Miramar To Join Franchise: Company Eyes Hispanic Real Estate Market In Kern

With an eye toward cornering Kern's sizeable Hispanic market, Bakersfield's Miramar Real Estate Group is joining the national Casa Latino Franchise Corp. in the new year, the franchisor and agency representatives announced Tuesday.

Miramar, a 3-year-old firm with 64 agents and brokers working out of three Bakersfield offices, plans eventually to expand under the new franchise designation into county areas with still denser Hispanic populations, such as Delano and Arvin.

"The primary demographic that we're serving is either preyed upon or under-served," Casa Latino founder and CEO Roberto Heering said.

Miramar formed for the same reason -- to fill "a tremendous void", broker and officer Dan Shanyfelt said.

Casa Latino, which touts itself as the country's only Hispanic-focused real estate chain, argues that Hispanic homebuyers want culturally specific services in addition to bilingual agents and translated documents.

Heering got the idea for Casa Latino after hearing complaints about the home-shopping experience from customers at his Connecticut-based mortgage business.

He noticed Latino buyers faced with predatory lending situations and discrimination while home shopping, he said.

One man told Heering his sales agent balked at showing him homes because he had 11 members of his extended family in tow.

"We can't go to see this house like a pack of gypsies," Heering said the man was told by one agent.

Some of the firm's strategies, such as making a series of phone calls to check in with new homebuyers, sound more like old-fashioned good service rather than a culturally tailored approach.

But Efrain Bobadilla, a Miramar broker associate, who once worked for a Hispanic-focused real estate company in Los Angeles, said the approach makes sense.

"All the things they're offering, I've seen them before and they work," Bobadilla said.

Bobadilla has been selling homes in Bakersfield since 1996, and he said many of his Hispanic customers share similar problems. A common issue among new immigrants is a distrust of banks because of experiences with institutions in their birth countries, he said.

That can be problematic when a buyer needs established credit, he said. And serving the under-served can be good business, the brand's literature suggests, touting America's Hispanics as an "emerging middle class" with increasing buying power and intense brand loyalty.

In Kern County, 45.2 percent of residents are Hispanic or Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

"The demographics are absolutely perfect," Heering said.

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