From Immigrant to Commercial Real Estate Powerhouse | Ronit Urman on Leadership, Negotiation & Building a Global Investment Firm
What does it take to build a 30+ year commercial real estate company from scratch — in a brand new country?
In this episode of Knoodle Founder’s Hour, Rosaria Cain sits down with Ronit Urman, co-founder of Urman Enterprises, to talk about entrepreneurship, commercial real estate investing, property management, and the resilience it takes to thrive across decades of market cycles.
Ronit shares her remarkable journey — from immigrating to the United States as a teenager, to launching a commercial real estate firm in Arizona with her husband, to building an international investor base spanning the U.S., Canada, Israel, and China.
With more than three decades in the Phoenix commercial real estate market, Ronit offers hard-earned insights on:
- Commercial real estate development and property management
- Solving complex tenant and leasing challenges
- Navigating market cycles, vacancies, and rising construction costs
- Managing industrial, office, and multifamily properties
- Leading a family business across generations
- Building investor trust through transparency and integrity
- Hiring, company culture, and taking responsibility as a leader
- Why patience is a superpower in business (the “24-hour rule”)
Ronit also shares candid stories about risk, negotiation, surviving downturns, balancing family and business, and what it’s really like running a commercial real estate company for nearly 40 years.
If you’re an entrepreneur, real estate investor, property manager, or business leader, this episode delivers practical wisdom on leadership, resilience, and long-term growth in today’s evolving market.
Topics Covered:
Commercial real estate investing, property management strategies, Phoenix real estate market, industrial real estate, multifamily vacancies, entrepreneurship, family business leadership, investor relations, negotiation skills, real estate development, market trends 2026.
Subscribe to Knoodle Founder’s Hour for founder-to-founder conversations about business, leadership, and building companies that stand the test of time.
Full Transcript
Rosaria Cain 00:00
Ronit Urman, thank you for joining us today.
Ronit Urman 00:03
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Rosaria Cain 00:05
We’ve known each other a long time.
Ronit Urman 00:07
Yeah
Rosaria Cain 00:08
Tell me about Urman, a commercial real estate company, and how you’re positioning it for how you’ve been positioning it, how you’re positioning it now, and how it’s looking as you go down the road.
Ronit Urman 00:22
So Urman started this Urman Enterprises, and probably started about 33 years ago as a real estate company. We started after we moved to Arizona. We worked for somebody else for a year, got our license, start, learn, learn the market year, and then we opened our own firm.
Rosaria Cain 00:50
Now, for those who don’t know, tell me about the “we”. This is pretty important.
Ronit Urman 00:56
It’s very important. That’s where the name comes from. So the we is my husband and I, Eitan Urman and Ronit Urrman, and so we moved here from Montreal, Canada. That’s not where we originally from, but that’s where we moved from to Arizona, 34 years ago. I’ll start with our background. So my husband, Eitan, grew up in the real estate business. His father, his grandfather, they were all real estate developers in Israel and in Montreal, and all in different states in the United States of America as well. And I grew up in Israel, moved to California with my parents when I was 16 years old, went to school in California, wanted to be an economist, studying accounting, working for a CPA firm. When I got married with Eitan, we moved to Canada for five years, to Montreal. After five years, it was time to move back to the States. We did not want to move to California. We didn’t want to raise our children in the LA area, and we picked up Arizona. Used to get the newspaper delivered to Montreal. It was huge. Weighed a few pounds, with all the advertising and everything for Phoenix and for Denver and for Colorado. In Colorado, for Denver and it was between the two states where we’re going to move back. We picked Arizona just because I saw all the marketing for buy a home, $430,000 on a golf course, order your meals. It just sounded like it will be amazing.
Rosaria Cain 02:59
Weather wasn’t bad either.
Ronit Urman 03:00
Exactly. No, you don’t have to shovel snow. So we decided to come and check it out. Eitan came over for a couple of weeks. I came for the weekend, fell in love, and I said, “This is it. We moving here”, and we moved a couple of months later, we moved to Arizona. Learned a really worked for another broker. Learn the market, and we’re fortunate enough to buy a commercial building, an industrial building in Tempe that needed quite a bit of work. So we concentrated on that building. We fixed it up, listed up, got the value up, sold it, and from there, we moved on. So we took whatever we had and moved it to a different project and different project. So we came at the right time. It was the early 90s, after the saving and loan collapsed, and there were great opportunities. And we ran after different opportunities every couple of years, or whatever we can absorb and take. And it was fun. My background in accounting definitely helped a lot. So between Eitan’s knows of real estate and my accounting background, that’s how we found the right pieces and the right usage and for the project. So that’s how we started today, after being over 30 years in the market, which has its highs and it has its lows. I can probably write a book about it, and we evolved differently, still developing once in a while, whenever we find the right opportunity and. But we also opened ourself to other people, to other investors and for property management, made be just a small condo or entire building, and it’s been very challenging, interesting. And enjoyable.
Rosaria Cain 05:24
Well, you have investors from around the world.
Ronit Urman 05:27
Yes
Rosaria Cain 05:27
Tell us about that, because it’s so interesting.
Ronit Urman 05:30
We have some investors from Canada. We have some investors from Israel. We have couple of investors from China. So and we do have a lot of investors from the US, some, even from Arizona. They just come to us so we can manage their properties. We doing a better job that they did.
Rosaria Cain 05:56
That’s great. No one wants to really no do it themselves.
Ronit Urman 06:01
Yeah, and once they’ve been with us for a few years, they never want to manage another property again.
Rosaria Cain 06:08
It’s a lot of tenant calls.
Ronit Urman 06:11
It’s a lot of tenants calls. It may be 12 o’clock at night, two o’clock in the morning, always on the weekends, always in the evening, and then, even for their profitable and our we have very good reputation. We always pay our vendors, so they like to work with us. They’re not worried that they won’t get what they deserve or what we agreed on. So they give us a great rate. They put us on the top of their preferred list, so the tenants get very good response time, and we never up charge our vendor cost. So even money wise, it works out.
Rosaria Cain 07:00
So you do a lot of different things. You do project management, you assist people in finding buildings, and you, you assist them in selling buildings. How do you position the company? How do you position Urman, if I’m in an elevator, as they call it, an elevator speech, what would you say? Is it what do you do?
Ronit Urman 07:21
We are real estate and property management one stop shop. What is it in real estate that you need or you’re trying to achieve, we most likely can assist you.
Rosaria Cain 07:37
What problem does Urman solve? What’s your what’s the biggest problem that you solve or there are probably many problems. Give me the two.
Ronit Urman 07:48
Every day, there is a different issue. I’m a very I will say about myself, I’m a problem solver. So depends what the situation, I will put it together and then take it apart and try to solve one step at a time. What is it? Who do we need to call first? Who do we need to send to investigate if it’s something physically wrong with the property or something that happened, then we’ll do our own research, if it’s market analysis, what is the reason that the property is sitting vacant for a long period of time? What is the reason behind it? Is it the price? Is it the appearance that’s usually one of the two things, or maybe you need a different approach. For example, we had a vacant office space. It’s a space inside a commercial building, multi tenants. One of the units adjacent to it is a dispensary. The odor that was in that suite, especially when it’s vacant and there is not a lot of activity, the door doesn’t open and close all the time, was so strong that you can’t rent it out. So you can’t just say, give it up, get the other tenant, move out. I mean, what do you do? You have to research. I mean, when you walk into the Ritz Carlton, there is a beautiful scent that you feel. Where is that coming from? The air conditioning. What system are available to fix the problem? And we found it, and the problem was solved, and the space has been leased. So.
Rosaria Cain 09:53
And that’s kind of ingenious, really,
Ronit Urman 09:55
So you just break down the issue, figure out why it is, why it’s standing, and fix it.
Rosaria Cain 10:05
What are some of the general challenges you’re seeing in commercial real estate right now?
Ronit Urman 10:13
Again, what are we talking about? If you’re talking about industrial we just don’t have enough of it. I think we can use more of the multi tenant user for industrial, small manufacturing and things of that nature. However, the cost of construction, the cost of the land, what’s in this in the center, is very high, and the rent hasn’t reached that level yet. Therefore, for the small tenants, for the small businesses, it’s very hard to find for apartments. Different market vacancies are much higher. Takes longer to rent. I think we have too much there was so much new construction, so many units that came back that knew that around the market, that if a property doesn’t necessarily have all the amenities and the wonderful things, it’s harder. How much can you reduce the I mean, normally it’s all about the price, right? So
Rosaria Cain 11:45
Market driven.
Ronit Urman 11:46
They’re market driven. So how long can you afford to stay vacant? What price do you have to drop in order to fill it up? So we have a very cute condo in Scottsdale for rent, completely renovated, All new appliances on new flooring. I mean, very cute, great location, and it’s been sitting empty. And the owner is an owner that we managed her property for about 30 years now. And he said to me, “Ronit, what’s going on? Are you taking too much vacation? Are you still working?” Never happened in 30 years that we were vacant for more than two weeks during renovation. And I’m like, “Sorry, but that’s the market”. I mean, especially with condominiums, two bedrooms, they standing because there is so much new apartments with beautiful amenities. Everything is new, and it takes longer.
Rosaria Cain 12:54
I guess people aren’t really buying homes right now, though, either, although we’re starting to see that change slightly.
Ronit Urman 13:00
I think people that really want to buy, and they’re working on it for credit, for income, I think are buying realistically. The interest rate is not that high,
Rosaria Cain 13:17
Coming down a little bit.
Ronit Urman 13:18
It came down a little bit. And if you looking at history, I mean, I remember when we paid 12% interest rate on our first home, then it dropped to seven, and we exchange a home for double the value, for about $100 difference in mortgage payment just because of the huge drop. But 7% interest is not such a bad rate. That’s like a normal rate, but we got used to 2, 3, 4, percent interest, and it’s very seven now we’ve become almost double.
Rosaria Cain 14:02
No, that’s true.
Ronit Urman 14:03
So, it’s very hard to digest.
Rosaria Cain 14:06
Although the whole challenge, though, is that home prices have gone up so much, is that even with the interest rate.
Ronit Urman 14:12
yes,
Rosaria Cain 14:13
It’s challenging.
Ronit Urman 14:15
Right? You know, being in property management, and I’m looking and we have quite a bit of homes that are high end homes, like five, $6,000 a month and more. And when I look at the application that comes and they are both doctors, professionals, making a very high living, but their debt ratios, their student loans are so high, and that’s scary.
Rosaria Cain 14:47
And that’s generational.
Ronit Urman 14:48
That’s generational, and that’s very scary. You see people that were born in the 80s with three children, making $400,000 a year and having debts of over $500,000 I mean, that’s scary to me.
Rosaria Cain 15:05
It is, and there’s a whole tidal wave of that coming, coming down the pike.
Ronit Urman 15:09
Yeah.
Rosaria Cain 15:10
Huh, that’s interesting. Do you have any gut feelings on how this year is looking for commercial real estate? I know looking far out is much more problematic because we don’t like you were saying before. We don’t have a crystal ball. How do you think this year is going to go? So we have a little bit of turbulence in the economy, in our news cycle, in our heads. It does seem like consumer confidence is picking up. What do you think about? About the prognosis for 2026?
Ronit Urman 15:50
I think it will be a strong year. I do feel it’s going to be a strong year. I know in our little world, in our office, it’s been like that. I always look who are our clients? Who are our new clients? Where are they coming from? What are they bringing with them? And we keep getting a lot of people, companies, small businesses from California, from Seattle, and those are people. They still have another 20 years to be in the market, and they are moving into here. And if they’re not moving, their employees are and the company is and they’re opening multiple locations, so I do see that there is one company staffing agency that worked with us last year, And they back again, now touring for second location. So we do see that. We see how much construction we have everywhere the weather. I mean, we started this year with being such a difficult weather in the East Coast, and so sunny and beautiful over here. So it keeps bringing more people and more visitors, and they take a look. No, yeah,
Rosaria Cain 17:30
it’s certainly a well positioned market right now. A lot of new industry coming in
Ronit Urman 17:35
And the Taiwanese cheap manufacture and everything that’s going over everywhere it’s it’s amazing. It’s great. I mean, traffic, not so much, but from a real estate point of view, it’s beautiful to watch.
Rosaria Cain 17:50
Well, I want to talk about your inner entrepreneur. Now. I’ve known you for a long time. We have a lot in common, if I may say we’re both kind of bossy. Well, I am, I am.
Ronit Urman 18:02
Okay.
Rosaria Cain 18:02
We’ve both been, we’ve both been president of National Association of Women Business Owners.
Ronit Urman 18:08
Yes.
Rosaria Cain 18:10
And we both like having control over our destinies. Is that fair?
Ronit Urman 18:16
Definitely.
Rosaria Cain 18:16
Okay. So when did you experience your first entrepreneurial moment?
Ronit Urman 18:24
I think, as a kid,
Rosaria Cain 18:27
So you were probably born an entrepreneur instead of developing into one.
Ronit Urman 18:31
I think so. My parents were always shocked about my negotiation skill and how much I enjoyed it. I have an older sister, and we used to go to the market. Growing up in Israel, we used to go to the market just for fun, and whatever we wanted to buy, if she wanted it, she will pay the price and move on. And I was like, Oh no, we have to heckle down the price. You don’t pay full price, you know. So I always, I actually enjoyed it. And I mean, kind of crazy. I’m my husband, thought I was crazy, but when I when I do that, but I just don’t like to pay retail, not in the beginning, at least try. And so I think since I was a kid, I had that negotiation skill and I guess control issues that I need to I like people telling me what to do, right?
Rosaria Cain 19:48
I totally understand. Let me ask you this. I’m sure there’s a few people that have impacted your path as an entrepreneur.
Ronit Urman 19:58
Yes.
Rosaria Cain 19:58
So knowing Eitan, your husband, is one of them. Tell me about the people that have that have brought you where you are, that you think of as impactful in your life.
Ronit Urman 20:13
So I think the my mentor per se, was my father in law, who passed away less than a year ago was definitely my mentor, the person that I watched and listened to what he was doing and the way he went about doing it. So in there’s different generation, of course, and it was very interesting. And he always let me do my own calculation and figuring out if a deal is a good deal or not, or how much it needs to be purchased for, or how much it’s going to need to be leased for in order to make it valuable and profitable, and how to look at things. And he respected my point of view, and I respected his we always work together and separately and come back again together to the conclusion. So he was definitely my mentor and my idol when it came to the real estate market.
Rosaria Cain 21:30
That’s great. And as you look at what’s crafted you as an entrepreneur, have you ever had any moments where you would do over again, or lessons you’ve learned in the early days that you would do different now?
Ronit Urman 21:53
You have to keep your mind open. I mean, there were a few things where I thought I’m right, and therefore I pushed, and even if my partner will tell me, “you shouldn’t, but do whatever you want, it’s your department”, or “you’re part of this”. And I was slapped back as a result. So probably wouldn’t do it again, but you have to be more calm. But I think it’s a lot of that stuff. It comes with age and experience.
Rosaria Cain 22:30
Oh sure.
Ronit Urman 22:31
So it’s one thing to tell somebody, “Just be patient, just be calm, just listen and wait and see”. And I wasn’t like that before. Now I’m much calmer. I can do it, I mean. But then once I, once I made the decision, I made a decision, and it and we move on, but it comes with experience. It comes with time.
Rosaria Cain 23:00
I would totally agree with that. Was there one moment that you remember that led to you opening your company, or was it like a series of of learning for you that it was so gradual? There wasn’t that one incident, that one thing that led to you opening your shingle.
Ronit Urman 23:26
I think it came very natural for what we were doing, that we could do it on our own. I mean, the growth of the company came with the change of the markets and the needs, and so I always said, I will never manage anybody else’s property that was never only our own. Well, when you’re sitting with 75% vacancies, and you do have an office and you do have any employees, you’re saying, “Okay, where are we going to bring the money in?” So you open yourself and you help other business to help yourself. So when we first opened, we were just the two of us and an assistant in a small office with one computer, then two computers, and when it came to me to buy my own computer, I was like, no, no, no, no, we don’t need to do that. And like, of course, a week later, it’s like, how did we do it before? So when you start very small and you are in control, maybe it’s part of being in control, you grow and you grow and you grow. But then there is going to be a time that you hit the wall and there is a stop, and then you have to stop and think, how do we change? How do we go through that wall? And move on. So never say never. And today, at this point, with so many properties that we manage, and I’m proud to say that I know every owner by name, not every tenant anymore, but we make a point of somebody in our office knows them personally, because we meet all our tenants. We don’t let anybody just move in without us seeing them and understand who they are. And that’s what makes us different. That’s what makes us special.
Rosaria Cain 25:38
And that’s a great characteristic of a leader. What other characteristics do you think makes a good leader?
Ronit Urman 25:47
Take responsibility if something goes wrong at the office, and it doesn’t matter who made the mistake, I will always take the responsibility that it’s my fault, because that person is a part of our office. It’s part of us. So it doesn’t matter that they made a mistake. I will always stand behind them, and I will always take the responsibility if it’s gonna end up costing us more by fixing it, by paying the penalty, whatever it is, I will take responsibility, and my people know that, so they try not to make a mistake, and they don’t often make mistakes like that, but they they know that we are behind them, and that means the world to them.
Rosaria Cain 26:42
That’s great.
Ronit Urman 26:43
And nobody will talk to them disrespectfully. I will allow them to hang up the phone on them, or I will always stand behind them, because I know who we hired, and they should get the respect back from everybody. So I think that’s very important
Rosaria Cain 27:02
With all this insightful wisdom that you have, what advice would you give your younger self as you were just starting out?
Ronit Urman 27:15
You know, maybe you should ask my daughter.
Rosaria Cain 27:22
Well, you talk about patience,
Ronit Urman 27:23
It’s definitely patience. And often would she walk into my office frustrated from a situation, so I let her vent. I hear her, and I have a rule, 24 hour rule, or 48 hour rule, if something just happened… we are in such a everything works so fast. I mean, email, text messages, automatic. Everything is automatic. Everything is very fast. But when something comes, and you’re not sure or you need to respond because you are boiling, because somebody insulted you or or they got under your skin, or the huge use AI to write this beautiful, long letter with all kinds of legal ideas behind it. Take your time. Don’t respond immediately. Take the 24 hour rule, sometimes 48 hour hour rules, or sometime over the weekend, before you respond back, and you will be amazed of the results.
Rosaria Cain 28:33
See, that’s good wisdom that I think anybody could use.
Ronit Urman 28:37
I think, I think it’s very important, especially in today’s environment, there’s a lot of, I see it, a lot of entitlement.
Rosaria Cain 28:49
Sure.
Ronit Urman 28:51
So it’s very easy to get right into it and to answer back and be sharper or meaner or something like this, but that you have to stop think back. What do you want the result to be? What is the best for you or for your client? Take the time before you respond.
Rosaria Cain 29:13
Well, you brought it up. What’s it like running a family business? I imagine it has its challenges, at times. Do you like, for instance, keeping it separate? Or maybe not.
Ronit Urman 29:31
It’s very challenging. So we are married 39 years, and we work together 39 years. So we almost 80 years together, when you think about it, because of the time. I mean, normally, an average person does not work with their spouse. So how many hours do they have together? So the time that Eitan and I clash is when we are not busy because I overstep his roles, and he oversteps my roles.
Rosaria Cain 30:06
So you have very specific roles.
Ronit Urman 30:08
Very specific roles, and then if we don’t, there’s always something, something happens, doesn’t go we all have our own style, our own way of thinking. It doesn’t make it right or wrong, it just different. So I have my roles, and he has his roles, and then we are all good. Now we have our daughter that joined the firm s few years ago, and that’s different challenges. Because number one, she’s my baby, but at the same time she does what she does, she still reports to us and learning from us. And it can be challenging, it can, but you have to separate it. Let’s leave this at work, and this is our dinner table, and we don’t talk work.
Rosaria Cain 31:01
Does that happen?
Ronit Urman 31:03
It does. I mean, now there is other kids that little one in the middle, but it’s very hard. So if we do talk work, it’s more in general, the situation, the story. Because thank God there is, I do have another child who completely not in our business. He has his own business to deal with, and so we share stories and issues, but we try not to, we keep it separate.
Rosaria Cain 31:34
Well, as you were talking about backing up your people, what kind of values are in your company culture, what’s what’s important to you when it comes to company culture,
Ronit Urman 31:45
Honesty and trust definitely is number one. We are open book to every dollars that we spend on behalf of our clients, of the owners, we if we made a mistake, we try to find every mistake before it goes out to their reporting, their monthly reporting. But if they have questions or they’re not sure, they ask and will investigate and will give them whatever it is. So trust and honesty and respect to everyone is very, very important.
Rosaria Cain 32:34
Do you find hiring new people is difficult or challenging?
Ronit Urman 32:37
Very much, very much. But I think people was always the challenge. And in every business, it’s finding the right people. Our last hire, I think we really turned him over to come to us was because our family values, and he felt it, and he believed in it, and he wanted to be a part of this company. So I think he took less of an income of what he was used to before, but it was very important for him to work with, with a team that has his back and support.
Rosaria Cain 33:29
So when you’re not working, what keeps you grounded?
Ronit Urman 33:37
I love to travel, and I always working, where is the next trip going to be and what do I want to do? But that’s at least two good trips a year. Other than that, my grandchildren. So I have three granddaughters, twin girls that are five from my son and a little one from my daughter, who’s going to be two very soon. So I try to see them as much as possible. And I really do enjoy seeing them growing and doing things with them and stuff like this. Keeping healthy, exercising, seeing friends be out there just doing things.
Rosaria Cain 34:33
And that’s how you reduce stress, or at least keep it under keep it under control.
Ronit Urman 34:37
Yes, a day at the spa with your friends is goes a long way.
Rosaria Cain 34:42
Yeah, I’ll say, if you were going to, if you were going to write a book, what would the title be that you kind of loosely mentioned you should write a book early in our conversation. What would you call it?
Ronit Urman 34:57
Yeah. It’s hard to come with a name. I thought about it numerous times, if it’s about one of the project that we developed that had its own life, because it started in 1999 we opened the models right before September 11. So the challenges to break ground with the city, with the neighborhood, and with my husband having a heart attack in the middle, with raising two young kids. All of it at the same time, to the point after September 11 that we were like, maybe going to convert it from for sale to rentals. So the challenges and then ending up the project being a huge success. So that was just on that particular project. I can write a book, not just a chapter a book, then being who I am as a child, how I traveled for the first time out of the country all by myself, first time on a plane to a different country with a different language that I did not really know. I can’t believe my parents let me do it. It was an idea that I had, and they allow it. And I did it, and I came back safely in one piece and immigrating to United States at age 16.
Rosaria Cain 36:50
A formative age.
Ronit Urman 36:52
Exactly and learning, going to school, figuring things out, and then there was a traumatic my parents got involved, got hit by a drunk driver, and put my parents and my younger brother in the hospital, and the pain and suffering that it caused to the entire family, and now I had to step up at the age of 18 to take care of my family. That brought me to meet Eitan, getting married, moving to Montreal, having two kids, traveling, getting robbed at gun point, getting over that, moving to Arizona, becoming sick with auto immune disease, and the challenges of that. So, so that’s another book you.
Rosaria Cain 38:03
You could write a series. Netflix wants your story!
Ronit Urman 38:08
Exactly, so maybe we’ll just move to a movie. Much easier.
Rosaria Cain 38:11
Episodes. I see at least 10 episodes.
Ronit Urman 38:14
So I think I led a very interesting life.
Rosaria Cain 38:17
Well, my next question, I think you’ve answered it already, is, What would surprise what would what would surprise people about you? But is there anything that you could think of that you haven’t told me? Which has I remember now in various times I have learned about you. Is there anything else that would surprise people about you?
Ronit Urman 38:36
There’s one thing, but I won’t share that. Oh, come on.
Rosaria Cain 38:39
It’s a podcast. It’s not regulated by the FCC, okay, all right.
Ronit Urman 38:43
I was a wild child, but no, leave it to your imagination.
Rosaria Cain 38:48
I can only guess, and I won’t, I won’t for purpose of this podcast. But thank you so much for joining me today.
Ronit Urman 38:55
Very welcome.
Rosaria Cain 38:55
We really enjoy. I learned a few new things about you, and I know you, and I learned a few new things, and I hope other people do too.
Ronit Urman 39:02
Thank you. This was really fun.
Rosaria Cain 39:04
Thank you, my pleasure, and for me too, you.