Feature
BY JENNA BAGCAL
Long Island City real estate
firm Modern Spaces has a
new leader at its helm of
its sales team.
Since joining the company in
November 2018, Kew Gardens
Hills resident Andres Emilio Soto
has quickly climbed the ranks, first
as an agent and now as Modern
Spaces’ new senior managing director.
Prior to working in real estate,
Soto was a college student majoring
in computer design and working at a
hotel. He recalled that the manager
at his job approached him with an opportunity
to work as a “tech person”
for his wife’s company.
“It happened to be a tech position
in the real estate office of
Alice F. Mason, who after meeting
the owner, thought I could do more
than just tech support,” Soto said.
“That’s when she hired me as the
office assistant and since then, I’ve
never looked back.”
From there, Soto started in real
estate in 2003 and has worked for
companies like Keller Williams Tribeca
and Exit Kingdom Realty. For the
past 17 years, Soto has cemented
his reputation as a “Queens real
estate guru” and has sold over $10
million in real estate.
Looking back, Soto never thought
that he would end up working in real
estate, let alone in a high ranking
position at a renowned firm. He admitted
that when he first interviewed
with the company six years ago, he
rejected the offer to become an
agent. But during that time, he kept
in touch with the company’s founder,
Eric Benaim.
“There came a point when I
thought about joining Modern Spaces
and Eric was like, ‘hey man, I’ve
been waiting for you,'” said Soto.
“When I joined Modern Spaces,
I had no intention of being in this
position, I just came here to be an
agent. But getting to know Eric
Benaim and all the agents, they
thought it would be a great fit,” he
added.
When managing a team of agents,
Soto said that he likes to go into
every scenario and look at it from
all points of view.
“I’m always willing to learn and I
hope every agent at Modern Spaces
is also willing to learn. Through learning,
you grow and through growing
you become a more experienced
agent and manager,” he said.
His management style is one
of support, where he backs up his
agents’ ideas and asks what he can
do to help. He encourages his team
to come to him with all ideas, no matter
how “out of the box” they may be.
“You can be a successful real
estate agent in many different ways
but you won’t know until you try,”
Soto said. “Not every idea is going
to be great but I’m here to bounce
off ideas.”
Soto said that the internet age
changed the way he and other
companies do business. Websites
and public aggregators gave buyers
access to information that was
previously only available to brokers.
“Now everything is on the internet
so we no longer have the ‘keys to the
apartment’ in that sense. But the way
Queens real estate has changed is
that we guide the buyer throughout
the entire process,” said Soto.
Since 2008, Soto said that in addition
to selling property to clients,
Modern Spaces has also worked
to become part of the the fabric of
Long Island City. The company gives
back to community and is part of
local organizations that donate time
and funding.
“That’s the kind of culture that
Modern Spaces has. A lot of the
people who work here have been
living in this community for a long
time. So for them, it’s not just a transaction,”
he said.
Soto, a lifelong soccer fan, runs
the NYCFC Nation podcast and blog,
which covers the New York City
FC soccer team and also enjoys
traveling.
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