Top 10 Most Popular Articles of November

You know the holidays are here when seasonally themed topics begin to dominate the monthly top 10 articles list.

That's what happened in November--the #2 most read article of the month (8 Cool, Affordable Tech Gifts) just hit that holiday sweet spot.

What else hit readers' sweet spot in November? A lot of nifty stuff: personalized emojis (#1), 5 exercises for choosing a farm area (#10), last-minute open house marketing ideas (#4), and more.

Check out the full list below:

1. Friday Freebie: Get Your Own, Personal Emoji
Want to make an emoji that looks like you in mere seconds? Now you can. This week, Google launched a new feature that uses machine learning to analyze your selfie and generate an emoji that looks just like you. Find out how you can create and customize your own emoji in this week's Friday Freebie.

2. 8 Cool, Affordable Tech Gifts
Each year, we try to find affordable, cool tech tools and gear of the season that real estate agents and brokers would either like to give (great closing gifts) or even receive! Here's our holiday gift guide to tech gifts that are cool, affordable and highly practical.

3. Real Estate Video Marketing 101
Real estate photography is something we've talked about often. From drones to VR, tech adds greater options. This week, we're going to simplify it down and cover traditional real estate property video marketing.

4. Last-minute Ad Blitz for Open House Nets 200+ Leads
Open houses are useful tools for filling your sales funnel. That's what Realtor Steve Ford discovered when he was assigned to hold an open house for another agent's property at the last minute. With just 24 hours before the event, Ford had to think fast in order to generate interest—and ensure that anyone showed up at all. Here's how he achieved success--and hundreds of new leads.

5. New Lead? Follow Up Using These Steps
To be successful staying in contact with prospects, you have to have a game plan to connect with your leads as they come in and continue that connection for the long haul until they are ready to move. With these steps, you may feel that you are more prepared to build up your business with the leads that you have.

6. 5 Essential Apps for Real Estate Agents
Before helping a client buy or sell a home, real estate agents must first keep their own organizational houses in order. This requires putting in place the infrastructure you need to meet and communicate with clients, help them find and view the home of their dreams and sign on the dotted line. The best apps for real estate agents will help you check off all these items on your agent to-do list — and more. Keep reading to find out which real estate apps make the cut.

7. Safe Selling: Screen Prospects with This Easy Phone Trick
We're keeping it short and sweet with a quick trick you can use over the phone to reveal 'red flags' that suggest a prospect might be dangerous. You recently learned the basics of spotting red flags in prospects. In this week's 'Safe Selling' episode, discover a trick called 'The Training Play' that can help you gauge a prospect's hidden motives.

8. How to Take Real Estate Pics Like the Pros
Real estate is dependent on visuals, and agents are practically expected to produce the quality images that clients have come to expect. Although hiring actual professional photographers is usually the norm when it comes to getting snaps of homes that you're listing, the quality of your pics should be consistent across all of your channels. Here are a few ways to take real estate pics like the pros!

9. How to Choose the Best Real Estate CRM
If you're shopping for a CRM based on features and price, stop. People are like moths attracted to light. We love shiny new features, and we love a good deal. Is that healthy for your business? Definitely not. It's how you get stuck with a real estate CRM containing bloated features. Choosing the best real estate CRM starts with these four main categories.

10. Find Your Next Listing with These Geographic Farming Tactics
Real estate farming is possibly the most proactive position an agent can take to build inventory. The method includes a series of steps that analyze a given neighborhood, ZIP code or market area to determine how many homes are most likely to sell, at what price range, and how long they will be on the market. A good farming strategy involves working through a set of five exercises to determine the area's viability.