Ask a luxury client where they live, and the answer is increasingly more than one place. A primary home in Los Angeles, a ski house in Aspen, a pied-à-terre in New York, a winter retreat in Miami or the Caribbean.
Wealth has become more mobile, and so have the people who hold it. The agents who serve these clients best are evolving alongside them, building expertise across markets and cultivating relationships that extend well beyond their own backyards.
That shift is changing what it means to be a local expert. For brokerage leaders, it also raises an important question: Are we building networks that reflect how our clients actually live?
Clients already operate across markets
Remote work, flexible schedules and a generation of buyers who think of themselves as global citizens have loosened the link between where someone earns, where they live and where they invest.
Today’s luxury buyers are driven by lifestyle, whether that means access to mountains, water, a particular school system or a city’s cultural calendar, and they are comfortable buying in places where they spend only part of the year. What has not changed is their expectation of personalized service.
For these clients, a traditional handoff creates friction. Each time they are passed from one agent to another, they repeat their goals, rebuild trust and wonder whether anyone sees the full picture. A client’s real estate portfolio is one story. Their advisor should be able to tell it across markets.
Local expertise still decides the outcome
Going global does not mean going generic. A Manhattan co-op board, a Florida insurance requirement, a Colorado water right and a California disclosure obligation each carry real consequences, and clients need professionals who understand the market in which they are buying or selling.
The mistake is confusing geographic reach with geographic expertise. The strongest multi-market agents know where their knowledge is deepest and where collaboration adds value. The future of the multi-market real estate agent isn’t about being an expert everywhere. It’s about knowing where your expertise ends, who to bring into the conversation and how to make that collaboration seamless for the client.
Trust has to travel with the client
When a client has a positive experience with an agent in one city, that relationship shouldn’t end at the city limits. But there is a meaningful difference between providing a referral and extending a trusted relationship. If an agent simply passes along a name, the client starts over. If that introduction comes with shared context and a clear understanding of the client’s priorities, the experience feels seamless.
Trust is portable, but only when it is supported by consistent service and relationships built before a client needs them.
The brokerage builds the bridge
A global footprint alone does not create a global client experience. Offices in multiple markets mean little if they operate independently. Brokerages need to provide the infrastructure that makes cross-market relationships work, including introductions between offices, shared market intelligence, consistent training and clear expectations around communication and referrals.
At The Agency, we encourage agents to bring colleagues from other offices into client relationships early, so clients experience a connected team rather than a series of separate introductions. Technology helps agents share insights, access inventory and present properties remotely, but the real advantage comes from the relationships behind it.
What leaders should do now
Start by looking at the markets that consistently appear in your referral activity and client conversations. Those patterns show where to build stronger partnerships between offices.
Invest in cross-market education so agents recognize regional nuances and regulatory considerations and know when to bring in specialized expertise. Set clear collaboration standards for how clients are introduced, who takes the lead and how agents stay involved. Then measure success beyond the transaction: Did the client feel supported, and was communication consistent?
As brokerage leaders, we should be asking whether our networks are simply growing in size or becoming more connected. Those are very different measures of success.
Local expertise has never been more valuable. What is changing is its reach. The brokerages that treat their agents’ knowledge as a connected network, rather than a set of separate territories, will be better positioned to serve today’s clients and the next generation of buyers who increasingly see the world, not one city, as their real estate market.
Rainy Hake Austin is president of The Agency in Los Angeles. Get connected on Instagram.
