After six years of working in management, René Barrera has decided to jump back into sales. At the beginning of the month, he joined forces with Peter Loudis to form the Loudis Barrera Group. They will be based out of the Ebby Halliday Lakewood Lake Highlands Office.
“It was a really tough decision, and it took a long time for me to figure it out,” Barrera says.
A little more than six years ago, after working as an agent for many years at the Lakewood Lake Highlands office, he approached management about doing something new. That led to him assuming the role of an office sales leader.
At the time it was the perfect job for him. He loved every minute of it and got to spend more time with his young children. About a year and a half ago he took over as sales leader at the larger Ebby Halliday 190 Richardson office. Again, he loved what he was doing for nearly a year and a half.
Recently his ambitions began to change. He lost a close friend. Two other people close to him unexpectedly lost their spouses. Barrera started pondering his own mortality.
“I’ve always lived my life like today was going to be my last,” he said. “As that mortality started setting in, I started asking myself what I really wanted to do.”
Over spring break, he asked family members what they thought. To his surprise, many remarked that they couldn’t believe he had stayed behind an office desk for so long. To them, he seemed much more natural out on the streets talking to people, being in groups, and in social situations.
Luckily for Barrera, he hadn’t been completely out of the game. While he didn’t market himself or pursue every lead, he still found time to close a few of his own deals along the way.
“I always said that if I’m going to teach agents to be better agents, then by golly, I better know what they are going through and know all the ins and outs,” he said. “That definitely worked in my favor.”
With his mind made up, he met up with Loudis at Hillside Tavern to discuss teaming up. Barrera respected him tremendously. They had become friends while working at the Lakewood Lake Highlands office and shared similar outlooks on life, business, and family.
They had even half-heartedly joked about joining forces before. When Loudis got Barrera’s call, he suspected something was up.
It didn’t take long for them to both go all-in on the partnership idea. They subsequently had a couple of planning sessions, obtained approval from Ebby management, and started as a duo on May 2.
For now, the team is just a two-man group with a full-time assistant. That’s something that could change down the road. In the meantime, Barrera is more than happy with his choice.
“I’m excited that I made the decision to go back to doing what I’ve always done and loved,” he said.
