The challenges and opportunities for Hispanic real estate agents

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

Here’s a recap of some insights from the NAHREP event so far.

The opportunity

One reason NAHREP attendees are upbeat is that they serve a population that’s responsible for more than half of the population growth in the U.S. And that population is young, with a median age of 30.7 — 14 years younger than the median age of non-Hispanic whites and eight years younger than the overall population. They also form households earlier than other demographics and their wealth is on the rise.

The State of Hispanic Wealth Report, released today, shows that the gap between Hispanic households and non-Hispanic whites, while still significant, is shrinking. The report uses data to debunk some of the myths around Hispanic consumers. Some of those stats:

• Seventy-one percent of homes bought by Hispanic homebuyers in 2023 were in middle and upper-income Census tracts. Only 4% of homes were in low-income Census tracts.
• Hispanic-owned employer businesses are growing at 10x the rate of overall employer businesses.
• A full 96% of Hispanic households have a transactional account or checking account with a bank or financial services provider
• Over a million Hispanic households have a net worth over $1 million and a growing share are considered high income.

Hispanic consumers and homebuyers represent an opportunity for real estate and mortgage professionals who are prepared to serve them.

The tech advantage

The youth of both Hispanic consumers and the Hispanic real estate agents who serve them means these professionals will likely embrace and benefit from tech advances faster than others in the real estate field. One NAHREP session on AI showcased some truly incredible use cases for agents that can make marketing and relationship-building as easy as ordering an Uber, and all are available today. The enthusiasm in that standing-room only session underlined that these agents are ready.

Recent tech advances increase the opportunity to serve Hispanic consumers in another way too: the easy translation of marketing assets and home-buying documents. I remember attending a session at a large mortgage conference several years ago that talked about serving limited English proficiency (LEP) buyers and the consensus was that offering mortgage docs in other languages was fraught with peril, mostly around compliance. Contrast that to today, where I learned that Rate (formerly Guaranteed Rate) offers an entire loan process — from application to closing and servicing — all in Spanish. And new AI capabilities open the possibility of reaching borrowers in 120 different languages.

NAR settlement changes

Hispanic real estate agents tend to serve as buyers agents at a higher rate than the overall agent population. This leaves 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 nurturing as a strength in this environment, not a weakness.

“For many years we’ve said many of the Hispanic top-producing agents are actually really 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 nurturing.

“We’ve seen the value proposition [of buyer agents] for many, many years. And so it’s basically right now catching up, saying, well, now everyone that’s representing buyers needs to kind of lay out this whole plan. And really, with Latino buyers, we’ve always had to have that plan laid out for them,” Aguirre said.

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

“I really believe this decoupling of commissions and the settlement has raised the bar for all of us. There were so many agents out there selling real estate as a hobby — I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore,” Mosier said. “We’re professionals. We can capitalize on that and we should be proud of that.”

Kuba Jewgieniew, CEO and founder of Realty One Group, which has grown to 20,000 agents in 49 states and 20 countries, emphasized the value of finding and working with people who are focused on growth. “What kind of narrative do you want to be around? Who do you want to surround yourself with? There’s a narrative of less: less commissions, less NAR members…I don’t want to talk about the minimum, I want to surround myself with people who talk about more: how do you win more, achieve more, provide more for your family?”