Recently I spoke about real estate recruiting in today’s environment, for tomorrow’s agents. Due to the response on that topic, I want to add a few thoughts building about a multicultural business.
Simply put, attracting a demographic of multicultural agents.
As a nation of immigrants, we have seen wave after wave of people immigrating to live the American dream. If you look at the immigration patterns of the late 1800s through the early 1900s you see millions of Western, Eastern, and Southern Europeans coming here and establishing new lives.
Over the past 40-50 years, immigration has been largely from Latin American and Asian countries. Furthermore, the largest percentage of the Millennial generation, who are the agents and consumers of the future, are immigrants or children of immigrants.
Compare the Baby Boomer Generation to this new generation in terms of the ethnic make-up.
What does this have to do with real estate recruiting you ask? Everything!
Yesterday’s immigrants have assimilated into our culture. Today’s African, Asian, and Hispanic Americans will soon reflect the majority of our country. They also represent future homebuyers, agents, and drivers of economic growth.
Consider the buying power of these groups:
• Hispanic American: $1.2 trillion
• African American: $1.0 trillion
• Asian American: $718 billion
All this leads me to say that as a real estate company, regardless of your location, you cannot afford to ignore the demographic trends that are changing our country, and our industry. If you don’t have a strategy in place to address this issue, you are leaving a significant amount of money on the table.
But it’s not just enough to take notice. There are many nuances to consider in order to be taken seriously in your real estate recruiting.
How do you attract multicultural agents into your company? You must educate yourself and get involved with groups such as:
- National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (www.nahrep.org)
- Asian Real Estate Association of America (www.areaa.org)
- National Association of Real Estate Brokers (www.nareb.com)
You’ll be helping these organizations with their charters to close home ownership gaps, while educating yourself on the cultural sensitivity you need to succeed with multicultural agents.
There are many additional topics to cover on multicultural agents and real estate recruiting. This is a simple primer to put you on the path to earning credibility with multicultural agents. I’ll write more on this next time.
Jose Perez was on the inaugural board of directors for the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate professionals and has also spoken at events for the Asian Real Estate Association of America.
For more information, visit www.pcmsconsulting.com.
