Jean-David Nsiru Jr. knew nothing about buying a home the first time his parents enlisted his help to meet with a builder.
The Congolese migrants didn’t think they knew all the right questions to ask, Nsiru said, so they turned to his son, who, after some research, asked so many questions that the builder’s representative suspected he was a real estate agent.
“Finally she said, ‘You should look into real estate,'” Nsiru said. “‘I think you’d make a really good real estate agent.'”
A year later, when Nsilulu was in need of a career change, he recalled that conversation. He decided that his property was the place to be, not just for himself and his family, but for the Congolese community.
Congolese residents are now Louisville’s second-fastest growing immigrant population after Cubans, with approximately 3,000 people from the Democratic Republic of the Congo coming from the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 2018 and 2022, according to the Kentucky Office of Refugees. The plan is to resettle in the area.
Since his family moved to Louisville in 2004, Nsilulu has witnessed a surge in immigration from Congo. She was 11 years old at the time. Fifteen years later, as she considered her career options, she also realized that there was a lack of services for Congolese homebuyers who do not speak English.
“It’s a very scary process, very intimidating,” Nsilulu, now 32, said of buying a home. “I had heard of several people in my community who went with someone else. They didn’t understand what they were signing and ended up working multiple jobs. I ended up receiving exorbitant interest rates and exorbitant monthly payments.”I got my real estate license because I had the financial means to do so. ”
Since 2019, Mr. Nsilulu has been working as a real estate agent for Keller Williams, specializing in helping African clients who often find him through word of mouth.
Mr. Nsilulu’s native languages are French and Lingala. He said he can guide non-English speakers through buying a home in a way that other real estate agents can’t.
“I also empathize with them on a level that (other real estate agents) don’t understand,” he said. “…When you talk to immigrants, you see the struggles they’ve gone through. You see what it takes to come to America. You see the steps they need to take to be successful.”
Nsilulu’s family had to participate in a visa lottery program for 10 years, which involved rigorous background checks and medical exams every year, before they were allowed to enter the United States.
“They definitely make you suffer,” he said of the process. “…but it’s a blessing.”
Nsilulu now sees it as his mission to help other immigrants take the American Dream one step further by helping them build generational wealth through homeownership.
“I thought it was really important to give back to my community and to my immigrant families and educate them about the importance of investing in yourself and what real estate can do to create more opportunity here,” he said.
Slaba Fars has worked with Ncilulu at Keller Williams for the past few years and said Ncilulu is always the first to offer assistance to anyone in need.
“He’s a very charismatic guy, very compassionate,” Furze said. “… The best way to describe him is he has energy.”
Farz is also an immigrant and his native language is Russian. And while both men work with all kinds of clients, Fars said their backgrounds give them “an extra level of trust” from people in the community.
“We give fair rights to people who work hard and are really trying to improve their lives and change their lives,” Fars said. “…When you don’t have professionals who are multilingual and can talk to people who speak our language as their native language, the playing field doesn’t become as level.”
Nsilulu said he is grateful that Louisville’s Congolese community continues to grow, allowing him to stay connected to the culture in which he grew up. He also wants to encourage more immigrants to get into real estate.
“It’s a lot of work, but it’s definitely worth it,” he said.
Reporter Bailey Loosemore can be contacted at bloosemore@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4646 or on Twitter. @bloosemore.
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