Group hopes to help Hispanics buy homes

For many American homebuyers, a real estate agent to guide them through home financing and up to the closing is a must.

But in many Hispanic cultures, it is an attorney who guides the buyer through the home-buying process and it is a dishonor to not pay cash for a house. And compared to the process in the United States, buying a house is a much bigger challenge in South America.

“You can’t take for granted that they’ll understand a contract or the requirements,” said Raul Martinez Jr. of Prestige Builders Partners. “Especially in the financial side, they have to give things like bank statements. They think, ‘I don’t even know this person, why should I show them what I make?’”

The newly established Lee/Collier County chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals’ goal is to educate and ease Hispanic immigrants into the American homebuying process.

The chapter expects to be approved by the national chapter in about three weeks. But Tuesday at the Southwest Florida group’s second meeting, 19 members voted for board members and began planning for the next monthly meeting. Members pay a $99 yearly membership fee.

With a growing Hispanic presence in Lee and Collier counties, the time was right for a Hispanic Real Estate Professionals’ chapter in the area, said Hilda Luisa Diaz-Perera, the newly elected chapter president. In Florida, there are chapters in Orlando and Tampa.

In her candidate’s speech before the secret ballot, Diaz-Perera pointed out that 40 percent of Collier County School District students are Hispanic.

Chapter Vice President Juan Alvarez said that Hispanics probably will make up 25 percent of the local population by 2010, which is a conservative estimate. In Lee and Collier counties, Hispanics made up about 12.5 percent of each county’s population, according to 2000 U.S. Census data. The percentage has grown since the census.

There has been a steady influx of South American immigrants into the area, she said, “but the thing is whenever there is a political change in a country, some people flee and move to Southwest Florida.”

Lately, Hispanic immigrants are coming from Venezuela and Colombia, said Diaz-Perera, who is a broker for GoldenCoast-CostaDorada.

The state’s proximity to many South American countries and its bilingual residents make Florida an appealing choice for immigrants, she said.

Alvarez said that he hopes the chapter will also host seminars for professionals — non-Hispanics and Hispanics who are unfamiliar with the culture — to make them more sensitive to cultural differences.

The Lee/Collier County chapter also wants to establish a greater Hispanic political presence.

Diaz-Perera said that while there is a significant Hispanic population, only a small fraction is registered to vote.

One of the changes Alvarez hopes to see involves revising zoning restrictions to allow for more affordable, multiple-unit housing complexes.

Officers and directors

-- President: Hilda Luisa Diaz-Perera

-- Vice President: Juan Alvarez

-- Compliance officer: Yuli Chavez

-- Treasurer: Nora Alvarez

-- Membership director: Mimi Spengler

-- Secretary: Julie Mitchell

-- Parliamentarian: Blanca Contreras