Kevin Sneddon wasn’t satisfied with building his luxury real estate brand in just two markets. So, he started Private Client Network, a nationwide referral network through Compass with top-producing real estate professionals in 40-plus U.S. markets.
“Our average partner leads a team that does about $84 million in sales last year,” says Sneddon, founder and managing partner of The Private Client Team @ Compass. “Collectively, we did about $3 billion in sales volume last year across our network.”
Sneddon says the client referral network is an ideal arrangement for serving affluent clients with multiple homes in places like Greenwich, Connecticut, Las Vegas, Aspen, or Palm Beach, Florida.
“Whether you’re a CEO, athlete, tech executive, or hedge fund manager, you expect a higher level of service from professionals who have up-to-date knowledge of their luxury markets,” he says.
Building the network
Sneddon entered the real estate field in 2002 after working in corporate financial services. He launched his boutique brokerage, Project Real Estate, catering to investors and developers.
“Based on my Wall Street connections, financial services background and focus on data analytics, my real estate business morphed into a private banking, wealth management model serving luxury residential clients,” he says.
Leading his own team, Sneddon began selling multi-million properties in New York City and the Hamptons, while traveling with his clients to their other luxury homes around the country. In 2013, he changed his branding to Private Client Realty, as an upscale residential brokerage and consulting firm serving the “global elite.”
When Compass opened an office in Greenwich, Connecticut three years ago, Sneddon decided to bring his brand into the company, focus Private Client Realty on the New York and Greenwich, CT markets, and use Compass’ platform to scale his operations as the Private Client Network.
“Since most of my clients own three to five homes, they’re always asking me, ‘Can you sell my house in the Caribbean? Can you help me buy a house in Beverly Hills?’” Sneddon says.
Alliances with top producers
Rather than referring clients to less experienced agents in other markets, Sneddon decided to ally with top producers with deep experience and a strong sphere of influence. “Compass is a perfect platform to connect with them, because we’re all the same company,” he says. “We all use our best efforts to send referrals to our colleagues, and the client really feels that. It’s much better than trying to strike up a relationship with a broker you don’t know.”
In March 2018, Sneddon launched the new network in New York, Greenwich, Los Angeles, and several Florida markets. Now there are approximately 40 partners in the network, all under the same brand. “We run Private Client Network like a business with a director of operations, a custom website and collaborative multi-market advertising,” he says. “While we operate like a team, we all have separate businesses and marketing budgets.”
To deliver seamless service to clients, the network partners meet every month, discuss market trends and share best practices,” Sneddon says. “That collaboration is one of the things that make our referral network unique in today’s market.”
