One of the big debates surrounding the use of Twitter in real estate is whether listings should be broadcast through the social networking tool. Some argue that Twitter should be all about relationship building, while others say the occasional listing is perfectly ok to include. Still others are in favour of Twitter accounts that only tweet listings, maintaining they will only reach those who are truly interested.

tweetmehomes.com is a new US-based Twitter service that comes down firmly on the “listings only” side of the debate. The service was officially launched on 1 March, and according to a press release has already tweeted over 35,000 property listings in 40 major metropolitan areas. Most of these listings are said to be from national real estate companies like Coldwell Banker and Century 21.

So, how does tweetmehomes.com work? The idea is that interested property hunters will follow one of tweetmehomes.com’s accounts – TMH_Detroit, for example – to see new listings as they become available.

Large local, regional and national brokers can submit their agents’ real estate listings through an XML or RSS feed. Individual agents can submit their listings through Agentopolis, a national real estate agent directory, for a cost of US$47 per year.

For a service that only just launched, tweetmehomes.com isn’t doing too badly in terms of gathering interest – most of its accounts seems to have between 50 and 100 followers so far. According to tweetmehomes.com, accounts for 100 more cities will be added by the middle of the year.

What’s your opinion? Is tweetmehomes.com a great concept, or an example of business encroaching on the social realm?

XML2U explains that the link will never change, but the data file it opens will be updated daily so it always contain the latest information. The company states that the XML generator creates the data file in multiple formats compatible with international, national and regional portal sites around the world.

XML2U also provides a conversion service for agents whose data file formats are not accepted by the portals on which they wish to advertise.

And the cost? XML2U is charging £10 per month per branch.

We first reported on UK-based single property website creation tool estatecreate.com when it launched in February last year. At the time, it was pitched as a challenge to agents in that it offered an alternative selling tool for home owners.

After launching, estatecreate.com decided to include an agent-focused option in its subscription offerings, allowing agents to create single property websites to promote their clients’ properties.

Since then, it seems agents have been clamouring for an option that doesn’t involve them creating these single property websites on their own. So estatecreate.com is now offering to do the website creation work in a 48 hour timeframe, and give it a property-specific domain name, for a fee of £99.

“estatecreate.com websites work out at around £30 each if an agent subscribes to our service, so we think £99 is a very reasonable price for having one built for you,” says Henry Yates, estatecreate.com founder and CEO.

estatecreate.com picked up two awards in 2009: Outstanding Achievement in Web Development at the Web Marketing Association’s 2009 WebAwards, and the Innovation Award from UK news website The Negotiator.

Not only is this a great way to promote your listings to an international audience, it is also a great tool to differentiate yourself from your competitors when marketing to potential sellers.

If you would like to be a guinea pig and help us test the application for free, just go to www.listglobally.com and click the link on the home page to register for a free trial. Once we receive your request, we will be in touch via email with your login details.

Launched early this year, estatecreate.com allows estate agents to showcase a vendor’s home with a standalone website for their property with its own domain name.

“I am very pleased that the team’s hard work has been recognised by winning another award,” said estatecreate.com chief executive Henry Yates. “The judges were unanimous in voting for estatecreate.com, which is a great vote of confidence in our product.”

Other finalists in the Innovation category included VerbraLive and Landlord Assist.

• Post and re-use as many listings as they want to Twitter;
• Schedule each listing to post daily, or for a set period of time – until it sells, rents or leases;
• View and download a list of all prospects on each listing.

According to TweetLister’s blog the new professional version will add almost one million property listings to the TweetLister system through a partnership with listhub.net.

TweetLister Professional will also allow users to instantly access all the MLS listings they have currently added to TweetLister, as long as their brokerage has subscribed to listhub.net’s TweetLister channel.

Up to five text advertisements for professional partners can also be added to listing details pages, and agents can display their photo, bio and contact information along with listings on an dedicated agent page. Along with these options, TweetLister Professional will give users the ability to see how many people have viewed their listings.

“We plan to continue to add features that make TweetLister even more effective and user-friendly, and to make sure the product continues to reflect accepted standards and expectations in the realm of social media,” said TweetLister partner Lloyd Chrein.

We reported on the release of TweetLister in May this year, and followed its first round of upgrades in August.

Properties are updated every hour, so clients get up-to-date information on the latest homes to hit the market. They can save their searches, and can also search for homes that are already sold, upcoming open houses by date, city and property details.

realestatehomepages.com has been opering for nearly a decade, providing custom, fully self-editable websites and design services. Packages start at $95 plus $39.95 a month for agents. The company also offer a range of other solutions including E-Client Contact, a proprietary web-based drip e-mail system designed specifically with Realtors in mind.

rentlinx.com is now also offering a pay-per-lead option that lists properties on websites such as rentalhomesplus.com and rentals.com. Advertisers can choose to feature their property and can set a monthly cap on the amount they wish to pay. Each phone call or email generated by these ads costs US$10.

rentlinx.com states it generates over 20,000 leads each month, and that 40,000 rental properties are currently registered with the website.

vFlyer aims to attract real estate agents by offering branded, customisable flyers that are automatically submitted to locations such as zillow.com, trulia.com, oodle.com, vast.com and Google Base. A PDF version of each flyer is also generated, and vFlyer also offers an email distribution tool. The vFlyer service is priced from US$12.95 per month.

PropertyBoss says the integration with vFlyer will allow clients to import available rental listings, saving time and ensuring accuracy.

“vFlyer provides yet another way for PropertyBoss clients to actively market and rent their available properties,” says Michael Mino, president of PropertyBoss. “Clients are better able to increase occupancy rates while reducing administrative costs.”

“We noticed an uptick on domain names containing words like ‘street,’ ‘avenue’ and ‘road,’” said godaddy.com founder and CEO Bob Parsons. “When we ran the numbers, the trend line was undeniable. More people are registering domain names matching their physical addresses.”

So why are more people using websites that showcase just one home? Gregg Swann, owner of Bloodhound Realty, who registers street address domain names with godaddy.com, explained his reasoning:

“Buyers typically want all the answers to their questions before they talk to me. By making the exact address clients are considering available online, all they have to do is type the street address online and presto, the individual website pops up and buyers get all the relevant info.”

But one drawback of marketing through a single property website is that it represents another expense on top of portal listing fees. godaddy.com domain names attract subscription fees, as do similar services from US providers such as vflyer.com and mymarketwire.com and Australian providers like mypropertyaddress.com.au and homewebsites.com.au.

UK based estatecreate.com also charges for its domain names, however the website has recently picked up an award for “Outstanding Achievement in Web Development” to recommended it.

One free option comes from postlets.com, which offers free single property websites as well as syndication to locations such as Craigslist, Facebook and trulia.com, however its website names do not reflect property addresses.

A single property website’s overall effectiveness is another issue, as this recent discussion on business2.com.au suggests. So, while their numbers may be increasing, it seems not everyone is convinced single property websites are worth the extra effort.