Women still rare in business realty
Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal - by Mary Gotschall and Scott Smith Contributing Writers
In Minnesota one is likely to find a woman selling a house and a man selling a business.
Nationwide, women brokers dominate the residential real estate market, but have yet to make a major entrance into the lucrative commercial market.
A 1996 survey of the National Association of Realtors, which has 720,000 members, showed that 54 percent of the association's residential realtors were women, while women were only 15 percent of commercial realtors, according to Jean Wussow, a spokesperson for the association.
Judy Puhl, executive officer of the Minnesota Organization of Commercial Realtors, said her organization doesn't track members by gender, but she expects that Minnesota aligns with the national trend.
The numbers at Edina-based Edina Realty, one of the Twin Cities' largest real estate companies, reflect the national trend. Women constitute 54 percent of the company's some 2,300 residential brokers and only 15 percent of the company's approximately 100 commercial brokers, according to Sara Christensen of Edina Realty.
More women might be residential brokers because selling houses might be an easier entrance point into the industry, Puhl said.
"Dealing with houses is a much more familiar thing for women than dealing with ... business property," she said.
But once in the market, women can thrive.
"I do know that the women who are involved are respected," she said.
In fact, the organization's commercial real estate member of the year for 1997 was Helen Brooks of Towle Real Estate Co., based in Minneapolis.
The organization also has two women on its 12-member board: Terese Reiling-Holden, of Welsh Cos. Inc., Bloomington, and Anna Murray, vice president of Results Real Estate, Minneapolis, Puhl said.
Murray has worked in commercial real estate for 22 years and agreed that more women might have gravitated towards residential real estate in the past because selling homes could be a part-time job, while commercial real estate would be a full-time occupation requiring more training, she said.
Also, a "good ol' boy network" still exists that can be a barrier to women, she said.
There is still a "terrible misconception" out there "that because this is heavy industry that a woman can't understand it or get up on the roof" to inspect a property, she said.
But those barriers against women are yielding. In the past, a woman broker might have been excluded from a fishing outing, or some other type of male-oriented business function, but companies and clients now know they can't afford to exclude women anymore, Murray said.
Murray also thinks more women are entering the field and that the increase of woman-owned businesses in the economy will enhance the opportunities for female real estate brokers, she said.
"I'd like to see more women in it. I think it's a great opportunity," she said.
Linda Zelm, senior retail associate at United Properties Brokerage Co., based in Minneapolis, said she thinks that there are more women in the residential market, since women are often "the decision makers" about buying a home. However, in the commercial market, a man usually makes the call about buying and selling.
"I think that it is only logical that men like to talk to men," Zelm said.
The length of time it takes to sell a commercial property and get a commission can also create a cash-flow problem for a woman with a family who needs to pay bills and buy groceries on a monthly basis, Zelm said.
"I think a lot of women don't like working on straight commission," she said.
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