On a crisp winter morning, real estate agent Sinan Farah met with her client, buyer Mohammad Mizyan, at a two-bedroom condo in Worthington.
Both are former refugees from much warmer climates than central Ohio.
Mizyan, a team manager at the bank, is Palestinian but grew up in Lebanon.
“As a refugee,[owning a home]was a dream I could never achieve in Lebanon. … Now I'm able to buy my own home, live with my wife and start a new family,” he told Dispatch told.
Farah, who came to the United States from Iraq 15 years ago, said many of his clients are immigrants and refugees and he wants to work with them, in part because he understands where they're coming from. Ta.
Farah said she applied for a real estate license in 2019 after hearing about a friend who was having trouble buying a home. The friend, also an Arab-American, told Farah that the agent spoke quickly in English and had little patience for explaining the intricacies of loans and insurance to him.
Farrar, an Ohio State University graduate who also works as a civil engineer for the U.S. Department of Defense, has carved out a niche as a real estate agent explaining the home buying system and translating complex terms to first-time buyers. He said he found it.
“It's not about buying and selling. It's about educating and acquainting refugees with the real estate system and asset management system,” Farrar told the Dispatch.
Farrar said the company sold 33 homes in its first year, 2020, and 65 homes in 2023. Mr. Farrar received the Columbus Realtors Rising Star of the Year award in 2022 and is currently one of Coldwell Banker Realty's top agents in central Ohio. . Employer.
As the central Ohio real estate market continues to heat up, Dispatch spoke to several real estate agents with immigrant and refugee backgrounds who said the number of real estate agents is growing. Both agents and their clients said immigration brokers provide important cultural translation and establish a bond of trust that allows them to move forward with transactions, especially but not limited to immigrant clients.
“Education is a huge part of it,” says Hasina Nelson, a Columbus-based real estate agent originally from Trinidad and Tobago. She says, “Other communities may have multi-generational homeowners, but that's not necessarily the case in areas with high immigrant populations or majority minority populations.”
Immigrants overcome barriers to enter the real estate industry
According to the National Association of Realtors, many American Realtor associations prevented non-whites from becoming licensed real estate agents until the 1960s. However, Ohio real estate agents have become increasingly diverse in recent years. As of 2021, about 12% of the state's more than 25,000 real estate agents and sales agents were people of color and about 4.5% were immigrants, according to the American Community Survey.
In 2021, approximately 55% of Ohio's foreign-born population owned a home for free or with a mortgage. Among Ohio's U.S.-born population, the figure was 68%.
Bhim Dulal, a Bhutanese-Nepali real estate agent, said when he got his license five years ago, there were five real estate agents in his community in the Columbus metropolitan area. There are now too many to count, he said.
Desalegn Gora, an Ethiopian-American real estate agent, said immigrants often have to overcome barriers such as language, cultural nuances and unfamiliarity with local regulations to become agents. .
Even if an immigrant real estate agent speaks English fluently, a strong accent can make it difficult to gain the trust of some American-born people, Farrar said.
At the same time, immigrants may have certain advantages in the real estate business.
“Immigrants and refugees bring unique perspectives and cultural understandings. We believe this strengthens our ability to connect with clients from diverse communities and backgrounds,” said Mr. Golla.
“We have a community and we meet regularly through markets, events and parties,” Farrar said, adding that it helps find potential buyers and seller leads.
Many new home buyers in America prefer agents from their own culture
Real estate agents told The Dispatch that many immigrants have the same general needs as other buyers, including safe neighborhoods, good schools, rising property values, and access to shopping centers and other amenities. They say they are looking for features in their homes.
However, other preferences may be culturally specific.
While many Bhutanese-Nepali families initially looked for large houses with multiple bedrooms to live with their extended family, more and more families are now living in nuclear families, Dural said.
Mizyan said he is looking for a home with a private backyard so his wife, who wears a hijab in public, can comfortably walk outside wearing family clothes.
Farah said he is helping some Muslim buyers look for Islamic financing that charges fees instead of interest. However, he said many Muslim customers take advantage of conventional home loans, which are sometimes cheaper.
Another of Farah's clients, Ali Al-Fraishawi, worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Marines in Iraq before moving to Columbus, where he runs a trucking company. Al-Fraishawi said many Arab Americans prefer to work with Arab real estate agents to avoid misunderstandings.
“Insurance details and terms like 'closing' and 'pre-approval' are very difficult for someone who only speaks English to understand,” he says.
Nelson, an American real estate agent in Trinidad, said many of her clients are African-American first-generation homebuyers. She said they also chose her because of her race. But that's not the only factor.
“Being able to understand where people are coming from, being able to reach them and being willing to work within your price range” are all important, she says. “And of course, having someone who looks like you sitting across the table gives you some comfort, because buying a home can be scary.”
Nelson said she takes pride in helping families “overcome the barriers to homeownership.”
“I've seen[homeowners']entire lives change… It just gives them a foundation to move on to the future. After they buy a house, they get a new job, “I’ve seen new businesses start,” she said.
Farah said one of her most memorable sales was to a refugee mother who was once homeless.
When the purchase was finally finalized, she reportedly said, “Now no one can come to my daughter and say, 'Please leave.'”
more:Ohio's current immigrant population is much more diverse, but still well below national standards.
Peter Gill covers immigration, New American communities and religion in The Dispatch, in partnership with Report for America. You can support efforts like his by making a tax-deductible donation to Report for America at his URL below.bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.
pgill@dispatch.com
