Woman-to-Woman: Broker’s Career Advice for Succeeding in a Male-Dominated Field

Women make up only 36.7% of the commercial real estate workforce, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. And, just 29% of commercial brokerage positions are held by women, according to a Commercial Real Estate Women Network study. At the top, women hold only 9% of executive positions in commercial real estate.

The reality is that when it comes to pursuing a commercial real estate career, women have a different set of challenges to navigate as a minority in the profession.

In honor of Women’s History Month in March, LoopNet sat down with Dara Ellis, chief business development officer and broker at ReMax at Home and Maria Quattrone and Associates in Philadelphia, who has 40 years of experience in the real estate industry. She specializes in negotiation, overseeing large-scale residential and commercial development projects, procuring properties, enhancing portfolios, selling new construction properties and marketing affordable housing, and has a background in commercial leasing, entitlements and tenant retention.

Drawing on her decades of experience as a female pioneer in what’s traditionally been, and the data would show is still, a male-dominated industry, she shared one of her most important pieces of advice: always show up to the table with confidence. During our conversation, she talked about implementing that philosophy throughout her career to close deals successfully, and offered other important tips for women to thrive in a commercial real estate career.

Tell us about your career in commercial real estate — how did you get started in this industry?

I started in the business about 40 years ago. Like a lot of people, but especially women in general, I started as a residential real estate agent. [65% of residential Realtors are women, according to the National Association of Realtors]. At that time, I had a very good broker who was my mentor — she was a very good salesperson and knew her business. She used to say repeatedly: “Go into commercial, go into commercial, go into commercial,” because all the men were doing it. At that time, the big deals were large office leases where the agent got residuals over and over when the leases were renewed. Sounded like a cushy job to me.

Fast forward 25 years later, and I had become a real estate developer. My partner and I were developing a large office building. It was 250,000 square feet, which might not be large in the grand scheme of the industry, but it was for me at the time. The overall deal was probably in the $50 million range, which was a lot of money at that point in my career. Even though I was licensed, we were interviewing outside leasing agents from large, well-known commercial firms. What happened was, as the owner of the building, I ended up leasing everything, but the other agent got the commission. However, I was the one meeting the people at the property and touring it with them. I was the one negotiating the fit-out, and while the leasing agent was presenting possible tenants, I was the one doing all the heavy lifting.

If I had to do it all over again, I may have gone directly into commercial [before that project]. I listened to my mentor’s advice eventually, but it took me a long time to move into that sector. However, I think it was good for me to have such a varied background, especially when we enter a difficult time in our market like the one we are in now, because I can do a little bit of everything. You’re usually not going to see the larger commercial brokers selling a four-unit building in Center City, Philadelphia, or a small mixed-use property with a deli on the ground floor and a few apartments upstairs. But I can sell that, and I am happy doing it.

In your day-to-day work, are most of your current transactions sales or leases? What types of properties do you handle?

I do mostly sales, and that's by choice. I joined ReMax at Home under Maria Quattrone & Associates about six years ago, and this office is female-owned and very forward thinking. Using my background, we wanted to grow a small commercial division for the firm. I’ll do some leasing work, but I’m not competition for the large commercial brokerages — I don’t have a team of statisticians that work under me. I understand the numbers, but I don’t sell large investment-quality buildings or execute big leases for those types of properties. I have done many leases in the past, but they were mainly for buildings that I own. I sell the building that may have been a mom-and-pop grocery store or a local sandwich shop for 50 years.

Even though your residential sales and development experience helped shape your career, you mentioned earlier you might have gone into commercial earlier. What else do you wish you would have known when you started?

I wish I would've learned earlier in life not to be so nervous or worried about [being a woman in a man’s industry]. I realize now, decades into my career, that being a female doesn't matter. It doesn’t matter to my clients, because they don’t care that I’m a man or a woman, they care that I can close a deal. So if I worried about it now, I’d never get any business.

Let’s face it: we deal with bankers. That's a man's world. We deal with lawyers, that's a man's world. We deal with insurance companies, that's a man's world. Contractors, builders, developers, and most of these industries that we deal with regularly are more weighted towards men, and it’s just reality. And I think that's because traditionally in this business, women took care of the residential stuff and men worked on the business side. But I wish I had just let go of caring about that stereotype a long time ago.

I was also fortunate because I had a good mentor [when I was starting out] and learned good sales practices. You need to be a diligent worker, show up every day, employ solid techniques and be honest with your clients.

That’s great that you’ve arrived at that place of confidence now. But was there ever a time in your career when you felt that being female affected your career advancement; were there opportunities you couldn’t take advantage of?

I don’t think it affected my career trajectory personally because I have always had an entrepreneurial mindset. I sought out opportunities with female developers and female business owners myself.

But I see how it could impact someone in larger brokerage organizations. There are always things on a small scale or subtle discrimination that you will experience, but I don’t think that’s industry-specific. For example, when I was in development we were always entertained by bankers, lenders or contractors, and the typical thing they’d take you out to do was play golf. I would get asked all the time, “is your husband here?” Or asked how I got into the business, was it because my father was in the business? My father was a bartender, but he instilled in me that I could do anything that I wanted. Things like that always happen.

What’s the best piece of advice you were given that you’ve implemented throughout your career?

Whether they knew it or not, most of my best career advice came from my parents. It was, “always be prepared and always be early — not on time, early!” And they stressed to always be honest. If you don’t know something, don’t be afraid to admit that, but tell them you’ll find the right information. I was fortunate to have great parents who told me I could become anything I wanted to be. I think their advice would make someone a success in any field.

And then, my mentor who was a broker told me, “if you stick with this, and you show up every day, learn the scripts, make the calls and are knowledgeable about your market, you will become a success. Because only quitters fail.”

So, I am still the first one in the office every day and don’t shy away from making calls outside of hours when I need to get things done. There is always business to be done in commercial real estate, and you can’t shy away from hard work.

Do you have any advice for women, particularly younger women starting their careers, in the CRE industry?

The biggest piece of advice I have is that you must have confidence. Confidence is hard to learn. It's good to be prepared and you should know your industry, learning as much as you can from books, classes and mentors. That kind of education is amazing.

But the one thing you can’t teach someone is how to have self-confidence. What typically causes people to fail is that they don’t believe they can do something. But if you have that personality trait, to know and believe you’re capable, then when you go into a room, you know you can compete against a man that has confidence just because he’s in the right club.

That’s my advice to all women everywhere, in any business — one thing we can all do is come to the table with confidence. You are as good and sometimes better, smarter, more nimble or hardworking than a man in the room, but you have to show up and be confident about that.

We also must join the groups that have been traditionally mostly men. We must network in the areas where we may not feel comfortable. And I think that’s thankfully changing among younger generations.

What’s your proudest moment or biggest accomplishment in your career so far?

When I was in the real estate development business, I was a minor partner on a project. I had first worked for the company as a broker, and they liked my performance, so they made me a partner in the project, which was the first time I’d done that. It was a new construction, 263-unit single-family home community. Our competition at the time was all the huge, top national builders — industry names you would know — and we were a no name.

I oversaw sales and marketing and created such a dynamic plan that I pre-sold 120 homes, so almost half, from one billboard with no model homes, just paper plans. It took me meeting face-to-face with a lot of people and convincing them that they would get a good value if they were willing to hold on, because it would take some time to build the first houses. I used my rapport-developing skills and signed people up, got checks from them, went under contract and called 120 people once a week to update them on the project. I lost a couple of those 120 deals along the way, sure, but it created the success of the community.

What are some of the biggest challenges women face in the commercial real estate industry?

I know that this is starting to change in society, but honestly, I think one of the biggest challenges that is still prevalent is the burden of childcare, or the role of women as the caretaker in general when you factor in aging parents. I’m not begrudging either of those things at all, but it falls on us in a way it doesn’t fall on men. It’s a reality, that women, myself included, are the ones going to the grocery store, picking up the kids, etc., on top of doing their jobs. That’s changing, but it hasn’t changed completely.

You know, it’s really that old adage — Ginger Rogers did all the same things Fred Astaire did, but she did it in heels and went backwards while doing it.

Is there anything you think the commercial estate industry can do to better support the advancement of women's careers in this field?

I don't think the industry itself is doing anything on purpose, necessarily. But I think that as women gather more wealth, we're going to become the lenders. We’re going to become the building owners. And eventually, there won’t be this male and female dynamic where we are thinking so specifically about genders anymore. And that's already happening. So, I think the big thing people can do right now is check their mindset and ask, “why did I choose this person to represent me? Is it because of gender, or is it because they can close the deal?” It’s kind of a shame we still have this gender conversation, but it’s still a reality and a basic part of daily life . And, we aren’t the only industry where this happens.

I want to wrap up with encouragement. In my office, which is a female-owned company that’s very entrepreneurial and forward-thinking, we are seeing the glass ceiling break. While, of course, many of our clients are men, we are seeing more and more women developers, builders, family office owners … you name it, that we get to work with daily. It’s really rewarding.

This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.