The Compass–Anywhere Real Estate merger might be a move that may make sense for Wall Street, but not necessarily for agents. Because, as this big-box brokerage gets bigger, it also gets blander. As this large national firm gains scale, agents may lose something more valuable: identity.
Your marketing, your brand voice, even your client experience is templated. Your listings sit on the same digital shelf as thousands of others. Your story is told in someone else’s tone.
When you join a national franchise, you inherit their rules, their systems, their image. You become part of someone else’s brand story — even if it’s not the one you’d write for yourself. And while that might work for some agents… Does it work for you?
Why “Small” is Our Strategic Advantage
At Columbus & Over, we’re not trying to be the biggest. But, being boutique doesn’t mean being small — it means selective, intentional, nimble and hyper-local. We’re building something smarter — a brokerage where every agent gets institutional-level marketing, strategy, and support designed around them.
Our size is what allows us to:
- Move quickly when markets shift.
- Create hyper-local content that wins on search and connects with Boston consumers.
- Reinvent the agent experience around individuality — not uniformity.
We’ve seen firsthand how agents who take ownership of their brand — with a partner that invests in them — build deeper client trust, stronger referral networks, and more durable careers. We build it block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, client by client.
You are the brand. Every listing video, blog, social post, and SEO campaign is designed to amplify your voice and visibility. We build search equity around your name, your neighborhoods, and your expertise. From the South End to Brookline, from Newton to Charlestown, our strategy centers on your market — not a national one-size-fits-all plan. Our marketing, video, and design team works directly with you to shape your career trajectory.
Every detail — from your first listing to your long-term digital strategy — is personalized, data-informed, and executed at a professional standard that big firms can’t deliver at scale. With our SEO-driven website, high-performing ad infrastructure, and in-house creative team, every piece of content you publish builds your long-term footprint.
The truth is simple: real estate is — and will always be — a local business.
Boston buyers and sellers don’t want a corporate echo. They want someone who knows where the morning light hits on Union Wharf, where to grab coffee after an open house in Brookline, which streets in Newton catch the best foliage co me fall. It’s about what makes the lifestyle real and relatable. So, in an age of algorithmic marketing, AI-generated copy, and corporate sameness, the most valuable thing you can be is authentically you. That’s why Columbus & Over exists: to help agents build brands that perform powerfully and last far beyond a single transaction.