Top 10 Most Read Articles of February

Communication was on the minds of RE Technology readers during the month of love. Our #1 article, on appropriate email providers for agents, sparked controversy and many a passionate response. Data on what makes an email subject line alluring and what channels are best for communicating with clients captured your attention, too. What else were agents and brokers reading this month? See the list below to find out!

1. Why Agents Should Never Use Personal Email
I saw a news article recently about why real estate agents should use their personal email addresses. The article talked about the 10,000 selfish reasons why it benefits the Realtor®. It was a grand display of the underbelly of self-centered real estate professionals. I am here to tell you that using a personal email for real estate business is STUPID and perhaps illegal.

2. How to Educate Buyers to Make Good Offers
Realtors see this again and again. As a listing agent, you are required to submit all offers to your seller, even the lowball offers. It is a horrible situation for the agent. Indeed, it is probably a horrible situation for the buyer's agent, too. It is embarrassing for a buyer's agent to submit a lowball offer to a seller. Buyer's agents should spend some time educating their buyer on the best tactic to win the home they are looking for with a good strategy for success. Here's how.

3. 5 Super Easy Tips to Make You a More Successful Real Estate Agent
Many real estate agents are successful because they are focused and have a consistent game plan that they follow on a daily basis. Today, I won't tell you how to run your business. Instead, I want to share a few common and helpful tips that we sometimes forget during our daily grind that can benefit you moving forward.

4. How Technology Training Revolutionized One Realtor's Business
It was a fluke that led John Diaz to the training program that changed the direction of his real estate career. In August of 2013, he had been in real estate for over a decade, and a broker since 2005. Diaz already knew that leveraging technology was important for success in real estate, but he struggled with how to implement it. That all changed when he traveled from California to Chicago for a conference.

5. Conversion is Key for this Open House Expert
For strategic-minded REALTORS®, open houses are an opportunity to convert market watchers, tire kickers, and fence sitters into clients. What sets apart a "showing" from a "client conversion and closing opportunity" can be attributed to a REALTOR's style and RPR. That's according to this San Francisco based agent who was recently named Rookie of the Year by the Bayeast Association of REALTORS®.

6. When to Text and When to Email
I spend a lot of time talking to my staff members about effective communications. I think that business leaders need to have this conversation with their flock to set expectations. When is it appropriate to pick up the phone? When is it appropriate to send a text message? When is it appropriate to send an email? When you look into the palm of your hand, you have a powerful communication tool that enables any of these activities. You have a choice. Are you and your team making the right choices?

7. Choose Them Wisely: How Words Affect Email Open Rates
Are your subject lines helping or hindering your email open rates? To find out, we looked at research that drills down into the details of what makes an email subject line irresistible to readers. The report found that words that subject lines that express "Urgency" performed the best, followed by "Benefit" and "Command" (those that tell the reader what to do). Here is a overview of how different keywords performed.

8. How to Engage and Win Over Sellers with the 3 Ps of Selling
Ask yourself: Why should a home seller work with me? While most of us have a ready answer to this question that we've developed over the years, we need to ask if it's good enough. Is it compelling? Informative? Will a potential seller know exactly what we'll do to sell their home faster and for more money than anyone else? What can we do to better show our value to sellers?

9. 7 Signs that Your Real Estate Website Needs a Redesign
The beginning of a new year is an opportune time to take a critical eye to your website, your most important piece of "online real estate," to be sure it's not stale or outdated--and that it's not driving customers away! Not sure how to tell if your site needs an overhaul? These seven signs are a dead giveaway that your website needs a redesign.

10. Get More Targeted Leads with this IDX Website Feature
Do you want more targeted leads from your IDX website? How about on-site content that's more attractive and relevant to consumers? Of course you do! That's why today we're showing you how to use an underappreciated IDX feature that can put both of these things within your reach.