Webinar #149: Empowering Women in Real Estate: Strategies for Success

Anna Atencio, CEO of Propy Title talks with Lizeth Jaramillo, Julieth Romero, and Denise Takara on International Women’s Day. Discussed are the unique strengths that women bring to the real estate industry, and why staying ahead of the curve on technology is so critical today.

Becoming a technology guru

Anna shares that she recently asked a well-known agent in the Denver Metro area what advice she had to give to someone new coming into real estate. The response Anna received was “to be a technology guru,” which is alignment with Propy’s focus on blockchain, cryptocurrency, Web 3, and the metaverse.

Lizeth agrees that understanding technology is critical, and states that as a realtor, “you need to understand where we are heading to be able to give the best advice to your clients.” She states that we’re currently in an economic and global reset, and savvy agents need to be on the right side of that change so they can offer their clients the new technology solutions that are now available.

“I think the word guru scares a lot of people,” explains Denise, “because technology in itself is so fast and ever changing,” but the key is to be aware of the new technologies, and learn as much as you can. As you learn more, you become more of an expert, and you can keep up with what’s going on.

According to Julieth, “we have to provide the best of both worlds to our clients, and be the bridge between technology and the regular way we transact to make it easier for our clients.” She adds that at the end of the day, a realtor’s job is to take the hassle out of the transaction for clients, and let them relax and enjoy the process, especially with the benefits of Web 3.

What inspired you to pursue a career in real estate? How have you navigated the industry as a woman?

Denise shares that real estate is one of the biggest industries in Hawaii and says that it seems like almost everyone you know has their real estate license. Initially, she was a small business owner in the hospitality industry, but when she transitioned out of that, she knew she wanted to stay in real estate in some way.

Technology brought Julieth into real estate initially when she handled a lot of timeshares. She believes it’s important to educate yourself as a real estate agent, and highly recommends becoming a Crypto Certified Agent. However, she thinks that empathy is a strong skill that women bring to the industry, and that natural ability to keep everyone happy is an asset as a realtor.

Lizeth initially started in the industry on the mortgage side, and then pursued getting her real estate license so she could do combos. However, what really inspired her to be a well-educated real estate agent occurred after she bought her first home. Seven months after being at the closing table, she learned that she was going to have a lien put on her property because she was never informed about the HOA that her home was part of. That incident made her realize that there was a need for real estate agents who do things the correct way, and who educate their clients so that they know exactly what they are buying, and what they need to be aware of.

What unique strengths do women bring to the real estate industry? How can these strengths be leveraged for success?

Denise shares that all the top real estate salespeople in Hawaii are women, and she feels this is because women are naturally nurturing, caring, and patient. Those soft skills allow women to connect in a natural way with their clients.

Julieth agrees with Denise that being nurturing is something women are good at, and says that at the end of the day women care about their clients and “want to build a relationship with them that will last for a long time.”

“I think that maternal instinct to care and make sure everything is in harmony for everyone involved and looking at the human side more than the economic part sets women apart,” states Lizeth.

Anna agrees and says that women are naturally caretakers and want to make people happy. That quality makes women want to go the extra mile for their clients. She gives the example of a woman realtor she knows who personally delivers wire transfer instructions to her clients because she doesn’t want them to experience wire fraud. Anna feels that its those small acts of caring that set women apart in the industry.

What advice would you give another woman who is just starting their career in real estate?

“If you want to be successful in real estate, you need to have technology and innovation,” Lizeth says, and explains that educating yourself about the emerging technologies is important. She adds that a lot of current realtors don’t make the time to educate themselves or understand how technologies work. “We have to focus on what the future of real estate will be, not look to the past,” she explains.

Denise agrees that keeping an eye on the future is important and be prepared to constantly learn and change as the Web 3 technology grows. Additionally, she encourages new agents to find a mentor in the industry so that “you can follow them, and listen to how they negotiate and set up contracts.” She explains that her mentors have taught her a lot of important skills that help her be successful.

“Innovation is your number one key to success,” Julieth explains, “whatever you want to do, just keep up with the technology.” Web 3 and blockchain will impact every industry in the near future and require massive adoption, so staying up to date on these innovations is critical.

Anna agrees that staying up to date on technologies and education are important for the success of any new agent. She stresses however, that no matter how advanced technology becomes, realtors are always going to be needed, and that we will always need the human factor in the industry. “Without the human factor, we don’t have any relationships to build,” she explains.

How can we work together as a community to create a more supportive and inclusive environment for women in real estate? What steps can we take to ensure that women are empowered to reach their full potential in this field?

Julieth thinks that Propy has done a wonderful job of building a community for realtors, and explains that is how she and Lizeth initially learned about Propy. They both had questions about blockchain and cryptocurrency in real estate and attended Propy’s first Summit to gain more knowledge. They discovered that the Propy community was one where they could reach out and get answers and support. Her advice to other women agents is to “find yourself a strong foundation, someone that can back you up, like a mentor, someone that could be on the speed dial, and have your back at all times.”

According to Denise, the key is “educating, educating, educating,” and says that in Hawaii people are scared of terms like cryptocurrency and blockchain. Because of that general lack of knowledge, she sought out Propy, and has gotten tremendous support from the Propy team.

In addition to finding a mentor, Lizeth recommends that women realtors look for community groups, meetups or Facebook groups for empowering women. Additionally, women can be adventurous and start their own groups for learning about crypto, blockchain, or other real estate topics.

When was the first time that you learned about blockchain?

Lizeth shares that she learned about cryptocurrency before she knew about blockchain because one their clients was heavily involved with cryptocurrency. She and Julieth took a mastermind class to learn about cryptocurrency, and then they attended the Propy Summit and learned more about blockchain, NFTs, and crypto.

Julieth adds that when she and Lizeth were learning about the potential of blockchain, smart contracts, and cryptocurrency, that they thought this was something innovating, and were surprised to find out that it had already been happening. It wasn’t as novel of a technology as they had first thought.

Like Lizeth and Julieth, Denise learned about cryptocurrency before she knew about blockchain. She first heard about crypto in the 2017-18 timeframe when Bitcoin shot up in price, but there were no exchanges in Hawaii to buy it, so she mostly forgot about it. Later on, she heard about blockchain, and started to learn about it, NFTs, and tokenization.

Closing thoughts

“I’m so thankful to have an opportunity to shift my career into the next level,” explains Lizeth, and says that her focus on blockchain and cryptocurrency has given her a different path from the thousands of other agents out there.

Denise shares that she is happy to be alive at this time with this innovation and adds “being here and seeing other women that are like-minded and excited about the same topics as I am makes me feel so appreciative.”

Learning about blockchain and real estate has shown Julieth that there are new ways to transact, and different ways to take her career to the next level. She encourages other agents to “be different and think outside of the box,” and adds that “being different can make a huge difference and get you to some great places.”

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