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At the end of April, She Has a Deal (SHaD), a real estate investment platform that creates new pathways to hotel ownership and development for women, hosted the finals of two pitch competitions, one for “Early Career” women who are either in college or recent grads, and the new “Today’s Woman” for women more established in their careers, but still novices in the world of real estate. As part of the experience, all the women completed more than 40 hours of intensive hotel investment education to learn how to source, evaluate and raise capital for a real hotel deal as part of the SHaD competition.
Last week, we interviewed Early Career winner, Morgan Mason, and this week we're chatting with the "Today's Woman" winners, Shanttel Liberato, Nichole Wiggins, and Jessie Glassmire, who competed as a team "GLoW Investing."
Hey ladies, congrats on winning $50K! Let's go back a piece, how did you learn about SHaD?
We heard about SHaD through Nichole and she learned about it after telling her mentor that she ultimately wanted to own hotels and other commercial real estate.
Give me the run down, what stages are you in your career? How old are you and where are you all from?
Shanttel is a Project Manager of DEI in DC, Nichole is a Senior Consultant in Dallas and Jessie is a Finance Manager in New York. We are all 30.
What inspired you to do the program?
Nichole and Jessie have always wanted to own hotels. Their experience with properties in ownership meetings really strengthened that desire because they were almost always the only woman in the room. Shanttel has a passion for DEI, the E stands for equity, and her experience in operations created a goal of seeing more women and POC in the position of ownership.
How did you become a team?
Nichole and Shanttel spoke years ago about investing in someone else’s project or deal. Nichole remembered that conversation and asked Shanttel if she would be interested. Although Shanttel was busy with school and work, she didn’t hesitate and brought Jessie on board. Nichole and Shanttel met in college through the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality, where Shanttel’s husband and Nichole were on the National Board together. Jessie and Shanttel attended Penn State University together and studied hospitality; they even studied abroad together.
You all are working full-time jobs or in school, how much extra work is SHaD per week? How did you manage with your other commitments?
Shanttel actually finished her MBA last month, Jessie was promoted and Nichole switched from industry to consulting. SHaD is easily 5 hours a week, between workshops, additional calls with luminaries, and underwriting deals. Often our schedules managed us. We often needed to cover for each other depending on what was going on at work, school, or personal. But this program was very important to us. We knew it wouldn’t be easy or fast, but these are the seeds planted that will take years for us to harvest.
What did you learn by doing the program?
So much!! The SHaD program is complete with resources; education, tools, and a network across the industry.
Why do you think your team won?
We really understood our deal and we looked at previous pitches. We noted how the winners were extremely clear about the demand, financials, the return, and risks. Our underwriting was also fairly conservative, several of the judges noted how are assumptions were realistic.
What was your deal?
We actually had two Hampton Inn properties, located in the Houston metro area and Baton Rouge, LA. We also won the Viewers’ Choice award!
Will you complete your deal?
Since the competition, our work has not stopped or slowed down. If we don’t complete the deal that we pitched, we will continue to talk to brokers, conduct market research, analyze supply and demand and run financial models. In addition to this underwriting process, we hope to partner with TLT Solutions and submit offers where we see great investment opportunities. We actually submitted an offer for another property on the Friday of the competition.
What’s next?
We make an amazing team and we will continue to underwrite deals, submit offers, get PSAs (purchase sale agreements) and close after due diligence. Hopefully these Hampton Inns are our first of many deals! We have a great cadence of meeting in the evenings after work and on weekends. Since day one, our team has stuck to our investment parameters and philosophy which really guides the focus. Finally, we continue to build awareness of GLoW, SHaD, and the mission to bring more women to the closing table.
“I’m so proud of Morgan, Jessie, Shantel, and Nichole,” Tracy Prigmore, founder of SHaD told Hotel Business. “All of the pitches were excellent, and they really put in the work required to deliver a thorough pitch and stand out. The world is yearning to experience the brilliance of these women in hospitality.” She added, “This year’s event was extra special as we hosted our first ‘Power in Numbers Panel’ with the CEOs from five of our hotel brand company partners. It is imperative that the entire industry join forces with She Has a Deal to raze the roadblocks women face when entering the hotel investment side of the business. When more women are owning and developing hotels, the industry will explode with innovative growth.”