Joshua Hunt keeps on trucking

Real estate is a profession that chews up newcomers. There’s a wildly shared statistic that 87% of new agents fail within their first five years—some suggest the number is even higher. According to independent studies, 70% of real estate agents sell five or fewer homes annually, and nearly half sell only one home or none at all. In the Charleston area, there are over 6,200 licensed real estate agents according to Zillow. And if thousands of agents weren’t enough, there’s the market itself. In August 2025, the number of buyers in the market fell to 1.4 million, the lowest level on record since 2013 (aside from the pandemic). In other words, agents are fighting for fewer deals.

But here’s what makes real estate even more challenging: it’s not a profession where technical expertise separates winners from losers. You don’t need an advanced degree or years of specialized training to get licensed. As a 1920s statement from the National Realtors Association acknowledged, “the general impression prevails especially to the uninitiated that the handling of real estate is a calling that requires but a very small amount of knowledge, experience or responsibility.”

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That impression—fair or not—shapes how clients view agents: as largely interchangeable. The industry promotes dependability and service as key differentiators, but when nearly every agent makes the same claim, how can a customer tell the difference? Unlike a home builder whose work you can walk through and inspect, or an artist whose portfolio speaks for itself, a real estate agent’s value is invisible until someone takes a chance on them. Dependability? You can’t demonstrate that in an Instagram post. Service? It only matters after someone hires you.

Joshua Hunt is entering this gauntlet at 41 years old with no client base, no track record, and no local network. Unlike agents who grew up in Charleston with deep family roots and decades of connections, Hunt moved to Mount Pleasant just two years ago. In an industry where personal networks drive business—where your childhood friend becomes your first client, where your mom’s bridge partner lists her house with you—Hunt is starting from scratch.

Born and raised in Easton, Pennsylvania, Hunt spent more than two decades in jobs that required showing up. At 14, he got his first job delivering newspapers after watching his childhood best friend buy milkshakes with his paper route money. At 16, he started working at K-Mart, stocking shelves in the pantry before moving up to cashier supervisor. After four years at K-Mart he got into the automotive industry, doing everything from detailing cars to trying his hand at sales (he wasn’t very good at that part, he admits). Hunt worked in the automotive space on and off for several years, and in between, he had a night job stocking shelves at a grocery store. He rose to second in command of the night crew, but his passion for everything gas powered pulled him back to auto body shops where he learned to disassemble and reassemble vehicles and later joined the paint team. When a large corporation acquired the body shop, Hunt left and joined his friend’s tree business, operating a giant tree chipper for a few years. “It was a physically demanding job, but we had a lot of fun and did some amazing work with cranes and award-winning tree climbers,” he recalls. In between, Hunt bartended and drove for Uber. 

In November 2018, Hunt’s mother passed away suddenly. He reconsidered his priorities and decided to join his father’s trucking business, which had started a few years earlier. Hunt went to school, got his commercial driver’s license, and hit the road with his dad in 2019.

What followed were years of blood, sweat, tears, and “A LOT of swear words.” One particularly foul-mouthed moment took place on Interstate 80 in Pennsylvania. Hunt, driving his truck with a light load, switched to the left lane to pass a slower vehicle. The moment he entered the lane, he heard the worst noise of his life. The engine blew and oil spewed everywhere—a rod had blown straight out the side of the engine block. Stranded in rural Pennsylvania with hardly any cell service, Hunt rented a car and backtracked an hour and a half to get a rental truck so he could deliver the load the very next morning in Ohio. “The job was completed and on time—a small miracle in itself,” Hunt recalls. He earned a speeding ticket along the way. 

Hunt describes himself as an extrovert—someone who thrives on conversations and connecting with people in real time. “I can talk to anyone and can usually find a way to connect,” he says. After more than two decades in isolating jobs, he has a lot of pent-up energy for human interaction. That energy occasionally breaks through. At a rest stop during one of his hauls, Hunt struck up a conversation with another truck driver. They hit it off and continued their conversation using CB radio. That conversation led to a contract with a major home improvement retailer that brought significant revenue to the business. 

But the conversations Hunt treasures most were with his father. “The conversations with your best friend and business partner after a 14-hour day, then having to get on your back under the truck to fix something just so you can work the next morning—those are some of the greatest conversations I’ve ever been a part of,” Hunt says. “You have to take the good with the bad and ‘keep on trucking,’ but it helps when you have the company.”

They grew the business into something both were proud of, and Hunt’s father retired at 65—one of his life goals.

With his father retired, Hunt faced a choice: continue running the trucking business solo, or finally pursue something he’d always wanted. “I’ve always held a place for real estate,” Hunt says. “It’s something that always interested me but I never had the time or the means to pursue it.” After many conversations with loved ones, he made the leap and got his real estate license.

Hunt has never been afraid of hard work—two decades of showing up proved that. But real estate is a different kind of hard. He quickly discovered that modern real estate also requires skills he’d never needed before. “No one told me I had to be a content creator to stay relevant in today’s market,” Hunt says. Social media had never been a focal point for him until recently. Now he’s learning Canva and experimenting with Instagram posts: “Canva or Caterpillar engines. Bring it on!” He also has a media critic 20 feet away from him—his girlfriend of three years, who happens to be a marketing pro.

For Hunt, this business is also personal. “I hope my clients will become my friends,” he says—the kind of people he can talk Phillies baseball with, debate Eagles games, play golf with, or invite over to a BBQ. After spending two decades in isolating jobs, he’s looking for more than transactions. He’s looking for connection.

Fast Facts
Age: 41.
Status: In a relationship.
Hometown: Easton, PA.
Current location: Mount Pleasant, SC.
Contact: [email protected] / 843-783-0029.
Favorite dish: Ribeye steak with mashed potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts.
Sports: Baseball, football (college and pro), hockey, and golf.
Hobbies: Cooking, reading, landscaping, Legos, video games, and binging Netflix.
Dream: Open a small tiki bar at a tropical resort—shaking cocktails, hearing stories, and watching sunsets every single day.