Real Estate Industry Targets Youth

ANAHEIM-Real estate experts who gathered for the 17th annual Southern California Real Estate Conference yesterday expressed concern over a lack of young leaders within the industry. As the population ages and the Baby Boomers retire, many companies, according to panelists, are realizing that they have not found a significant amount of young talent to turn the business over to.

“As an industry, we’re relatively poor in training and establishing a platform for people to enter the industry,” said William Flaherty, senior vice president of Maguire Properties, during the Industry Leaders Talk panel. “This has been offset a bit by the community colleges and universities aggressively improving their real estate programs, but much more still needs to be done.”

Chris Hite, president of Coreland Cos., agreed, adding that he feels the upcoming generation can bring a slew of talents that will be needed for future real estate managers. “No longer does a real estate manager need to just be proficient in the operation of real estate, they now need accounting skills, they need to be Wall Street-oriented, they need to be able to manage people,” he said. “There is a shortage of very talented, young managers in the community. We’re not doing a good job of training and getting the message out.”