'Do Not Enter' Signs Never Applied: A 40-Year CRE Veteran Reflects On Making It In A Male-Dominated Field

Reminiscing about her four-plus decades in the commercial real estate industry, multifamily investment sales broker Teresa Guidotti Lowery can think of several times when she’s had to go above and beyond to secure a deal or prove herself in the eyes of her peers, who have always been mostly men.

But one time stands out, and it kicked her career into high gear.

More than two decades ago, Lowery got in touch with Brian Murdy, a portfolio manager and consultant from Connecticut, who was looking for a very specific type of property. Lowery wanted to learn more and asked him to call her if he was ever in Houston so that they could meet for coffee.

“Brian calls me up on a Wednesday night,” Lowery said. “He said, ‘Hey, I’m going to be in San Antonio tomorrow. I’ve got a really full schedule, but I’ve got time for a cup of coffee … if you can meet me on the River Walk at 7 a.m.”

Lowery woke up in time to do her hair before she and her husband set off on the 400-mile round trip to San Antonio at 4 a.m. Lowery bets that 99% of male brokers wouldn’t have taken that in-person meeting, but it resulted in a $204M transaction that jump-started her career. 

“Something about women: We work harder,” Lowery said. “I’ve often made the joke that I would go clean the toilet at an apartment community if that’s what it would take to make the deal.” 

About halfway through Women's History Month, the executive vice president with Colliers Houston Investment Team sat down with Bisnow to discuss where the industry has been, where it's going and how she fits into it all.

The commercial real estate industry today is made up of about 36% women, a number that is close to the highest it’s ever been, though largely unchanged for the past 15 years. Women only accounted for 29% of brokers in 2020, a percentage that dwindles further when narrowing down to the pool of women investment sales brokers and to those specializing in multifamily investment sales. 

When Lowery got into the business, the number was exponentially smaller.

But being one of only a handful of women in a male-dominated environment never intimidated Lowery, who grew up in a family with six brothers and a father who worked as a professional drummer. Lowery was often invited backstage with the likes of Bob Hope and Rosemary Clooney as a child, learning that “do not enter” signs on the door did not apply to her. 

“I’m not afraid to push through doors and I’m not intimidated to talk to anybody,” Lowery said.

Lowery realized at a young age that in her big family, if she wanted something for herself she had to work for it. Starting with babysitting at age 10, she has never stopped working.

Now 73 years old, Lowery has been with Colliers for over 20 years, racking up accolades, including being named to the company's Top 10 producer list eight times and its Top 5 list five times. The Houston Business Journal honored her as a CRE Heavy Hitter on six occasions, most recently in 2020. 

And about that $204M deal? Lowery was awarded the 1999 “Transaction of the Year” by former employer Pinnacle Realty Management Co. for closing the largest deal in the company's then 20-year history.

That was a complex transaction that took seven months to close, but Lowery worked hard to bring exactly what Murdy’s group was looking for, said Murdy, who maintains a business relationship with Lowery today. 

“She took the extra effort to try to understand what we were going for and what we wanted to accomplish,” Murdy said. “She’s not just throwing stuff up against the wall.” 

Over her career, Lowery has racked up $8B in multifamily sales, according to her company bio.

Lowery fell into commercial real estate after a steel company she worked for in her hometown of Chicago offered her a job transfer to Houston with a subsidiary company. She quickly realized she wanted to grow in her career and wouldn’t have the chance to do so there, so she looked for a new opportunity.

Joe Colangelo, who Lowery said was partners with Harvey Houck Jr. and Charles Swain on some significant Houston developments, including the Westcreek apartments, hired Lowery to manage a brokerage he launched in 1980 called International Commercial Properties Co. 

Colangelo found Lowery poised for a relatively young person and discovered she had a remarkable ability to learn, he said.

“Teresa went from not knowing much of anything to being an office manager for what got to be 40 or 50 people, learning on the fly,” Colangelo said. 

Lowery knew nothing about commercial real estate or terminology when she started, but got an education sitting outside Colangelo’s office, listening, meeting investors coming and going, and completing any tasks that Colangelo didn’t want to do, she said.

“He’d say ‘Teresa is going to help you, she’s smarter than me anyway,’” Lowery said. “When somebody tells you you’re smart, if you hear it enough times you actually start to believe it. I thought, ‘I can do this.’ So I became licensed.” 

At the time, Lowery did not know of any other women who were multifamily investment sales brokers. So, Colangelo became her mentor, a role that didn't faze him despite the dearth of women in the field at the time.

Colangelo said his past experience and his marriage gave him a progressive view of what women could accomplish.

“Teresa was one of the early proofs that the future is female because they work harder,” he said.

When Colangelo retired, he watched Lowery's career take off. After getting licensed, she went commission-only because she could see that’s where the big money was, she said. 

Lowery went on to join Camden Property Trust as an acquisitions analyst in 1993, the year the REIT completed its initial public offering. She worked in the investment sales divisions of CBRE, then at Pinnacle before joining Colliers in 2001. 

“Nothing ever scared her,” Colangelo said. “There was nothing she couldn’t face, couldn’t figure out.” 

But being a woman in a male-dominated industry wasn’t always easy.

“I experienced the most crazy, stupid, awful stuff that anybody could ever think about,” Lowery said.

She got through it by reminding herself that was just the way some older generation men did business, she said. 

“Those guys got older, companies got smarter, and [they] began to pay attention to what was appropriate and inappropriate,” Lowery said. “As a result, I was able to stay in there long enough to survive.” 

But for a long time, she didn’t even know to have hope that progress would be made.

“We didn’t think about it,” she said. “The truth be told, we thought that’s just the way it was.” 

Back then, that meant making sacrifices. Lowery gave up having children of her own and did not marry until she was 45, she said.

“I was financially self-sufficient, so I wasn’t looking for someone to take care of me. But also, my career was my No. 1 priority,” she said. “I like being good at what I do. So I made sacrifices along the way … I did not get distracted.” 

Because Lowery had no female mentor in the industry as she was starting out, she strives to be one for others, including her niece Jenna Guidotti, an administrative coordinator in the Colliers Houston office. 

Her aunt’s work opened her eyes to a bigger world, Guidotti said, adding that sacrifices are part of what she’s learned from Lowery.

“She has made it very clear that in order to become successful, you want to make sure that you are actively involved in everything, every step of the process for the clients,” Guidotti said. “Just going out and being that No. 1 point of contact for them.” 

Lowery expects women to do their part in making the commercial real estate industry more equal. 

“I don’t think it’s the industry that needs to change. I think it’s the women’s approach to the industry that needs to change,” Lowery said. “What they’re willing to sacrifice to be successful in this business.” 

Work-life balance is a hot topic for women in the industry, but being an investment sales broker is much more than a 9-to-5, five-day-a-week job, she said.

“Maybe you can figure [only working 40 hours] out. Let me know what that formula is because … you're going to find me on the weekend in my car, doing the work that I know is critical to what I do,” Lowery said. “I can't do it during the normal business week.”

Lowery doesn’t know exactly when she will retire, but she knows it will be from Colliers. She said she believes in the company’s culture, values, mission and the leadership of the Colliers Houston presidents she’s worked under, including Fred Baca, Pat Duffy and current President Danny Rice.

She and Colliers share a common goal of accelerating the success of everyone associated with the company, including clients, sales professionals and support staff, she said.

“As I mentor young women wishing to enter this male-dominated industry, one of the first lessons I share is that it’s not about the money,” Lowery said in an email. “Be truly outstanding in every element of your professional and your personal life and you will achieve success. Money is a byproduct of adding value and doing good for others.”

Commercial real estate is not an easy industry to succeed in, Murdy said, but Lowery's persevering in it for more than 40 years is a testament to who she is.

“She’s a nice person, and ultimately real estate is a people industry,” he said.

Murdy has kept up with Lowery for 23 years since the $204M deal that got her going, adding that even today it is uncommon to see women doing the job Lowery was doing back when they met for coffee in 1998.

But he believes that can change with the right education about commercial real estate opportunities and mentors like Lowery.

“We need more Teresas in the industry,” Murdy said. “Everything’s becoming more gender neutral now ... Brokerage is probably the last bastion.”