How to Start Investing in Commercial Real Estate (Without a Million Dollars) with Beth Azor

Of all commercial real estate investors, only 3% are women – and when Beth Azor learned that stat, she decided to frickin’ change it. In this episode, Erin sits down with the woman affectionately known as The Canvassing Queen®: founder and CEO of Azor Advisory Services, owner of three Florida shopping centers valued at over $75 million, and founder of the Women’s Real Estate Investment Summit, where Erin has had the joy of speaking – and riding the famous four-hour bus tour of the town Beth practically owns.

Beth’s story starts with an $11,000-a-year nonprofit salary and a real estate license she’d had since age 18. It took a boss literally marching her to a bank to co-sign a $50,000 note – on the condition she invest 20% of every commission from then on – to turn a high-earning spender into an investor. Eight LP deals later, she went out on her own as a GP, and today she’s the co-GP of a $32 million asset she waited thirteen years to buy. Yes, thirteen. That story alone (Mr. G, the quarterly “no,” and the pivot to pure relationship-building) is worth the listen – and so is the one about crashing a utility company’s remote HQ with cupcakes.

Whether you’ve never heard the terms LP and GP or you’re ready to raise capital for your first deal, Beth breaks the path down into steps any woman can start this week: pick an asset class, find an expert, invest passively first, and watch how it’s done. Because as Beth’s community proves – 68 women stood up at this year’s summit having invested with someone in the room – you don’t have to do it alone.

Listen in as Erin and Beth discuss:

• The boss who called her “a freaking idiot” (with love), co-signed her first $50K investment, and made her bank 20% of every commission
• The stat that lit the fire: only 3% of commercial real estate investors are women – and most inherited it or signed on a husband’s guarantee
• Why “we don’t know any other women doing it” is the real barrier – and how the Women’s Real Estate Investment Summit is dismantling it
• LP vs. GP, explained in plain English: preferred returns, refinances, and why LPs end up “playing with house money”
• Beth’s starting playbook: pick your asset class, find an expert, LP first, and watch the GP
• How GPs raise capital – including the empty Wells Fargo bank deal where Beth raised $3.2M from 22 people in four days
• Beth’s non-negotiable: never invest with a GP who has no skin in the game
• The 13-year Mr. G story: how persistence plus genuine relationship turned “no, click” into co-GP of a $32M asset
• The cupcake story: how a Friday-afternoon delivery did what eight men yelling couldn’t
• Women Investor Wednesdays, the March 2027 summit, and how to get in the room

About

Affectionately known as The Canvassing Queen®, Beth Azor is the founder and CEO of Azor Advisory Services (AAS), a leading commercial real estate advisory and investment firm based in Davie, Florida. As its principal, Beth currently owns and manages three shopping centers in Florida valued at over $75M. She travels the U.S. consulting with, brokering deals for, and training associates in the commercial real estate industry, with clients including Phillips Edison & Co., Brixmor Properties, The Shopping Center Group, Urban Edge Development, DLC Management Group, and Bedrock.

Beth is the author of Don’t Say No for the Prospect (2019) and The Retail Leasing Playbook (2020), the founder of the Women’s Real Estate Investment Summit – on a mission to get more women investing in real estate and growing their families’ wealth – and co-founder of the South Florida Independent Retailer Awards®. Her newly created AI bot “Ask Beth” is a compilation of her 900 YouTube videos and 300 podcast episodes. A graduate of FSU, Beth is founder and past Chairwoman of the FSU Real Estate Foundation, past President of HOPE Outreach Center in Davie, and co-founder of 100+ Women Who Care in South Florida. She is a single mom to a superhero movie podcaster and an aspiring pro golfer – and she recently walked 250 miles of the Camino de Santiago across Spain.

How to Connect With Beth Azor

• Website: https://www.bethazor.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethazor/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/azoradvisoryservices
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bethazor/ 

Recommended Resources

• Women’s Real Estate Investment Summit – March 3 – 5, 2027, registration opens September; only ~60 of 250 seats left: https://thewomeninvestmentsummit.com/ 
• Women Investor Wednesday podcast – Beth interviews a woman investor every Wednesday (want to be a guest? She wants startup stories, even your first VRBO): https://www.bethazor.com/beths-podcasts/
• Don’t Say No for the Prospect by Beth Azor: https://www.bethazor.com/product/dont-say-no-for-the-prospect-how-1-went-from-a-sales-rookie-to-a-retail-leasing-rockstar/
• The Retail Leasing Playbook by Beth Azor: https://www.amazon.com/Retail-Leasing-Playbook-Beth-Ratzan/dp/0578224208
• “Ask Beth” AI bot – 900 videos and 300 podcast episodes’ worth of answers: https://www.bethazor.com
• Happiness & Fulfillment Assessment: https://pursuingfreedom.com/happiness
• Pursuing Freedom Collective: https://pursuingfreedom.com/collective
• Get a copy of Pursuing Freedom on Amazon: https://amzn.to/46o7m7z
• Subscribe to the Pursuing Freedom podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for weekly inspiration and strategies.