As a tumultuous pandemic year and a half coursed encircled the globe, leading a real estate community in a superheated market proved to be a worthy and proud challenge for outgoing Pasadena-Foothill Association of Realtors (PFAR) President Barry Storch. Community members may not know the face or the position, but thousands have glimpsed his company’s distinctive 40s-era delivery van with his company name “Town Square Real Estate,” decorating its sides.
As Storch recently Pasadena Now wistfully, “I can’t believe that we’re already into the eighth month of the year. And my presidency is winding down. I remember coming into the presidency, and trying to feel my way around and figuring it all out, and now it’s already over.”
Storch continued, “I remember going up to Dave Walsh, who’s the CAR (California Association of Realtors ) president right now. And both he and I were presidents. He was president last year, like myself, and we talked about that.”
He said, “Really enjoy the process because before you know it, it’s over. And then you pass the baton to the next.”
Storch previously served as president of the board of directors of Friends of Hollyhock House in Hollywood and docent coordinator at the Pasadena Gamble House, with a shared mission to preserve architectural masterpieces.
His list of professional designations is equally impressive. Over his full career, he has earned professional designations in a host of position, including Realtor and State Director of California Association of Realtors; Board of Directors of the Pasadena Foothill Realtor Association, as a Certified Professional Coach (CPC); as a Certified Probate Real Estate Specialist (CPREP); as a senior real estate specialist (SRES); and as a pricing strategy advisor (PSA).
But asked how his year at the top of PFAR affected him personally, Storch offered that he had two major issues contributing to his state of mind over the last year—the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fact that he was president of the association.
“I’m busier than I’ve ever been,” he said, “and every president that’s ever been in the past, and people that I know that I’ve interviewed, they all say something happens when you’re (PFAR) president. Magic stuff, transactions fall out of the sky. So I’ve never been busier.”
Storch also noted that his role as president over the last year worked its own magic on his confidence and personal growth as well.
“There’s definitely been a change with me because I think my confidence level has gone through the roof,” he revealed. “I’m doing lots of public speaking now. A couple of weeks ago, I was interviewed by KCAL news. And it was a 10-minute interview on live TV. In the past I think I would have shied away from something like that.
“The presidency gave me so much knowledge and information that I can share with my constituencies, my clients, my community,” he added. “I’ve now become the ambassador of my community, and I’m able to pass information on.”
All of which was reflected in another element to the position, said Storch, and that was influence.
Said Storch, “I’ve gotten a lot of education in this last year, so much education,” because, as he pointed out, “When you’re in real estate, you’re also in politics.
So I’ve been working politics as a lobbyist with CAR, going up to Sacramento and convincing our lawmakers, our senators, our congressmen, our assembly people, the opportunity to hear what we, as agents, are experiencing out there.
“And they’re able to take it back to the floor to vote and create bills that protect the homeowners,” he continued, “because the homeowners really don’t have an association to protect them. So we, as the realtor community, we have to go out there and really protect them and lobby for them because they don’t really have a voice when it comes to the government.
“And,” he said, admittedly proud, “that’s what I’ve learned in being president, that we have that opportunity to go up and speak your mind and facilitate change, because all it takes is one voice.”
Using that voice, Storch recruited incoming president Sarah Moore of Dilbeck Realty, who he called “fantastic,” to assume the presidency, beginning in January, 2022.
Moore is a graduate of California State University at Northridge with a degree in business with an emphasis in real estate.
She has also received scholarships from the San Fernando Board of Realtors Land Use Institute, as well as the Appraisal Institute. After working briefly in the mortgage industry, she changed paths and decided to dedicate her time to raising her two beautiful daughters.
During her hiatus from real estate she discovered her talent for pottery, becoming a nationally recognized potter in the Arts and Crafts style.,
Her own pottery business, Sassafrass Pottery, is heavily inspired by her childhood growing up near the edges of the Arroyo Seco.
Moore is currently working as an estates director, a California Association of Realtors (CAR) state director, certified international property specialist, as well as a senior real estate specialist.
She has previously worked with the PFAR, first on the Local Government Relations Committee, the Historic Preservation Committee, and now as the association’s 2021 president-elect.
