Special offer

Deed Street - A new way to make your real estate tweets work for you (and help consumers).

By
Real Estate Agent with Kimberly Howell Properties (210) 646-HOME

Deed Street (beta) logoTake a walk on Deed Street.

I was introduced to Deed Street at Blog World 2009 thanks to Doug Lazovick, the founder and man behind the curtain.  During the conference I actually spent quite a bit of time with Doug and got to know him and chat with him about Deed Street.

The idea of Deed Street is pretty simple.  As you tweet about real estate in your local market, Deed Street pulls those tweets onto its site and lets users search through them in real time as they happen.

Say for instance your a consumer in Phoenix, Arizona.  You head over to Deed Street and select your location (Phoenix, Arizona).  The next screens shows you the current tweets happening in Phoenix.

Tweets about Phoenix, Arizona real estate at Deed Street.

screen capture from Deed Street - PHX

How does Deed Street work?

Deed Street requires little work on your part, but it does require some.  When you're tweeting about real estate, you need to add a special tag so that the computer voodoo magic that makes Deed Street run recognizes that you're talking real estate.  In order to make it easy (and differentiate it from hashtags (#) and other secret codes of Twitter), Doug opted for the ^ symbol.  Doug even has reasoning for that.  What's it look like?  The roof of a house.  (If you speak to Doug on Twitter he even calls it the "house symbol.")

So in order to tell Deed Street you're talking about Phoenix real estate, you would enter ^PHX somewhere in your tweet.  In my case, San Antonio real estate is represented by ^SA.  There are quite a few cities available currently (Deed Street is in Beta, but I bet if you ask Doug, he'll get your city up there in no time at all), but too many to list here - so go to Deed Street and click the "Location" tab on the main screen to learn the code for your city.

In addition to the city codes there are several other important codes:

^CRE - Commercial Real Estate

^MTG - Mortgages

^REO - Real Estate Owned

^LSTG - Listings

^RENT - Rentals

^^ - General Real Estate (use this one when it's a non-local tweet)

Let's talk in examples.

You have a new listing in your hometown of Philadelphia.  Your new listing is at 123 Fake Street and has a pool.  It's also a foreclosure.  What do you tweet?

How about: Home for sale: 123 Fake St. Fabulous home with pool! Price change - $210K ^PHI ^LSTG ^REO http://fakeURL.com/123FakeSt  (This would get your tweet listed in the Philadelphia section (^PHI), in the listings section (^LSTG), and the real estate owned section (^REO).)

The First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit just got extended to 2092 and is now $80,000 for everyone.  Obviously, you want to tell the world!  (Please note: if you're reading this and getting excited - a) it's not true and b) it's not going to happen)

How about: New First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Rules - $80K for everyone until 2092! Read more: http://fakeURL.com/NotTrue ^^  (This would get your tweet listed in the general real estate section (^^).)

Your name is Ken Cook and you just wrote you finest post ever about FHA mortgages.  You think everyone must see it.

How about: New post at FHA Home Loans: Learn the secrets to getting approved for FHA loans. http://fakeURL.com/FHASecret ^^ ^MTG  (This would get your tweet listed in the mortgage section (^MTG).)

And your tweets don't just have to be links to blog posts.  You could also just tweet things such as:

Anyone know any good ^MTG people who work with ^REO in ^SA ?

(Anyone know any good mortgage people who work with real estate owned properties in San Antonio?)

I hope that gives you some ideas to get started using Deed Street.  It's still in its infancy, but there has been a lot of good feedback from agents so far and I think it could become a great place for consumers to do research long before they pick up the phone, plus as a local tweeter, they will see your face and everyone wants exposure.  If you have any questions, hit up Doug Lazovik on Twitter, he's a super down to earth guy and will help you out.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Comments (53)

Tammy Fertig
RE eBrokers - Riverside, CA

Wow -- hadn't even heard about Deed Street before!   I see PhxREguy in your example.  That Jay Thompson is everywhere!!   lol...

I'm definitely gonna give it a try!  Thanks!

Oct 29, 2009 04:48 AM
Keith Lutz
Keller Williams Metropolitan - Long Valley, NJ

Matt,

Great informative post.  Love what you say over on Agent Genius too.  Glad Charlotte is on DeedStreet. 

I also like that disclosure at the end.  (Wish I had thought of that idea)

 

Oct 29, 2009 05:08 AM
Aaron Hoffman
Florida Homes Realty & Mortgage - Jacksonville, FL

Interesting idea.  I use twitter search to create an RSS feed that triggers certain keywords.  Like "Jacksonville Real Estate" or "on the market" or "selling my house".  In hopes that if someone is talking about real estate or selling their house, I can react faster than anyone else.  So far it hasn't worked, but it was still worth doing just in case. 

Oct 29, 2009 06:24 AM
Doug Lazovick
Deed Street - Scottsdale, AZ

Matt,

First, I wanted to thank you for the kind word about DeedStreet. I can say without hesitation, that within minutes of meeting you, it was obvious that you were a sincere, heartfelt, down-to-earth guy...and I know that has paid, and will continue to pay dividends for your success.  I look forward to seeing you at some other RE related function in the not too distant future.

Epcon, Brian - I made this tool to help organize real estate related chatter in social media. I hope it helps.

Jason - Hopefully you'll be hearing more of us :)

Dee - You're already one of our biggest supporters! Glad you like it

Rene - We thoughts the codes would be important to save characters. Only get 140 character in twitter (sometimes I wish it was just a few more. BUt that's part of the fun)

Lesley, Missy - Once you've logged on, we will catch everything with a ^ and its still searchable. So make one up that is most sensible for your area and if its popular, we'll add a link. We are already in discussion of adding new places and how to make the tag system as far reaching as possible.

James - I'm always sitting at my desk, with laptop in hand, hoping I spot someone else using a ^. Hope you join in.

 

Doug

Oct 29, 2009 06:47 AM
Chris Olsen
Olsen Ziegler Realty - Cleveland, OH
Broker Owner Cleveland Ohio Real Estate

Hi Matt -- Could be very useful.  My concern is that this "scope creep" occurs as more features and complexities get added that it defeats the purpose of what made is popular to start with.  I know Twitter uses consumers to guide their production direction, so who knows.

Oct 29, 2009 06:57 AM
Doug Lazovick
Deed Street - Scottsdale, AZ

Sorry, not sure why my avatar isn't up. Maybe because I just joined ActiveRain and it takes a little bit.

Steve - If you get the spare time, I promise to try my best to make it worth it.

Jackie - Always nice to meet another Long Islander. Try ^LI. I think we'll add it soon enough.

Cara - Being a twitter enthusiast, I'll help you anytime Takes really like 5 minutes and then its like riding a bike.

Chain RE, Joyce, Julie - Like that you like the idea. Tell us how we can make it better (please).

Megan - I've also been known to call it the "roof" symbol. We'll see which one sticks.

Maureen - Looks like you got the hang of it excellent. I love questions. Let me know if you have anymore. You'd be surprised, but the best stuff comes the questions on why something doesn't work. Or why something doesn't work this way. Get my mind racing

Marissa - Hopefully it evolves with you guys/gals' input. You're on the field. You know what you need the most to help out your biz.

Oct 29, 2009 07:09 AM
Megan Izdebska & Hanna Manoufar Chandler, Scottsdale Real Estate Agent
United Brokers Group - Chandler, AZ
Double Commitment. Double Results.

Great info, already bookmarked and ready to use it.

Oct 29, 2009 07:11 AM
Kim Darling
Keller Williams Westland Realty BRE# 01864461 - Fresno, CA
CRS,GRI, "Your Home Team" Fresno/Clovis Homes

Thanks for the info, I am going to check it out, sounds interesting. 

Cheers,

Kim

Oct 29, 2009 07:44 AM
Doug Lazovick
Deed Street - Scottsdale, AZ

Tamara - One of the reasons we come up with DeedStreet was that there wasn't really a RE twitter aggregator. When I noticed nobody was taking the lead, I said "what the heck. I'll give it a shot" A few months later......

Russell - Our thought is, you will no longer be tweeting into space. Mark it, we'll catch it and when a buyer/seller is ready to buy/sell, they can easily search the tweets on a trusted social network (twitter).

Tiffany - Noticed you were from AZ. Are you near Phoenix? DO you ever go to #EVFN?

Ben, Patricia, Mark, Debbie - Take a look. Its easy. Its fun (hopefully. fingers crossed). 

David - I'm not 100% sure that the updates work from Facebook>Twitter>DeedStreet. I think that Facebook might ignore the ^ symbol. I've got to look into it. Either way, we'll figure it out.

Ilyce - I think I'm going to be traveling a little more with this new project. Hopefully we'll get the chance to meet as well.

WEICHERT - Very interesting question. I think we'll hear more about this in the future.

Will - I think twitter is an awesome tool. The great thing about it, is that it lets people build other tools around it. We figured that twitter needed a tool specifically for RE. Hope we got it right (or hope we get it right, I should say).

Morgan - I love social networking. Hopefully we can incorporate other cool tools to help RE social networking

Tammy - Jay Thompson is everywhere. I bump into him all over. He must have a team of people working for him (either that or he doesn't sleep :)

Keith - Please start filling the ^CHA tag with good info. BTW, is that the most common abbreviation for Charlotte?

Aaron - There is a site called DemandSpot. Is that what you're talking about? But yes, the idea does have a lot of appeal

Chris - I think part of the appeal of twitter is its "scope creep." It encourages people to make applications around it and then they become the biggest supporters of twitter. But who knows. Things can go downhill quickly. Look at MySpace.

Megan & Hanna - My site's been bookmarked. That feels good ;)

Doug

Oct 29, 2009 07:49 AM
Georgie Hunter R(S) 58089
Hawai'i Life Real Estate Brokers - Haiku, HI
Maui Real Estate sales and lifestyle info

Thanks for posting about Deed Street.  This will require some investigation.  I love the idea.

Oct 29, 2009 10:37 AM
Lane Bailey
Century 21 Results Realty - Suwanee, GA
Realtor & Car Guy

I just grabbed the URL for Deed Street and I also opening up Doug's Twitter account to get my follow on... 

Oct 29, 2009 11:51 AM
Lana Robbins Realtor ® Licensed Real Estate Broker
Aloha Kai Real Estate - Clearwater, FL
Licensed in Florida, Washington, and Hawai'i

Hi Matt. Doug already mentioned it... but look at what happened to Myspace. I will watch... and see. ~ Lana

Oct 29, 2009 12:04 PM
Sabrina Kelley
ERA Herman Group Real Estate - Woodland Park, CO
Woodland Park Colorado Mountain Homes and Land

I am always looking for ways to make my real estate tweets reach a wider audience. Deed Street may be that ticket. Thanks.

Oct 29, 2009 12:48 PM
Gene Riemenschneider
Home Point Real Estate - Brentwood, CA
Turning Houses into Homes

I don't suppose this works when my blogs automatically get put on Tweeter does it?  I'd have to go over and do the special tags.

Oct 29, 2009 03:44 PM
Jirius Isaac
Isaac Real Estate &TriStar Mortgage - Kenmore, WA
Real Estate & loans in Kenmore, WA

Thanks for the idea.  I am not using twitter too much yet, but this will help use it to more benefit.  I bookmarked it for latter.

Oct 29, 2009 05:17 PM
Dianne Hicks
Realty ONE Group - Poway, CA

Never heard of it, thanks for the heads up. I am going to check it out.

Oct 30, 2009 12:52 AM
Mark Velasco
West Shores Realty - Whittier, CA
Top Producing Broker Associate

Thanks for the information Matt. I am not up to date with Twitter, yet.

Nov 02, 2009 04:29 PM
Matt Stigliano
Kimberly Howell Properties (210) 646-HOME - San Antonio, TX

I'm glad everyone enjoyed this post.  I'm especially excited that Doug stopped by to answer some of your questions.  He's good like that.

Nov 02, 2009 09:19 PM
Sonja Adams
Keller Williams Realty - Purcellville, VA

Thanks for the heads up on this...had never heard of it before but will be checking it out!

Nov 09, 2009 04:44 AM
Foreclosure Grove
Foreclosure Grove - Phoenix, AZ

This is a great idea. It just goes to show that with solving one's own problems will also solve those of others (regarding finding RE releated tweets). Way to go Deed Street! Good job!

Nov 13, 2009 03:03 AM