{"id":118811,"date":"2019-11-08T05:00:47","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T12:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/?p=118811"},"modified":"2023-08-10T13:02:40","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T19:02:40","slug":"women-investors-real-estate-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/women-investors-real-estate-industry","title":{"rendered":"Why We Really, Really Need More Women Investors in the Real Estate Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n      <iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm\/?e=BIGPOC7688821942\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe>\r\n  \n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have been investing in real estate since 2002, but it wasn&#8217;t until earlier this year in 2019 that I attended my first major real estate conference. It as an amazing experience, yet I was completely floored by how few women attended the event. At first, I was thankful for the short bathroom lines. But as I scanned the room, it dawned on me just how under-represented women were in real estate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or, so I thought&#8230;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fast-forward a few months, I attended a popular women-focused real estate conference in Los Angeles, Calif., and I was <em>floored<\/em>! There were over 150 experienced, passionate female real estate investors in one room. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was truly a sight to behold! <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Which led me to ask the question: Why was there such a difference?&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sure, you can chalk a large part of the difference to marketing, however, I think that is only part of the story. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thinking about my own experience as a female investor in such a male-dominated industry, I&#8217;ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. I think there are a number of reasons why women are so under-represented in the real estate investment industry, which I will share below. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But I hope we as a community can continue to work on how we can bring more females into the fold and succeed together.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"b-blog__title\"><em><strong>Related<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/women-home-buying-purchases\" target=\"_blank\">Women Influence 91% of Home-Buying Purchases. So Why Aren\u2019t More Investing?<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4 Reasons Women are Under-Represented as Real Estate Investors<\/span><\/h2>\n<h3>1. Confidence<\/h3>\n<p>Women tend to be less confident in their investing knowledge and skills. <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This doesn\u2019t mean women actually are less knowledgeable or less skilled. However, I can confidently say after coaching many women and co-founding a local women\u2019s real estate investing meetup, the perceived lack of confidence is a very common theme.&nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The quandary is that information (perhaps too much information) is everywhere. And women can freeze up when it&#8217;s time to take action. They doubt themselves and question what steps to take next.&nbsp; It can be scary to go out on that skinny branch alone without the reassurance that you are making the right decisions.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>2. Time<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-main-slider wp-image-118895\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/time-702x336.jpg\" alt=\"no-time-investing\" width=\"702\" height=\"336\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<p>Women tend to struggle with finding time to learn about investing.<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The time struggle is <em>real<\/em> for men or women, However, I know women in my generation were raised with the narrative of getting a good job, get married, buy a house, and raise a family. From a young age, I was taught to put family duties first before myself\u2014making sure that the house was clean, the kitchen spotless, meals cooked, laundry clean, etc. And if you&#8217;re a mom\u2014watch out!&nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While attending a Tony Robbins course, one coach said that women struggle to get ahead in their business because of their \u201cperceived need to be supermom and the inability to step over the mess on the floor at home and go get the important work sh$t done.&#8221; This was an &#8220;a-ha!&#8221; moment for me. I felt like <\/span>someone had just given me permission to not do the laundry anymore<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">! (But that would be missing the entire point.) <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The point is, we are beginning to flip the narrative that family work is only about the house and kids. That this work also includes our investing\u2014making the financial health of your family a priority. (And today, I\u2019m afforded some grace if the laundry isn\u2019t done.)<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>3. Lack of a Support Network<\/h3>\n<p>Women are drawn to community. <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Going back to the stark difference in the two conferences I mentioned earlier, the first conference had a nearly all-male speaker line up and touted business workshops and networking meetings for your next deal. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the second conference had mostly female speakers talking about succeeding together through community, support, and personal growth. One conference felt more like a \u201chunt\u201d for your next deal or investor. The other felt more like a community to share resources in a more social group setting. Women crave a support network, and this industry doesn&#8217;t always feel supportive to women.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>4. Social Biases<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-main-slider wp-image-118896\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/woman-investor-702x336.jpg\" alt=\"successful-woman-investor\" width=\"702\" height=\"336\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<p>Women are stepping into their power (publicly).<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I want to also acknowledge the elephant in the room: Even in today\u2019s age of cultural awareness a man is seen as a smart businessman if he has massive success. If a woman has massive success in business, some find it unacceptable for her to have such drive and ambition. I have had my value as an investor questioned just because I was a woman. One investor told me a couple of months ago I couldn\u2019t invest until they spoke to my husband so he could \u201cexplain the numbers to me\u201d&#8230; <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I hung up<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">).&nbsp; <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m merely want to bring awareness that the gender gap still exists\u2014and very much so in the real estate world. It\u2019s only recently<\/span>&nbsp;acceptable for women to publicly crush it<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (thank you, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Lean-Women-Work-Will-Lead\/dp\/0385349947\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sheryl Sandberg<\/a>!), as well as claim their power and own their self-worth while not being judged for it. Thank you, BiggerPockets, for curating a safe and uplifting community for women!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"b-blog__title\"><em><strong>Related<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/female-advice-investing-real-estate\" target=\"_blank\">From Woman to Woman: There\u2019s No Reason to Be Intimidated by Real Estate Investing [Interview With Ashley Kehr]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>So, back to the question I left off with at the beginning of this article&#8230;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How Can We Recruit More Women Real Estate Investors?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fueled by ambition, the need to create financial stability for themselves and their families, save for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/8-ways-supercharge-retirement-real-estate-investing\" target=\"_blank\">retirement<\/a> or just build wealth, women are shaping the real estate investing landscape. While women currently only make up 30 percent of the real estate investor base, women are stepping into diverse investments, and bring the power of partnerships and community to grow their portfolios. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s a change that is welcomed and here to stay! W<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hen a woman joins our community here, how can we support her?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I think the evidence (although anecdotal) on how to develop better content and resources and offer support to women investors is clear.<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Create educational content that is confidence building, action-oriented, and time-leveraged to overcome the two largest obstacles anyone has to investing and speed up the path to success.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Continue to empower women to put themselves, and their family, financial health first.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cultivate an emotionally supportive community that is inspiring and collaborative.&nbsp;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Remember, it\u2019s not about the destination, rather the journey we are all in together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-114267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/5.2.jpg\" alt=\"ad-bookstore\" width=\"706\" height=\"125\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/5.2.jpg 706w, https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/5.2-300x53.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/5.2-702x125.jpg 702w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 706px) 100vw, 706px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>Why do you think women are unrepresented in the real estate industry, and how would encourage more women to invest?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Please share with a comment below!<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let me state the obvious: It&#8217;s a problem how women are under-represented in real estate. In this article I explain the four reasons why\u2014and what we can do to change that. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":214306,"featured_media":118899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5528,7119],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate-news","category-biggerpockets-daily"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/214306"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}