For REALTOR® Joseph Karakas, success can be measured by the human connections he’s made as well as it can by listings, transactions, or volume.

 

“I prioritize getting to know a potential client as a person first,” says the agent from Keller Williams Bay Area Estates. “I get to know about their family, their interests, and their long and short-term goals.”

 

His personal approach to the business has paid off.

 

An agent for just under three years, Joseph was the rookie agent of the year and quickly shot past $20 million in annual sales, not surprising since he came from a sales and hospitality background.

 

“I started working at my father’s restaurant, the Chateau La Cresta at The Mountain Winery when I was 13,” he says, referring to his dad’s business in Saratoga. “Watching my dad work, I realized how he connected with people and how those connections often turned into business relationships and then into friendships.”

 

The same holds true today for him, Joseph says. “Many of my clients attend my child’s birthday parties. We regularly have dinner together with many, who also attend events or wine tastings I host at my brokerage.”

 

“Getting to meet new people every day is one of the things I love the most about being a real estate agent.”

 

Joseph’s love of people followed him into real estate from the wine and hospitality industry where he had been the national sales manager for Marimar Estate Vineyards and Winery in Sonoma.

 

Prior to that, he had been national sales manager for two distilleries he helped open and worked in the high-profile positions of maitre’d and sommelier of The Plumed Horse, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Saratoga.

 

Away from the office, Joseph and his wife, Shar, are parents to one son, Elias, soon to celebrate his second birthday. “Getting married and having a child has been so incredibly life-changing,” he says. “My life couldn’t be better with the two of them and even when I’m having a bad day, I can’t help but still feel blessed.”

 

At this stage of his life, Joseph says his perfect Saturday might involve a visit to Home Depot to pick up items for one of several home projects he’s working on. Later, he’d go grocery shopping and prepare a gourmet dinner for the family, maybe barbecuing on his Santa Maria-style grill. “I also like to be as active as possible. I am not a guy that can just sit on the couch,” he says.

 

Among his off-the-couch activities are playing on his local USTA men’s tennis team and working out and cycling when time allows. He’s also involved with the KW Cares program and plays in the annual brokerage softball tournament to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

 

As for his future in the business, Joseph would like to parlay his present success into becoming a mega-agent one day and sees no reason that won’t happen if he continues to build and strengthen his connections with existing clients and professionals and foster relationships with new ones.

 

For would-be and beginning REALTORS®, his advice for getting started is simple. “If you want to soar with eagles, then don’t hang out with turkeys,” Joseph says. “In other words, surround yourself with successful people who are doing what you want to be doing.”

 

He also advises new agents looking for a brokerage not just to go with the one with the biggest split but, like he did with Keller Williams, find the one that offers the best classes and education. “Don’t make that decision hastily,” he says. “Long-term growth is based on a variety of factors and finding the right fit for yourself at first is so important to your future.”

 

And his final piece of advice — with Joseph assuring everyone that he’s unequivocally a loyal 49ers fan and dutifully hates the Cowboys — comes from Cowboy running back Emmitt Smith via Joseph’s mentor, Chuck Nunnally. “Some days I may win and some days I may lose, but I will never be defeated.”

 

“This industry can be so lucrative and the fact that there’s really no limit to financial success is a huge motivator,” Joseph says. “Opportunity is everywhere and being in a career where I can constantly seek the next goal and the next challenge is my favorite part.”

 

“It’s the endless potential to climb that keeps me motivated to push harder and harder every day.”