Market Trends Force Buyers Offline, Real Estate Expert Explains

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Date:

29 Sep 2025

Marketing leader explains why national approaches fail in real estate’s hyper-local digital landscape . The assumption that digital house-hunting behavior is consistent across markets has led many real estate developers astray, according to Alyssa Soto, Co-Founder of development marketing firm Powered by DMT, who points to dramatic differences between New York and Florida buying patterns.

The Local Digital Divide

“In New York, which doesn’t have an MLS, Zillow and StreetEasy allowed buyers a lot more access to information,” Soto says, noting that buyers were doing “70% of research online.”

However, when her firm expanded to South Florida, they discovered a completely different dynamic. “Although it has an MLS, the brokerage community still has a pretty strong hold on inventory, and therefore the majority of buyers, whether they like it or not, have to work with an agent,” Soto explains.

Adapting Marketing Strategies

This market-specific reality forced Soto’s firm to significantly revise their marketing approach. “We had to pivot and actually use the same techniques and understanding a second set of demographic data, which is the brokerage community, and what speaks to them,” she says.

The Technology Adoption Gap

According to Soto’s colleague Erica Sachse, these regional differences reflect a broader pattern: “The US real estate market in general is slow for technology adoption and digital marketing.”

Sachse points to Australia as a contrasting example, where the real estate industry embraced digital marketing tools and data analytics much earlier. This international perspective has helped inform their approach to different U.S. markets.

Looking South

The firm is now exploring opportunities in Latin American markets, where they’re discovering yet another set of local dynamics. “When I was just in Uruguay in January, I met with the developer of SLS, and the process of selling is very similar to that of South Florida,” Soto notes.

However, she emphasizes that each market requires its own strategy: “It’s very much still also very local. How does the local market work?”

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