LULAC Receives $25,000 Donation From Countrywide Bank For Homebuyer Education Programs.

Washington, DC - The League of United Latin American Citizens National Housing Commission (LNHC) today announced that it has received $25,000 from Countrywide Bank, FSB, the third largest federal savings bank in the U.S. and a member of the Countrywide (NYSE:CFC) family of companies. Countrywide Bank’s financial support will allow the National Housing Commission to continue to promote educational programs on home buying, foreclosure prevention, financial literacy, credit and other areas for Latinos, especially for young people and the elderly.
January 10, 2008
http://www.lulac.org/advocacy/press/2008/homebuyer.html

Dumping the First Time Home Buyer at the first signs of trouble

Where have all the lenders and agents gone? 

Has the real estate and loan industry abandoned the Latino
First Time Home Buyer? It seems they have. It was only a few months ago that most major companies and reports where announcing their plans to serve the growing latino home buyer. But that was until this subprime mess exploded.

What about all those first time home buyers that bought with adjustable loans
with a 2 or 3 year period. A lot of these loans are adjusting now and causing
great suffering to these home owners. Many of these borrowers cannot afford the
payment increase and or can no longer refinance, or sell due to current market
conditions. So now what. I recently wrote Senator Feinstein asking her to get
the lenders to waive various onerous conditions especially the Pre Payment
Penalty. This penalty imprisons someone from refinancing due to the high cost of
this penalty.  If borrowers wait until the penalty expires it may be harder
to get a loan.

I recently heard from a real estate agent at PruLatino (Prudential's Hispanic
Full Service real estate office) in northern California. He was complaining
about how Prudential has abandoned their focus on the latino home buyer due to
current subprime problems.

As Realtor Magazine states: "Reaching out to Latino customers in word
and deed.  Several years ago, the California Association of Realtors
release research showing that 20 percent of California home sales involved
buyers or sellers with a Hispanic surname.  Those findings motivated Ed
Krafchow, president of residential brokerage giant Prudential California/Nevada/Texas Realty, to conduct similar research on his company ... In response, Krafchow initiated a Hispanic outreach effort and this year launched  a Spanglish language listings magazine, Palacio." (Realtor Magazine, August 2007)

However, it seems the magazine has not been released, and if my friend at
PruLatino is correct, it seems Prudential was "reaching out for the easy
MONEY only and not in word and deed."

So for all of us involved in the real estate business, let's not forget those
buyers and future buyers who fed us and our families while it was good.

Why Latino Home Buyer? Por Que Latino Home Buyer?

Good question. Real Estate professionals are suppose to be color blind and help their clients achieve the American Dream whether they speak English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian etc. But you do need to help them in a way that they can understand. Therefore, language and culture are important to improve communication and to have a better informed buyer whose first language is not English. Also, many times you are dealing with an extended family who may not all speak English but who want to and will contribute to the buying process.

Lastly from a pure business sense: The demographics show that the biggest group of first time home buyers will be from the immigrant communities whose first language is not English. So it makes good business, relationship and sales sense to be more inclusive.