Jose Ponce’s entrepreneurial story began in 2003 as one of five agents that started RE/MAX Gold. “I felt a deep passion to assist my Latino community in helping purchase homes,” said Ponce. During that time, he assisted thousands of families with purchasing or selling their homes and started a lending platform for local banks.
In 2016, after his predecessor passed away, Ponce purchased the company and expanded it in various surrounding markets. Since its inception, the real estate agency has impacted the local economy with $800 million dollars in sales and other subsidiary sales that revolve around the real estate industry as a whole.
Most recently, Ponce made the move to switch real estate brands. “It was definitely a challenging sacrifice, but it will be well worth it in the long run,” he said. “We continue to find innovative ways to reach our consumers and remind them that we are still an industry that requires human interaction.”
EXP STL is a full-service real estate agency working with buyers, sellers, development projects, land acquisitions, industrial and commercial real estate. The firm is the largest Hispanic/Latino business in the region and is the second-largest minority-owned business in the St. Louis market.
Under Ponce’s leadership, the firm’s efforts have been a pivotal component in the real estate market. “I have positioned our community to have options on how they proceed to find proper financing, proper representation, education, proper translation, opportunity for business lending and helping them accomplish their dream of home ownership,” he said. “I have made long strides throughout my career to make certain that we are a community that is being represented on a larger scale.”
In 2017, Ponce was awarded the Diversity and Inclusion Award by the St. Louis Business Journal. He has also been named a 30 Under 30 and earned the Lifetime Achievement Award for earning over a million dollars in commission with Remax.
“I take pride in having a multi-cultural, diverse community of agents and staff and I will say that most of this comes from my upbringing,” said Ponce. “I was brought up to respect others no matter what their choices are and what nationality they might be from.”
As a leader and a real estate professional, Ponce said he has a gift to be a great listener. “I prefer to listen rather than being the voice heard,” he said. “You tend to find out more when you sit and listen rather than speaking.”
For his commitment to the community and the industry as a leader who leads by example, Ponce has been named a titan.
