BLOG: Why I launched a social media platform just for property

My early career in property started off at the local estate agents, making tea for the bloke that makes the coffee.

Three days into my first week, the branch manager threw the keys across the desk and said his wife had gone into labour and he would be taking two weeks paternity leave.

Bearing in mind I was already terrified, he then announced the MD would be dropping in to keep an eye on me – and I had a sudden realisation that I had bitten off more than I could chew.

This wasn’t the case at all. As soon as the owner of the estate agency found out I was in the branch on my own within the first week, he dropped everything and you could say – I got trained by the best in the business.

A year later, my brother David was deciding whether to take a gap year before starting university. My branch manager suggested giving him a job in the interim. David agreed and unfortunately for him, he was hooked on property and never ended up doing university.

As brothers we have worked together four times and haven’t killed each other yet. David remained in estate agency whilst I decided to retrain and pursue a career in digital marketing.

But as the age old saying goes: “Once you’re in property, you never truly leave”. I ended up working for a house builder and property finance company in their marketing teams.

Fast forward to UK Homes Network, David and I were working together at a large proptech company last year when it was announced many us were being made redundant before Christmas.

Upheaval

From my experience in digital marketing, it was clear that property professionals had so much to contend with in terms of legislation changes, new regulations and government budgets causing upheaval.

And then on top of that, we’re always being told industry we need to do more on social media.

It was obvious to me that most property professionals only want to network with other property professionals.

So we came up with the idea to launch a social media platform that was inclusive of the whole property industry. This would give users the opportunity to network with people across the industry ensuring their posts and content would reach an already verified audience.

UK Homes Network is an app and its web-based platform provide an alternative to traditional social media for the UK estate agency, property and costructions sectors and already has nearly a 1,000 members nationwide.

As a platform we don’t have algorithms dictating who sees, what post, meaning that we can give maximum exposure to our members and their businesses.