Agents shouldn’t discount US realtor model

Agents should be using social media and their own US-style personal brand to promote listings regardless of the value of the properties, industry veteran Daniel Daggers claims.

Daggers, who left Knight Frank in 2020 after posting pictures of a client’s home on social media without their permission, has since built his own successful property brokerage DDRE.

Global and has shared his tips on how agents should brand themselves.

Speaking to OnTheMarket chief executive Jason Tebb for the portal’s OnTheRecord podcast, he said agents in the UK incorrectly look down on the US realtor broker models that work on personal branding, but he said the system is successful and is internationally recognised.

He said: “We need to speak the same language as all the other businesses around the world.

“The majority of business, estate agency businesses around the world, run a brokerage platform and trying to marriage a brokerage platform within estate agency doesn't work in a world of global referrals.

“It works when you have peer to peer, or person to person, and there is accountability and responsibility there and that is what I think customers want.

“Customers want to know that Daniel Daggers is working on my behalf. I know what to expect from him. I see him online. I know him in his work environment, in his personal environment.

“I know him in his hoodie. I know him in his suit. All these things create trust. And so, do I think it's having a major impact here in the UK? Yes, absolutely.”

Daggers, known as ‘Mr Super Prime’, said the personal branding and social media tools he uses to market properties can be applied to homes of any value.

He said he started off selling £80,000 studio flats at Vickers & Company and would have people come into the office and ask how the market is doing and what is for sale.

Daggers added: “Now they don't have to walk into your office when it's freezing cold and raining outside.

“They can sit at home and listen to what Daniel Daggers thinks, about the super prime market across London.

“So if you have an office in Berkhamstead, or if you are in Birmingham and your clients walk through your door and ask questions about the market, you should be producing content around those questions in the market and getting your customers to follow you online because they're interested in what you have to say.

“There's loads of property porn anyone can be scrolling through on the market all day long. Just look at pretty properties. People are going to get bored with that after a little while. They want to know information and they want you to be informative and entertaining. So absolutely every market, every genre.”

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