The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) issued its latest Glossary of Real Estate Industry Terms this week, English-to-Spanish and Spanish-to-English, with both colloquial phrases and proper translations.
The free glossary, which covers the familiar (e.g., “home buyer”/”comprador de vivienda,” “insurance”/”seguro”) as well as industry jargon (e.g., “comparative market analysis”/”análisis comparativo de mercado”, “good faith estimate”/”estimado de buena fe”), is an important and necessary resource. In a NAHREP survey, Latino agents and loan officers reported that Spanish was utilized in 40 percent of their transactions, with 25 percent exclusively in Spanish—and, according to Census figures, Hispanics drove 62.7 percent of the gains in homeownership last year.
NAHREP developed the glossary in partnership with RE/MAX, which has been involved in other initiatives by the organization in recent years. Notably, the brand has the highest representation in NAHREP’s Top 250 Latino Agents ranking, with 75 agents included last year.
“RE/MAX has been a national partner of NAHREP for nearly five years,” says Mike Reagan, senior vice president of Global Alliances at RE/MAX. “As I wrote in my letter featured at the beginning of the glossary, the dream of owning a home isn’t limited by heritage, ethnicity, nationality or language. The benefits of homeownership are universal. Buying or selling a home is one of the most important decisions one can make during their lifetime. It’s important that nothing gets lost in translation. We share NAHREP’s mission of making homeownership more attainable by providing tools that assist individuals during this complex transaction who only speak Spanish or prefer to speak Spanish.
“Not only do we support NAHREP’s national convention financially, we also engage many of our agents to sit on panels, attend educational sessions and much more,” Reagan says. “I think that if you ask agents, having a tool like this is exceptionally useful and beneficial. They can make it a part of their listing presentations and have it readily available for buyers and sellers that need it to communicate effectively.”
Suzanne De Vita is RISMedia’s online news editor. Email her your real estate news ideas at sdevita@rismedia.com.
