Most luxury real estate agents focus on staging and broad demographics, but Bent Danholm, founder of Danholm Collection, says the key to selling high-end homes lies in building a detailed buyer profile that includes often-ignored data points like interests and occupation. According to Danholm, these factors can make or break a marketing campaign.
“Everybody looks at finances and income,” Danholm told KeyCrew Journal. “But they might not pay too much attention to what kind of interests these people might have, unless it’s pretty obvious, like a golf course or lakefront property.” He argues that beyond the obvious, layers of preference, dining habits, social patterns, and lifestyle shape whether a buyer connects with a property before ever walking through the door.
Before any marketing assets are created, Danholm and his team construct a “buyer avatar” by studying the property and its community. This includes mapping likely family structure, net worth, income, professional background, typical commute, and lifestyle preferences. The second overlooked data point, he says, is occupation. “Which also influences what they might want to buy,” he notes. A tech executive relocating from out of state has different priorities than a medical professional or an investor. Getting that right changes not just where you market, but how you frame the property.
Once the avatar is built, Danholm’s team purchases targeted demographic data lists, typically costing $2,000 to $4,000, to reach that specific profile directly rather than broadcasting into general real estate channels. The practical result is fewer showings per listing but a higher proportion of qualified buyers. “That’s what our sellers actually want,” Danholm says. “They want their home sold, but they don’t want 50 people walking through their home every week.”
Danholm estimates that roughly 90% of his business comes from expired or canceled listings—properties that sat on the market because the price was off, the marketing was broad, or both. “You would be surprised to see how many million-dollar homes are marketed with pictures taken from a phone, with no video,” he says. “And if you can’t be bothered to get the marketing assets right, you’re probably not bothered to figure out who you should market it to.”
Even Danholm acknowledges the method isn’t infallible. When a well-priced, well-located home still isn’t moving, the first question he asks is whether the buyer profile was built correctly. If showings are happening but no offers are coming, that signals a pricing issue. If interest is low across the board, the avatar may need revisiting. “You can target and market as much as you like to the right buyer, if your price is off, they’re not going to buy anyway,” he says. His listing agreements are capped at three months; his longest transaction in the past 18 months took 94 days, including a deal that collapsed due to buyer financing.
In a market where luxury inventory is growing, largely because sellers are overpricing and agents are under-marketing, Danholm’s approach is a direct response to a specific problem. Homes sitting for 200, 300, or 400 days aren’t sitting because buyers aren’t out there—they’re sitting because no one figured out who the buyers were before spending money trying to reach them. For sellers evaluating agents, the question worth asking isn’t how many listings an agent has or how big their social following is. It’s whether they can articulate, clearly and specifically, who is going to buy your home, and what evidence they’re using to support that answer.
Danholm Collection is a luxury real estate brokerage based in Central Florida, specializing in properties above $1.5 million. Learn more about their approach at danholmcollection.com.
