2022 Women in Commercial Real Estate: Betty Friant, Kay Properties & Investments LLC

What advice would you offer to women getting into the CRE industry? I would say to find somebody else who’s in real estate and talk to them; ask them questions. I guarantee almost any real estate professional would love to provide advice to a young person just starting out. Because if you like the real estate business–I mean new home sales, commercial real estate or whatever else it might be – reaching out and talking to someone in the industry can be incredibly rewarding for both parties. I will guarantee you that almost any professional will give you time, take you to coffee, and help you decide what direction might be a good one for you to pursue.

In the past year, what project, transaction, or accomplishment are you most proud of? If I had to identify one specific deal, it would be my recent involvement with advising an entire family on several large DST investments. What happened was they owned $30 to $40 million worth of real estate and decided they didn’t want to be landlords anymore. So, they divested themselves of their real estate properties and wanted to turn them into DST investments. The Kay Properties team and I helped educate them on how to turn their portfolio into DSTs which would allow them to diversify into different asset classes, tenants, geography, and companies.