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The hottest acts in the music business earn their appeal by hitting the recording studio and their road warrior tour bus to promote their latest pop, rap, rock, blues or jazzy creations. On Sunday, Feb. 12, the music makers get their chance to shine on the red carpet when the awards season spotlights the 54th Grammy Awards at the Los Angeles Staples Center (8 p.m. ET, CBS). But even pop stars need a place to call home every once and awhile, so here is a tour of these musical cribs.

Kanye West

Song of the Year, Best Rap Album, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, Best Rap Performance

Kanye West upped his arrogantly bad boy status for his scene-stealing antics at awards shows. And with a critically acclaimed new recording and tour with fellow rapper Jay-Z, Kanye might be amped to pull off another unscripted surprise. The talented rap artist is nominated this year for seven awards, including the coveted “Song of the Year” for his collaborative piece “All of the Lights” with Rihanna, Fergie and Kid Cudi.

West picked up his LA digs in 2003 for $1,750,000. The 2002-built home was described as a “modern masterpiece” designed by a “world-renowned Italian architect” most likely appealed to West’s love of style. The 3-bedroom, 3.5-bath piece of Hollywood Hills real estate sits on a winding drive with views of the city below. It was listed for sale for $3,995,000 in 2010.

Source: IMDb

Rihanna

Album of the Year, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration, Song of the Year

Another year, another Grammy nomination for Barbados-born singer Rihanna — or three. The ubiquitous crooner, who could sing the phone book and make it sound hot, is up for a trio of awards, including Song of the Year for her collaboration with Kanye West.

While Rihanna’s luck in her musical career has been stellar, her luck in real estate has been the exact opposite. RiRi bought her Beverly Hills modern mansion, above, for $6.9 million, but later filed several lawsuits against the builder, previous owner, home inspector and real estate agents. She charged that her home was poorly constructed, with numerous water leaks causing extensive damage. She then listed the home as a $4 million short sale. There’s no word where the star is staying now, but her real estate drama may leave her a little gun-shy when it comes to purchasing a new home.

Katy Perry

Best Pop Solo Performance

Pop-star Katy Perry ended her year on a sour note with an impending divorce with her husband Russell Brand, but the pop diva could ring in the new year with another Grammy win.

Before Perry and Brand called it quits, the two shared a stately 3-acre Los Feliz home, pictured below, that Brand purchased as a Christmas gift for Katy in 2009. The pair listed the home on the Los Feliz real estate market in May 2011 for $3.395 million; it sold for $3.3 million.

Perry and Brand bought another, bigger, home in Hollywood Hills in June 2011, where movers were spotted hauling Brand’s stuff away. Whether Katy sticks with this property remains to be seen.

Source: IMDb

Taylor Swift

Best Country Solo Performance

The guitar-strumming blonde has already won 4 Grammys, (as well as numerous other awards) including her win for Album of the Year in 2010, making Taylor Swift the youngest artist in Grammy history to nab the coveted award.

Although Swift owns two homes in Nashville — one is currently on the market — she left the country music capital to make Tinseltown her primary residence when she bought a private piece of Beverly Hills real estate in April for $3.97 million.

Swift’s new home, above, is a charming Cape Cod-style home situated on an over-an-acre lot with 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.

Source: IMDb

Christina Aguilera

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance

A year ago, things were a little rough for Christina Aguilera. There was a lyrical snafu at the Super Bowl, a spill at the Grammy’s, a highly publicized divorce, and a public intoxication arrest. So far, 2012 appears to be going a bit better for the diva, who is in her second year on NBC’s “The Host” and has a Grammy nomination for “Moves Like Jagger” with Maroon 5.

Maybe that portends a turnaround in real estate for Aguilera as well. Although she was finally unable to unload one of her properties, she still has a home for sale in Beverly Hills.

The stucco mansion was put up for sale on the Beverly Hills real estate market in March 2011 for $13.5 million and although it’s been nearly a year, Aguilera hasn’t dropped the price. The home was previously owned by rocker family The Osbournes. They sold the whimsical property to Aguilera and her former husband Jason Bratman in 2007 for $11.7 million.

R. Kelly

Best R&B Album

It’s been a decade since R. Kelly picked up a Grammy for “I Believe I Can Fly,” which he received three nods for Best R&B Song, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best Song Written for a Motion Picture. Now the singer has been nominated for his album, “Love Letter.” Maybe he can again add a Grammy to his other award wins, including those at the AMAs, Billboard Awards and BET Awards in years past.

As for real estate, R. Kelly faced a $2.9 million foreclosure suit earlier this summer, although reports were that it was a strategic foreclosure. The singer-songwriter moved out of his mansion and stopped making payments to force the lender to make a loan modification. The home is now formally listed as a short sale for $1.595 million.

Built in 1997, Kelly’s Olympia Fields, IL mansion is only 30 miles from his hometown of Chicago. The 22,000-square-foot home sits on a private, wooded lot surrounded by a 12-foot high concrete and wrought-iron wall.

Kings of Leon

Best Rock Album

The Grammys are old hat for rock band Kings of Leon. The American rockers won both Record of the Year and Rock Song of the Year in the 52nd Grammy Awards. The family band, comprised of brothers Nathan, Jared, and Caleb Followill and their cousin, Matthew Followill, also picked up nominations the following year for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance in the 53rd Grammys. This year, the group is back with a nominee for Best Rock Album.

Amidst the hype of winning their first Grammy Awards in 2010, Jared Followill decided to hop on the real estate train and purchased a gorgeous Nashville home in his home state of Tennessee. Followill’s home, above, is a new construction property by Rogan Allen and sits on a private hill-top lot measuring just over an acre in size. The 7,441-square-foot home has three stories, 5 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms and gorgeous views of the Davidson County countryside. Public records show Jared dropped $1,825,000 for his new pad — a hefty step up from the “small, fixer-up” he was apparently living in before.

Headlines that caught our eye this week:

“Hazard Insurance With Its Own Perils” — [NY Times]

“Evicted 101-year-old Detroit woman can’t go home” — [CBS News]

“Zillow says Obama picks up their idea on housing” — [AGBeat]

“A Way to Make People Buy Homes Again” — [NYTimes]

Zillow Tweet(s) of the Week:

Spent all morning on Zillow daydreaming of a house. In NY, in MA, in NH, in CT… Somewhere.

— Lizzie (@lifeaslizzie) January 21, 2012

I spend way too much time on @zillow . — Alexandra Sklar (@AlexandraSklar) January 22, 2012

@tp7six try the zillow app, it’s the bees knees of house hunting

— prime (@f1vefour) January 24, 2012

@Napier_Homes I put a “make me move” price on Zillow about 6 months ago just for the heck of it & people have been emailing me about buying!

— Lora (@AIVAInc) January 26, 2012

The following piece is reprinted with the permission of its author, Bryan Tobiason (photo, left), a real estate agent based in the Kansas City, MO area. Learn more about Bryan by visiting his blog/website.

While reading my daily news yesterday I came across an article and found myself baffled.  When anyone looks at web traffic stats in the real estate world they’ll find the same sites on the top of the list.  Those sites are (in no particular order) Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Zillow.com, Yahoo Real Estate, and Homes.com.

What does that list have in common?  They’re all “third party sites” that a broker has chosen to remove his listings from.  His spiel makes his stance sound noble and he’s trying to convince his potential clients that these sites do more harm than good.  However in my experience, I’d say he’s full of bologna & looking to better protect his LEADS, not the seller.

One complaint he (Jim Abbott) states is that potential buyers looking at your home aren’t directed to the listing agent and therefore may not get accurate information.  He goes on to mention (correctly) that some of the agents don’t even respond to questions posed by buyers.  While these two concerns are legitimate, they’re hardly a reason to pull your listings!

I put a different spin on things.  If my sellers home is seen on any of these sites, it has been seen.  Perhaps the agent they request info from will flake out on them, but this buyer now has an address he can search for.  Once said buyer puts the address of the home in Google they’ll find me and get all the questions answered they could ever ask.  I understand that this is oversimplified and presumptuous, but I think it speaks more to the average consumer than many realize.

I am also a person who pays to advertise on Zillow, Truila, and Realtor.com and may have things a little easier because my information is displayed next to my listings, but ANY agent can advertise on these sites.  In my opinion it’s better to pay $40 per month (or more in some cases) to ensure that my sellers get the best possible exposure.

In the last year, I sold four listings where the buyer found the home on Zillow.com.  I also helped six buyers who found me on Zillow.com by asking a question about a listing with a listing agent who didn’t advertise on the site.  My monthly advertising fee to Zillow is more than most peoples car payment and therefore I think it’d be foolish to not answer people who ask questions.

You’ll notice that I don’t attribute any success to Trulia or Realtor.com.  I can’t look at any of my clients or listings and find where either one of these sites has been directly responsible for a sale.  With that being said, I still think it’d be stupid not to advertise on these sites when I can see how many people view my listings on there.  Maybe they don’t call me when they see the house there, perhaps they call their buyers agent instead, but they still see & possibly buy the house because it was advertised on the medium that buyer preferred.

We can continue on with many other arguments, but this is a blog post, not a book. I’ve found that several local colleagues share the view that third party sites are bad. All state their reasons for feeling this way are because the sites have inaccurate data, or give buyer leads from their properties to someone else.  These agents all think people should look on their brokerage website to find homes.  However, consumers have spoken and they like having a place where they can go and see homes listed for sale.  Finding a place that will let them search without giving info is even better.

Really, in the end… listening to these people share their opinion of the third party sites must sound eerily similar to the cries from people who thought microwave ovens would turn men sterile.  Or from people who wouldn’t walk in front of electrical outlets as it became more & more to find electricity in homes.  Their objections, in my opinion, sound more like someone who doesn’t understand how to use the technology rather than someone concerned about their seller.

It’s time to embrace change and allow it to help your business grow!  Provide better services for your clients & quit worrying about the technological boogie man.

Marketing your home online?  Real estate expert Barbara Corcoran appeared on the TODAY show recently and said you must embrace new and innovative ways to market your home and the Internet is a no-brainer.

“It’s so important — the Internet. It’s where the battle to sell a house is fought every day. You’re either going to fail on the Internet or you’re going to win on the Internet.”

Corcoran goes on to say there are five important websites to post your home for sale (Zillow is among them) and if your real estate agent is not posting your home for sale on one of these sites, they should be.

“You should be asking your broker if your home is posted on every one of those sites. A lot of them are not,” she added.

Corcoran goes on to add tips for lighting and staging and mentions that curb appeal — in the old sense of driving up to a house and assessing it from the curb — does not exist anymore. “They (buyers) do their driving online.”

See more tips from Corcoran on “How Not to Market Your Home Online”

(Click image to make larger)

There’s always lots of talk in the industry on how Zillow (and similar sites) works with listing agents.  If you’re a listing agent, it’s important to us that this information is clear and transparent as we know listings are a key to your success.

Here is what a listing agent can expect on Zillow:

1. We provide the consumer with a clear path to contact a listing agent: There is always visible and easy access to the listing agent’s name, phone number and website link from listings that appear on Zillow and Yahoo! Real Estate.
2. Listing agents get free leads: We always place the listing agent in the first position on the buyer agent list (see image above), at absolutely no charge, once they set up their free profile on Zillow and confirm their email address works.
3. Free photos?  You bet: Listings may have virtually unlimited photos at no charge.
4. 7-days-a-week service: Our team is available at listingsupport@zillow.com,
5. Zillow does not re-distribute: Listings sent to Zillow appear on Zillow and Yahoo! Real Estate, that’s it.
6. Listings quality is key: We process all feeds at least once per day, giving priority to MLS and broker feeds over other sources.  We have a team of compliance experts and technologists working hard to provide a higher-quality listing search experience and are committed to delivering accurate, up-to-date listings drawn from definitive sources. Direct listings from brokers and MLSs ensure the highest quality consumer experience.
7. Advertising: For those listing agents who want additional exposure for their clients’ listings and themselves, we deliver high performance and measurable advertising solutions.

Above all, we work hard to delight the more than 30 million monthly unique visitors to our websites and mobile applications, by connecting them with homes, information and agents they love.
Your feedback is important, so please feel free to reach out to me directly at greg@zillow.com if you have any questions or concerns.

For more on the strategic distribution of listings, read Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff’s post here.