When I started my YouTube channel in 2017, I thought I was building the ultimate marketing machine for my local real estate business on the North Shore of Chicago. I assumed if I racked up thousands of views, buyers and sellers in my neighborhood would call nonstop, ready to list and buy. Eight years later, I’ve grown my channel to approximately 70,000 subscribers, had millions of views and built one of the most-watched “How to Sell Your Home” channels on YouTube.

Sounds like my real estate business should have exploded … right? Here’s the truth: It didn’t help my local business at all. In fact, it hurt it.

I really believed YouTube would scale my business without all the cold calls, costs and lead gen. If I built the channel, the business would magically come.

Well … I was wrong.

But what I did learn was that views and subscribers don’t equal closings. Chasing viral content can actually wreck the local business you’ve worked so hard to build.

My channel exploded about two years ago, when I stopped doing local market updates and started creating videos for any seller, regardless of their location, anywhere in the country. My “Magic Paint Colors” video went viral, with over half a million views.

I attracted viewers across the country — sometimes internationally. The problem? None of those people were in my backyard. I was building trust with an audience who couldn’t actually hire me.

So, yes, I was becoming a YouTuber, but no, I wasn’t making more money. In fact, I made less.

Every agent knows the most valuable resource isn’t money; it’s time.

Every hour I spent making the wrong videos was an hour I wasn’t prospecting, marketing or networking with people who could actually pay me. The people watching weren’t my target market.

When someone typed “Sell Your Home on the North Shore of Chicago,” I wasn’t showing up. But when someone in California typed “Sell Your Home,” I was all over their homepage.

The irony? I became nationally recognized while my local business lagged. Thousands trusted me, just not the ones who would or could hire me.

This is where many agents go wrong. They chase subscribers, like Instagram followers or TikTok likes. But YouTube isn’t a business model; it’s a marketing tool.

If you sell locally, you don’t need thousands of views. You need a few views from the exact people in your local market who can hire you to buy or sell their home.

So, I finally realized I had built a national channel, not a local one.

You’d think I could just pivot to local content, but that’s not how YouTube works.

If YouTube feeds your national audience videos about the local real estate market in your town, your national audience won’t watch, and they won’t click. YouTube notices. When your own subscribers don’t watch your new videos, YouTube stops pushing your content to anyone. You’ve basically tanked what you built. You can’t easily pivot back.

I got literally millions of views, but from people who couldn’t hire me to sell their home. At first, that felt like a miss. But what came out of it was bigger than I ever imagined. I tapped into a brand-new business model — referrals — and it has been incredibly successful.

Over the past two years, I’ve referred thousands of sellers to top agents across the country. All that time, attention and content creation didn’t just pay off; it built an entirely new revenue stream that works. But that was never my original goal. When I launched my channel, my focus was simple: I wanted to sell real estate in my own community.

So, here’s the biggest takeaway if you are thinking about creating a YouTube channel: Before you upload a single video, decide what kind of channel you’re building — a national channel or a local channel.

If you want a national brand, go all in; just know it won’t drive local leads. It might open doors, but it won’t directly put money in your pocket for possibly a few years.

And remember that if you build a new model, be ready to lose the old one. And decide if you can actually afford it.

If you want to dominate locally, stay laser-focused. Create hyperlocal videos about your neighborhoods, school districts and community. Talk about what only a local expert knows. Forget going viral. Focus on being discovered by people who can actually hire you. Because 10,000 views on a national paint video won’t beat 100 views on a market-update video from people right in your local market.

I truly believe YouTube is one of the most powerful tools we have as agents to build trust with those who may be considering hiring us. Used correctly, it can make you the go-to voice in your market. Used without direction, it can cost you years of growth, time and money and could be the biggest mistake you could make in your business.

So, before you hit record, ask yourself: Am I building a national channel or a local one? Your future income depends on it, and once you choose, you don’t get a do-over.

Kati Spaniak, with eXp Realty, leads real estate teams on Chicago’s North Shore and in St. Augustine, Florida. Her YouTube channel can be found at WatchKati.com.