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Broker Spotlight: Molly Jones and Joey Sutorius
Name: Molly Jones and Joey Sutorius
Title: Managing partners of The Agency Salt Lake City and founders of the MOJO Group
Experience: Jones has 10 years of experience and Sutorius has 13 years
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Brokerage full name: The Agency Salt Lake City
Rankings: The MOJO Group has consistently ranked on RealTrends as one of the top teams in the country
Team size: 15
Transaction sides: Over 100 transaction sides annually
Sales volume: The Agency Salt Lake City’s agents closed nearly $100 million in the prior 12 months, and the MOJO Group agents have closed over $500 million during their tenure
Awards: President’s Circle Award 2020- 2022: Both Jones and Sutorius were rookies of the year for their first year in the business. Jones was featured on the cover of Utah Business Magazine as a “20 in their 20s” recipient and was awarded Coldwell Banker’s International “30 under 30” award. Sutorius received Coldwell Banker’s President’s Award.
What do you wish more people knew about working in real estate?
Jones: There truly is a difference in the services provided from one agent to the next, and as buyers and sellers you should do some real due diligence about who you are hiring. The industry is very saturated, and there is no required playbook to follow; for this reason, not all agents are created equal.
A professional agent will be someone you will work with for life because they will be committed to providing you consistent resources that go far beyond the “sale.” The right agent will be a treasure trove of knowledge and have connections that will not only save but make you money over time, and the value of working with them when you buy and sell a property is being able to gain access to their rolodex and experience for life.
We have always considered ourselves as real estate advisors, because we take a holistic approach to the entire process and that goes far beyond just one sale. We are proud to have the Agency’s tools at our disposal to be able to offer consistent valuable information to our clients and to be among industry experts worldwide to gain insights from them that we can share with our clients, as well.
What’s something you know now that you wish you knew when you started?
Sutorius: My wife and I purchased our first home together at the absolute top of the real estate market in the spring of 2007. The market crashed almost immediately after. We then spent the next several years being house-poor and completely upside down in terms of equity.
When I became a Realtor a few years later, because of our experience buying our home, I became a very cautious agent. I found myself working almost exclusively with buyers who needed a place to live regardless of how great of an investment it was.
I did not push as hard as I should; I didn’t buy up investment properties myself, and I was nervous to work with investors because I had that fear of the market crashing in the back of my mind. As it turns out, the home that I purchased for top dollar in 2007 is worth hundreds of thousands more now than it was then; it was still a solid investment.
I wish I would have known that real estate is a great investment, and to buy as much of it as I reasonably and responsibly could. Buy the house, buy the duplex, buy the property. Even in this high-interest rate market, buy the house. If interest rates keep going up, you will be glad you purchased when you did; if they go down, refinance.
As long as you’re not looking at real estate as a “short-term” investment, this market is ripe with opportunities. Work with a great agent who understands what those opportunities are and who can guide you in that process.
Tell us about a high point in your brokerage career
Jones: One of the best moments in my career was when we announced to our team that we were starting The Agency Salt Lake City and that we wanted them all to come with us. Making a brokerage change is a huge commitment for an agent, and while I knew that we had really fostered an incredible environment for the agents on our team, there’s always some uncertainty that what makes business sense for us is going to translate to those who work for you.
Every single one of our agents made the leap with us to The Agency, and seeing what this incredible brand has already done to elevate them all has been so rewarding. Seeing their commitment to us served as such crucial motivation for us to continue our commitment to our agents in everything that we do as we grow the company.
What’s your top tip for freshly licensed brokers?
Jones: Focus on the people first, and the profit will follow. The cost of retention is so much lower than the cost of recruitment, and so many leaders tend to overlook the value of the people right in front of them.
There is always such a heavy emphasis on recruiting in this industry, and if you instead focus on fostering the skills and committing to the success of people who are already bought into your company, you’ll experience so much more success and create an environment that ultimately makes recruiting easier.
The Agency brand makes retention so much easier because the tools and services they provide are absolutely next-level and make it easy for our incredible agents to showcase their clients’ properties and set themselves apart as industry leaders.
What makes a good leader?
Sutorius: There are many characteristics that need to combine to make a great leader, but I believe the main ingredient is humility. I joined the military after 9/11 and deployed to southern Iraq in 2007.
Our platoon sergeant was a soft-spoken mechanic from a small town in rural Utah. He was not the prototypical platoon sergeant and was not what most people would picture when thinking of a military leader. He was laid back, and a little rough around the edges, but he led his men with humility and every single one of us in that platoon would have done anything this man asked without hesitation.
He was a great leader because he was humble; there was no ego when he gave commands, and we knew he wasn’t perfect, but knowing that made us respect him even more. If we had a tough job to do, he was right there doing it with us. He treated everyone with love and respect, regardless of rank or favor.
This man taught me the power of leading with humility, and I have always told our agents that I will never ask them to do something that I myself am not willing to do. I set time aside every week to work with our junior agents on the cornerstones of their business, and by working alongside them I hope they can see that successful people get that way with consistency, and by never being too “good,” too “busy” or too “important” to go back to the basics.
We experienced this same leadership quality in the Agency’s CEO Mauricio Umansky when we visited their sales meeting in Beverly Hills. He not only set time aside to meet with us even though he had back-to-back meetings, but was right there alongside his agents, doing the work and being even more excited for their wins than in sharing his own.
This, among so many other amazing qualities, is why we are so excited to be aligned with The Agency, and we couldn’t be more proud to lead The Agency Salt Lake City and bring this level of service to our community.
Know someone who should be featured in an upcoming Broker Spotlight? Nominations, please, to brokeredge@inman.com.