I think a lot has been said already on how to reduce the poly-count of a model.
1.using a lower size eg.sides 12,sides 8 when drawing a circle or arc
2,Using components(especially for windows ,doors etc that repeat quite often if you are modelling a building.
3,Importing models with small polycount especially trees.Using trees with very high detail will slow your computer down considerably.You may want to use trees that are "face-me component instead.
4.If I have to use a texture image bigger than 1MB,I first open it up in Microsoft picture manager or paint , reduce the pixel size and save it as a Jpeg File.An Image file of 5MB can yield 602kB through this process.You can now use the Image with its reduced file size on your model thereby reducing your polycount.
5.You shouldn't also forget to purge your model of unwanted/unused materials and component