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Posted on Wed, Jan. 18, 2006

Real estate agents take Spanish class to build clientele

CHRIS WHIPPLE
The Daily Advance of Elizabeth City

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. - The first Spanish word real estate agents learned in a course being offered at College of The Albemarle wasn't dinero - but the Spanish word for "money" may be the one most remember.

Not only is the state's Hispanic population increasing rapidly, its buying power is too - so much so that a few local business people recently signed up for a specialized Spanish language class at COA.

Titled "Conversational Spanish for Real Estate Agents," the class is being taught by Julieta Smith, a real estate agent who was born in Bogota, Colombia. She's married to a Coast Guardsman, and has lived in the United States for seven years, first in Alaska, then San Diego, and now Elizabeth City.

David Cross, of David Cross Real Estate, is one of three men and two women taking the course. He said he enrolled as a way to have basic communication with Hispanic clients. He noted that he often finds himself communicating through the children of his Hispanic clients, who are bilingual.

"I'm also a property manager and rent to several Hispanic families," Cross said. "I have a difficult time communicating with them unless their children are there."

North Carolina's Hispanic population grew by 394 percent between 1990 and 2000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2000, census workers put the number of Hispanics living in Pasquotank County at 492.

Most area officials are sure the number has grown since then. However, it's hard to have an exact figure for the local Hispanic population, says Brandon Shoaf of the Albemarle Commission.

Hispanics come and go with seasonal work in agriculture, Shoaf says. But they also make up a whopping 30 percent of construction workers in the state, according to the Carolinas office of the Associated General Contractors of America.

The buying power of Hispanics in North Carolina grew from $834 million in 1990 to $2.96 billion in 2001, an increase of 255 percent, according to the AAGCA. As a result, more and more businesses are beginning to market themselves to this growing and largely untapped bloc of consumers.

That's where the real estate agents come in. As more Hispanics come to the area, the percentage who stay grows as well. Hispanics who are now tenants will soon start buying homes, officials say.

Smith said it's taken this long for real estate agents to begin connecting with this emerging market because of a common misconception from within the Hispanic community.

"It is not that people here think (Hispanics) are not a good market, or think they don't have enough economic power to acquire a house," Smith said. "Hispanic people are the ones that don't realize they have rights and they have the power to do it. They just don't know the rights they have because some of them are illegal immigrants. They don't know they can (take out) loans even though they don't have a credit history of even though they are not legal."

Smith, who has worked in real estate in Pasquotank County for about six months, says all her home sales so far have been to nonimmigrants. But she believes that is about to change.

"I have a couple of clients who are Hispanic and are working to get loans and are deciding what they can do," she said. "First, some of them have to clean their credit and some of them are just not ready to partake. They haven't realized the importance of buying a house."

The conversational Spanish class for real estate agents isn't Smith's first effort at outreach to the local Hispanic community.

In October, she gave a seminar for Hispanics at Holy Catholic Family Church on the importance of buying a house. She's also in the process of scheduling a follow-up seminar.

In a sense, Smith's outreach efforts are what real estate agents do every day: deal brokering. On the one side, she's got a Hispanic community that may be uncertain about its opportunities.

On the other, there's a real estate community blocked by a language barrier. The goal, she said, is to get to both sides to sit down at the table - something they can't very well do until they speak each other's language.

Smith is hoping the conversational Spanish class will help remove that barrier and help real estate professionals tap what appears to be a growing market.

"(Hispanic residents) are already here," Smith said, "paying $500, $600, $700 for rent. And that's the price for a mortgage."

George Jackson, who has been a licensed real estate broker for 30 years, said the emergence of the Hispanic market is a significant change in the area.

"I find understanding Spanish is increasingly more important," Jackson said.

Kathryn Burgess agreed.

"People call me all the time about rentals and I pretty much cannot understand what they are saying," Burgess said. "And that's becoming more prevalent every day."

Smith said she has embraced her role as the area's first real estate agent specializing in the Hispanic market.

"I just want to open doors for the Latin community and for people to understand that there are many opportunities for them if they can communicate," Smith said. "Not just in real estate. (Hispanics) are a great market for restaurants, for stores, even for the YMCA."

She said she wants to communicate that message to the Hispanic community that they are valued and welcome.

"I tell them they are amazing people with great experiences and a great culture that will be appreciated in this country," Smith said.