SPECIAL FEATURE
WOMEN TO WATCH
the lights” in any dark space that a property owner or poten- tial property owner might need illuminated in order to make a fully educated real-estate-related decision. “We do a ton of forecasting along the way, and we don’t only focus on for-sale real estate,” Gudell said, adding that her team also covers the rental sector of the industry and identifies and explores trends in more than 450 metro areas right down to the ZIP code level. “It’s our job to follow anything that we believe is timely, even things that aren’t talked about on the news,” she said, citing “certain gaps we’re seeing: homeownership gaps, education gaps [and] employment gaps.” But that’s not all. Gudell also has a busy schedule of interviewing, speaking, traveling, presenting and collaborating as part of her role as Zillow’s chief economist, which she took on about two years ago after joining Zillow in 2011 under then-chief economist Stan Humphries. 2017 in terms of the types of research that we’re covering. We cover the handful of traditional metrics associated with the real estate space, but we are making a real effort to really go beyond that and look at jobs trends and employment trends, for example, that will enable our users to get a better feel of everything in an area beyond housing but that in the end touches housing.” This expansion will affect not only buyers and sellers, but policy-makers as well. Zillow’s Economic Policy Forum in Washington, D.C., this year, titled “Mind the Gap,” will deal with a topic near and dear to Gudell’s heart: economic gaps and how they affect the U.S. population. “To make better housing decisions, you need a much fuller view of what is going on in people’s lives,” she said, noting that often looking at median housing numbers glosses over situa- tions that affect huge segments of the population. For example, “Affordability is a really important topic to be aware of and know more about,” she said, adding that increasing awareness of housing affordability will better enable real estate profession- als to “analyze what’s going on and offer advice.” CRUCIAL “KEY” TO SUCCESS IN THE INDUSTRY: “It’s incredibly important to marry the skills you learned in school with the really deep understanding and experience that the industry holds. Understanding how real estate works and how people make decisions is really important. “I think it’s really important to know how to interpret data and work with data. Take that data analysis class, that economics class, that statistics class, and remember there is also nothing quite like hands-on experience. So do whatever it takes to become a better keeper and better analyst of data and of trends.” WHAT’S AHEAD IN 2017: “My team will be expanding our footprint quite a bit in
PROUDEST MOMENT: “Hands down, I’d have to say I’m extremely proud of my team and what we’ve achieved over the years. We started out as a very small team, and I’ve had the pleasure of being a big part of growing the team and shaping the direction we would take, the topics we cover and the things we want to achieve and do in the real estate space.” A WORD FOR WOMEN IN REAL ESTATE: “Historically, from my angle coming from a background of academia and economic research, it’s been a relatively male-dom- inated field. But it’s starting to change. The unique thing about our industry right now is that we’re turning toward data; our decisions are very data-driven. Now is a great time for women to get involved in this space and have more opportunities to be active in this field as tech companies become more involved in equal pay and gender equality.” •
VENA JONES-COX Midwest Property Redevelopment Cincinnati area, KY
PLACE IN THE INDUSTRY: Vena Jones-Cox has been invest- ing in residential real estate in the greater Cincinnati area full-time
since 1989, and she’s completed more than 600 deals in the process. “I consider myself a generalist,” she said. “Every- thing I do is around single-family residences and smaller multifamily properties, but I let the deal tell me what to do with it. I do a lot of wholesaling. I buy and hold rentals. I do lease-options and land contracts. I do a lot of creative deals, and I use my IRA to buy and sell properties, all in the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana areas.” Jones-Cox is not just an active investor, however. She has spent huge amounts of time in the educational sector of the industry, as well. “I understand the challenges of being a new investor very well,” she explained, adding that this under- standing comes largely from volunteer work at local real es- tate investor associations in the area. “Watching people come in and have all these hopes and aspirations, then a year later seeing they had either bought a deal or they were gone [led me to] try to figure out why the ones that were gone, were gone, and why the ones that had managed to buy something had bought something,” she said. “New investors just need help. They need questions answered. They need somebody to meet them where they are and give them a leg up.” Jones-Cox
30 | think realty magazine march :: april 2017
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