The challenges and opportunities for Spanish real estate agents

Optimism is a prerequisite for success as a seller, and real estate professionals have it in abundance. At the Tom Ferry event last month and at the National Association of Spanish Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) currently underway, this attribute is everywhere. Speakers are motivated and motivating, focused on what real estate professionals can control in a crazy housing market.

Here is a summary of some insights from the NAHREP event so far.

The opportunity

One reason NAHREP attendees are optimistic is that they serve a population responsible for more than half of U.S. population growth. And that population is young, with one average age of 30.7 years – 14 years younger than the median age of non-Hispanic whites and eight years younger than the overall population. They are also more likely to form households than other demographic groups and their wealth is increasing.

The State of Hispanic Wealth Reportreleased today shows that the gap between Hispanic households and non-Hispanic whites, while still significant, is closing. The report uses data to debunk some myths surrounding Latin American consumers. Some of those statistics:

• Seventy-one percent of homes purchased by Latin American homebuyers in 2023 were middle- and upper-income census tracts. Only 4% of homes were in low-income Census tracts.
• Hispanic-owned employer businesses are growing ten times faster than total employer businesses.
• As many as 96% of Latin American households have a transaction or checking account with a bank or financial service provider
• More than a million Spanish households have a net worth of more than $1 million and a growing share are considered high income.

Hispanic consumers and homebuyers present an opportunity for real estate and mortgage professionals willing to serve them.

The technical advantage

The youth of both Hispanic consumers and the Spanish-speaking agents who serve them means that these professionals are likely to embrace and benefit from technological advancements more quickly than others in the real estate industry. One NAHREP session on AI showed off some truly incredible use cases for agents that can make marketing and relationship building as easy as ordering an Uber, and they’re all available today. The enthusiasm during the stand-alone session underlined that these officers are ready.

Recent technological developments are expanding the ability to serve Spanish-speaking consumers in another way: the easy translation of marketing materials and home buying documents. I remember attending a session at a major mortgage conference several years ago that discussed serving buyers with limited English proficiency (LEP). The consensus was that offering mortgage documents in other languages ​​was fraught with dangers, especially in terms of compliance. Compare that to today, where I learned that Rate (formerly Guaranteed Rate) offers a complete loan process – from application to closing and servicing – all in Spanish. And new AI capabilities open up the possibility of reaching borrowers in 120 different languages.

Changes to the NAR settlement

Spanish real estate agents tend to act as buyer’s agents at a higher rate than the overall real estate agent population. This makes them more vulnerable to changes in buyer compensation rules, but NAHREP President Nora Aguirre sees their experience helping buyers who often need more education and care in this environment as a strength, not a weakness.

“For years we’ve said that many of the top Spanish-language producers are actually very strong buyer agents,” Aguirre said in a podcast interview with HousingWire. “It’s almost like they’ve developed this unique niche and ability to communicate and connect because Latino homebuyers need a lot of grooming.

“We have seen the value proposition [of buyer agents] for many, many years. And so now it’s basically playing catch-up and saying, now everyone who represents buyers has to kind of flesh out this whole plan. And really with Latino buyers, we always had to have that plan ready for them,” Aguirre said.

In a session on the NAR settlement, Martha Mosier, president and general counsel at Berkshire Hathaway Homeservices California Propertiessaid of the rule changes, “I believe the opportunities far outweigh the challenges,” but noted that amid negative headlines about the profession, agents must remember who they are and the value of the service they provide.

“I truly believe this decoupling of committees and the settlement has raised the bar for all of us. There were so many real estate agents who sold real estate as a hobby. I don’t think that will happen again,” Mosier said. “We are professionals. We can respond to that and we can be proud of that.”

Kuba Jewgieniew, CEO and founder of Real Estate One Groupwhich has grown to 20,000 agents in 49 states and 20 countries, highlighted the value of finding and working with people focused on growth. “What kind of story do you want to have? Who do you want to surround yourself with? There is a story of less: fewer committees, fewer NAR members…I don’t want to talk about the minimum, I want to surround myself with people who talk about more: how to win more, achieve more, provide more for your family ?”