NEW ORLEANS — Tapping into the growing demand for U.S. property by international buyers from Latin America, Asia and other regions means respecting your clients’ customs and culture.

 Done right, one deal can lead to a steady stream of referrals and a new source of business for brokers and agents, said members of a panel, “Develop Your Share of the Growing Hispanic Market” at the National Association of Realtors Convention in New Orleans.

In 1990, after being in real estate for more than 20 years, Colorado broker-developer Howard Leino said he “backed into international real estate without realizing it.”

A man from a wealthy family from Mexico City that built chassis for Formula 1 racecars dropped into his office, looking for a home for his son.

“I sold his son a home, and then his brother came up to Denver and bought a second home,” Leino said. “I treated them with profound respect, gave them every courtesy… and they never forgot my kindness.”

As a result of those two deals, the Greenwood Village, Colo-based broker said, he ended up doing business with doctors from India, international bankers from London, and chemists and engineers from Germany.

“The referrals just go on and on, and I’ll tell you why they go on and on: You’ve got to be courteous to the people, you have to respect people,” Leino said.

Leino has been invited to clients’ homes for dinner, attended their children’s’ college graduation ceremonies, and even a wedding.

“One doctor from Bombay called me up one day after I sold him a $500,000 home, and said he was (soon to go through with an) arranged marriage,” Leino said. After accepting the doctor’s invitation to attend his wedding in Texas, Leino said he referred three more doctors from India to him as clients.

After the Canadian hockey team won the gold medal at 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, the team’s goalie coach called him up, saying he’d gotten his name at a cocktail party. Leino said it “drove him nuts for 30 days” wondering who’d referred the coach to him.

“For those of you who may be sitting in this room thinking well international real estate isn’t for me, I’ve got news for you – it’s in your backyard,” Leino said.

Don’t be frightened away from international real estate if, like Leino, you don’t speak Spanish or any language other than English, he said.

“I can’t speak a word of Spanish,” he said. “Every person I’ve served speaks better English than I do.”

But do build your awareness of emerging markets, Leino said. If your area has an arm of government or business association that specializes in international trade, join it.

When Leino joined the World Trade Center Denver, there were many commercial real estate brokers, but few who dealt in residential properties. He got lots of leads. Leino also contacted banks and law firms that did international business, taking employees out to lunch to drum up leads.

“Use phone books, the chamber of commerce, sister cities,” Leino said. “Check with your state’s international business development office. Every state in the United States has one – they are typically attached to the governor’s office.”

Familiarize yourself with cultural and religious customs that can influence business transactions, Leino said. In some cultures, it’s considered an affront to address the woman first, rather than the man. But not all couples adhere strictly to cultural mores.

“I found a little secret. When I was showing homes to married couples, I found that whoever got in the front seat of the car with me is generally the person who made the decision in the family,” Leino said. “So I always tried to sell the house to the person in the front seat. Generally the person in the back seat is ‘Yes dear, whatever you say dear.’ “

Adrian Arriaga, the owner-broker of AAA Real Estate and Investments in McAllen, Texas, said he got started selling to buyers from Mexico, Germany and Korea by attending weddings, bar mitzvahs and quinceaneras — a girl’s coming of age party.

Arriaga is bilingual, but it took some effort to learn Spanish, he said.

“The only bad grade I ever got at Texas A&M, the only D I ever got, was in Spanish,” he said. “My Spanish is horrendous. But I learned how to do it” because it was important to be able to communicate with his clients.

Cathy Rojas, a Las Vegas Realtor who attended the panel discussion, agreed that it’s vital to understand your clients’ language and culture.

Rojas, who speaks fluent Spanish, said about 75 percent of her business is with Hispanics.

“The old Mexico — and that’s what’s coming in — they feel more comfortable with somebody who speaks Spanish, somebody of their own culture, somebody that understands them,” Rojas said.

Migrants who don’t speak English, she said, “would rather not communicate than to make themselves look stupid. That’s what they feel. That’s a big insult for them, to be embarrassed because they cannot communicate.”

Rojas said she closed three deals with Hispanic clients last month, including one who had become distrustful of the white real estate agent she had been dealing with.

“She felt like he was trying to steal her house, and somehow she got referred to me, and now it’s like she won’t take a step without asking me now,” Rojas said. “It’s a total trust, with Hispanics, if you don’t have their trust, and their loyalty, then you have nothing.”

The first rule of international real estate is that “where there is no relationship, there’s no business,” said David Segrest, president of Segrest International Inc. in Charlotte, N.C.

Segrest said he also backed into international real estate, when he helped a Cuban couple buy a home in Charlotte. The couple — the mother and stepfather of a Cuban immigrant who rented a property Segrest managed — were difficult to qualify for financing. The husband, who’d been an architect in Cuba, worked as a security guard. The wife worked at the cosmetics counter at Sears.

But Segrest did have a mobile home they could afford, and he offered to finance the purchase. Three months later, the couple invited him to dinner, and “they had completely transformed the place.” He’s been good friends with the couple for nearly two decades, and they are a constant source of referrals.

“It seems like virtually every Cuban family that comes to Charlotte gets to know these people, and when they get ready to buy real estate, they introduce them to me, “ Segrest said.

Segrest said he’s become an advocate for the immigrant community he serves, and recommends other brokers and agents do the same.

In Charlotte, Segrest said, some immigrants were having trouble registering their children for school. The building where the registration was done was in a bad neighborhood, and few school employees spoke foreign languages.

After Segrest and other community advocates met with the mayor, the school district moved registration to the school headquarters, and compiled a list of district employees who spoke other languages so that they’d be available to help with the process.

Arriaga, Leino and Segrest have all earned the Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS) designation from the National Association of Realtors. To earn the designation, real estate professionals must complete a weeklong education program on international real estate.

Leino went through the CIPS program six years ago, after working in international real estate for a decade.

“I could kick myself for not getting into it years earlier,” Leino said. “It opens lots of doors. The international operations of NAR are fabulous, there is a wealth of information that you can retrieve through the Internet.”

The CIPS Network helps facilitate contact between 1,500 members from countries including the U.S. Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bermuda, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Singapore.

The National Association for Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, which runs a referral service, is another online resource.

Another CIPS certified expert in international sales, Deborah Boza Valledor, offered up a collection of Web resources during the panel discussion. Valledor, the regional training director for Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate in Miami, recommended “Servicing Your Multicultural Clients” at Realtor.org as a good place to begin learning.

Valledor said the U.S. Census Bureau site and its TIGER mapping tool is useful for analyzing the ethnic makeup of a city or neighborhood, and identifying the languages needed to market to its residents.

Her own Web site allows visitors to search for international properties through www.Worldproperties.com, and Valledor relies on www.Immobel.com to translate her MLS listings and other information on the site into 13 languages. She also recommends LEC.com’s Power Translator, which integrates with Microsoft products, and www.worldlingo.com for putting requesting a bid on a document translation job that requires a human interpreter.
For tips on cultural awareness, Valledor recommends Getting Through Customs.

The rewards of international real estate can be more than financial. Treating clients with respect can lead not only to referrals, but friendships.

Leino told a story about selling a home to a woman from Paraguay, “Blanca,” who had come to the United States to manage maids for the Sheraton Hotel chain.

Leino found her “a lovely home” and her employer cosigned her loan. But at the closing, the woman broke down in tears.

“She said, ‘I want everyone in this room to know I’m from a very poor family in Paraguay’ ” Leino recalled. ” ‘I’m an only child … I was raised in a hut with a dirt floor (and) my mother did all the laundry in a river twice a week. We had no indoor plumbing. I’m sitting here at this table, and it just occurred to me that when I walk out of this room, I’m going to own a little piece of America.’ ”

Everybody in the room “lost it,” Leino said, and he was so moved, he signed his commission check over to her. Ten months later, he said, Blanca came to his office with a big brown bag — the first harvest from her backyard garden.

Source:

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