Zosel-Harper teams up to serve real estate clients

By Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

“We had no intention of going into real estate,” Carol Zosel mused to The Nugget. “We were going to come over here and ride our ponies and just ride into the sunset.”

But it turned out that Zosel and her husband, Chuck Harper, have a knack for real estate — a knack that a Realtor in a home restoration project they were involved in picked up on immediately.

“We’re not sales people!” they thought. The Realtor offered them a truth that became the seed of a new career: “The best aren’t.”

“I think it’s really about being of service to people,” Carol says.

The husband-and-wife team bring complementary styles to bear in their work. Harper comes from an engineering background and has a degree in rangeland management. His thoroughness and attention to detail are extraordinary, and when it comes to a ranch transaction, he notes “I have a pretty good understanding of water rights, wells, irrigation…”

Zosel loves engaging personally with clients, identifying a need and fulfilling it — especially for those who are venturing into the market for the first time.

“I love helping first-time homebuyers,” she said. “It’s such a big deal buying your first home.”

She finds profound satisfaction in connecting a client with a place they will love and finding a way to make a dream a reality.

“Those are my favorites,” she says.

Staging and honest, highquality photography are critical to their success with listings, Harper notes.

“If you’ve got bad pictures, your house is at the bottom of the pile,” Harper says. “If you’ve got good pictures, you’ve got a much better chance of piquing somebody’s interest.”

Both are deeply involved in the Sisters community. Zosel is president of the youth mentorship program Circle of Friends, and Harper is president of the Sisters Chapter of Habitat for Humanity and is a long-time rodeo volunteer. Their engagement with the Sisters community translates into their work.

Again, they don’t see themselves as “selling.”

“It’s more about developing relationships,” Harper says. “Eighty-five to 90 percent of our business now is referrals — and that comes from building relationships.”

Many of those relationships last well beyond the transaction. Clients frequently become friends.

“That’s what makes it worthwhile to us, too,” Harper says.

Having come into real estate later in their working life, Zosel and Harper don’t feel pressure to build a career. Their unexpected

success in the field gives them the freedom to be supportive of a community they care deeply about — and to focus all of their working efforts on serving the needs of their clients, whether they are buyers or sellers, and with the highest degree of integrity.

They have found the work profoundly satisfying — and far more engaging than simply riding into the sunset.

Carol Zosel and Chuck Harper.

Photo by Jim Cornelius