CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV)- There are nearly 100 million unmarried people in the U.S., hundreds of thousands of singles in Charlotte alone.

And yet, if you are one of them, you know…it can be really hard to find love.

“There are so many good people out there, and love is just the one thing that they’re seeking,” says Carolina Matchmaker’s Laurie Berzack.

Berzack is quickly gaining the reputation of matchmaker extraordinaire in our area. She says the pool of available people isn’t the problem, and she’s building quite the bank of local singles to prove it.

“They’re busy they’ve got wonderful careers they’re attractive,” she says. “They’re very marketable but they’ve tapped out their networks, and so they’re tapping into mine, and that’s the beauty of it. They know by the time they sit down at a table with someone I’ve matched them with, it has real potential for being the real thing.”

One of Berzack’s clients – we’ll call her Jess – moved to North Carolina from New York with the man she thought she’d marry. When it didn’t work out, she found Berzack.

“We laugh about this, because I called her crying,” Jess recalls. “And I said I just broke up with my boyfriend, but do I have to leave the south?”

Berzack’s advice: of course not.  But she did tell Jess to be careful. While millions turn to E-Harmony and Match, sites without human filters have setbacks.

“People lie online,” Berzack says. “They lie about their age, they lie about their height, their weight. I’m meeting people face-to-face.”

Jess says Berzack’s input is invaluable. “One thing she said to me recently that I loved was just look right into their soul. You know, you don’t get those reminders when you’re on J-date or Match dot com, and you’re just like click click click.

Says Berzack: “It can be difficult, going through this whole dating scene. And sometimes people get low, and I’m their cheerleader. I want them to have success. I want them to find somebody they love and that they can spend their rest of their lives with.”

“That’s a matchmaker,” says Jess. “That’s an art that not everybody has and a computer doesn’t have that.”

Berzack’s level of attention will cost much more than online dating. So far, Jess says it’s worth it.

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