Read the original guest column on Richmond.com
In a world rapidly transforming through artificial intelligence, the real estate business remains driven by something decidedly human: relationships.
As a broker and owner of Providence Hill Real Estate, I’ve seen firsthand how technology has transformed our industry. It has changed how homes are marketed, how buyers search for properties, and how agents conduct business. Yet, the fundamental nature of real estate has not changed.
Every neighborhood, municipality and even street has its own story. Buyers and sellers still value professionals who understand not only the houses, but the unique qualities of the neighborhoods and communities their clients call home.
For decades, Central Virginia was fortunate to have a strong collection of locally owned brokerages led by professionals who built their careers in the Richmond market. They created companies with distinct cultures, trained generations of real estate professionals, and established deep roots in the communities they served.
Those firms helped shape the real estate culture Richmond enjoys today.
But over time, the brokerage landscape began to change.
As the leaders of many established firms approached retirement, succession planning became increasingly important and, in some cases, increasingly difficult. Building a successful brokerage is one challenge. Creating a structure that allows it to thrive beyond its longtime leadership is another.
Without a clear next generation of leaders, some long-standing companies disappeared, merged or were acquired.
At the same time, large national and regional companies recognized the opportunity and expanded their presence in central Virginia, seeking to fill the void. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this evolution — in fact, competition and the adoption of new technologies make us stronger. But it also raised an important question, one that my partners and I found ourselves asking a little more than 5 years ago: As the industry grows and evolves, how do we preserve the relationships, local knowledge and genuine commitment to community that has long defined real estate in Richmond?
That question ultimately helped lead us to start Providence Hill Real Estate.
We set out to build a brokerage of servant-hearted agents committed to its community and clients in every stage of their homebuying journey: "Before, During and After.” Our goal was — and still is — to provide accessible leadership, a strong company culture, meaningful training and mentorship, and a company deeply invested in the community where its agents live and work.
We believed there was room for a modern brokerage capable of competing at the highest level while maintaining the personal, relationship-driven experience of a boutique firm that embraces new technology and new ways of doing business without losing the local expertise and human connection at the heart of real estate.
Because for all the ways our industry has changed, real estate remains perhaps the ultimate local business.
National economic trends and interest rates certainly matter. Still, they do not tell you why one block commands a premium over another, why buyers gravitate toward certain neighborhoods or what is happening inside a particular pocket of Chesterfield, Henrico, Hanover, Goochland, the city of Richmond or the many other communities that make up our region.
That knowledge is built through years of experience in a market.
When we founded Providence Hill, our goal was to carry forward the values Richmond’s longstanding local brokerages embodied — culture, relationships, mentorship, local expertise and community involvement — while building a company designed for today’s real estate professionals and consumers.
Today, Providence Hill has grown to a team of 75 agents. It has become the No. 2 locally owned brokerage in central Virginia and the No. 5 brokerage overall, based on market share by number of homes sold, according to CVRMLS. We were also recently voted the No. 1 real estate firm in central Virginia for the third year in a row in the Richmond Times-Dispatch Best Of.
We are proud of those milestones, but what they represent is more meaningful than the rankings themselves. Local does not have to mean small. And growth does not have to come at the expense of local ownership, culture or connection.
Our agents want to be part of something connected to their community. They want training that makes them better professionals and entrepreneurs. They want brokers who understand this market because they live and work in it every day. And our clients still want trusted professionals who can provide context that no search engine, national trend line or algorithm can replicate.
Richmond doesn’t have to choose between progress and the locally rooted real estate culture that generations of brokers built here. The opportunity is to take the best of that tradition, embrace the tools shaping our future and prove that a locally owned company can grow and compete at the highest level without losing what made it local in the first place.
About the Author
Dawson Boyer is a founding partner, owner and broker of Providence Hill Real Estate. Founded in 2021, Providence Hill supports a world-class team of agents who share the same values and provide expert real estate guidance to home buyers and sellers in the greater Richmond, Virginia area. He can be reached at [email protected].
Originally published October 3, 2026, in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
