I recently returned from the Tom Ferry Success Summit in Anaheim, where I spent several days immersed in conversations about artificial intelligence, technology, marketing, changing consumer behavior and, of course, the ever-changing real estate market.

It was exciting. It was exhausting. And it got me thinking.

I’ve been selling real estate for 29 years.

When I started in this business in 1997, there was no Instagram. No Matterport. No social media advertising. No AI helping us analyze information or create efficiencies. Buyers weren’t sitting at home scrolling through every property on the market before they ever spoke to an agent.

Real estate looked very different.

And yet, in some of the ways that matter most, it really hasn’t changed at all.

Today, buyers and sellers have an extraordinary amount of information at their fingertips.

Within minutes, you can look up recent sales, view aerial photographs, tour a home virtually, research a neighborhood and get an automated estimate of what a property might be worth.

That access to information is wonderful. I use many of these tools myself every single day.

But having more information doesn’t necessarily make a real estate decision easier.

In fact, sometimes I think it makes it harder.

A computer can tell you what the house down the street sold for. But can it tell you why one property received multiple offers while another, seemingly similar home, sat on the market?

An algorithm can give you an estimated value. But does it understand the difference between two streets in Healdsburg? The feeling of walking into a beautifully prepared home? The value a buyer may place on privacy, views, proximity to the Plaza or that perfect indoor-outdoor connection?

Those nuances matter. Especially in a market as unique as ours.

One of the things I’ve always loved about real estate is that no two properties—and certainly no two transactions—are exactly alike. Sometimes my job is to tell a seller that I think we should hold steady. Sometimes it's telling them that the market has spoken and we need to make a change. Sometimes it's walking through a property before it ever comes to market and identifying the handful of things that will make buyers see it differently. And sometimes it's sitting across the table from someone making one of the biggest financial and emotional decisions of their life and simply helping them sort through the noise.

There isn't an app for that. That comes from experience, judgment and knowing your market.

So why, after 29 years, am I still sitting in conference rooms learning about AI, digital marketing, new technology and new ways of doing business? Because I don't ever want experience to become an excuse for standing still.

The way buyers find homes has changed. The way we market properties has changed dramatically. Expectations have changed. And technology will continue changing our industry faster than any of us probably realize.

I want to understand it.

I want to use it.

And I want to make sure my clients benefit from it.

If technology can help me expose a seller's property to more of the right buyers, I want it.

If AI can help me analyze information more efficiently so I have more time to think strategically about a client's property, I want it.

If a new marketing platform allows someone in San Francisco, New York or across the world to discover a special property here in Sonoma County, I want to understand how to use it.

But I never want any of those things to replace the part of this business that I believe matters most.

The relationship.

Real estate isn't simply about houses.

It's about people.

It's the couple wondering whether this is finally the right time to sell the home where they raised their children.

It's the seller becoming discouraged because their property hasn't received the response they hoped for.

It's the buyer walking through a house and suddenly realizing, this could be the one.

It's conversations about money, timing, family, risk, dreams and sometimes disappointment.

Those moments require more than information.

They require someone who will listen, tell you what you need to hear—even when it isn't necessarily what you hoped to hear—and help you make the best decision possible with the information we have.

Twenty-nine years ago, I didn't have AI in my pocket, social media or the ability to market a Sonoma County home around the world with the touch of a button.

What I did have was a telephone, a car, a real estate license and a responsibility to take very good care of the people who trusted me.

All these years later, I have considerably better tools.

The responsibility hasn't changed.

And I hope it never does.

— Kellie Larson
Luxury Home Expert | Healdsburg & Sonoma County
Luxe Places International Realty