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2021 Women in Real Estate
Washington DC
Sharon Karaffa
Leads a team that generates almost $15 billion in multifamily debt per year
During her tenure, team has become a top 5 GSE lender
Currently co-chairs the MBA’s Commercial Real Estate Future Leaders Alumni Association
Based in Bethesda, MD, Sharon Karaffa is vice chairman and co-head of production for the Multifamily Debt, Equity & Structured Finance team at Newmark, where she is responsible for strategic planning, business development and leading a team of approximately 50 producers generating almost $15 billion in multifamily debt per year. She also manages the team’s prescreen group and marketing and communications teams. Sharon’s leadership of the integration of the multifamily investment sales and debt platforms at Newmark resulted in triple-digit growth of sales to debt conversion rates.
By understanding and tackling internal and external challenges, partnering with heads of other business lines and working closely with production teams across the country, she helped to set the strategic direction for Newmark’s Multifamily Capital Markets group while creating and implementing platforms to share information and collaborate more effectively, driving cultural change within the platform.
Under Karaffa’s leadership these past two years, Newmark’s Multifamily Capital Markets platform demonstrated a 74% conversion rate increase compared to the two years prior. Also, during this time under her leadership, the team increased agency market share by a compound annual growth rate of 20% (2018 – 2020) to achieve top 5 overall lender positions with both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The group recruited top talent in key markets including Atlanta, Dallas, Philadelphia and Washingto,n DC, as well as nationally with the hiring of top-producing student housing and seniors housing debt teams. Karaffa continues to demonstrate her ability to drive cultural change through transparency, information sharing and relationship building, resulting in platform-wide revenue and production growth.
These are just a few of the reasons we chose Karaffa as one of the Washington, DC 2021 Women in Real Estate Award winners. Connect CRE’s Women in Real Estate Awards honor the achievements and inspirational stories of women who have reached respected positions of leadership and play key mentorship roles for others.
