If there’s a word that defines the career of Liz Hurley, SVP/Partner in the Voit Irvine office, it’s persistence. The 40-plus-year veteran has been a top performer throughout her career, and that persistence has earned her a slew of “Top Producer” awards along the way.
Early in her career, when Hurley was interviewing at brokerages — including many of the top shops in Southern California — she was told by nearly every firm that women can’t make it in the business.
“Wow! That was pretty blunt,” Hurley recalls saying to herself. Her personality is such that she followed up with, “Just watch me. I can do it.” Hurley shared, “I like a challenge, and I’ve been wired that way since I was a kid. And that’s been my career path.”
Early Life and Career
Hurley was born in Monterey but grew up in Tustin in Orange County. She was a “typical California kid” spending her time skateboarding and riding her bike. Her father was a pharmacist, and her mother was a stay-at-home mom. She attended the University of Utah, her father’s alma mater. Following graduation, with no real plan for life after college, Hurley landed her first job at a title and escrow company.
“I ended up doing some title work initially and then moved into the escrow side. And honestly, what got me into real estate was that I was always around a lot of brokers, and I found myself thinking, ‘These guys aren’t that exceptional, I could do this and make a lot more money than I am now,’” she laughs. “And that’s what got me into real estate.”
Hurley began her career as a broker with a local brokerage firm in Park City, Utah. Selling residential investment properties, which were popular in Utah during the 1980s due to the tax structure at the time, she also did some development and commercial retail deals. Hurley says she took classes with CCIM to learn more about investment real estate, “but I basically taught myself. It was my initiative.” While working in Park City, CBRE approached her to work in their Salt Lake City office (when Salt Lake was a much smaller market). But Hurley told a friend, “If I’m going to do commercial real estate, then I want to do it in a bigger market where I can compete.”
The Big Shop Career
Hurley returned to Southern California, where she had spent much of her youth. A family friend who worked at CBRE got her an interview, and she landed a job. Hurley wanted to move into the industrial specialty; however, CBRE steered her towards retail. “The industrial brokerage community back in the 1980s was really closed to women, so that’s how I got into the office side of the business,” says Hurley.
She learned the ropes from senior brokers Jim Messenger and Ron Heim as a runner for their team in the City of Industry. Coincidentally, she started just one year after the current Voit CEO, Eric Hinkelman. “We trained under the same team,” says Hurley. Eventually, she moved to the Anaheim office, where she became a top producer. Hurley remained with CBRE for over a decade, but as the firm grew and the organizational structure became more constricted, she decided it was time for a change.
Her move to Trammell Crow allowed her to broaden her professional scope. “At CBRE, I was primarily doing leasing and didn’t feel challenged,” she says. “At Trammell Crow, I saw an opportunity to expand my real estate experience and reach, and to become more well-rounded. I got involved in investment sales and also learned the development side of the business. So, if I brought in a development opportunity, I could bring it to completion and stay involved.” The experience was reminiscent of her early days back in Park City, where she was almost exclusively involved in sales and development.
The Voit Years
When CBRE acquired Trammell Crow in 2006, Hurley moved to Cushman & Wakefield. Four and a half years later, she went to work at Transwestern. After five years, she had begun to tire of the big shop’s corporate culture and longed for the earlier days of her career, where there was a stronger sense of camaraderie and a family culture. “That’s what brought me to Voit, because Voit has a great culture,” says Hurley. “People get along. And yes, there’s competition. And yes, sometimes you have conflicts. But for the most part, people are straight shooters, and people get along. At this stage of my career, I just want to work with people I like and clients I like.”
Hurley came to Voit knowing that it was primarily an industrial brokerage firm, but there were also a number of successful office brokers. “So, I figured I could do well, but it was more for the culture, where I could take my book of business and do it in a much better environment.”
Bridging the Gender Gap
Hurley was a pioneer in her field, entering the brokerage industry at a time when women were still an anomaly. “The difficulty of being a woman in a male-dominated business in the 80s was that you had to figure out — which I did intuitively — how to be accepted like one of the guys without becoming one of the guys, and that’s the fine line you dance.”
Keys to Success
Hurley is grateful for the guidance she received early in her career, particularly from the senior brokers at CBRE who “taught me the nuts and bolts of the business.” But she credits persistence and a strong work ethic for her ability to survive and thrive in the business.
“When I was younger, a senior broker told me, ‘The reason you’re going to succeed in the business is because when you see a brick wall, you don’t put your head and shoulders down and try to go straight through it. You’re very good at figuring out how to get over it, under it, and around it, and your persistence is what’s going to allow you to succeed,’” Hurley recalls. “And I think that’s just my personality. I am very persistent.”
Hurley tells younger brokers (male and female) that she mentors that brokers need to have a “sixth sense, or you will not succeed in this business. You’ve got to have a strong work ethic. You’ve got to work hard. And you’ve got to be able to take rejection really well and not take it personally. That’s what’s kept me in the business.”
Hard work and persistence have been the hallmarks of Hurley’s success over the past four decades. However, a piece of advice she received from a major developer from Phoenix while she was working in Park City has been the overriding principle in her career.
“He told me, ‘The only thing you have in this business and will ever have is your reputation. So, you can’t lie. You can’t cheat. You’ll see competitors take shortcuts, and they’ll be making money faster than you. But the best advice I can give you is this: Look yourself in the mirror every morning, and if you still like who you are and you’ve done right by your clients, you will succeed. It may take you longer, but you will succeed.’”
“I took that to heart, and that’s how I’ve run my career and my whole life.”
Additional broker profiles are scheduled over the next few months. Check back to see who we highlight next.