The REAL Trends 2013 Online Performance Study was recently completed. Here are five facts we find most interesting!

1. Those with a mobile CRM were more productive than those without.

The impact of mobile on real estate is significant, with one out of every three visitors browsing a real estate site from a mobile device. However, one impact of mobile was not measured until this year. Real estate agents with a mobile CRM or a CRM that was adaptable to a mobile device were one and a half times more productive than those without. Real estate in this era is happening on-the-go, so be sure your sales associates are equipped with the proper tools and time sensitive urgency to compete.

2. Real estate professionals' social media posts can be categorized by topic.

After analyzing 8 million broker and agent social media posts (in the top eight categories) for overall effectiveness and engagement, we discovered the top four:

• Charity and community involvement posts such as participation in Habitat for Humanity.
• Polls and Quizzes: Engaging the followers with interactive questions.
• Humor: Funny real estate or real life stories.
• Inspirational Quotes

3. Images do matter.

Photography is a key ingredient to a success when marketing properties online. With only small ways to distinguish one property from another in a sea of search results, the most ideal images stand apart. A software program called Tobii aids in this type of research and our findings were clear. The images that grabbed consumer's attention were:

• Exterior images of the home that fit into the entire shot (leaving space for sky and foliage), shot in twilight with the home well lit. These images also had high contrast and great color.

4. People want homes close to work.

New technology aids in the age-old question: How long will my drive to work be if buy this house? No more guessing. INRIX DriveTime incorporates traffic data into your listing search so the consumer can sort properties by drive time from a specified address.

5. Google plays a large role in the real estate process.

Not only is one out of every two visitors landing on a real estate site from Google, but new marketing techniques such as re-marketing are aiding brokerages in retaining and engaging long-term home seekers. Numerous statistics from our key contributor, Google, were released in the REAL Trends 2013 Online Performance Study.

Click here to purchase the REAL Trends 2013 Online Performance Study for more tech insights.

This article originally appeared on the REAL Trends Blog. Reprinted with permission of REAL Trends Inc. Copyright © 2013