer,” he said. “The CC&Rs could, in most probability, change.”

Say it ain’t so, Bilbo!

(h/t re: PDX)

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