Texas REALTORS® awards African-American woman top education honor

HOUSTON - April 6, 2022 - PRLog -- The Texas REALTORS® association confirmed what students have known for over a decade—Michica "Mish" Guillory is a commercial real estate expert and "amazing" instructor. Students who praised Guillory for being the "best instructor" would approve of her being awarded 2021 Educator of the Year at the February 2022 Texas REALTORS® Winter Meeting held in Austin, TX.

Russell Berry, 2022 Chairman of the Texas REALTORS® Board stated that "Michica's work rises to the occasion. We're proud and fortunate to count her among the treasured instructors who help keep students informed and educated about the many topics affecting real estate."

In 2021, Guillory earned the title of Senior Instructor and is one of only three African Americans to hold the Texas REALTORS® title. There are currently only nine total senior instructors in all of Texas.

And while the industry has seen some changes, women occupy only 36.7% of the commercial real estate industry with little advancement over the past 15 years according to the 2020 CREW Network Benchmark Study: Gender and Diversity in Commercial Real Estate.

For African Americans, those numbers are even fewer. According to a 2017 study by the Bella Research Group and the Knight Foundation, more than 75 percent of senior executive jobs in the U.S. commercial real estate industry were held by white men. White women held 14.1 percent, Black men held 1.3 percent of those roles, and nonwhite women held fewer than 1 percent of senior executive-level jobs.

"For years, I've had to vet myself. Every job I've applied for, even now when I stand to speak, I have to run through my list of credentials and experience to validate my reason for being in the room and it's exhausting," Guillory said. "Winning this very prestigious award hopefully means I will have to do less of that and makes entry and advancement easier for the next woman of color in this industry," she continued.

This makes Guillory's success and accomplishment even more noteworthy.

As a Black woman and a proud member of the National Association of REALTORS®, Guillory has a track record of historical "firsts" in the industry that include:

• Opening Texas' only TREC-licensed real estate school dedicated solely to commercial real estate education.
• Being the first person, the first woman, and the first African-American REALTOR® to earn the Texas Accredited Commercial Specialist certification from Texas REALTORS®.
• Being one of the three women appointed to the top leadership positions for Texas REALTORS® Commercial Committee. Guillory held the position of liaison in 2021 and is currently the committee's 2022 vice-chair.

During Guillory's successful career, she's worn many shoes—some stilettos and some steel-toed boots! While managing properties for institutional level investors and landlords, she's taken on some of the world's largest global corporations as tenants to recover more than six figures of unreimbursed expenses for her clients and has done the same in recovering five figures of unpaid expenses from local government entities.

Guillory created and launched her wildly popular and highly successful "Commercial Leasing 101®" class series in 2013. Her commercial real estate series of courses have been administered to real estate professionals from California to Texas to Georgia and always with glowing reviews. The success of her courses led to her opening Texas' only commercial leasing-focused real estate school, The Guillory Group School of Real Estate in 2016.

She has also shared her real estate curriculum through creative partnerships with the Houston Business Development, Inc., the City of Houston's "Liftoff Houston Business Plan Competition," and the Houston chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. She's also developed a special curriculum called B.Y.O.B. (Be Your Own Boss) for employees who want to learn about becoming entrepreneurs.

Guillory has been a regular contributor on "The Isiah Factor Uncensored" airing weeknights on Fox 26 and the streaming channel FoxSoul, and according to the show's host, Isiah Carey, has been a part of the program almost since its inception. Carey calls Guillory a "valuable asset" and not only does she offer "real-estate expertise when needed but she also brings independent ideas to the table for the program," he offered. "She's also spent many holidays volunteering with my charity group, The Dollie Rose Foundation.

"That required her to roll up her sleeves and organize toy drives for children each year. She is truly a valuable asset to this community and to me at The Isiah Factor Uncensored," he said of Guillory who has performed some act of community service annually since 1987.

Carol Y. Guess, Esq., of The Guess Group praised Guillory for her "mastery of commercial sales and leases." Guess summed up Guillory's career this way, "Michica has always been a force, and her time as a real estate educator is no different! I am not surprised that she has been bestowed this great honor!"

To register for Guillory's next Commercial Leasing 101® course or any of her other classes, please visit www.commercialleasing101.com.