What?s your full Name?
Ariel Dagan

Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Turtle Bay in a building called 100 UN Plaza. My family sold their apartment when I was 12 and we moved to 80th and York on the Upper East Side.

Where do you currently live?
I currently live in Chelsea, I just moved there from Midtown East.

Tell us a little about your family?
I come from a real estate family. My father is a jeweler and a landlord, and my mother is a homemaker that built our house. My dad grew up in Israel and my mom grew up in Iran - the conflict at home is worse than abroad. They moved here in the early 70s when the Shah fell from power. I have one brother and he works for a commercial real estate developer.

How did you get into real estate?
When I was in high school I made a call to Joseph Moinian, the CEO of the Moinian Group and one of the city?s biggest developers. I asked him for a job and he gave me a position in the leasing office of one of his downtown buildings called 1 West Street, The Ocean. I worked for them for three out of my four summers in college and it was an incredible experience. In my final summer of college I became a real estate agent.

Why did you choose Keller Williams?
It only makes sense to partner with the largest brokerage company in the world. They have resources that no one else has.

You build websites, what?s the story behind that?
In order to stay in business you need to always have a new stream of clients. I built these websites around the neighborhoods I wanted to focus on to get ranked number 1 on Google. If someone searches ?Upper East Side Rentals? or ?Upper East Side Apartments? on Google - it?s very likely they?ll land on my website.

About 70% of my business is done in this neighborhood. This has done two things for me (1) it has allowed me to give my buyers and renters unparalleled service as I know the neighborhood like the back of my hand and (2) it allows me to sell or rent my apartments quicker considering the number of calls and clients I get.

What websites have you built?
UpperEastSide-Apartments.com
UpperEastSide-Rentals.com
CentralParkApartments.com
UNRelocation.com
BatteryParkRentals.com

Do you do any work outside of real estate?
When I?m bored I design products and pitch companies to license the designs from me. I sold a squirt water bottle to a company in California that can mist your face when you turn it upside down.

What?s do you do for fun?
Read. Go to the gym. Hang-out with family and friends.

What are you currently reading?
I just finished reading ?Ogilvy on Advertising?. Great book - highly recommend it.