"I see no barrier (for minorities) to top management due to race," George D. Livingston, founder/president of Maitland, FL-based Realvest Partners Inc., tells GlobeSt.com. "Experience, ability and success rule."

At his own firm, Livingston concedes, hiring minorities of either gender to middle management and top-level positions, has been challenging and not always successful. "I have personally found it hard to recruit minority brokers, and we have tried," says Livingston, a longtime committee member of Fiabci, the Paris-based organization of international corporate real estate executives.

Realvest has one African-American broker. The company's controller is also African-American. Realvest is also scouting for an Arabic-speaking broker. "For minority brokers to advance, they first need experience and then success at what they had been doing," Livingston tells GlobeSt.com. "Keep in mind that, until recently, there were few minorities in this business. In many cities, for many years, you saw few women running real estate companies or brokerages, but that is not true anymore. The same will be true for minorities if they get into the field and can prove themselves."