The 10 Most Popular Articles from September

What were your peers reading on RE Technology last month? Our top 10 most read articles provide insight into the interests of Realtors.

Safety was on the mind of everyone last month. This September marked the one-year anniversary of the murder of Realtor Beverly Carter--and Realtor Safety Month. To help prevent similar tragedies from happening, all month long we published excerpts from a course on Realtor safety and crime prevention.

These weren't just your typical boring safety tips--readers learned about the mindset of criminals, how they choose their victims, and how to read and behave with unfamiliar prospects so that you stay as safe as possible. Several articles from our "Safety series" made it into the list below. Click on any to gain access to all 12 articles in the series.

1. Realtor Safety: Screening Prospects Before a Showing
Understanding how to evaluate the prospect, property, and circumstances is the first step in assessing the overall risk of an appointment so you can make better decisions about your safety and the safety of your colleagues. Evaluating a prospect in your initial conversation is easily done with a sales technique you are probably already using – Active Listening. In addition to allowing you to gain a deeper understanding of a legitimate prospect's needs and wants, it also allows you to uncover inconsistencies and red flags if a prospect is not legitimate.

2. How to Back Up Your Text Messages, Email, Calendars, and More
Worried that a lost or broken phone means losing all of your text messages and all of the important conversations you've had with clients? You're not alone. An RE Technology reader recently wrote to us in search of an easy way to archive her text messages and prevent disaster from happening. Here's how you can backup not only your texts, but your email, calendar, contacts, and more!

3. Emergency Items Every Agent Should Keep in Their Car
As an agent, you spend a great deal of time in your car zooming off to showings, meeting new clients, and running errands for your business. And while your car should always be clean for clients, it should also be prepared for possible emergencies. Mother Nature is unpredictable at best, so it's important to have a car survival kit that can get you through floods, blizzards, basic medical distress, and the occasional flat tire.

4. High Tech Wardrobe: 5 Wearables for Real Estate Agents
If you've paid any attention to tech news, or even fashion reports, in the last six months, you've probably heard about the Apple Watch. But with all the media buzz, it's likely you didn't know that there's a world of other smart wearables available to you, from Android watches to jewelry to eye glasses. Here's a look at how this new wave of gadgets can be used in your real estate endeavors.

5. 3 Email Scripts for Agents
You know you should be emailing prospects and clients more often to drum up business. But sometimes sending another email just sounds so unappealing. Here are three email scripts you can save, modify and use as you see fit to keep in touch with leads and possible referral sources.

6. Realtor Safety: How to Have a Safe Showing
Even though you have taken all the steps possible to ensure that the person you are meeting with is safe, you can never be 100% sure. That's why it's best to follow a safe showing routine.

7. The 6 Steps to Building The Ultimate REALTOR® Lead Machine
If you're reading this, you are very likely to be suffering from LSD. No, not the drug; it's Lead Starved Depression. We're going to cure that by the time you get to the bottom of this post! I hear from real estate agents all the time who are just tired of trying "stuff" to get more leads and get them to closing. The root of the problem isn't always the "stuff," but more the lack of an ordered process.

8. 5 RPR® Report Customizations You May Not Be Using
REALTORS® know that each client has specific needs and interests when it comes to buying or selling a home. Some clients want the complete backstory to a property, while other clients may simply want the basics on a neighborhood. RPR allows REALTORS® to tailor each report according to these client expectations, starting with these five useful report customizations.

9. Should You Advertise Your Listings or Yourself?
Which is more important to advertise: your listings or yourself? This question occurred to us while researching AdWerx for an upcoming profile. Their first advertising product for real estate failed. The idea was solid. No one else offered anything like it in the real estate vertical yet, but consumer response was still lackluster. What was wrong? It wasn't the technology, it was what was being advertised--or rather, who wasn't.

10. Realtor Safety: Using the Initial Prospect Call to Deter Predators
There are several techniques you can use during the initial prospect call to deter a predator. Most of these techniques use the information you've learned from the neighborhood and property evaluation you've already done. Additionally, most of that information is valuable information you would pass on to a legitimate prospect because it could make the property more attractive to the legitimate prospect, while making meeting you at that property less attractive to the predator.