A national referral network offering the full gamut of real estate service providers for Spanish-speaking home buyers launched today on MSN Latino Finanzas, a Spanish-language financial education portal.
The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate ProfessionalsNational Referral Network offers Spanish-speaking real estate agents, mortgage brokers, home-buying counselors and settlement service providers. It is co-sponsored by The First American Corp. and NAHREP, the organizations said today.
Unveiled today at NAHREP’s 5th Annual Hispanic Marketing Convention and Expo in New York, the NRN offers real estate service providers ready to assist Spanish-speaking home seekers with the knowledge and tools necessary to enter the home-buying process, the association said.
The NRN offers a fully automated, single-point of access to NAHREP-certified Spanish-speaking real estate brokers and agents; specialized credit evaluation and closing/settlement services from First American; mortgage pre-approval services by National City Mortgage; and home-buying counseling services by Operation HOPE.
More than 1.2 million registered users regularly visit the MSN Latino Web portal, recording, on average, nearly 150,000 page views per month in the Finanzas area, NAHREP claimed. First American estimates the NRN will generate several hundred leads each month, which, in its early stages, will likely result in helping dozens of families buy homes.
“This innovative partnership brings together several organizations, with proven programs for assisting the Hispanic consumer, for a single purpose: help increase the number of Hispanic homeowners,” said Frances Martinez Myers, NAHREP chairman, in a statement.
Myers said NAHREP is “committed to working with the industry’s best companies to meet the unique cultural and language needs of the rapidly growing Hispanic homebuying segment.”
NAHREP and First American expect to have more than 1,000 real estate agents registered as part of the NRN by the end of 2005. This agent network will help ensure that buyers are paired with real estate professionals in their immediate geographic area and speed the response time from information submission to first contact by a real estate agent, the companies said.
Unlike many Web-based referral services that simply pair consumers to service professionals solely through automated zip code matching, the NRN employs counselor/advocates who work directly with each prospective home buyer to determine the best agent-client fit, NAHREP said.
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