I think this is a great idea, and I have already tested the waters with ^MAUI. Try it, you'll like it. So if you're searching the web for Maui Real Estate information, I'll see you on Deed Street.
Aloha from ^Maui ~ Georgina M. Hunter R(S) e-Pro ~ 808 283-0635 ~ @mauihunter
Take 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.
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.
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All content ©2008-2009 by Matt Stigliano, Realtor® unless otherwise noted.
Matt Stigliano, Realtor® | RE/MAX Access | (210) 646-HOME | www.RErockstar.com
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