Agent responsibilities and help for Limited English Proficiency clients…
Reba Haas on 06 14, 2007
I’ve run into this before while running my daily business of real estate sales. A client comes to you and wants to buy a property, whether it is for investment or residential purposes. You learn during the process of interviewing each other that the client is from another country where English is not the major spoken language. In speaking with the client, you note that they have a certain level of understanding but that’s in conversational English. Do you need to ask if anything needs to be translated for their benefit? Do you, as their agent, need to pay for a translator or to search out if any documents may be in translated form to the client’s native language? This has even come up in ethics classes I’ve attended and included whether or not an agent would be required to hire a translator for not only spoken language but also for sign language clients. While I don’t try to intrepret the laws, my understanding is that agents are required to offer it and/or provide it if the client requests it and this is mostly due to making sure we are meeting Fair Housing guidelines of providing services to all those covered under its tenets.
The majority of my non-USA clients have had excellent proficiency in the English language and we do ask if the client would like to have anything translated especially once we get to the contract language. For the most part we’ve been told that they aren’t uncomfortable and that they feel fine with what they’ve read and understood. We did have a transaction where we helped a client sell a mobile home and the Latino immigrant that bought it and his wife didn’t have as good a grasp as the client. Since they didn’t have a real estate agent helping them I hired a translator for their benefit so that they would be comfortable with the transaction and to reduce the potential liability for my client to be charged with duping them after the sale. We wanted to make sure the customer (buyer) knew exactly what they were getting into with the purchase. These folks were very thankful for the assistance and that we cared enough to make sure they understood the documents and we also steered them toward a lender we knew provided Spanish speaking loan officers.
In that same vein, we do also try to marry up our clients to lending companies, or at least offer them up, if there is a language difference, again, so that the client is comfortable with all of the process of borrowing as well as buying. Why do I bring all of this up? Because an interesting article in the recent “Today’s Buyer’s Rep” newsletter (for agents holding the Accredited Buyer’s Representative [ABR] designation) has a section on the FAQ’s of Limited English Proficiency Guidance. Agents need to understand their obligations and clients and customers need to understand what their rights are as well. You can learn the compliance info at: http://www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/promotingfh/lep.cfm
About the Author: Rebecca Haas
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I’ve blogged about similar language issues in the past. Not only is it the ethical thing to do, I think there’s a big opportunity to make the real estate transaction experience easier for non-English speaking clients.
In fact, I’d like to help you make the experience easier! The problem is that I only know English, and a bunch of computer languages (so I can’t translate my IDX web sites into Spanish by myself unless I want to hire a translator).
If you (or anybody else) know of any Spanish language speaking (or another “popular” language) real estate professional in the NWMLS, who’d be willing to trade language translation work for MLS/IDX web site hosting, I’m willing to enhance my software so it’s multi-lingual. I’d rather “give away” a free web site to an agent/broker who’ll use it, than hire translators and risk never finding a Spanish speaking customer. Especially since developing multi-lingual software is not an easy or cheap thing to do.
Hey Robbie,
I’m on the Cultural Diversity Committee for the Seattle King Co Assoc of Realtors and I will mention this at our next meeting. What a great idea. Meanwhile, I will find the list of bi-lingual Realtors and send it your way.
Hi Robbie:
I have just become licensed and in my former life, owned/ran Language Schools in the U.S. and UK for 30+ years and so the subject of language issues is close to my heart.
Realtors have so many more opportunities with the knowledge of other languages and cultures and this fact becomes daily more poignant. A non-English speaking client is often hampered by more than just language issues; cultural and life experience factor into the equation. Putting a client at ease and instilling confidence when you do not share the same language is a skill that can be learned and I would be happy to share some tips with you.
Additionally, I do have access to professional translation in just about any language (via my old company) plus a wife from Spain who is always happy to help out!
Just drop me a line if you need anything.
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I’m just thinking out loud here…
One thing I’m struggling with is coming up w/ a fair trade. I can’t afford translators, (and I’m sure my customers can’t afford the software engineering labor it takes to develop multi-lingual web sites). I think trading translation work for free software engineering labor w/ potential customers seems like a fair trade. We both get a product we couldn’t get otherwise…
Another issue is the old MLS download agreements. Unfortunately, an agent’s choice in IDX vendors is limited by their broker’s decisions. If I did implement this, an agent’s broker would be on the hook for a data download agreement w/ me in order to deploy it.
Which language markets are the largest? Where is the need greatest? I’m guessing Spanish is the biggest followed by Chinese? I’m wondering where I should focus my efforts first? How is the greater Seattle area different than the rest of the US? I have a hunch east Asian languages would be a higher priority than western European languages (except Spanish) would be.
Tony, I assume your connections have experience w/ software localization? Localizing software effectively is unique skill set that usually requires unique tools and is different than other forms of media localization. It’s not a insurmountable obstacle, since I could always teach the techniques involved, but it does the require that translators be willing to learn about the technology at a certain level.