Market Perspective: Positioning

 

The Third Pillar: Positioning

Preparation influences perception.
Pricing creates leverage.
Positioning determines who competes.

Exposure Isn’t the Strategy. Positioning Is.

Most homes on the Seacoast are listed.
Very few are strategically positioned.

There is a material difference.

Uploading a property to the MLS, syndicating to major portals like Zillow, and posting to social media is baseline distribution. Every brokerage can do that.

Visibility alone does not create leverage.

Positioning is different. It answers three critical questions:

  • Who is the most likely buyer for this property?

  • Where do they currently live?

  • What conditions would compel them to act decisively?

Without clarity on those questions, marketing becomes noise.


Where Buyers Actually Comes From

In today’s Seacoast market, a meaningful percentage of qualified buyers are not local.

They are:

  • Relocating from Boston, New York, California, and other major metro areas

  • Purchasing second homes with long-term lifestyle in mind

  • Retiring and prioritizing coastal access, healthcare, and walkability

  • Taking advantage of remote or hybrid work flexibility

  • Coordinating a sale in one state while purchasing in another

  • Seeking relative value compared to higher-density urban markets

  • Moving closer to family already established in New England

For many of these buyers, the Seacoast represents a quality-of-life decision — not a purely financial one.

That distinction matters.

If your likely buyer resides outside New Hampshire or Maine, a purely local marketing strategy is structurally limited.

This is where positioning becomes operational, not theoretical.

The Compass Advantage

Compass is the largest residential real estate brokerage in the world, with more than 340,000 agents globally.

That scale is operational — not symbolic.

Compass allows your property to be introduced internally before public launch, presented directly to agents in feeder markets, and supported by a brokerage built to handle multi-market transactions seamlessly.

A Three-Phase, Data-Driven Strategy

Phase One: Private Pre-Marketing
Strategic exposure within the Compass network before hitting the MLS. This phase generates real buyer feedback, tests pricing assumptions, builds early interest, and allows for discretion or privacy when desired.

Phase Two: Coordinated Public Launch
A deliberate MLS debut supported by national and international syndication, direct outreach to agents in key feeder markets, and targeted digital strategy calibrated to the likely buyer profile.

The goal is not simply views — it is momentum.

Phase Three: Strategic Leverage & Negotiation
Ongoing data analysis, informed pricing adjustments when appropriate, and active management of buyer psychology to encourage competition and secure the strongest possible outcome.

Smaller boutique firms can generate local exposure.
They cannot replicate an integrated national network actively feeding relocation and second-home demand into markets like the Seacoast.

For discretionary and out-of-area buyers, that difference materially influences pricing power and negotiating leverage.

Positioning Changes the Outcome

Most homes receive exposure.
Fewer are deliberately positioned.

When preparation is thoughtful, pricing is disciplined, and positioning is strategic, the result is not just activity — it is competition.

If you are considering selling and want to understand where your likely buyer would come from and how your home should be positioned to attract them, I am happy to walk you through a tailored strategy.

The right positioning changes the outcome.


Let’s Talk Through What Makes Sense

I’ll take a thoughtful look at your home and walk you through pricing, preparation, and positioning — and what would actually make a difference in today’s Seacoast market.

Colby Coppage
colby.coppage@compass.com
415.757.9445


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