Five years ago he lost one of his legs to amputation following a motorcycle accident. Seven amputation surgeries later, the former legislative chairman of the California Assn. of Realtors and past president of the Burbank Assn. of Realtors still engages in one of his favorite hobbies — surfing.
"I had anticipated that things would be extraordinarily different," he said. "And they are not. They are ordinarily different. The only thing I've noticed that's totally radical is the judges don't like my style when I am surfing. They just don't get it. But I can ride up to 10-foot waves."
We caught up with Burnett this week to discuss the industry, get a picture of local and national trends influencing the market, and the future of residential salespeople.
CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO: How did you get into the field?
BARRY BURNETT: I expected to be a physician. I thought I pretty much had a straight ride into UCLA med. And yet my high school sweetheart was working full time for the phone company and I didn't want to wait and do the 10 years of graduate post-graduate before I could be a physician, so I started getting job offers and I figured that the only thing I could afford to get into that didn't limit my upward income was sales, where I didn't have to hold my own inventory. Now I help physicians handle their finances.
Q: You've had an interesting go at it the last five years.
A: It's a whole different world. The prosthetic that they can manufacture now has a computer chip and it allows me to do all kinds of things, but I don't recommend it. It's always better to keep your original equipment. The accident was on the Pasadena-Arroyo bridge five years ago. All I wanted to do was see the bridge at sunset, but the motorcycle didn't get me across. For the two-year anniversary, I finished what I started. We actually walked across the bridge with 100 friends and I walked under my own power. I finished what I started.
