The Many Languages of Real Estate
Firms Turn to Diversity in Agents, Ads and Web Sites to Tap Immigrant Market

By Soo Youn
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, March 8, 2007

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.

With the housing market having cooled significantly since 2004 and 2005, agents and lenders are leaving few stones unturned.

"Both real estate agents and lenders have had to look deeper into the buyer pool," said Michael Larson, a real estate analyst at Weiss Research. "Lenders are being more creative with mortgage programs and may be willing to take alternative credit histories such as proof-of-rent histories in generating new business in markets not served before or that were underserved."

Lending companies also are providing buying guides in multiple languages and introducing special products to target specific buyers. For example, Islamic law forbids paying interest on loans or debts. Freddie Mac introduced mortgage products geared toward Muslims in 2001. Many devout Muslim clients, however, still save up cash to buy their homes, according to Nina Heydari, a Long & Foster agent in Columbia who speaks Farsi.

Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., or MRIS, a multiple listing service, introduced a software program called Lingo last year that translates brokers' Web sites into a dozen languages, including Dutch and Vietnamese.

Kenneth J. Ruffo, a real estate agent based in Silver Spring, bought the software to translate his business Web site into Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Polish and more. His client base includes many Spanish speakers who want to achieve the American dream of buying a home.

Ruffo, a third-generation Italian American, says traffic on his Web site has increased 25 percent since he installed the software in September. "I am currently working with several non-originally English speaking clients who are finding Lingo valuable. They appreciate that I care enough about them that they will only work with me," he said.

Century 21 launched the Spanish version of its Web site, http://www.century21espanol.com, nationally in 2000.

The Greater Capital Area Association of Realtors, which covers Montgomery County and the District, is planning to launch a Spanish language class for its members. For real estate companies, a fundamental step in finding immigrant clients and helping them buy homes is hiring a diverse staff.

Bae, 28, is one of 30 Korean American agents working in four offices operated by Creig Northrop of Long & Foster. While Bae has clients from a number of different countries, he offers special skills to Koreans, having lived in South Korea before his parents immigrated to Howard County in 1990.

"Since I spent half of my life overseas, I can provide the kind of service they're used to," Bae said. "Even in our language, there's a polite way of speaking to elders and a way you talk to your friends. I can basically provide service with respect."