The Mojo Team | Break It Down With Braydon

hey guys welcome to another episode of break it down with Braden super excited I got the Mojo guys with me today Josh Henson Morgan Hodes thanks for joining me guys yeah of course happy to be here yeah excited I've known these guys for shoot probably six seven years now since you guys got involved with agents benefiting children uh was actually their team captain the one year uh so I've got to know them over the years and I've actually had an experience to go to the Tom fery convention with them and uh we got to go

to get dinner together and get know get to know each other a little bit better yeah um tell everybody a little bit about the team kind of how you guys of the Mojo team and kind of what got got you here to today okay yeah I guess um I mean if you want to go all the way back which is kind of funny Josh and I actually met in real estate school this is 20 years ago we did a uh happened to do a two-e crash course did not know each other beforehand ended up kind

of meeting on breaks and and different things but um you know a friendship was formed and within about a a year or so after that um we had we had decided to kind of team up and work together in the residential field and uh and he and I you know just uh were a little bit blind leading the blind in the beginning never really had minations of uh forming a team or starting a team we were just working to make it uh in the real estate industry for quite some time yeah and then uh you

know year by year went by and we just kind of tripped and stumbled our way through and had a lot of successes too um and then it was probably about 10 years ago that we brought on our first team member who has been with us you know ever since basically Tomy and uh yeah I was right like 2014 um you know we had like I said we we we'd had some really success we had hired a an assistant a couple of years earlier and that decision well not quite that I guess it was about a

year earlier and uh you know and that decision had really allowed us to frankly double our business in that year and and by doing so and taking all of those you know items off your plate um that that that we hear about that allowed us to double our business and then we thought you know what other agents would appreciate this sort of thing um and what what they did for us we could probably help do for others and that's really what was the original formations of the Mojo team we also had a lot of leads

coming in coming in at the time and so at that point in time we're like okay well we can't handle all these leads it's silly for them just to go to waste you know because we can't just keep up with everyone so why don't we bring someone on that can help with these lead yeah so um organically we just started bringing on agent by agent and the team has grown since then very cool who was the creative one to come up with Mojo yeah yeah that I mean that that's kind of a funny uh thing

my younger brother's name is Jordan and kind of growing up um occasionally not not a whole lot but um Mo and Joe or Mo Joo you know and so um when we were thinking of team name GES it just kind of had popped in and and I presented it but we liked it because obviously it's a great feeling as a magical word you know you look it up in the dictionary there's all sorts of good things associated with the word Mojo um all of which you know we love and we think the team embodies everything

else and so it's really you know it's created its own life of its own and um we also like the fact that it was it was unique um but not directly tied to either Josh or myself um as as we built it um you know cuz a lot of a lot of Agents go out there and you know it's their last name and you know and and you could understand that but at the same time we wanted um agents to kind of see and have a place too yeah like not necessarily join under somebody's name

correct yeah I mean we even thought basically when we formed a team we came together and said okay what team would we want to join and what would that look like so we kind of took it from the agent perspective as far as team name you know we wouldn't we wouldn't want to join the John Smith team just because we felt like maybe we wouldn't have an identity on that team so we wanted to come up with a team name that that was more encompassing of everyone than just us um even though obviously Morgan Josh

like Mojo it's it's in there yep um but then also like I said splits um the the type of support that we provide the leads that we provide uh the marketing we kind of figured okay if we were an agent what team would we want to join and what would that look like yep and then we formed our team so you kind of brought some of those items up so I know you guys are trying to grow the team a little bit more talk a little bit about why the Mojo team yeah I would say

I mean on that there's a million reasons why the Mojo team we're try we're gonna try and without uh without going too deep or too deep but um yeah you know we really tried to Encompass that you know in the things we do you know there's a lot of traditional real estate teams out there that when you join you're really almost it's more you're more of an employee you're going to have you know hours and different things and don't get me wrong there are agents out there that definitely need that and they they need that

additional you know kind of push and structure because they don't have that internal motor like I said we really built the team for those agents that that is a bit of a self-starter that that is you know looking for guidance and assistant and leads and great camaraderie and everything else but at the same time doesn't have to have someone standing behind them cracking the whip at all times for them to do the things they need to do to be successful yeah we kind of look at it as we are the foundation we'll provide all the

leads the support the marketing the accountability if that's what they're looking for and any all the tools and everything they could possibly need and want to be successful as an agent and then they get to pick and choose what they take advantage of and they can build their business and grow their business from that Foundation uh you guys recently not recently a few months ago or a little while back moved over to reel benefits to that what was your excites you about uh it's really exciting um no pun intended but uh we uh we had

heard about real uh probably over a year ago from a colleague and friend of ours and he had mentioned it kind of in passing hey I just moved over to real you guys should really check it out and we kind of just dismissed it like oh it's just another brokerage and and uh and then we ran into him again and he's like hey guys did you have a chance to check it out and this was a couple months later like no we still haven't like looked into it he's like hey look I promise you this

is not a sales pitch just do some research on it and if you like it great call me if you don't no worries whatsoever and uh we started really looking into it and it just made so much sense and seemed amazing we're like oh my God this seems too good to be true these are all the things that we've been wanting in a brokerage that we have not received since you know we with our current brokerage for over 17 years um a few things to name ownership um you can actually own stock in a publicly

traded company and we thought that was pretty amazing um and then also um just additional streams of income which we were not receiving over at our previous brokerage so stocks done pretty well this stocks done incredible I mean since we've joined it's gone from 350 a share up to like 550 a share so it's doing well the stocks done really well you know ownership you know when you really think about that that's that's a big key um as as you're building you know because we're all individual business owners and whatnot and one of the things

we really realized and I think a lot of Agents will come to the realization of over time is you're building your own business here and you are you're paying the brokerage right you know you're paying the brokerage and there's some great Brokers out there um but as you're doing so and and a lot of us are really helping build that brokerage by attracting agents um building teams you know even doing sales and putting signs in the ground and everything else and you're getting that name out there um day after day uh hour after hour you

know you are promoting the broker um as as minimal as it is and um and it's nice to have some ownership in that and so being with a broker that um you know not only you have the option to to buy stock but you also earn some stock rewards and you build that over time you know Josh and I were with a brokerage um that was extremely small 17 years ago in Arizona had almost no footprint in fact we were two of the longest running agents in Arizona uh for that brokerage we stayed with him

for 17 years and it's now top three broker in the state and um were we directly responsible for all of that no of course not but um but we attracted a lot of agents to that brokerage we were a major part of it during that time and um and at the end of the day you know did not really have anything in show for return so you know you've got to look at what you do and then look out over over time um you know all of us are looking for additional pieces of Leverage the

chance to have some passive income and other income opportunities that're not available at uh at the majority of brokerages out there and I think as you look at a real estate career in that Arc um what you know what is going to work for you over the Long Haul where do you want to be in 5 years or do you want to be in 10 years and you know is is the broker you're currently with is that going to serve you really thinking about the future there yeah well I think you have to a little

bit um you know and also the the present of course I mean you you can't ever lose sight of the now but um yeah there's there's good leverage opportunities um and not just for ourselves but for our team members too that's the big thing I mean every decision every big major important decision that we've made over the 10 years that we've ran a team we've always taken that from the agent perspective hey what's best for them and by making this move it's not just good for us it's great for every single person on our team

because now they have the ability to leverage their their relationships and whatnot yeah and even just to dive into that just real quick is you know with us as team leaders as we build within within a traditional brokerage yes as you're adding team members you are gaining some leverage off of you know their production but those individual team members really don't have any ability um short of building a team within your team so at some point what happens is is people will will leave now we've been blessed to where very few of our you know

agents where very few of our top agents have have left and one of the reasons is because we continue to provide additional opportunities for them to build and grow within our organization and real provided that awesome opportunity to where they have the ability to do every everything we can do they can do you know we're in the exact same position whether you know no matter where they're at on our team they have they have all the same opportunities we do which is awesome and that was a huge piece um again that that we just weren't

getting yeah I think kind of like what you guys mentioned in the beginning just the fact that you know you kind of built this of like okay what is best for us as agents and then you kind of just fell into oh well this worked for us we should just kind of keep growing this and adding it members for the team yeah um so just it makes sense that way yeah and the leadership over at real is pretty amazing we have the the summit coming up here next week or the week after two weeks next

weeks where's that at two weeks two week uh two weeks it's uh it's in Vegas oh fun yeah so a few days in Vegas and it it'll be awesome I mean the leadership team over there is incredible um the uh the Rev share program is willable that was something else that was really huge and important to us willable and um you can actually retire meaning that after 5 years of being in the business as a productive agent um you can actually step out of the bus and get 100% of your rev share for Life fully

retire and never sell another home you know as long as uh you know you yeah and then that that's earned yeah so that's that's a pretty Unique Piece um because also as you know as Realtors um a retirement plan you know I mean much much many of the people in the United States deal with this you know pensions are almost a thing of the past and you're on your own basically yep um but uh yeah so that's a really unique and and neat piece I think real estate agents at their traditional brokerage the retirement plan

is death and and at real at least there's an actual retirement plan that you can step out hang up the keys hang up the real estate signs and like literally continue to collect passive income well we we've talked I mean you guys you guys you know we got families you want to leave a legacy and so having something like that where you can pass down to your kids is huge that's amazing it's huge yeah um let's talk a little bit about today's real estate market switch a little bit let's do it I love it yeah

so uh how's it out there what are you kind of experiencing what are you seeing what the changes since the Nar settlement I feel like it's been picking up yeah I would say if anything um it's really interesting like it it definitely feels like the interest the transactional flow and everything is it's a pretty active market right now um it's more active I would say than than even I thought it would be looking at this time frame knowing you know the ctions coming up and everything else um now that being said we're also seeing a

a real high water mark Or Not high water mark to be determined but H more listings than we've had in a decade almost you know going back to I think 2015 but uh we're very close to 20,000 active listings you know on the MLS right now if you know even over when you add in the coming soon so um there's a lot of listings out there but we are seeing sales numbers pick up last month uh we had a 8% uh growth in number of new homes you know not new construction homes but homes under

contract so um seeing good signs uh we're very bullish on 2025 and we just we just think that it is going to be a banner year uh for all agents out there everybody who's knows to the grindstone has really worked through this you know kind of recession I I think there's a lot of opportunity in this coming Market is that an 8% year-over year or month over month that was uh month over month month or yeah no I think it might have been year over year it might have been from from last last October or

last September to to this September from comford that cool jumped up as far as homes under contract yeah love hearing that so good sign yeah Josh what are you saying yeah I mean I I feel like activities picked up which is like Morgan said surprising we weren't expecting this kind of activity right now um we think it's going to be pretty steady between now and the end of the year but in 20 2025 we're predicting it's going to be our best year ever and any agent that's working really hard right now between now and the

end of the year is going to also experience an incredible 2025 yeah I I've heard some great people say you know you you really got to focus on October and that because it really does seem to set up your next year especially we know in real estate the things you do now have a 3month lag you know so your activities now if if you're a new realtor listen to this you you have to understand that your activities today have a 60 to 90day lag period before you're going really see any results um but it also

so if you're if you're nose to the grindstone right now making your calls having your follow-ups you know reaching out and touching people on a daily basis that will pay off you might not see it in November or December but come January February March you are going to be rolling and so you got to put in those daily consistent grind activities it's a long game right it is 100% a long game yep people always say that they're like well didn't get a deal in the first 3 months I'm like well even if you got a

deal in the first two months then it's not going to close for 30 60 days or whatever so it's like you're not going to get paid for the first 120 days oh yeah we we tell everyone you know save up enough money if you're going to get into the business for like at least six months because it takes a lot of time and energy to get really off the ground Y and it could be like you said three or four months before you get that first deal under contract and then won't close for another month

or two yep sometimes those deals fall out y they don't they don't ever close I like like to use an analogy especially with newer agents people are newer in the business hey guys this is this is like a train getting started you are op you were getting a train started you've got to be shoveling coals shoveling coal shoveling coal you're going to see a lot of steam and smoke and that and that train is going to maybe move a quarter of an inch right and you just got to keep working and working and working to

get it moving but it's so much energy he's got to go into it to even get it to move those first few feet down the track that's a good analogy I like that yeah and then it's actually moving it's you get moving yeah then you can get rolling and and maybe ease up not not ease up but you know kind of you're rolling a little more yeah what else you guys excited for what's on the horizon for the Mojo team uh growth I guess yeah just uh we're we're huge into growth we've always been our

entire careers and you know we always like to just see you're because if you're not growing you're dying right that's the saying and so um you know just focusing on bringing great agents onto our team um growing our own personal businesses growing our investments that we're doing and you know continuing yeah definitely I mean I I think too um you you've got to I i' spent some time and really get excited about the you know where you are just even in the country and the state and everything else I mean we are in Scottdale Arizona

and this is like the land of milk and honey you know yeah whatever you want to analogy you give but um you know you are right here right now it's a amazing time to be in real estate there's so much growth and activity and vibrancy in our city in the state you've got job creation I don't know if you've driven past Taiwan semiconductor I just drove past it over the weekend and it's like a full-blown building there that is awesome in like a year and a half um just coming out here today you're at Cranes

up and new highrises going in I mean guys if you're in real estate right now you you owe it to yourself to crush it because as you know the the eyes have really turned since covid and people i' I've said it like Arizona feels like it just got discovered Y in in Co and now um you know whether you're working internet leads or your SOI it's just a great time to be in real estate and be part of that and part of building you know a culture and a community um I'm sorry if you're out

of state listening to this I'm sure there's some other great places out there but Arizona is where that where it's at well I've read something to talked about just remote work too and so like like you said with Co everyone was like okay well I don't I'm not have to go to the office anymore so I could just be working remote I don't need to be sitting here where it's Doom and Gloom and raining you know yeah 60% of the day or days out of the Year kind of thing I might as well go somewhere

where it's sunny and I could actually enjoy myself outside and play golf and do all those things and the temperatures are finally dropping we'll be in the we'll be in the 80s next week or at the end of next week so that's been the only thing this year it's been a little brutal the heat other than that it's been it's been a good year yeah the heat has been a bit tough this this year but um you know hopefully next year we'll be a little not so bad but no hurricanes we haven't had a hurricane

this year yep no hurricanes and um you know thoughts and prayers to all those people in the path of Milton and also those in uh in the Southeast in North Carolina Tennessee I mean that was brutal yeah yeah it's kind of kind of scary to think about all the different stuffs going on in the world right now with different weather and natural disasters and just all political stuff lot of fun stuffff going on right now it's crazy it's chaos everywhere yeah I would think um you know in in that it's like that's the other thing

too is you you kind of have to there's an old saying make hey why the sun shines um you know understand guys that uh got we could go into um we could go into a higher rate environment um you know different things could happen all the time and so um you you just don't know what's out there and so if you have the ability I mean there's but there are there's still a lot of activity there's still people moving in and people needing help obviously there's a lot of listings to be sold and yes our

listing count is climbing but that's a great thing for buyers overall and you've got more inventory to choose from you know finally they might get a chance to spend some time and so I think uh we're going to have a nice a nice balance this year as we're kind of coming back where you're going to have a lot of inventory to choose from it be easy to find and listings if you're pricing it right and effective they're still they're still moving in a reasonable time frame um you know it it does kind of come down

to pricing and obviously you know the better homes are moving quicker yep what have you seen from the Nar settlement how's that changed things so we ask our team every time we meet which is about every other week yep and no one including us has had any issues getting the buyer broker signed you know uh having the conversations with the buyers and explaining to them what's going on on how things are working now and so that's been really encouraging like no push back whatsoever nice yeah if finding most sellers are still willing to offer a

commission as well uh yeah yeah we haven't had any issues there either cool you know it seems like everyone's negotiable like even if they're not actually like offering it they're willing to negotiate it within a contract yeah and and I've said it too um it it is very much kind of business as usual a new a new way of doing business but um at the same part sellers are still looking you know to get their home sold and and most sellers understand that um you know being looking appealing to the 60,000 agents out there who

are working hard to sell their home is a good thing uh and then on the buy side you know people still want you know a great buyer representative who is dedicated to them and so it really comes down to you explaining your value proposition effectively and helping that buyer understand how hard and all the things you're going to do for them um and that you know you are dedicated to them as much as they are committing to you um and as you you know as you're able to tell them that and and explain that you

know these the buyers are just having no issue understanding that hey I'm looking for for good service I think it's also fortunate that we're in a you know slight buyers market right now which you know takes some of the pressure off the sellers as far as like them saying oh nope I'm not going to offer any commission they're kind of in a position to where as the numbers grow as the supply grows they're they kind of have to your neighbor's houses for sale three houses down like they might wheel and deal they might feel a

little bit more obligated to have to offer something or maybe even offer something more than they normally would just to try and attract that buyer to their listing yeah and it is going to be interesting to see obviously this is a moving Target at all times and um as if the market Heats back up like say interest rates come down a little bit supply drops um and we return back to a sell's market um I fully expect uh the number of sellers at that point in time who are willing to start reducing I still think

that the vast majority will and understand that's the best path to get their home sold quickly um but you will see more and more sellers the hotter the market gets the more sellers are going to you know reduce just like they reduce um they're willing you know the amount they willing to in concessions you know um are you going to paint the house well it's a hot Market no you know so that that's kind of the thing it in a way we're blessed to have this um kind of balanced market during this transition y um

so that everyone can get in good practice of working with the buyers and using the buyer broker and everything else but it it could flip in just a short years's time or so yeah that's kind of what I'm hearing to the same kind of feedback is sellers are pretty much willing to work with everybody right now and it just really hasn't been an issue so and even when it switches to uh to a sellers Market it's going to come down to net yeah so I think we were dealing with a situation and it was multiple

offers and the listing agent said Hey look it's it's about the net so if you want commission if you want the seller to pay the commission that's fine just take that into consideration write that into your offer and my seller is going to be looking at the net of every single one of these offers yeah so yeah I think even when it switches that's about the numbers at the end correct um last thing what's your guys's why why do you want to grow this so big why what's why do you have these big audacious goals

for the Mojo team that that's a great that's a great question I mean for me it's really it's family and and Legacy and that you know it's it's really just working to to provide you know for my family and uh and so that um you know we can get by in the world and everything else and uh you know be prepared to weather the storm if need be y I think uh as far as growth and what's the reason and why behind that I think we remember when we were newer agents in the business and

kind of stumbling through and you know having someone there to to help us and Mentor us would have been really nice we had some great kind of people that were around that we would you know kind of bounce ideas off of but um for us being able to give back to those agents whether they're newer or maybe they're experienced and they're just looking to take their business to the next level and being able to help them really elevate it like that's that's huge I mean we get a lot out of that yeah and I was

even going to jump in there um because like I said we have we have some amazing great agents who partner with us and are on our team and these These are killers who are super you know great at what they do and one of the things that um I think keeps them on the team is all of the support we do provide and we're we're in there in the trenches with them helping them get deals done helping them determine uh what the best course of attack is I mean you really can do a lot when

you when you collaborate with with a group and you've got someone to bounce ideas off and that you know being a solo agent out there may seem like it has its uh benefits and everything but in many ways you know you are on an island um and and so we have a lot of really great experienced agents um you know that are on very fair you know split with us and uh they're crushing it and taking advantage of the leads and the support and everything we're doing which really fuels them to do more in their

business that far outweighs anything that they uh contribute and so that's that's awesome to see and and we love that I know Josh and I every day we're you know texting and on the phone with our agents and you know just doing all the things comping properties strategizing you name it yeah I mean I know you guys through the agents benefiting children events so I know you guys know how to give back so uh it's obviously kind of part of your Mantra and part of what you're doing for your team so I love that and

thank you for everything you guys have done for agents benefiting children over the years you guys have been an amazing support for uh the Saros and our organization so thank you for doing that and happy to help thank you for coming on the podcast today for everyone that wants to get a hold of you and find more about the Mojo team how could they reach you guys they could uh email us at teamm mojos scottsdale.com or they could call or text us at 48356 5657 cool what's your website uh mojos scottsdale.com so Mojo scotdale is

pretty much uh that's the YouTube channel the website Instagram handle yeah so if you search Mojo and Scottdale you should find us awesome Morgan Josh thanks for coming on all right thanks for another episode to break it down with Braden and stick around more to come thanks guys