The following is an online extra from our June Insider's Guide to Real Estate issue, heading to newsstands soon.
Catina Jones founded ICON Realty Group three years ago. (Photo by Jay Paul)
The ICON Realty Group office in Rocketts Landing feels more like a modern co-working space than an old-school real estate office, and that’s by design. Owner/broker Catina Jones wanted ICON’s 22 agents to interact, support and learn from each other.
On a recent weekday, Realtor Samoné Cross sits on a banquette studying homes on her laptop with the hope that one will fit a client’s criteria. Realtor Phil Hillier sits at a high, white conference table in the middle of the bright, open space, following up on sales leads. With plans to expand the staff to 40, the space accommodates agents who come and go, converse and consult.
Jones, 45, holds back-to-back meetings with her husband-partner, Robert D. Jones II, and business coach John E. Jones Jr. (no relation), followed by a meeting with her leadership team to set an agenda for the busy spring.
Jones founded ICON three years ago after working at two other local firms — Hometown Realty and RE/MAX Commonwealth — for the previous 12 years.
“I love people, I love socializing and shaking hands,” she says. “I love sales, and I love real estate.”
While Jones still sells property as the firm’s principal managing broker, much of her time is focused on seeing though her expanding vision and managing ICON’s agents.
Escaping the Cube
A graduate of Henrico High School, Jones skipped college. She married her first husband in her 20s and had three daughters in quick succession. She worked in banking at Wachovia and then Wells Fargo, quickly moving into commercial sales and relationship management.
“I just couldn’t stand being in that cube,” she reflects on office-bound work.
She found that sales, and interacting with people, was her forte, and her pivot to real estate at age 30 took her on an entrepreneurial path that was familiar to her.
“My father was an entrepreneur who owned a residential and commercial security systems company,” she says, “And my sister was a hairstylist. I wanted to chart my own path. I was tired of the bank saying, ‘This is as far as you can go.' This was the best move I’ve made, and I’ve never looked back.”
Jones’ father always encouraged her toward that independence. She took the leap when she hit glass ceilings.
“I realized that the amount of time and effort I was putting into my corporate job, and thought if I matched that energy in my own business, I would be successful,” she says.
She loves the freedom and growth that being an entrepreneur affords her.
ICON’s first office was in Church Hill, where the majority of her listings were located, and in November 2018, she moved to the current 2,400-square-foot space in Rocketts Landing. The business serves the residential, commercial and luxury real estate markets while specializing in two housing segments in the city — urban and historic properties. Jones is also a preferred agent for Hunt, Ryan and Eastwood builders in the counties surrounding Richmond. You are most likely to see ICON Realty Group “For Sale” signs in the city of Richmond and heading southward toward Manchester and Hull Street Road, reaching to Moseley in Chesterfield County.
She credits Robert, her “third and last husband,” as she jokingly calls him, with giving her the motivation and the energy to move and expand to the sleek new location in Rocketts Landing. As the owner of Parkside Barber Shop & Grooming Lounge in Glen Allen, Robert brings entrepreneurial experience and a similar story of business expansion from a modest four-seat barbershop to a 21-person operation. He serves as chief operating officer and vice president of ICON, leading the commercial and luxury real estate side of the business. Many of his hair clients have become ICON clients as well.
The couple, empty nesters who wed a year ago and live in a nearby condo, collaborate, encourage and occasionally tease each other. But they complement each other’s strengths.
“We call Robert the ‘Networking Ninja,’ ” Jones says. “So many people love and respect him. The similarity between hair and real estate is that purchasing a home is a very emotional process. We do a lot of hand-holding and calming people down.”
Two of Jones’s daughters also work at ICON: Asha Wright, 24, is a real estate agent, and Amari Wright, 22, is an Old Dominion University senior and agent support specialist intern who aspires to a legal career. Ashanti Wright, 25, works in public relations in Washington, D.C. Robert’s daughter, Breyuanna, 21, attends James Madison University for nursing and is currently studying abroad in Africa, and son Isaiah, 19, is a graduate of Benedictine.
Stay Humble, Hustle Hard
A stylish graphic on the wall of Jones’ corner office captures her motto: Stay humble, hustle hard.
“Catina has a genuine concern with the personal development of her agents, being better and building better business,” says Colby Kay, an associate broker with ICON. “She talks about getting involved in community events and the importance of helping people purchase the biggest purchase they are ever going to make.”
During a new-agent meeting, Jones talks about social media dos and don’ts: Do stay professional on social media at all times, she tells her agents. Don’t criticize other agents on social networks, she warns them.
She tells the group to post regularly. Family and friends could be their next client. But don’t get hung up if people close to you do not use your services — there’s always next time. She invokes the cadence of her grandfather who was a preacher, sharing positive advice: pursue leads and follow through, try cold calling, and stay professional in the field.
“If you do the activity, you are going to get results,” she says.
Giving back to the community through board positions on nonprofits and associations is important to Jones. It also raises awareness of her company.
At the Richmond Association of Realtors, she sits on the education committee, tasked with educating real estate agents about technology changes.
“I’ve been watching Catina’s success,” says Curt Reichstetter, president of the Richmond Association of Realtors. “She’s done a fabulous job building a niche boutique realty firm. She’s really knocking it out of the park.”
As a board member of the Metropolitan Business League, which supports small-, women- and minority-owned businesses in Central Virginia, she’s been instrumental in contributing to the Remarkable Women’s Luncheon series. In April, her firm hosted the Remarkable Girls Luncheon, where Richmond Public School students learned about her story and the real estate field.
“She’s very resourceful,” says Floyd E. Miller II, President and CEO of the Metropolitan Business League. “She has great working relationships with businesses and corporate sponsors. Catina is a professional, poised, industrious and consistent person who fulfills her obligations with diligence and purpose.”
As part of the Metropolitan Business League, Jones enjoys the reward of helping black business owners acquire the knowledge they need to be successful. She acknowledges that discrimination and racism still exist.
“My dad said you have to be great for people to say you’re good,” she recalls. “And you have to be exceptional for people to say you are great. You have to be that much more on point to have a fighting chance in business.”
Jones is also a breast cancer survivor who devotes energy to the cause. After being diagnosed three years ago, she had a double mastectomy by choice because breast cancer took the life of her sister and affected her mother and grandmother.
Since 2010, Jones has been the sole listing sales agent for the Better Housing Coalition (BHC), a nonprofit that revitalizes historic communities and develops high-quality new homes for first-time home buyers in need of affordable housing. She has assisted more than 50 families with the purchase of BHC’s new-construction homes. She sees this part of her work as a chance to help people, including teachers and civil servants who face financial barriers due to income.
“Catina has stuck with us, and she knows the process well,” says Stacie Birchett, external affairs vice president for the Better Housing Coalition. “The great thing about her is that it takes a long time to work with our buyers because it takes time to repair their credit. She is able to do well and do good for herself and for us.”
Works in Progress
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Jones drives with Robert to install a lockbox at a North Side house going on the market soon. Then she inspects a townhome south of the James that is being renovated by a longtime contractor. She approves of the work, which follows on the heels of shoddy work the owner first pursued to save money before putting it on the market. Jones has high standards. “Things work better when I can control the process beginning to end,” she says.
But it’s not always possible. “We work with the public — we have to be able to ebb and flow,” she says. “People have cancelled, they can get cold feet. Most sellers go with my contractors to fix up a property to show, but if they don’t, this often happens.”
On a bright Thursday morning, she meets with a couple in the Better Housing Coalition’s program. Later, she heads to Church Hill to a house being renovated by the owner and speaks to his girlfriend about the market research she needs to do to price the house correctly. Jones has the same professional demeanor an hour later, as she meets with a retired couple who are considering using ICON to sell their luxury condominium at Rocketts Landing, and then with another couple an hour after that who are looking to buy a townhome at Rocketts.
A Stable Leader
Protecting the core values of her business has posed challenges for Jones. At times, it has been a struggle to enforce ICON’s culture of integrity and a high-level work ethic, she says.
“So I had to let some people go,” she says. “When you are thinking about recruiting, you are still shaping who you are. Once you figure that out, it’s easier. You need to select people who fit that vision.”
To bring the growing ranks of ICON’s agents in line with her business values, Jones offers training throughout the month — lunch and learns, sip and shares, how-to-work-with-builders sessions and new-agent training. ICON’s agents are all independent contractors,
At a Thursday afternoon training on rules and regulations and professionalism, Jones sets up a what-if scenario that involves the ethics of soliciting another Realtor’s clients.
“If you are a person of good moral character, none of this stuff is new,” she says. “If you have a question if something is not morally right, it’s probably not. As Realtors, we hold ourselves to higher standards than even the law does.”
An ethical breach can result in a penalty or the revocation of an agent’s license, as well as a mark on the firm where they worked. Jones pushes correct procedures, cooperation and accessibility.
“Catina has a hands-on approach that is agent-focused,” says Dakia Knight, a team leader within ICON who serves as a trainer at the company. “A benefit is that we have access to our broker any time of the day.”
The only exception is Sunday, which Catina reserves for God and family, regularly attending the Cedar Street Baptist Church of God.
Jones and Robert are projecting for future growth and expansion of ICON Realty Group. Since its inception, the firm has averaged about 50 to 60 transactions a year, but last year that number dipped as Catina focused her energies on expanding ICON in its new location.
In April, the firm had 25 listings and 15 sales. ICON's expansion from five agents last year to 25 in April is expected to almost double by 2019's end. Jones is working with many of those agents to transition them from part-time to full-time status and is setting sales goals to a minimum of a dozen property sales a year per agent.
"Even though we are growing rapidly," she says, “we don't want to lose that boutique feel of being among friends and family.”
