The Battle For Digital Independence And Why Now Is The Time Real Estate Agencies Reclaimed The Customer Connection

Josh Symons | Cotality's Head of Real Estate Solutions,

For years, real estate agencies have invested heavily in building strong brands, delivering excellent service, and investing in their people. But behind the scenes, a quiet shift has been underway.

While agents focus on listings, portals have been building audience and not just any audience, your audience.

In the name of convenience, many agencies have outsourced arguably the most valuable part of their business; their customer connection.

 Whether it’s using a third-party CMA, running digital campaigns through a portal product, or allowing listings to be syndicated elsewhere first, each decision has slowly chipped away at the industry’s core foundation and risks undermining the long-term relevance of agencies to both buyers and sellers.

You can’t own the relationship if you don’t own where it starts.

The Real Cost of Convenience

It’s easy to default to the tools that make things faster for agents. But if we call it what it is, ease of use often comes at the hidden cost of control.

Take CMAs. When agents use a portal-branded CMA, they’re not just producing a report, they’re handing over names, addresses, and key seller data to a third-party platform that likely has an incentive to commercialise it down the track.

Or digital ad campaigns. A property goes live, the vendor opts for a digital boost, and suddenly traffic is being driven to a portal, not the agency’s own site.

That same audience is now one click away from competing listings.

Then there’s banner spend. Some agencies will throw five-figure budgets behind a portal leaderboard ad but won’t spend a fraction of that on their own SEO or structured content for their own site.

It’s a misalignment that hands control to others while giving the illusion of exposure.

What Digital Independence Actually Means

Digital independence is not a buzzword, and it shouldn’t be overwhelming. Think of it as a roadmap for your agency’s online presence.

In real estate digital independence means:

• Your website is your digital shopfront, and the primary destination for your listings.

• Content is published on your channels first, not last and not as an afterthought.

• Digital campaigns send traffic to your site, not a portal.

• You invest in SEO and social engagement for your brand, not someone else’s.

• You use tools that protect your customer data, not allow someone to exploit it.

  
  

Portals have a place and purpose. But you do need to be mindful of the impact a portal has on your business and how a portal’s role impacts your strategy. Remember, they’re one distribution channel, not the only channel.

Why This Conversation Matters

Why bring this up now, when the market feels patchy, margins are tight, and the cost of doing business keeps climbing?

Because it’s in these moments, when every dollar and decision matters, that the foundations of long-term value are either protected or quietly eroded. Right now, the industry is standing at a digital crossroads.

Meta, Google, and other global players are reshaping how consumers find, engage with, and move through the property journey. Strategic operators who can aggregate listings and direct traffic back to the agent - not the aggregator - are gaining traction.

There’s a future where real estate discovery doesn’t begin on a portal homepage. It starts on social, in search, via large language models, or through smart, targeted campaigns. But that shift only happens if agents reclaim their role as first publisher.

Cotality is investing in the infrastructure that supports this, not to replace the portals, but to give agents a viable, scalable alternative.

We’re partnering with trusted players to deliver smarter ad solutions, stronger lead gen, and more direct digital paths between agent and audience. Because owning the relationship starts with the right tools.

Digital Strategy is a Leadership Decision

There’s a quieter but more serious risk here. One that doesn’t just affect day-to-day marketing, it affects the entire business model.

It’s the agency owner, not the agent, who has the most to lose.

In the US, we’ve already seen what happens when platforms blur the line between publisher and broker.

These businesses aren’t just marketplaces, they’ve become active players in the transaction and it’s possible Australia could see a similar industry disruption.

That doesn’t mean panic, I’m using this example to provide perspective and help agency owners be proactive.

Every decision about where traffic flows, where listings are published first, and who controls the customer touchpoint either reinforces your customer touchpoints and either strengthens your position or gives it away.

And when those decisions are made without intention, they compound over time. Until one day, you realise someone else owns the audience you built.

A Simple Shift with Big Impact

So, what does better look like? How can a business owner take charge of their digital independence? Here’s some very simple steps to consider:

• When you list a property, it goes live on your website first so you become the source of truth and authority for your content.

• Any paid digital campaign drives traffic back to your website.

• Your listing pages are optimised to capture leads, generate property reports, and provide genuine value.

• Those leads are nurtured through your chosen technology stack, not locked in someone else’s.

  
  

The tools to do this already exist and if you think about it the dollars are already being spent within your business. The opportunity lies in choosing where those dollars are directed.

All Digital Paths Should Lead to Your Business

This isn’t about abandoning partners, scrapping strategies, or hiring new marketing teams. And this isn’t a call to tear everything down.

All I’m suggesting is to stop and have a think about how your business is approaching digital. Is it time to reassess where your audience is being directed, who’s benefiting from your digital spend, and whether your business is building long-term value? Or are you helping someone else’s platform and business grow instead.

I started in real estate, so I appreciate time is precious and keeping a profitable business operating in any market is a challenge.

But I’ve been spending a lot of time in conversation with agency leaders who are navigating this very challenge, so why do it alone?

The pressure to keep up with competitors is real. But when you’re focused on your bottom line, listings, sales and staff, it’s easy to overlook where you’re losing ground and control.

And often its being handed over on the quiet, incrementally, and often without question.

Agencies have always been the engine room of the property market. But unless they start treating their digital presence with the same importance as their physical one, they’ll only be paying others to grow their audience.

The customer relationship should start and stay with you. Make sure every digital touchpoint leads back to you.