By: Gonzales Group
Carefully managing the multicultural home buyer’s loan process is a great way for REALTORS® to grow an often overlooked customer segment. The multicultural home buying segment is outpacing the general market in both population growth and buying power according to new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Recent changes in lending practices and strict qualifying criteria have presented additional challenges for multicultural home buyers given their limited credit history, non-traditional sources of income such as part-time jobs, and cultural aversions to debt and credit to name a few.
Securing financing for multicultural buyers can be easily managed by following a few simple steps. Brokers that have been successful in servicing multicultural home buyers found demonstrating trust and carefully facilitating the entire transactional process as sound best practices when working with multicultural home buyers.
Demonstrate Trust
Multicultural home buyers look to the REALTOR® as advisors throughout the real estate transaction. Trust is one of the most important dynamics real estate professionals need to understand and embrace when working with multicultural home buyers.
Many REALTORS® have reported that transactions were lost when multicultural home buyers were mistakenly placed with lenders that did not understand the cultural and language nuances. This resulted in a loss of trust in the REALTOR® whose role serves as a trusted advisor.
Lenders not being aware that a down payment being gifted from extended family overseas is the norm or that not addressing elder members of the family first during the loan process are a few cultural missteps that can result in lost clients and commissions. Some real estate brokerages have addressed this challenge by having in-house lending services to insure the team has the cultural expertise to accommodate the needs of the multicultural consumer.
Facilitate the Process
It is important that you remain engaged with your multicultural home buyer during the loan process as they see the buying, lending, survey, inspection and appraisal as being one in the same and will look to you to guide them through the transaction. Multicultural home buyers expect REALTORS® to handle the transaction from beginning to end and the mortgage lender is generally viewed as an extension of your service. Not monitoring the progress of the transaction and providing updates to your multicultural home buyer can be viewed as abandonment of a relationship. In high context cultures where relationships come before business, this can be financially costly and result in lost referrals.
Today’s real estate market can be challenging but it is important to remember that there are tremendous opportunities in servicing and accommodating the needs of an overlooked customer segment such as the multicultural home buyer.
If you expand your service to include this growing segment of the home buying population, make certain that you partner with a lender that understands the needs of the multicultural consumer and that they have the services and committed team that shares in your professional goal of expanding your customer base.
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