I’ve spent most of my professional life studying how people make decisions.
Before I got into real estate, I worked in advertising and marketing for decades, helping brands navigate moments when behavior was shifting, and the old playbook no longer worked. Those moments were always the most interesting to me, because they separated people who relied on habit from those who relied on strategy.
Much of that work involved introducing new ideas, new products, or entirely new ways of thinking into the market, often without a clear roadmap. It meant moving quickly, reducing friction, and building confidence in change so adoption could happen faster and more effectively. You couldn’t wait for certainty; you had to understand behavior well enough to lead it.
That experience fundamentally shaped how I think. When industries evolve, the winners aren’t the ones who cling to what worked the longest. They’re the ones who recognize the shift early and adjust with intention.
That’s exactly where real estate is right now.
More than 95 percent of buyers begin their home search online, but the real change isn’t where the search starts. It’s how it unfolds. Buyers are no longer seeing every available home and manually sorting through them. Increasingly, they’re being guided.
Behind the scenes, today’s platforms interpret listing language, buyer behavior, and engagement patterns to decide which homes get surfaced and which quietly fade from view. Buyers still make emotional decisions. That part hasn’t changed. What has changed is that technology now plays a meaningful role in deciding which homes even earn the opportunity to create that emotional connection.
Most sellers don’t realize this. Many agents don’t either.
These systems don’t just consider price and location. They respond to clarity, relevance, and how well a home is positioned for a specific buyer. Listings that feel generic or templated often lose visibility early in the process, long before a buyer consciously chooses something else.
That’s why two similar homes, at comparable prices, in similar neighborhoods can have very different outcomes. One gets traction. The other stalls. And the reason isn’t always apparent when you’re looking at them side by side.
Here’s the shift I find most important.
Most sellers believe buyers are choosing between homes. In reality, today’s systems often decide which homes buyers get to choose between in the first place. Once you understand that, it changes how you think about marketing, messaging, and representation.
As we move toward the next few years, this will only accelerate. Search and discovery tools are becoming the front door to real estate. Listings now have to communicate clearly on two levels at once, emotionally to people and structurally to the systems that determine visibility.
This is the part I genuinely love.
My background trained me to see these moments coming and to lean into them rather than resist them. I’ve spent years translating complexity into clarity and positioning messages so they don’t just exist, but get chosen.
That’s exactly how I approach real estate today.
I don’t start with templates or assumptions. I begin with questions. Who is the most likely buyer for this home? What problem does it solve for them? What outcome are they actually looking for? And how do we communicate that clearly and credibly in the environment we’re in now?
That’s what I mean when I describe my approach as Human-Led and forward-looking. It’s grounded in judgment, psychology, and storytelling, paired with a deep understanding of how modern discovery works and a commitment to staying current as things evolve.
Which brings me to something sellers should think carefully about.
When choosing a Realtor today, experience still matters, but experience alone is no longer enough. Having done something the same way for twenty years doesn’t automatically mean it works in today’s market. What matters just as much is whether someone is actively engaged with how buyer behavior is changing, how visibility is earned, and how strategy needs to adapt.
You want someone who understands the fundamentals, but also someone who is paying attention, learning, and thinking critically about what’s different now, not just repeating what used to work.
If a home didn’t sell, it doesn’t automatically mean something was wrong with it. Often, it simply means it wasn’t positioned for how buyers now search and decide.
For me, this evolution isn’t something to fear or fight. It’s an opportunity to do more thoughtful, more effective work. It’s where strategy matters again.
And that’s where I do my best work.
If this shift is something you’re curious about, whether as a homeowner, an agent, or someone watching the industry evolve, I’m always happy to have a conversation.
No pressure. Just perspective, strategy, and an honest look at what’s happening now and what’s coming next.
