December's Top 10 Articles: A Final Look Back at 2016

Happy New Year! Before we turn our full attention to 2017, let's take a moment on the month and year that just passed. As our regular readers know, every month we publish a list of our most read articles. But every December, we go one step further and count down our 10 most popular articles of the year. You can see the full list of our best articles of 2016 here.

Below is our final monthly list of articles from 2016. (We didn't include articles that we re-ran as part of our annual countdown, though several qualified.) Have a look to see what struck your peers' fancy during the last month of the year.

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1. Did You Know You Can Farm a Neighborhood on Facebook JUST Like Postcard Farming?
We're getting more and more questions about applying tried and true "old school" real estate marketing tactics to new technologies. One of the most popular of these use cases has to do with using traditional real estate farming strategies in Facebook. Today I'll share with you some ways you can use your traditional farming tactics on this digital platform to get more business and to succeed.

2. Agent Websites Are Dead
If you are planning to invest in a new website, or to update your current website, be sure to think deeply about it, and maybe even think backwards. Let me explain. Most agents do not need websites because they cannot afford to drive traffic to them. So when do you need a website?

3. 17 Real Estate Marketing Ideas for 2017
Sometimes real estate agents fall into a rut of marketing in the same way, over and over. In honor of 2017, here are 17 fun and unique ideas to help you be in your community, establish yourself as a real estate expert and strengthen your overall brand.

4. 10 Top Apps for 2017, Recommended by Top Agents
There are literally millions of apps out there. Some can reinvigorate your business and change the way you market, manage, and collaborate in real estate. Because nobody has time to comb through all the apps out there, we've asked some of real estate's top agents and coaches for recommendations. Here is a list we pulled together of the best of those apps!

5. 7 Apps that Make Dealing with PDFs Easy
When's the last time you received important real estate documents as a JPG or other image file? How about a lengthy disclosure where each page was its own, separate PDF file? Such is life in today's digital world. Fortunately, there are tools out there that can make managing real estate documents easier. We've rounded up a few of the best apps for editing, merging, reducing, and converting real estate documents into the industry standard file format--the PDF.

6. Getting More Listings: The 3 Questions You Need to Be Asking
Want to get more listings? Sometimes it can be as simple as asking the right questions. Check out Coach Tom Ferry's three questions that turn any conversation into a listing opportunity. Watch for the tips at 0:54.

7. Feeling Confident and Showing It – 4 Keys for Real Estate Agents
Exhibiting confidence in the sales profession is critical. It especially applies in real estate sales. Here's a simple four step approach to master this important issue.

8. Friday Freebie: 21 Steps to Get Your Business Ready for 2017
Have you made any business resolutions for the year ahead? If so, great! Now a tougher question: Do you know the steps you need to take to make those resolutions a reality? If you find the planning part a challenge, never fear. We've got two free checklists to get your business ready for the new year--no anxiety-driven planning session needed!

9. How to Make Your Listings Stand Out with Facebook 360
The technology landscape has changed, and people no longer want to jump in the car and drive to see 10 random homes in a day. (Neither do we.) The modern consumer relies on the convenience of viewing homes online at their leisure. Your challenge as a real estate professional is to make your listings stand out from the rest without breaking the bank. Well, thanks to Facebook's new 360 feature, you can do that for free from your mobile device.

10. 29 Resources to Help You Master Real Estate Video and Photography
For years, articles about real estate photography have consistently been among the best performing articles on our site. But in 2016, a strange thing happened--articles about real estate video began to dominate. New technologies like Facebook Live, augmented reality, and virtual reality changed the landscape of real estate multimedia. To help you get a grasp on all the new trends shaping the current media landscape, we've rounded up our best articles on real estate video, photography, and graphic design from 2016 here.