Peggy Cobrin had two compelling reasons for quitting her teaching job 11 years ago to become a real estate agent. The first was her son, Micky, who was 10 at the time, and the second was her kindergartenbound daughter, Ali. For nine months out of the year, Cobrin felt chained to a chalkboard, and she thought working in residential real estate would free up more time for her family.
In some respects, she was right. Despite working 40 hours or more each week, she “was always the mom who was available to go on every school field trip,” said Cobrin, now a broker at Baird & Warner Real Estate’s Buffalo Grove office.
Women seeking such flexibility have been drawn to real estate so they can set their own hours and work close to home while drawing a decent paycheck, said Steve Murray, editor of Real Trends, an industry newsletter. But the ones who rise to the top of the profession turn a common stereotype on its ear: Though generally married with children, these women are not, and never have been, the sort of people who treat real estate as a side job.
Kathleen Krist-Krueger, who reached $23 million in sales last year and was recognized by the Chicago Association of Realtors as one of the city’s top producers, said that to get to her level, “you actually end up working more hours than you would at a typical corporate job.”
Previously an attorney, Krist-Krueger, who owns Krist-Krueger Realty in Lakeview, said she has more flexibility throughout the day to run errands and check in on her children, who are 7 and 4. But make no mistake, she said: “It’s hard raising children as a very successful agent. Clients expect you to be at their beck and call, and they don’t understand if you want to take a Saturday off to throw your kid a birthday party.”
Although the industry used to accommodate women who wanted to work part time while rearing children, “the truth is, it’s just not like that anymore,” Krist-Krueger said.
Some major firms, such as Chicago-based Koenig & Strey GMAC, won’t take on part-timers. “We need people who are willing to make a full commitment,” President Chris Eigel said. “People who want to earn a little extra money here and there–that doesn’t work for us or our clients.”
This edging out of part-timers is one of several ways residential real estate has evolved in the decades that women have dominated the sales force. While women are gaining ground at the upper echelons, they are losing their grip on sales jobs as more and more men–drawn by the potential for sky-high salaries–become agents.
Moving up the ranks
“I’ve been in this industry for 28 years, and in that time women sales agents have always outnumbered men,” Murray said. “But probably the biggest change is how many women are moving up into senior management roles with major real estate firms.”
In 2003, women held 54 percent of agents’ licenses, down from 57 percent in 1981, according to the National Association of Realtors. But that same year, for the first time ever, women made up a 52 percent majority of real estate brokers, who may manage other agents after passing an additional licensing exam and generally earn substantially larger incomes.
“What happened is a lot of very smart, college-educated women who entered the field for its flexibility have developed their skills so much that when their kids grow up, and they have more time to devote to their careers, they’re unstoppable,” Murray said.
Cobrin fits this description. With one child in college and the other in high school, she has increased her average workweek from 40 to 60 hours, annually exceeds $20 million in sales, and is now the No. 1 agent in her office and No. 13 in the entire Baird & Warner firm. She makes enough money to own a second home–a condo in Chicago, where she and her husband and daughter spend three nights each week–and to spend two weeks each winter in Aruba. She earmarks no less than $100,000 of her yearly earnings for advertising.
But with success comes sacrifice. More than once, Cobrin has won cruises from Baird & Warner based on her sales performance, but she has never gone because her schedule already is jampacked with family and work responsibilities. And though she attended both her children’s sporting events (each were involved in four or five activities) and coached her son’s basketball team, there was a catch: “I could be at a track meet, and whenever my son wasn’t running, I’d be on the phone with clients,” she said.
Residential real estate nevertheless remains an attractive career choice for moms. Women who tire of traveling for corporate jobs often switch to real estate, Murray said. And women who want to return to the work force after taking time off to raise children often gravitate to real estate because it allows for relatively easy re-entry. Licensing requirements differ from state to state, but most, including Illinois, require only 45 hours of instruction followed by an exam and sponsorship from an established broker.
Most firms are more than happy to hire moms because “they tend to be very involved in the schools and their church and their kids’ activities, so they come in with a great network of potential clients and a lot of knowledge about the community” in which they’ll be selling, said Eigel, of Koenig & Strey GMAC.
Cobrin, who in a pinch would take her kids with her to show houses, said having children helps her establish and cement relationships in real estate: “Even single clients, repeat clients, will come back to me every few years and want to know what my kids are up to.”
Nurturing qualities valued
Moreover, the nurturing qualities associated with mothers are seen as assets when dealing with first-time or nervous home buyers, who often require hand-holding.
Compared with their male counterparts, female agents “get more involved in the emotional end of things,” said Karen Friedel, president of the Illinois Women’s Council of Realtors and an agent in Realty Executives’ Geneva office. “Buying a home for the most part is an emotional experience for people, and women are in tune with that situation.”
Women’s emotional involvement might explain in part why they aren’t as drawn to commercial real estate, a male-dominated field where transactions are more coldly calculated, she added.
Perhaps adding to the ever-increasing appeal and changing face of residential real estate is the Edie Britt character played by Nicollette Sheridan on ABC’s hit series “Desperate Housewives.” An evidently successful real estate agent, Edie lived in a house as impressive as any of her clients’ (before her rival torched it), wears fabulous clothes and drives a fancy car.
But industry professionals urge people to bear in mind that only a small fraction of brokers and agents ever break into the highest income brackets. The National Association of Realtors average member is 52 years old, has been in business for nine years and works 46 hours a week for a gross annual income of $49,300, according to the 2005 member profile released this month. To get to the top and stay there requires constant toiling.
Jennifer Ames of Coldwell Banker in Chicago consistently ranks among the Top 10 agents in the city, and she doesn’t intend to get unseated. She is expecting her first child in September and is making plans that will permit her to parent without lightening her workload.
From her real estate earnings, she already has assembled a salaried staff consisting of a scheduler, two licensed sales associates and a graphic artist who designs her marketing materials, and she most likely will add a live-in nanny to the payroll. She’ll take two weeks off after she delivers, and then resume her 70-hour workweek.
As she put it, “I don’t expect to be watching a lot of Barney.”
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54% of real estate agents are female
55% of brokers/broker associates are female
50% of full-time sales agents are female
Source: National Association of Realtors
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ctc-women@tribune.com
