SPECIAL FEATURE
WOMEN TO WATCH
SONIA BOOKER Sonia Booker Enterprises Atlanta, Georgia
founder of H.J. Russell and Company, he was already a successful real estate investor and doing transactions unlike anything that I was doing. To get started, you really need to show that you have skin in the game and are willing to get your hands dirty.” Note: Booker spent nearly 11 years working directly with Russell in all areas of his business, including handling all areas of marketing, sales and operations. PROUDEST MOMENT: “I would have to say when this lady came up to me a few years ago and said ‘You know, you’re a pioneer. Watching you out in the market has made it OK for women to be real estate investors.’ “It makes me proud to know that I’ve had a little something to do with changing how women view real estate. To say that it’s OK, that we’re different, that we operate differently, and that we’re not only agents but that we operate on other levels as well.” A WORD FOR WOMEN IN REAL ESTATE: “Women are about information. We tell our girlfriends, our sister, our mama, our cousins. We look at things from the perspec- tive of how that information is going to make an impact in our lives, not just in our investments. I have found it to be true that if you teach a man [to invest], you teach a man. [When] you teach a woman, you teach the world, because we are sharers.” •
PLACE IN THE INDUSTRY: When Sonia Booker started investing more than two decades ago, “I did it all,” she says. That doesn’t seem to have
changed much. The self-described wealth-builder and thought leader not only buys and rehabs single-family properties to sell and rent, she also has an extensive commercial property portfo- lio, manages a private-equity fund that acquires multifamily and commercial buildings and is a prolific author and public speaker with her own radio show, the “Sonia Booker Show.” “Early in my investing career, I would just buy properties and live in them. That was my model,” she recalled. Upon completing the renovation, she would move out and either sell or rent the property. “I think I had moved 20 times before I got married,” she laughed. Booker would host information sessions in her living room on Wednesday nights during which she taught others, mainly wom- en, how to successfully get involved in real estate investing. Over time, she converted the information sessions to a short pamphlet that she sold for a few dollars or handed out for free, and out of that, her speaking and writing career was born. Through it all, however, she kept a firm grasp on her real estate roots. “I still eat and breathe real estate,” she said, noting that for her, “real estate is this kind of great wealth equalizer” because, at the end of the day, “we all have the same kind of leverage when it comes to real estate in that if you get the [requisite] knowledge [to invest], you can be successful.” WHAT’S AHEAD IN 2017: “I would say sharing my message more is the thing that I’m most excited about in 2017,” Booker said. “I’m creating a wealth-building movement that changes the way that people think about building wealth. The only way to understand it is to define it for yourself. For a lot of people—and especially for women—wealth doesn’t just mean money. It means generation- al wealth and leaving a legacy.” CRUCIAL “KEY” TO SUCCESS IN THE INDUSTRY: “Always take a self-assessment before you start investing and understand your resources. How much do you have to invest? How much are you willing to invest? What’s your credit? “When you go into relationships or you’re trying to gain access to someone’s time or resources, you have to be able to say what you will bring. Be very honest about what you bring and what you are trying to gain. “When I approached my mentor, the late Herman Russell,
CARRIE COOK Preferred Trust Company, Ignite Funding Las Vegas, Nevada
PLACE IN THE INDUSTRY: When Carrie Cook says success in real estate in general is earned, she
knows what she’s talking about. “I do not have an Ivy League edu- cation. In fact, I didn’t go to college until 10 years after I graduated high school,” she explained, adding that the mentor who suggest- ed she do so was, at the time, the head of the Democratic Party in Nevada and running government relations for a Fortune 500 company. “I thought to myself, ‘She’s pushing this for a reason,’” she recalled, adding that her degree from the somewhat uncon- ventional University of Phoenix taught her to work in a group setting. “It takes a group of individuals to accomplish what I’m accomplishing [in real estate], period,” she said. “This is the result of a teamwork environment. “This” is a small word to describe the extremely big things that Cook is doing these days. She is the CEO of Preferred Trust Company, a self-directed IRA custodian, and the presi-
26 | think realty magazine march :: april 2017
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