ON May 23, 2010, Howard Johnson Jr was building up to a grand announcement that he was convinced would transform Jamaica’s real estate industry. Journalists were in the room, waiting for the story — then they all rushed out.

“We were going through the preliminaries and then news broke about the Tivoli incursion. We were left with a lot of food and the announcement still yet to be made,” Johnson Jr told the Jamaica Observer with a chuckle last week.

He can laugh now, because, despite its shaky start, Jamaica’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS) has done what he thought it would do.

“Fourteen years later, it is our flagship product of the Realtors Association of Jamaica (RAJ), having created a level playing field,” said Johnson Jr, 27-year industry veteran and CEO of Howard Johnson Realty Group Limited.

In recognition of the hand he had in the launch of the MLS, the RAJ conferred him with lifetime membership status at its annual general meeting in late June. It was also a way for the association to honour his “long-term commitment, contribution, and service to the organisation and the wider real estate industry”. The accolade is the highest recognition RAJ can give its members, and Johnson Jr is only the fourth person to be bestowed with the honour.

It came as no surprise that he was selected, because for those in the fiercely competitive business of real estate, the significance of the MLS cannot be overstated. Johnson Jr had seen how the system brought order and fairness to real estate in North America and he wanted that for Jamaica.

“As a newbie in the industry, you’re competing with persons who had their names etched in the industry for years, and a lot of things are going their way. As a newbie, you had to fight to break into the industry,” he told the Sunday Observer, describing what it was like before the MLS provided a level playing field in any geographic location.

Through his hard work, a vendor was identified to solve one of the major stumbling blocks that had prevented a local version of the MLS being set up: the fact that real estate transactions in Jamaica were done in multiple currencies. Johnson Jr stuck with it and finally the system was up and running despite scepticism because of the interrupted media launch.

The MLS is essentially an online marketplace that brings agents from both sides of a transaction together to hammer out deals that are the best possible outcome for their respective clients.

“Whether you’re seasoned or a newbie, all your listings are inputted into a database. Once any real estate agent has an interest, then a natural co-broking transaction or co-working arrangement exists. Therefore, everyone has an opportunity to sell some of these big properties — and even some of the small properties — it doesn’t matter who you are,” Johnson Jr explained.

He estimates that about 95 per cent of Jamaica’s real estate practitioners use and benefit from the MLS.

Because of the work he did locally, his international profile was boosted. The Washington, DC-based National Association of Realtors (NAR), of which the RAJ is an affiliate, saw his value as a source for insight into the Jamaican and international markets. Johnson Jr was the first Jamaican ever appointed to the NAR’s board of directors, in 2014 he was the first Jamaican to receive the International Realtor of the Year Award, and he has been asked to serve on many global councils over the years.

“I have been appointed to these committees to help the global division of NAR reach into different territories and also to give my experiences coming out of Jamaica,” he explained.

His wealth of experience comes from building Howard Johnson Realty Group from the ground up after he stumbled into real estate. Recovering from surgery, he had returned to Jamaica from the United States in 1995 when he became fascinated by watching his father Howard Johnson Sr in action as a real estate agent. He became qualified and one of his former tutors turned mentor Valerie Levy — from Valerie Levy & Associates — hired him after he completed his studies and got licensed.

By 2005, Johnson Jr had worked his way up to being a broker, ready to start his own company. His father was the first agent he hired.

“I kind of forced him, because I created the company and everything and just told him, ‘Wi starting next week.’ He was shocked, and it was a little bit difficult for him to tell his previous boss that he was leaving, as he was the sales manager. But then he said that he had no other choice but to support his son and to join the business that has his name,” Johnson Jr said with a chuckle.

His father passed away in 2023, but he has lots of memories like that to make the loss bearable, and he is proud of what Howard Johnson Realty Group has become. During its almost 30 years, the company has brokered the sale of multi-million-dollar properties, including hotels; represented blue chip companies; and its extensive client list includes diplomats and expats. They have a lot of repeat clients, something which Johnson Jr attributes to the level of service they offer. They have also branched out into another segment of the market, and HJ Property Management has become so successful that it is now a separate entity. Its portfolio contains about 40 complexes across Jamaica, some of them among the country’s most premier offerings.

Driven by a desire to honour his late father’s memory and by his own love for the business of real estate, Johnson Jr is saddened by those who use the industry for nefarious reasons, such as money laundering and those who enter the profession as a “hustle”, focusing on money instead of providing impeccable service.

“Many of us, the old-timers, see it as our prized possession — this is our career! We treat it as any other profession would be treated, such as the legal fraternity, the medical fraternity; we are the real estate fraternity. But others don’t see it or appreciate it as such,” Johnson Jr said.

For him, real estate has always been a career choice, not an option, and he has spent the last 27 years doing what he can to make the industry better.

“I have had many highs where I have been able to see families move into homes; sell properties of high value; some properties that no one thought could be sold, I was able to move them. I was able to interact with different demographics of the Jamaican populace across the island,” he said as he looked back.

“I have served in the RAJ, I have served on the Real Estate Board for many years, from 2010, and in other capacities on different committees for different agencies — just in the interest of having the industry move in a particular way and for the betterment of our profession,” he added.

Clearly, his work is getting noticed.