Carol Jones returns to Ozarks real estate scene

Mention real estate in the Ozarks, and the first name most people think of is Carol Jones.

For more than a decade, Carol Jones has been firmly fixed in the public mind as the Springfield area's leading real estate dealer, at a level of success that has made her something of a celebrity.

Such prominence has stirred a good deal of curiosity about what Carol Jones is really like, how she lives and how in the world she did it. Ironically, much has been written about Carol Jones the real estate magnate, but surprisingly little about Carol Jones the person.

"Jackie Stiles and Carol Jones are two skinny blondes from tiny towns who did well in Springfield," she said. She readily admits to being "a huge fan" of Jackie Stiles and the Southwest Missouri State University Lady Bears. Only the night before she had watched Stiles break the all-time NCAA women's Division I basketball scoring record in a game against Creighton and was clearly delighted.

While the "tiny town" Stiles hails from is Claflin, Kan., Jones was born in Quapaw, Okla., where her dad owned a filling station on Route 66. "Dad sold City Service gasoline and kerosene, wood, coal and ice to everybody who came along," she said. "I started working there when I was 8. I pumped gas and chipped ice and did everything. I worked hard. My mother always told me whatever we do we should do better than anyone else. We didn't have any money, so you do have to do your best."

Working hard, it turns out, had everything to do with Jones choosing real estate as a profession. "I knew that I would like to have more money than just a salary, because I knew I would work harder than anyone else. I wanted a job for which I'd be rewarded in direct proportion to the service I rendered, so I knew it would have to be a commission job."

She paused. "And I thought the real estate test was the only test I could pass."

Passing that test eventually led to the founding of Carol Jones Realtors in 1983. "I couldn't hire anyone for two years after my divorce from (Realtor) Jim Jones because of a noncompete agreement," she said. "Then I started Carol Jones. We only had five agents. Two years later, we were the largest agency in the area."

In 1994, after nearly a decade of dominating the market, she sold her company to Iowa Realty, which retained the Carol Jones name, and to all appearances Jones herself disappeared from the real estate scene. The company subsequently was sold to Home Services, a firm in which Warren Buffet holds controlling interest.

Eight months ago, in July 2000, she was asked to rejoin the company. "I missed it and they were having some personnel problems so I went back," she said. She now serves as president and chief financial officer. "I never hear from them unless they call, so I guess we're doing really well. Last month we had a record month - 368 transactions for $52 million. We're really happy."

The company once more is the largest real estate firm in the area, she said, with more than 200 agents working out of 10 offices in Springfield, Nixa, Ozark, Mt. Vernon, Seymour and Branson. And Jones has her eye on future growth. "We would like to expand into other areas, double the size of our commercial department, expand our southeast office in Springfield and have a southwest office," she said. "Other cities call us all the time and want us to buy their offices, and we're always looking."

As it happens, solving personnel problems may be Carol Jones' strongest suit. She has a reputation as a great motivator, a talent she attributes to a view of life that began in childhood.

"When I was a little girl I wrote down everything that I wanted to have happen to me and carried it with me everywhere I went. And as those things happened I would cross them off. And one day I was in a church and I ran across a book called Treasure Mapping,' and I knew in my mind that's what I had been doing."

She credits "treasure mapping" as the key to her success and uses its technique of listing desired events to motivate the people who work with her. "Everyone I worked with I brought in and said, You've got to have goals. What kind of car do you want to drive? What kind of house do you want to live in? How much money do you want to make this year? Write yourself a check for it. Stick it on your mirror at home. Write down all your goals and attach it to your keychain and carry it wherever you go.'"

The technique works, she said, because a person can think of only one thing at a time. "You can't be thinking positive and negative at the same time," she said, "so if you're thinking about what you want to accomplish, you can't be thinking negatively. You can only get back out of your mind what you put there, and if you're putting negative stuff there all the time, that's all you're going to get back. If you're putting positive things in your mind, that's all that can come to you."

Jones has run her company by the "treasure-mapping." method, she said. "If you were going to leave today and go to California, the first thing you'd do would be make a map. Your life's more important than any trip you'll ever take. What you plant in your mind is what you want to grow."

Jones added that she's been helped by books and audiotapes, as well. "I've always been a big reader," she said. "I used to read a book a week. I figured I could learn anything out of a book. Every once in a while I just have to get one of those Danielle Steele books and read it. I just have to, to get my mind off things." With audiotapes, she said, "your car can be like a university. I always used my car as a university. Wherever I'd go, I'd have a tape of something I wanted to learn about and listen to it on the way to work."

Ask Carol Jones if she was ever surprised by her company's success and she doesn't hesitate. "Unh-unh. I knew I was going to do it. I had every intention of it."

Her determination and love for hard work notwithstanding, Jones does have leisure time and values it. "I like to surround myself with pretty things," she said. "I like good books. I like good conversation. I play golf a little and I travel a lot. I have a condo in St. Louis I enjoy. And I like sports hockey, football, I like all sports."

She also has grandchildren. "I'm a really good grandmother," she said. "I have four grandchildren, a 13-year-old girl, Lindsay; identical twin boys who are 11, Rudy and Ryan; and 10-year-old Callie. I see them all the time."

Jones has seen some changes in the local real estate picture. "Every day we get up our business has changed," she said. "There are different houses on the market and the interest rates are different. What keeps it interesting for me is to take someone and make a superstar out of them. That's my greatest pleasure, seeing someone succeed."

Her outlook on the future of real estate in the region is optimistic. "I can't see anything but positive growth for this part of the country. Why wouldn't everybody want to move here? We have the lakes, hunting, fishing, a good lifestyle, the four seasons. I wouldn't want to live on the coasts. We have everything here."