Once a male-dominated industry, more women are entering the commercial real estate field

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When most people think about real estate, the mind quickly associates it with houses. But there are many sectors under that umbrella term, and they all come with various expertise.

The residential real estate market has traditionally been staffed by women, who make up the majority of agents. The National Association of Realtors reported that 62% of its membership is female.

In the world of commercial real estate that number is almost opposite; just about one-third of brokers are women. As of 2023, there were approximately 2.9 million commercial real estate brokers in the U.S., and around 37% ― or just over one-third ― are women.

But that number is growing, and women brokers in Idaho are doing their part to bolster their ranks and support one another.

One such example is Summit Commercial Real Estate Group in Boise. The firm was started by LeAnn Hume, Andrea Nilson, Julie Kissler and Cory Perry at the beginning of the year.

Hume and Nilson began their careers together at the Albertsons corporate real estate office in 1998 and 1999, respectively, learning the ropes in commercial real estate but from the client side to start. That insight informed their careers through the years.

In 2011, the duo opened an affiliate office of Cushman & Wakefield with other colleagues in the industry. Cushman & Wakefield eventually became a global corporate entity and that’s when Hume and Nilson decided to make a change.

“The corporate structure was just so much different. You’re publicly traded and it just took our focus off of serving our clients,” Hume said. “We’ve been doing this for 25 years, we can do this on our own, took the leap, and we felt like this was the best way to have the highest level of service for our clients.”

When the decision to open Summit was made, the team didn’t solicit any clients. Instead, they relied on the relationships they had made over the years and many of those clients followed them into the new endeavor.

“This is a relationship business. Residential [real estate] is very transactional, and [commercial] is very relationship-based,” Hume said. “So we’ve been building those relationships for the last 25 years.”

Summit focuses solely on retail, with about 65% of their clients tenants and 35% landlords, though they also represent sellers and buyers. The team said their client base is around 100, but not all of those are active.

Nilson pointed out that the firm’s relationships expand beyond clientele throughout the state and beyond its boundaries.

“We have great relationships with two or three brokers in Salt Lake City, we have great relationships with two or three brokers in Portland, same with Seattle, same with all over California. … In my mind it’s just important to have the states that are around you,” Nilson said, adding Montana and North Dakota to the list. “It’s kind of nice because we can use the relationships we’ve built over the years and work on bringing those new concepts into the market.”

Hume believes the difference in numbers of women in residential versus commercial real estate comes down to differences in how each industry works.

“Residential is nights and weekends and there are emotions involved. Commercial is Monday through Friday business hours and they’re business decisions,” she said.

“So women are very good at residential side of managing relationships when there are so high of emotions involved. In commercial, it’s a tough business. Not that women can’t do it. I just think women are not as attracted to this side of the business because it can be brutal.”

She added that it can take around five years to even begin to get traction as a commercial real estate broker with “10,000 hours of work before you even know what you’re talking about. It’s a very steep learning curve.”

One of the places where it’s evident that women are a minority in the industry is at the annual International Council of Shopping Centers Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hume estimates that one in 10 brokers attending the convention is a woman. She’s not the only one noticing the difference.

“Honestly, there are certain moments where it’s clear that you are a minority,” said Holly Chetwood, a commercial broker and partner at TOK Commercial in Boise.

“I definitely sense that when I go to large conventions ― like every year I attend the International Council of Shopping Centers Convention in Vegas ― and the percentage of women that attend that is growing year by year, but there are definitely those moments.”

Those moments, she said, are fleeting because she focuses on the work and taking care of her clients.

“If you just focus on the clients, those other issues tend to fall away, for me anyway,” Chetwood said. “I can’t speak for all women. Everybody has a different experience. But, for me, it’s all about the work. It’s about the clients and it’s about the colleagues.”

She added that the men she works with in the industry are “high-quality, well-educated and respectful,” but acknowledges it’s not always that way for everybody.

Kelly Schnebly, a commercial broker and partner at Colliers in Boise, came to the commercial real estate industry from a background in property management in Seattle and Bellevue, Washington. Though the commercial side of things is seeing more women brokers, she said some sectors still tend to be male dominated.

“Industrial is still incredibly male dominated. As a property manager, when you’re at a warehouse talking to a bunch of guys, they tend to assume you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Schnebly said. “I could see where that probably carries over into brokerage as well of that aspect of being taken seriously and that you know your stuff.”

Though the work has its challenges, one way that women in the industry tend to stay at it is through mentoring and networking, supporting one another.

“Even though we are an affiliate [of Colliers] we are tied into all of the corporate stuff, so they have different employee resource groups and they have a really well-established women’s network,” Schnebly said. “They’ve been able to show that that’s helped to get more women into higher level positions.”

The education aspect of commercial real estate has become a major focus for Mallisa Jackson, who recently opened her own firm, Mallisa Jackson Premiere Realty, which is an affiliate of EXP Commercial.

Jackson still works in the retail sector of commercial real estate, but she admits that it wasn’t easy to get into. She wants to change that for others.

“I’ve been putting together and documenting everything that I’ve learned over the past 11 years of getting into this industry,” she said. “And with my national connections with coaches such as Les Brown, John Maxwell and those kinds of people, and what I’ve been able to do with my motivational speaking business, I want to be able to combine those two and help a lot of people with getting educated on how to do commercial real estate and taking that experience level for the client to the next level.”

Even though she works within Idaho and is based in Meridian, Jackson’s affiliation with EXP, she said, gives her a more global reach to do the work she wants to do in educating others. From her research, she said there’s about a 90% failure rate of people trying to get into the industry, no matter what their background is.

“I’ve had some great mentors along the way, but it’s definitely kind of something that’s just learned. There aren’t a lot of courses or anything like that,” Jackson said. “Now it’s time for me to step into this role and get some junior brokers involved, get a lot of mentees involved, and see what we can do to help with that education level.”