Utah Realtors Organizing Local NAHREP Chapter

Utah, where 12 percent of the population is Hispanic according to the Pew Hispanic Center, is just one of a handful of states without a local NAHREP chapter. Photo courtesy iStockPhoto.

By Kelly Lux
Real Estate News Utah Editor

Realtors in Utah are organizing the first Utah chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals with hopes that now is the right time and support will be sufficient to sustain the group.

“Right now we have a momentum going,” said Keller Williams Realtor Marcela Montemurro, who is working with Paola Franco, also a Keller Williams Realtor, to organize a Utah Chapter of NAHREP.

Utah, where 12 percent of the population is Hispanic according to the Pew Hispanic Center, is just one of a handful of states without a local NAHREP chapter. Other realtors have attempted to establish a NAHREP presence in Utah, but Montemurro believes the timing was off and the support was insufficient. But this time, with nearly 30 interested real estate professionals and an increasing need for support in the Latino community, Montemurro hopes the chapter will come to fruition.

The purpose of NAHREP is to provide an avenue for real estate professionals, including real estate agents, brokers, loan officers, mortgage brokers, title officers, escrow officers, appraisers and insurance agents, to increase homeownerships rates among Latinos, Montemurro said. This is done my providing support and representation for those in the Hispanic community.

“It is important for the Latino community and anyone who works with people from the Latino community to have support and representation,” Montemurro said. “We want to reduce the gap of ownership.”

Nationally, 49.7 percent of Hispanic households owned their homes in 2005, according to HUD. In Utah, 50.2 percent, or 37,000 Hispanics, owned homes in 2007, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. In the next 20 years, Hispanics are expected to make up 40 percent of all first-time homebuyers, according to Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Organizers of the Utah NAHREP recently met with interested real estate professionals to discuss the organization of a local chapter. The nearly three dozen people who attended the meeting talked about the needs of first-time Latino homebuyers and what is being done and what should be done to meet those needs, Montemurro said.

“It was exciting to see all the energy and all the need that is out there. There is a great need to serve the Latino community,” said Montemurro, who estimates that 10 percent of Utah’s Realtors are Hispanic. “The beauty of putting this together is we can work on education and decide where we need to go from here.”

Utah Latinos face several barriers when it comes to homeownership, Montemurro said. Many do not understand mortgages, credit and the process of title companies, she said. And often times, important information can “get lost in translation,” she added.

According to a survey conducted by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, 64 percent of Latinos who plan to buy a home within the next five years lack a familiarity with the mortgage process, 53 percent were unaware of the need to save for a down payment and 53 percent said they did not know how to find a trustworthy advisor. The same survey said an additional 700,000 Latino families would purchase a home if the housing industry offered bilingual outreach counseling and access to innovative mortgage products.

Montemurro hopes that the organization of a Utah NAHREP will provide educational opportunities for Latinos who are interested in homeownership, in turn, reducing the homeownership gap.

“Education is empowerment,” Montemurro said. “Once you have that, you can truly understand the process and know what you are getting yourself into.”

Educational opportunities will also be provided for real estate professionals who work with the Latino population in Utah. Already many of the Utah Latino professionals who are members of the Nevada Chapter of NAHREP have taken advantage of the educational opportunities available through the organization, Montemurro said.

“The educational components are amazing!” Montemurro said.

An application has been submitted to organize a NAHREP chapter in Utah. And those involved are in the process of selecting an interim board of directors and officers. Once that process is complete, Montemurro said they will “get to the nitty gritty” of setting up the chapter — filling out paperwork and setting up policies and procedures.

“I hope that this chapter can be established soon,” Montemurro said. “There is such a great need.”

Those interested in learning more about NAHREP or who would like to join the local chapter can contact Montemurro at 801.403.8966 or marcelam@kw.com or Paola Franco at 801.518.7108 or at paolafranco3@gmail.com.