Techniques That Hit Home : Understanding Latinos’ Families, Jobs and Finances Is Key to Helping Them Get Into the Housing Market
Most Hispanic real estate agents think that to be an agent you get a license, a desk and a phone--and you’re done. I have so many clients because I invest in myself by advertising and studying and because I get involved in the community.
We have to educate our clients. Full service is especially important with poorer clients. People who buy houses in Bel-Air are educated people who know the real estate industry and know how the economy is moving. Before they put a cent into any property or business, they know how much money they will get after a year, and after three years. The people to whom we sell houses are not well educated; they are just hard workers. They don’t know whether or not buying a house is a good investment, but they trust me.
If people want to buy a house, and if I make my report to them and make them trust me--not by lying to them, but by talking to them about their job, kids, grandparents, town, country or customs--they will believe in me without my asking. It doesn’t matter if there are 100 real estate agents calling them.
American style is to just show houses. With (Latinos), you have to talk with them about their background. I get to know the people first so I don’t have to show many houses.
Sometimes my buyers have a lot of money in the bank and yet they just dream about having a house. They pay rent every month, but rent is just going into the trash can. That’s the comparison I always make. Rent is thrown away, but house payments go into the savings as equity grows.
When the escrow closes, my relationship with my clients is not finished. In many ways, it’s just started, because I spend more time on a client after the escrow closes than before. I call myself the Yellow Pages, because people call me with all kinds of questions. I recommend roofers, plumbers and electricians. When people ask me whether they should convert their garages into rooms, I tell them they need to go through the city--and then I tell them what city department they need and where the building is. If you give people the right directions all the time, they will come back to you.
Sometimes I have to invest money. I may hire people to paint a house, put in a new door or fix locks. If buyers don’t have enough to pay for their fire insurance, I pay for it. If the plumbing goes bad in a house a few months after someone bought it, I send a plumber and I pay for it. If you do these things for people, they come back.
I don’t invest because I have a lot of money; I do it because it’s advertising. When someone whom a client of mine knows wants to buy or sell a house, that person will come to me.
Every client is worth 10. If I lose one person, I lose 10. If I make one happy, I win 10. Most of the clients I work with today were recommended by other people to whom I sold houses.
There are two or three families living together in every house I have sold. If one person isn’t working for a while, the other five will make the payment. A husband and wife might come to our office to buy a house, but they have a brother and a compadre and an amigo who will live with them and pay rent to them. That’s the only way Latinos get houses.
When people say they want to buy a house, I ask two questions: how much savings do they have and how much money do they earn. Then I tell them where they can afford a house. Many of my clients are renting in Hollywood or Santa Monica when they come to see me. And some of them think they can buy a house in their neighborhood with $6,000 down and $500 a month. Those people dream too much, and I have to educate them.
In Watts, you can buy a house by putting $6,000 down and paying $700 to $900 a month. I never ask my clients if they are afraid of moving into neighborhoods with a lot of crime. The mentality now is that anywhere you go is dangerous. I show my clients that they can save more money by buying a house than by putting money in the bank. And I tell them where they can afford to buy. They know the news. They make the decision to move. I think about 10% of my buyers are thinking about safety and 90% are just thinking about having a house.
Other agents say I’m crazy because I sell most of my houses in Watts, and real estate people have been killed in the area. But I say Watts is where I make my money. The latest I have been in Watts is 3 a.m. I have never had anybody follow me, never had anybody point a gun at me. I don’t go there dressed in a suit and driving my Mercedes. I dress like people who live there and drive my Toyota or Datsun.
To be a successful real estate agent you have to make small changes and accommodate people. You are a professional actor. You have to forget about your country. My clients may think I’m from Mexico, El Salvador or Guatemala. I learn where they’re from and use words that people in that region use often. I never get into politics. I never get into religions. And I never get into sports. My main goal is to help people get a first house.
I still have clients from 1987. They are not my clients because I sold a house to them--they are my clients because I still communicate with them. If I’m in their area, I stop by and say hi.
