Women in charge: Rockford area real estate group celebrates new officers

In a year that has seen a historically low inventory of Rockford area houses for sale and record high average home sales, a prominent association of local real estate agents is celebrating another feat.

Natalie Mulhall was sworn in last week as president of the NorthWest Illinois Alliance of Realtors, marking the first time in the organization's 100-year plus history that it will have an all-female team of executive officers.

"I'm not surprised," Mulhall said. "I work with these women every day. I know that we have a ton of smart, caring Realtors who do a great job for their clients."

The milestone — a female president, president-elect, secretary-treasure, and immediate past president — almost went without notice, she said.

"We were just talking, and then it was like, 'Oh my gosh. It's going to be all girls in charge.' And then we laughed about it. Then we thought, 'Wow! This really is something special.'"

More: Low inventory, high demand causing Rockford area homes to sell at breakneck speeds

The NorthWest Illinois Alliance of Realtors encompasses a six-county region, which includes Winnebago, Boone, Ogle, Jo Daviess, Carroll and Stephenson counties. Of its approximately 1,100 members, 58.4% are women.

The 124-year-old association's first female president was Marian Schwab Clark in 1975. Mulhall is the association's 15th female president.

A real estate agent for six years, Mulhall said many women find the profession to be an ideal fit.

"Women are nurturers, I think, inherently," she said. "We give a lot of care to our clients, and I think that really comes naturally to some of us. And you absolutely can be that career woman and a mom at the same time in this profession."

Lynn Hansel, president of the NorthWest Illinois Alliance of Realtors in 2009, said roughly for the past 30 years leadership roles have been shared by men and women.

"The truth of the matter is, there really is not a glass ceiling (in real estate) like you would have in a corporation, because we are all independent contractors," said Lynn Hansel, the association's 2009 president. "And the industry lends itself very well to women."

According to the National Association of Realtors, of the estimated 1.6 million real estate agents in the country, 62% are women.

NorthWest Illinois Alliance of Realtors CEO Conor Brown called the Alliance's all-female leadership team "absolutely remarkable."

"For a long time, real estate was really a men's profession," he said. "And so that brought on organizations like the Women's Council of Realtors, and things have become a lot more open and inclusive."

Chris Green: 815-987-1241; cgreen@rrstar.com; @chrisfgreen

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford area real estate group gets first all-female board