The Many Languages of Real Estate

Firms Turn to Diversity in Agents, Ads and Web Sites to Tap Immigrant Market

Paul Bae, a real estate agent with Long & Foster's Columbia office, places two ads in the greater Baltimore edition of the Korea Times every Thursday to attract clients who don't speak English.

In direct mail fliers, Pat Hiban's real estate group with RE/MAX in Ellicott City boasts of a staff that speaks Urdu, Korean and Spanish.

In a nationally televised commercial, Century 21 shows a Chinese family arriving in the United States and being greeted by a Century 21 agent.

It's a small world after all, and the real estate community wants to bring it home -- literally -- to buyers who are immigrants or whose primary language is something other than English.

"It's absolutely the case that in the real estate profession, the future is tied to minority buyers and lenders," said Eric Belsky, executive director of Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.

In Howard County alone, Asians now number 29,175, or 11 percent of the population, while Hispanics total 10,630, or 4 percent, according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey data from 2005, the most recent available. Real estate companies have launched strategies to win new immigrant clients and, when necessary, help them find ways to buy a home. But earning their trust by bridging the language and cultural gaps is a crucial first step.

Myung Soon Kim, who speaks limited English, moved to Montgomery County from South Korea five years ago seeking American education for her two children. When she relocated to Howard six months ago, a friend introduced her to a Korean agent who helped her buy a home in Clarksville.

"In the U.S., we expect people to just pick up the phone and do business with us, but, in some cultures, people want to break bread with you first," said John Burns, a consultant to the home building industry.

J.J. Kim, a former nurse, has been a real estate agent for 20 years. Much of her business revolves around the growing Korean population in Howard and Baltimore.

"We understand each other. I have a sense of what they like and don't like," said Kim, a Korean American, who works with Coldwell Banker in Ellicott City. "Trust is very important."

The potential for exponential growth is one reason realtors are so attracted to immigrants. "Not only is the immigrant population growing, but people who are moving here are younger and having families and those are the people who are buying houses," said Kyle Lambert London, the diversity program representative at the D.C.-based National Association of Realtors.

The NAR offers a diversity training and certification program for realtors who work with clients from different cultural backgrounds.