While the real estate investing community could use many tactics to improve its diversity and the opportunities for non-white-male populations, we asked about a few specific options.
Most respondents were in favor of early financial education, including information on real estate investing, for under-represented groups. This option was especially popular among Black or African-American respondents -- 48.15% thought this was a good strategy for addressing diversity in the community.
Interestingly, the next-most-popular option was "I don't think we need to do anything to improve the diversity of the community," with almost a third of respondents choosing this option.
A much smaller number were in favor of government intervention, more clubs and associations, or more online content specifically geared toward under-represented groups.
What did we learn?
If there's one thing we can say about these survey results, it's that real estate investors are conflicted.
Initial results -- as well as the distribution of people who responded to our survey -- indicate that real estate investing is overwhelmingly white and male.
Women do seem to think that diversity in the field could use some work. But they were almost as likely to say that real estate is gender diverse as they were to say that it was lacking in diversity. And they were twice as likely as men to say that the community doesn't need to take action to improve diversity.
Racial and ethnic minorities generally spoke in a similar fashion. They think that real estate investing isn't a very diverse community, but they were split on what should be done about it (if anything).
Several respondents pointed out that online investing often means you don't know the gender or race of the people you're working with. This is a good point, and something we'll keep considering when it comes to diversity in real estate investing.
We also heard feedback from several respondents who said they hadn't thought of this issue before or that they'd like to learn more.
History shows that diverse backgrounds, personalities, and ideas help businesses (and investors) thrive. This is something we'll continue to think about, and we encourage you to do so, as well!
Methodology
The Motley Fool distributed this survey via email to 655 subscribers of the Paydirt newsletter on August 7, 2020. While efforts were made to create a representative sample, there is variability in any sampling method, and no strict statistical testing was performed.
Respondents were 78% male, 21% female, and less than 1% non-binary. Responses from non-binary respondents were removed from gender-based analyses due to the low number of respondents.
67% of respondents identified as white / Caucasian, with smaller numbers of other racial groups.
13% of respondents were aspiring real estate investors that had not yet invested in any form of real estate. Responses from these respondents were removed from some questions, such as those about returns, to ensure that some questions were answered only by those with the experience to best answer them.
Some percentages may not total to 100% due to rounding.
