October's Top 10 Articles: Lead pick-up lines, Apps, and more

The competition for the 10 most popular articles was pretty fierce last month. RE Technology members were reading machines during October! Now that you're emerging from Halloween's sugar-induced coma and the days are shorter, it's a great time to catch up on the latest real estate technology. See our list below for 10 great places to start!

1. Keywords to Use in Listing Descriptions
We conducted a study of nearly 300,000 active, US-based listings to produce a list of the most popular terms used to describe homes for sale and apartments for rent. Some of the results were unexpected and surprising. What word do you think appeared at the top of the list?

2. 10 Best Lead Pickup Lines for Agents
Connecting to new clients can induce a bit of déjà vu—the same anxiety that made you too nervous to ask a date to the dance or reluctant to talk to the attractive girl or guy across the room can hold you back in business. If you've ever run into new conversation anxiety or just aren't sure how to kick off the chatter when new clients loom, this post is for you.

3. Why You Should ALWAYS Like Your Own Facebook Status
You've probably seen Facebook friends continually 'Liking' their own status updates and thought: Isn't it enough to simply publish a post and leave it at that? Perhaps their actions have made you think they're too self-obsessed or a bit too desperate for approval, but what if we told you that doing so could improve your real estate business?

4. 5 Quick Photo Editing Tools For Real Estate
A common refrain I hear is that regular PCs don't have anything to edit photos with. Most people don't have access to a heavy duty tool like Photoshop and could really use something lightweight for handling tasks like resizing a photo for putting on your website or sending in an email. Here are a few different services you can use to handle your photo editing needs.

5. Get Your .REALTOR Domain Name Before It's Gone!
Realtors, the moment your web presence has been waiting for is finally here! As of Oct. 23, members of NAR and CREA can claim their very own .REALTOR domain name. Even better--if you're one of the first 500,000 NAR members or the first 10,000 CREA members, you'll able to register your first domain name FREE for one year. Here's how.

6. Friday Freebie: Open House Productivity Kit
Ready to close more open house leads? This kit offers eight tips and resources to help you do just that, with advice on everything from posting open houses on realtor.com® to helping visitors overcome "sign-in reluctance." The kit also points agents to tools that are available to them at no cost as a Realtor®.

7. 11 Staging Tips to Get Your Listings Sold
Sometimes a few interior tweaks are all you need to help your stagnant listings fly off the market. We've rounded up successful real estate agents, professional stagers and interior designers to share staging secrets so you can focus more on closings and less on staging!

8. Don't Overlook These 5 Sources of Fall and Winter Leads!
Fall and winter leads aren't hard to come by, but you may need a different approach to find them. If you're not sure where to start, a new guide from Trulia will point you in the right direction. This free download lists five "under the radar" lead sources that you may not have considered. Better yet, it offers actionable steps you can take to engage these potential sources of new business.

9. The 3 Things All REALTORS® Need to Be Doing to Grow Their Business
You may feel a bit overwhelmed with all the advice you get about what you should or shouldn't be doing for your business. Maybe you can only implement a few changes and need to figure out which are the really important ones to focus on and which ones you can put on the backburner for the time being. Here are three big points to think about. Each one will greatly affect your overall business success.

10. Best Bang for Your Buck: Top 5 Types of Real Estate Videos on YouTube
Before you grab a camera and set up a tripod, let's talk about which type of video gives the best bang for your buck. Frankly, this is where many agents go astray. Some are under the impression that a homebuyer's top priority is to learn about an agent's experience or the history of their company. While "About Me" videos play a role in the overall decision of who to work with, there are other video types that outrank them in the top five.