In the past year, NAHREP has seen its chapters expand to a grand total of 40 across the United States and into new areas, including Boston, Mass.; Brooklyn N.Y.; Manhattan, N.Y.; California’s Central Valley; Los Angeles’ South Bay and Greater Phoenix, Ariz. The organization has received a high volume of new chapter applications and is exploring unrepresented markets in the Midwest and Southeast.

This growth is tremendous, and an important part of NAHREP’s mission of advancing sustainable Latino homeownership. Noted in the organization’s 2015 State of Hispanic Homeownership Report (available for free download here), access to culturally competent real estate agents and mortgage professionals is important to the Latino community in order to receive adequate assistance with one of the most significant and complex transactions of a lifetime.

A recent NAHREP member survey revealed that 38 percent of respondents had over half of their clients require Spanish as the main language in the home-purchasing transaction. First-time homebuyers are especially in need of a professional who understands the individual’s unique and culturally nuanced needs.

This makes it clear that a workforce that is representative or has an in-depth understanding of the clients they serve is vital in order to enhance the Latino homebuyer experience and remove barriers to homeownership. Ensuring there are professional organizations to support current real estate and lending specialists and companies that hire culturally competent experts to serve the Hispanic community is important to safeguard a high success rate in converting renters to homeowners and to achieve home retention.

This is where NAHREP and its local chapters come in. NAHREP chapters are known to host educational and networking events and engage members by providing them with the latest resources needed, including region-specific information, to succeed in a competitive marketplace. Highlights of great events include NAHREP Chicago’s 5th Annual Success in Real Estate Conference in May, an event that gathered close to 800 professionals who participated in sessions that covered social media marketing, mastering listings, lead generation and other informative topics. This event received over 25 sponsorships associated with housing, and these key partners were able to connect with NAHREP members during the networking aspect of the event. Another successful event was North Texas’ Mastermind lunch session, which drew close to 200 attendees, allowing guests to participate in robust, interactive discussions to go over business boosting tactics.

This year, NAHREP expects to have 4,000 guests at its 2016 National Convention & Latin Music Festival (for more information visit www.nahrep.org/convention). Far from being on the sidelines, with rapid growth in Latino population and inclusion of ethnically diverse members and partners, NAHREP has established itself as a unique organization with a powerful force.

Nayeli Pelayo is the Communications and PR director for NAHREP.

For more information, visit www.nahrep.org.