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Barry Karch: The Real Estate Unsalesperson

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Barry Karch wants to show others that you can have success in real estate without being "salesy." As a natural introvert, Barry has built a real estate business over the last 35 years in El Paso, TX to where he and his wife close between 90-100 homes per year. His relationships are built on care and trust. He found he didn't have to be like someone else to be successful. Being authentic and himself was the key to his success. Hear Barry share more of his story, and what makes him The Real Estate Unsalesperson.

 

In this episode, hosted by Barry Karch, we discussed:

  • Barry finished his degree at UT Austin. After a year he stayed in Austin instead of going to El Paso and started doing real estate appraisals.
  • Barry has been in the real estate industry for 35 years and the reason why he gets into real estate is because of his father who is a realtor in El Paso.
  • Barry and his wife moved to El Paso and joined up with his parents in the real estate field.
  • Years of growing his business, he does not have internet leads, and no mobile phones and he is just using LMS Books. Eventually, he keeps up with technology.
  • Barry’s business is doing 85 to 90 transactions a year.
  • He became LP with Dave Ramsey and read his books so his approach to real estate investment is just like Dave's.
  • Barry started a podcast for sales realtors or introverted realtors and the podcast is called The Real Estate UnSalesperson.

 

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro and overview on Barry’s career
01:43 How long is Barry’s experience of being a broker and realtor.
02:34 Reason why he did go into real estate.
05:15 His trait that later became his asset in the real estate field.
09:15 Talking about how the growth of Barry’s business.
17:54 Barry’s annual transactions and the Ups and Downs of his business.
24:09 Understanding how he started investing.
27:35 Where Barry spent his free time
31:32 He created a podcast

 

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https://therealestateunsalesperson.com/

https://www.homesforsaleinelpasotexas.com/

 

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Full transcript here:

Mike Swenson 

Welcome to the REL freedom podcast where we inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate. I'm your host, Mike Swenson. Let's get some real freedom together.

 

Mike Swenson 

Hello, and welcome to the REL freedom podcast. And today, we have somebody who's a little bit, kind of the non traditional real estate agent. You know, how many times do we have, you know, the the typical sales the agent, and there's, you know, sometimes people that say, Hey, I don't wanna be sold anything, I don't want to work with a salesy type person. Well, our guest today, Barry is your guy to work with.

 

Mike Swenson 

So we've got Barry Karch on here. And he is a real estate agent and broker in El Paso, Texas, and you've been in real estate for 35 years. And so your approaches is much different. You are the broker for the real estate powerhouses. And you work with your wife Tammy. So we'd love to hear kind of more how that that dynamic works well, but, you know, really, as far as your production level for those folks that want to know, 90 to 100 houses a year. That's a really good clip. And, and primarily just doing it, you know, with with you and a couple others. So we'd love to hear hear more about you if you want to just dig in a little bit deeper and tell us more about you, Barry.

 

Barry Karch 

Yeah, Thanks, Mike. Thanks for having me on your podcast, I'm really looking forward to being here. I never expected to find myself in the real estate fields. To be honest with you, I've always thought I was a very, very unlikely realtor. And here I am 35 years later in the field, and I guess I'd have to say it's worked out pretty well. But just to go back in time how I got here was I was kind of directionless. As a kid in school. I was always a good student. I got all A's in my classes, I could pretty much have done whatever I wanted to do, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. That was the problem. So I was as I said, kind of directionless. I was really good with numbers, I probably would have been good at engineering or accounting or something like that. But nothing really reached out and grabbed me. And when I went to when I finished college, I went to UT Austin when I finished. Um, my parents were in the real estate field. They had a real estate company in El Paso. My plans were not to move back to El Paso. So I did stay in Austin.

 

Barry Karch 

I loved Austin going to school there. So I stayed in Austin for a year after college, I did do real estate appraisals. So I did go into the real estate field because of my parents, and I didn't know what else I wanted to do. But in the back of my mind, I always thought my parents had done pretty well in real estate. I always thought that seemed like a pretty good opportunity. I guess I'll go ahead and try it. So it wasn't like I was destined for it or gung ho for it. I just did it. So Tammy, I'm Tammy, my wife and I moved over to El Paso after our first year of marriage, basically. And I joined up with my parents in the real estate field. And my father was a much much different type of person than me. He was very domineering. He was a driver type personality. People were scared of him, he was very intimidating. People be afraid to go into his office asking questions that would go in shaking and come out crying.

 

Barry Karch 

I mean, I'm not that way at all. I'm kind of soft spoken. And I more I guess on the sensitive side, I care what people think and feel. And so he was my mentor is different as we were when I first wanted to real estate, I had no idea what to do. And he would tell me, we'll just say this or do that. And so I would try to be like him. But that didn't come naturally to me at all. So I had to kind of learn my own way through through time and I wanted to residential real estate, his company was basically investment properties. Also, he loved selling investment properties and property management. And I did some of that too. But I don't know why. But I just loved helping people buy houses and for themselves. So I kind of had to find my own way not only to learn to sell houses, but also personality wise, just being a quiet person. I'm an introverted type person. I'm certainly not your prototypical realtor. I wish thought like if you if I was in a room with like 100 people I would be the least likely proceed.

 

Barry Karch 

Everything could be in real estate and everybody in the whole room. I mean, not only that, you probably wouldn't even know I was in the room, because I'm a quiet person. But strangely enough, over the years, I found that were to my advantage. being quiet. I just I never tried to put on a salesy persona. I never tried to be someone else, someone that not. A lot of the training when I first started was with scripts, sales trainers. Real Estate, I want to give you a script. And then we say if you're in a situation, here's what you say. And I've never worked for me, I never really did it, I just was always myself. And it just worked out.

 

Barry Karch 

Basically, by being quieter, and listening to people, it turned into an advantage rather than being a more aggressive, pushy salesperson, because I don't know about you, but most people don't like being around pushy salespeople. People have a bad impression of salespeople in general. So I was not that I was just, I was a quiet person, I would listen to my clients, and I would do my best to help them achieve their goals. And people ended up trusting me and being comfortable around me, just because I didn't talk so much, and they can feel uncomfortable. So that's kind of a somewhat long winded answer for a quiet person here. But that's how I got into real estate and where I'm at now.

 

Mike Swenson 

Yeah, well, I totally agree. And I had a recent client that, you know, they had communicated that to where it's like, they don't want to be sold. And, and they were kind of deciding, like, who they were going to work with, they were actually kind of considering maybe selling, you know, their house themselves. And I said, you know, that's, that's kind of what I'm here for is to be to be your guide, and be your voice of reason and talk you through these, these scenarios. But at the end of the day, it's your choice to make, and, and kind of going back to like what you said about the scripts, you know, having been in real estate for for now, six years on the admin side and listening to our agents practice their scripts.

 

Mike Swenson 

What I tell people on my team is, you just have to understand how to guide a conversation. And if you don't know what to say, ask a thoughtful question. Because, you know, they always say, you know, selling isn't telling selling is asking good questions, right. So if I could, if I could get you to realize, or help me help you self discover what it is you really want in your home. So if I'm consulting you on the buying side, I might just ask you various questions of what's important to you? What are your non negotiables? You know, what are the things that you can afford to live without? But I'll ask you a lot of questions. You know, I won't, I won't say like, Oh, you should really buy this home. Because look at this, look at how nice it is. It's well tell me what do you think about it? You know, what do you think about the dining room? Is this is this dining room, going to have enough room for your family? You know, and so you can you can ask good questions for to help them self discover versus just, you know, jabbering at them to where they sold, they're being sold a home, like, here's why you should buy this house, because it's such an awesome house. Now they need to see that it's a fit, so. Yeah,

 

Barry Karch 

Exactly, exactly. And I've always felt that a home is such a big ticket item, it's not something you can really sell. People have to want it, you can't talk him into it because of the size of the purchase, as opposed to a smaller item. But you're right, listening to what people say what they want. asking good questions, but really listening to their answers rather than talking so much. makes them feel like you care about them. And you have their best interests at heart. And then they come to trust you. And they open up more to you. And it really works. So that's been what's worked for me is just, I become their trusted adviser basically, by listening to them. And I think good way of looking at it is it's more serving than selling. Mm hmm.

 

Mike Swenson 

Yeah. So so let's talk for a second about the early years as you're growing your business because obviously for agents, that's the hard part, right, yours kind of one, two and three, right? You know, having people to understand Hey, I'm in I'm in a new industry now. I can actually help you even though I'm new. But then getting your name out there. There's so many people are just pounding the phone pounding the phone power on the phone, everybody's got to know I'm a realtor. Now. I'm a realtor use me use me use me like how does that work? So your approach How did that work early on? You know, How many years did it kind of take before you felt like, okay, I've I've made it or like, I've got enough coming in here where I feel good year after your, you know, walk through those early years for me.

 

Barry Karch 

Okay, yeah, it really didn't take that long. Because although I may be on the introverted side and quieter. I'm not afraid to follow up and, and make phone calls or stay in touch with people. So I'm in the early years, I would try a little bit of everything. And Now bear in mind, as I've said, I've been in real estate like 3536 years. So that was the Stone Age. I mean, right compared to now.

 

Mike Swenson 

It was company internet leads back then?

 

Barry Karch 

There are no internet leads, no mobile phones, no nothing. So it was a completely different era and getting clients.

 

Mike Swenson 

Now were you still in there when they had the MLS books.

 

Barry Karch 

Oh, yeah, that's how I started. I got the books. Yep. So I'm back from that era, with the books, the maps, we had the, you know, the maps go maps of find out where we're going when we drive around the houses. So I'm from the ancient times, but I have kept up with technology, don't think I'm still a dinosaur here. But that's how it was when I started. So I just tried a little bit of everything. I mean, back the traditional methods from way back when I would do open houses, although I never liked them never good at them. Because I just wasn't so great at greeting people at the door and making small talk, that wasn't my strength. Right. And I would do that. I would guess the traditional things. expired listings. Are you familiar with that? I would do that. Just various ways to reach out to people.

 

Barry Karch 

But I was always afraid to, I was not afraid to call them I wasn't so much afraid of rejection, I never took it that personally, people don't know me personally, if I'm calling or following up on them. Like if they came to an open house, I would just, but I would basically see how I could serve them. I would say I just wanted to check back in with you and see what I can do to help or what else I could do for you something very easy, low key like that. That's all I would ever ask. I didn't try to talk him into anything. So most people were very pleasant, and it was all it was all fine. But I think the key was in the follow up. But really, things started out fairly quickly. I think I did fairly Okay, my first few years, I wasn't starving or anything. So, yeah.

 

Mike Swenson 

yeah, it was. Well, and I think kind of going back to the rejection piece, you know, you know, depending on your personality, either it hits you stronger, or not, but, but just to remember, you know, I think sometimes agents like to think that they're the center of everybody's universe. And if somebody you know, doesn't call you back, that doesn't mean that they they saw your voicemail, and it's like, oh, Mike called me again, I'm gonna purposely choose to ignore him and not call him back right now. It's no, you're you're busy. I mean, there's voicemails that I have on my phone from people that have reached out to me. And I haven't returned them. Because you're constantly balancing, you're balancing your time and your focus, right?

 

Mike Swenson 

So if somebody called me and left a voicemail that I haven't returned, now, these aren't like, hey, I want to look at a home tomorrow. And I'm like, nope, we're not gonna go. I mean, yeah, balancing like, there's, there's people that, you know, maybe a business decision that I need to make a month from now somebody is reaching out to me to ask about it, I'm not ready to make that decision yet, or I'm not ready to think about that yet. That doesn't mean that I don't like them. Or that I'm purposely choosing not to, to call them back. It's I'm looking at, okay, what's on my, my to do list today, or what's on my priority list here this week, and returning that color, having a hour long conversation with that person just doesn't fit in right now.

 

Mike Swenson 

But that doesn't mean that two or three weeks from now, they might not be very important, you know, and similarly to, you know, a client that we just helped them sell their house, you know, we kind of went back and forth every couple of days, you know, trying to figure out timeline, well, all sudden, the week before you better believe I'm responding to every text as soon as possible, or every call and my sellers doing the exact same thing because we've just raised up the priority list. Because now it's more important for us to get back in touch with people.

 

Mike Swenson 

So I think, you know, for realtors just give yourself a little bit of slack it's it's not that they wouldn't choose you or don't want to choose you are actively not choosing you. It's that you're just not in their their scope of their priority right now. They have jobs, they may have kids, other commitments other things are working on and calling you back two hours after you left him a voicemail just isn't in their priority. So don't don't take it personal. Just realize you're just not in their priority right now. But that doesn't mean next week, hey, we want to sell our house now. Boom, all sudden, you're the top of the priority. Right?

 

Barry Karch 

Exactly. I remember I heard a sales trainer once say no one's ever sitting around their house saying now would be the perfect time for a realtor to call me. You know, no one's ever just sitting there waiting for you to call them. So. Yeah, you can't take it personally. And one thing I found interesting is like I said, I've been good on follow up. But if warm leads people that have inquired or reached out at one time, I'll follow up. And I'll call people sometimes for I'll follow up for a year or more. I'm not I mean, I'm not pestering him. I might call once a month if it's like not a lukewarm lead, just to follow up. And what strikes me as kind of interesting a lot of times is I might have call someone for 1011 months.

 

Barry Karch 

They never answer never return a call that all of a sudden, I get them one time. And they act like they never heard from him before. Like oh, like I never knew I even call her attempted to reach them before like is the first time I ever tried. So yeah, again, you just you don't know He just can't take it personally just just follow up low key again, just to see how you can help them. Just check it into with you see if I can do to help. That's it, see how you can serve them? That? Yeah, don't assume that they've heard your messages or anything.

 

Mike Swenson 

Yeah. And one of the analogies that we've used on our team too, is, you know, you want to have as many fishing lines in the water as you can. So when you're following up with somebody, you don't need them to buy or sell with you today, you just need to be the person that they do reach out to, or they respond to when they are ready to buy or sell. So yeah, so you following up, whether it's a checking email, whether it's a text just to see how they're doing, or whether it's a phone call, you're just reminding them, like, Hey, I'm your guy. And so when it does become a priority, now you have, you have those fishing lines in the water, and you don't have to be pushy to do that. You're just following up, you know, and, and I think that's where the more traditional salesperson struggles is in the follow up, right?

 

Mike Swenson 

Because they're chasing the shiny pennies all the time. And they just forget to follow up with people, that's where, you know, my background of having some systems in place is helpful, because it's like that can that can help people to fall through the cracks. You know, we tell our team, our goal is not to have people fall through the cracks. The way you do that is through follow up, you know, and through systems to make sure that you don't forget about people. And that's where, when, when you're the type of person that really does care about people, you're following up with them because you want to help you want to care. It's not because you have to.

 

Barry Karch 

Exactly, exactly. And back to being the on the introvert side or quiet approach. That's one of the strengths of the introverts are being very organized, detail oriented and following up. So that's what, that's what I'm good at. But like you said, you need to have a pipeline of clients. So if people want to buy today, or this month, great, but if they want to buy a year from now, that's okay, too. Because before you know, a year, we'll be here and we need income a year from now. Awesome. So when people tell me or tell me up front, I'm not gonna buy for a year or so I'm like, that's fine. I'll be here. I mean, there's no no rush, no pressure.

 

Barry Karch 

And as far as follow up goes, I recommend a variety of methods to I don't do an all by phone call. I do like phone, maybe I'm old fashioned that way. But I do like phone a lot. Because unlike text, you can you don't get the person's tone in text. So you don't know how they meant it. Sometimes you might take things wrong. And I'll have a better conversation. But I do phone, I do text, I do email, as you mentioned, and then I also like video text that nothing else, then I'll send a video myself talking to them. And people usually look at that if they get a video text, like who is this guy? So that at least listen to it. So I tried various methods of following up.

 

Mike Swenson 

Yeah, yeah, no. And that's and that's, that's wonderful. That's how your business grows year over year. So so you right now, you know, said you're doing about 85 to 90 transactions a year. Has that been pretty consistent? Over the last 510 15 years? Or have you had some some ups and downs? I'm just kind of curious from a volume and management standpoint, maybe talk about that and how you and your wife have handled that.

 

Barry Karch 

Okay. Yeah, it's gone. Pretty much up. We had, I'm trying to think is going back a while we had a son of yours that will go up and then down a little bit. But really, in the last 1015 years, it's been pretty consistent once we got things figured out and got our systems and everything down. So it's my wife and I and then we've taken on one we currently have one business partner who helps out a lot and I know you talk about achieving location freedom through real estate, she's helped us achieve that a lot because now we do travel a lot and go out of town a lot and when we're not in town, she helps with the legwork and and doing stuff I can do so much now on computer and through the internet on the phones, I don't have to be present a lot but sometimes you do need to be there. And she does the legwork which allows us to have a lot of location freedom through real estate.

 

Mike Swenson 

Now is your or your wife and your business partner they also licensed are they doing agent related stuff? Or is it more admin side stuff or

 

Barry Karch 

They're both licensed so they do they do agent related stuff.

 

Mike Swenson 

Okay, are you splitting up kind of listing side buyer side or what is your your balance look like for your transactions?

 

Barry Karch 

We don't, between my wife and myself we really don't split them up. We work it depends on I guess are each individual spheres of influence. leads that I generate are people that I know I will generally work with. And same for her. We don't usually work together, even though we're a team, we don't usually ever, we rarely work together with the same people. It'll be she'll work with her sphere, I'll work on my sphere. And that's basically how we split it up.

 

Mike Swenson 

Yeah. Well, and that's, that's plugging along at a good clip, because 8590 transactions, that's, you know, 778 a month. So you're, you're doing a good amount there, you're staying busy. But you know, because you've been doing it for so long. You know, for somebody new in real estate, we always talk about how much you actively have to think, you know, think about stuff, because it's not, it's not second nature yet. And having been in the business as long as you have, there's things that you just know, you know, because you haven't had to actively think about them as hard. And that's how you can be so successful in managing a closing load like that, because you just know how to do it well.

 

Barry Karch 

Yeah, I think over the years, we just become more efficient. Because we've, although every transaction is different, and different things happen all the time. The general process, we we stay on top of it, and we anticipate we try to anticipate problems or questions and stay in front of it. So I can do things a lot faster than a new person can't it doesn't take me as long to to do anything. So we can just be more efficient, I think.

 

Mike Swenson 

Yeah. Yeah, no, that's great. So so you're working with your, your people, your wife's working with her people, and then your business partner? Is she also actively working with clients too?

 

Barry Karch 

she works with some of her clients there, those are kind of separate away from our team. They're not, she does her own thing a little bit. But with our clients, she works as a transaction coordinator, and she does some showings for us goes on some appointments, if we're not in town, so she fills in when we're not there. for both of us.

 

Mike Swenson 

Yeah. Okay. Cool. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, you'd mentioned kind of location freedom, being able to travel a little bit. I think that's one of the hard things for realtors is they, you know, some some realtors joke about, you know, that our realtor will never retire. And it's usually for two reasons. One is they, they genuinely love it so much. And it's just a part of who they are that they like doing it. But then the other part is maybe the agent that hasn't thought ahead financially, or plan for things. And they might have to work all the way up until the day they die. So talk a little bit about you know, now as you've been experienced, you've got some years under your belt, being able to kind of pick and choose a little bit more versus, you know, earlier on when you kind of had to work with everybody, because you needed the money.

 

Barry Karch 

Yeah, early on, you're absolutely right. When we needed the money. Work was always top priority. And there were a few times we canceled trips out of town because a buyer was coming in town and we couldn't leave we had to be there for the sale. And you know what those things usually never worked out, which was the most frustrating part, they come in town or or they cancel their trip, and they never end up buying a house. So we lost our our plan trip and nothing positive came of it. But as we gotten further into the business, yeah, we've managed to save some money over the years and do some investing in in real estate and also in the stock market. So we do have investment income coming in to supplement what we sell now. So we're at a point where we don't, we're not as pressed to have to sell as much so kind of changing my priorities a little bit where life, life the life experiences come first now, instead of business. Yes, I still want to do business well and providing excellent service. But that's why we have our business partner with us. But I try to prioritize things a little differently at this point in my career.

 

Mike Swenson 

Let's talk about the investments a little bit. How did that come to be? And how did that grow for you?

 

Barry Karch 

Yeah, I was slowing this to up and kind of a slow learner in everything. I should have been investing from the beginning of my real estate career, but I kind of did and Don't ask me why. I just I guess it just wasn't important to me when I was in my 20s and starting out as I should have, but I get started investing later on, which is at least better than that. Nothing at all. When I started investing, I've always bought single family homes just because I think they're easier to resell than multifamily if we should ever want to dispose of the property. Right. And my criteria might be a little different than some people's but when I buy properties, I always want to buy something that I wouldn't mind living in Myself, doesn't mean it has to be a luxury, great property. But I just, it has to be at least in a nice neighborhood and at least a decent middle class home. That's just how I judge my fingertip. I wouldn't mind living in it, and other people wouldn't mind renting it either.

 

Barry Karch 

So that's kind of what I've gone for. As far as that goes. Um, in my real estate sales career, I became affiliated with Dave Ramsey, you're familiar with DLP. Yeah, I became an LP, I was an LP with Dave for several years, which I really enjoyed. Someone had recommended the program to me, I never really thought about it on my own. But, and then I as I became an LP, I read his books, and let's do his podcast and kind of became indoctrinated in his way of thinking. So I've approached real estate investment may be a little different than some of the people is, I'm more of the Dave Ramsey approach, debt free. Now, I wasn't always that way. You know, when I was younger, I would buy homes with like, 20% down investor, yep, loans. But later on in my career, as I was able to save more money, then I've gotten the Dave Ramsey approach where I've got stuff, debt free now, which takes a lot of pressure off also empty, you don't worry about making mortgage payments and stuff. Yeah. So that's what we've done.

 

Mike Swenson 

Yeah. Well, and then it's, it's more true cash flow here, too. Because, yeah, you're able to, you can hold fewer properties. And then you're also not worried too about, you know, if if there's some sort of, you know, cooling off the markets going up, up, up, and everybody's kind of wondering, like, what's gonna, what's gonna flip here is something going to change in the market? And, and you don't have to worry about that, because you're not going to be underwater when you don't have a mortgage. So

 

Barry Karch 

Yeah, exactly. You know, occasionally rents will go down. Yeah, in the past, and we've had our lower rents, but at least there's always some rent, we can rent the house for that there's always debit will rent for it was always some reasonable rent for, and it's still gonna be positive cash flow,

 

Mike Swenson 

Right. You're never gonna be over leveraged. Right?

 

Barry Karch 

I mean, we weren't always that way. Like I said, when we started out, but that's where we're at now. And, you know, if it works for us, I mean, I know there's different different strokes for different folks, but that's what we, we've enjoyed.

 

Mike Swenson 

Where, what do you like to do in your free time then in terms of, you know, traveling? Where do you like to go? Or how do you like to spend that time now that you get to choose a little bit more of how you spend it?

 

Barry Karch 

Well, we love sports. We like going to sporting events. I love music. I love going to concerts. So we'll travel for sporting events, concerts, and we just like going el Paso's in the middle of the desert. There's sand all around us. So we love going into water. We love going anywhere. On Island or anywhere the water I love seeing water get to get out of the desert every now and then. So that's what we like to do.

 

Mike Swenson 

What what sports do you enjoy?

 

Barry Karch 

We love football and basketball. Those are our favorites.

 

Mike Swenson 

Okay, what teams?

 

Barry Karch 

San Antonio Spurs Texas Longhorns? Yeah.

 

Mike Swenson 

I suppose. Yeah. Being Austin, a UT Austin grad? Of course, Dallas Cowboys. Similar all the taxes teams. Yeah, awesome. Cool. I'm a sports fan myself. So if you for those that can see the video. I've got a bunch of sports memorabilia behind me. So yeah, we're obviously Minnesota sports. And so I always say for better or worse, most often, it's for worse. You know, it is what it is. But yeah, so Well, good. That's, that's great. Well, you know, I really enjoy you sharing because, you know, like we talked about ahead of time, I want to show people that you don't have to fit a certain mold you don't have to fit a certain stereotype to be successful in real estate and whether it's an agent or an admin or an investor other roles. You can find a way to plug into real estate it's it's I tell people it's this entrepreneurial playground right where you can do so many things.

 

Mike Swenson 

If you want to be an agent, great if you want to be investor great if you want to start some other business, if you if you like technology and you want to create a technology to support agents, you can do that. So there's so many different ways that you can be successful in real estate. And I really enjoy you and and being able to highlight how you don't have to be the stereotypical you know, pushy salesperson type agent and you can have a really successful career, a long career and you know kind of design design a life that you want to live later on because you've been diligent with follow up you care about people you truly want to help them versus just feel like you have to make a sale. So any parting parting words of wisdom that you have for people that are maybe in in your shoes and kind of my shoes too, or you're kind of like I'm not that typical salesy type person, but I do really love real estate.

 

Barry Karch 

Yeah, strangely enough, I found out that being unsalesy is the key to sales success. People don't like being around salesy pushy people. So if you just truly put your clients interests first and try to serve them rather than sell them, then things are gonna work out well. So being unsalesy is good, being an introvert is good. And another strange thing I've come to find it over the years is the majority of the top realtors are introverts, not what you might expect, but introverts do very well in real estate. So if you're not a salesy person or introvert, you're perfect for real estate.

 

Mike Swenson 

huh? Yeah. Well, and I even think to, like, you know, they, like people that you see on stage a lot of times to if they're at a convention and or an event, there's a lot of people that are introverts that, that love doing that because, you know, as, as an as an internal processor, like, I think so much about what I'm going to say. And we always I kind of give the the analogy of it's like, it's like the iceberg, right? Like, before I talk, there's the 80% of the iceberg below the surface where I've thought about it, I'm a, I was a finance major. So it's like, I've analyzed it, there's a reason for me speaking, where a lot of times, you know, people that are, you know, hi i personality, they process by talking, it's how they get to their conclusion.

 

Mike Swenson 

It's like, I've already made my conclusion, and now I'm telling you about it, you know, and so even being up on stage, I'm not concerned talking to a large group of people because it's like, I've thought about it all in here, you know, and so even even people that are up on stage a lot of times are are introverts as well. So yeah, so I just I just love highlighting different people and different stories and, and so thank you so much, Barry, for sharing. For those folks that you know, your your story here has resonated with them, how can they get ahold of you?

 

Barry Karch 

Well, I recently created a podcast for unsalesy realtors or introverted realtors, because I noticed is a lot of them. And I just want to encourage people that you can be successful being that way in real estate. So this podcast is called The Real Estate UnSalesperson. So you can check that out. And my website is therealestateunsalesperson.com, those are places to check out.

 

Mike Swenson 

Wonderful. And I totally forgot to mention that when I introduced this kind of mention your, your podcast, so yeah, absolutely. And good stuff on there. I really like it. So yeah, so reach out to Barry. You know, listen to his podcast, a lot of great information. Thanks so much for coming on and sharing your story. We appreciate it.

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