If you thought commercial real estate was reserved only for men, take another look.
The number of women in this male-dominated industry has been growing steadily for some time, and Janet Pirrello – senior vice president at Boston’s BayNorth Capital and newly-elected president of New England Women in Real Estate (NEWiRE) – is just one example of how women are climbing to the top in commercial real estate.
Pirrello, who grew up in Somerville, recently sat down with Banker & Tradesman to discuss the future of women in commercial real estate and let us in on her secrets to being a successful female in this male-dominated field:
Women Advancing Women
“I have to say that when I moved into property management in the early 90s there weren’t many women. When you went to events, there weren’t many women in the room. Even now, if you go to industry events it’s a lot of men,” she notes.
It’s a different feeling, she comments, when she walks into a NEWiRE event, “and it’s about 300 to 400 women … which is always nice.”
Pirrello says she didn’t encounter obstacles in the industry because she’s a woman.
“I know that other women do, but I never let the fact that I’m a woman be an obstacle for me,” she says. “I work with all men, except for the administrative staff, and we’re 10 professionals in all. I was hired by a woman [at BayNorth] through a NEWiRE connection. So, I think that helped me come in as a woman because I think women like to advance other women.”
Change Coming
As for whether the male-dominated commercial real estate industry will change over time, Pirello remarks, “It’s tough to say because I don’t know why there aren’t more women in commercial real estate.
“I think that it’s the whole change of women in the workforce,” she continues. “More women now are getting out of the house and working. I just think it’s expanding, and women now are not afraid to explore different avenues that they might not have thought about in the past. You would hope there’s becoming more parity as we move on.”
NEWiRE’s Role
NEWiRE plays an important role in encouraging women to enter the commercial real estate industry, Pirrello notes.
“One of the things we try to do too at NEWiRE is go into colleges and expose women to real estate because I don’t think it’s something that women automatically think about doing,” she explains. “We also give out a scholarship every year to a student – a woman who is pursuing a career in commercial real estate.
“We do a lot of mentoring in NEWiRE [for current members and students] and have a lot of events,” Pirrello continues. “We’re great networkers and we open our events to non-members as well so people can see the organization.”
NEWiRE offers informal networking events for small groups, so that new members feel welcome.
“People like to network in smaller venues, so we actually hold a lot more events where it may be a dinner for 10 people or 20 people,” she says. “We find that people like that better than walking into a room with 100 people, [often finding] it’s difficult to network.”
For members, NEWiRE has a legacy lunch series, in which a past president or longtime member hosts an open discussion and talks about her experiences in the industry.
“It’s been a huge success,” Pirrello says. “Women will tell their stories and you realize that in real estate, the way in which everyone has gotten here is just so different.”
Network, Network, Network
Pirrello advises women starting out in the industry to mix and mingle.
“Real estate is all about networking, and I think in Boston the real estate community is pretty tight-knit,” she says. “For a lot of people, it’s built on relationships.”
Start somewhere with a large firm that exposes you to different industry niches, she suggests: “It may be brokerage. It may be management. It may be investment sales.”
Explore different options, and join organizations, Pirrello adds.
“Get exposure to different people because real estate is such a relationship business,” she says.
