Commercial Investment Real Estate September/October 2019 | Page 14

CCIM
Q& A
Breaking
Down
Barriers
by Nicholas Leider
working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Now, Chong is pres-
ident-elect of the Northern California Chapter of CCIM and
authoring a book, as well as being selected to join the Forbes
Speakers Platform to share how she succeeded in the U.S. by
breaking down barriers as an immigrant, minority woman,
and mother.
CIRE: Graduating with an economics degree, what path
did you take to the real estate industry?
Chong: I worked at a pension consulting firm for nearly five
years, where we handled several huge institutional clients. But
in 2002, when the dot-com bubble burst, I saw a lot of people’s
pensions drop in value by 50 percent or more in a flash. That was
a wake-up call for me. I have always valued my financial indepen-
dence, and I wanted to work toward that freedom. To see these
people lose so much, I thought, “What if that happens to me?” It
was then that I started looking at other types of investments, and
I fell in love with real estate. I feel like it gives you more control
over your own financial future.
CIRE: What challenges and opportunities are unique to
Northern California?
Chong: Compared to the rest of the country, California has
low cap rates. It’s also relatively costly to do business in the state.
We are seeing international interest because California is still considered
relatively inexpensive compared to other parts of the world.
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September | October 2019
COMMERCIAL INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE
I
n real estate, the distinction between commercial and resi-
dential can be a wall that’s not easily traversed — many feel
you’re either on one side or the other. But those who oper-
ate in the “commercia-dential” space strive to excel in both
arenas. Commercia-dential refers to the growing trend of profes-
sionals working in both commercial and residential real estate.
Helen Chong, CCIM, began her
real estate career in 2005 and founded
Haylen Group in San Jose, Calif., in
2012, with a primary focus on residen-
tial opportunities. But being an apart-
ment investor herself, she sees ample
potential in the multifamily market.
Chong received her CCIM designation
in 2017 while building the commercial
side of the business — a side that now
accounts for more than a third of Hay-
Helen Chong, CCIM
len’s volume.
But Chong’s story isn’t just about
thriving in the hypercompetitive Silicon Valley and Bay Area
markets. Born in Hong Kong, she survived early family and
financial hardships, moving to Indonesia and escaping a deadly
ethnic riot during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s.
She then relocated to California alone to attend UCLA while