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Be Careful When Speaking Lender / Real Estate

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with The Real Estate Investment Institute 1retiredsage

 

Be Careful When Speaking Lender / Real Estate I called my friend George Souto this week during that call I recalled an incident I first reported here almost exactly four years ago. At that time it had been an article by Brian Brady that brought the story to mind. Today it was George’s Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA) Trying To Contribute To Real Estate Recovery In Connecticut

 

Be Careful When Speaking Lender / Real Estate! We must understand real estate and lending are separate dialects! If you spoke only American Colloquial English a term like "first time home buyer" would mean a real estate virgin, someone who’d never owned a house! But, if you spoke "lender" it means anyone who hasn’t owned a house in the last three years!

 

That’s a huge difference if you’re a former home owner looking to get back into a home of your own!

 

If dialects cause such troubles you can guess what happens when American English Lending or Real Estate gets interpreted into a totally separate languish!

 

Be Careful When Speaking Lender / Real Estate!

 

It almost got me shot!

 

I had done almost two dozen loans for a family who's primary language was Tagalog, when they refereed me to a brother who was moving to Las Vegas from the LA area. I was told that neither he nor his wife spoke English, I offered to have one of my Tagalog speaking Originators call. No it seems that the brother was raised in a village somewhere in Belize and spoke a mixed dialect of Spanish and Tagalog, like the Tex-Mex spoken in some areas of South West Texas.

 

With the brother in my office we took the application over the speaker phone, I understood one word in fifty. Knowing the brother was hard to reach I asked how I was going to talk with the client? It seems that they had moved to LA 9 years ago so their daughter could go to school there, at 14 she could translate for me after school.

 

Well the first time I needed to talk to the young woman I found out that besides her native tongue that only her family spoke, her primary language was "Valley Girl" we got through it but it wasn't easy.

 

Late one Thursday afternoon she called, her mother wanted to know how long the loan was for? I responded "it's amortized over 30 years" she slammed the phone in my ear. It was a long day I was tired, I thought no more of it.

 

Early the next morning as I rived at the office I noticed the large Oldsmobile sitting full of people with the engine running. I had no sooner sat my brief case down when a large man angrily shouting rushed in!

 

I couldn't understand a single word, I truly didn't know what was going on.

 

Thankfully his brother came running across the parking lot, at least now I could assume this was my LA client.

 

 After his brother got him to stop shouting he turned to me. He asked if I had talk to his niece yesterday? I said yes she called, ask a question and hung up on me. He asked what she asked and I told him. He asked what I said? I told him I had told her "the loam was amortized over 30 years."

 

The brother starts laughing! After an awful long time he starts talking to my client, now they're both laughing. I begin to think I'm not going to have to fight, to survive.

 

It seemed like hours but was probably more like 15 minutes before he explains to me that the Valley Girl had mistaken "amortize" as some form of amour. The girl had told her mother I said, "I wanted to love her over thirty years!" The men left, I consider locking the door.

 

The uncle came back in and asked me to step out to the window in the lobby. The Olds pulled up in front. A woman in the front seat was shaking her finger at me.

 

An old woman in the back was shaking her fist. (She was the Matriarch, I had financed all of her children and all her adult Grandchildren.)

 

In the center peaking over front seat back with only her eyes and tri-colored hair showing was my translator.

 

Behind the wheel her father was still laughing.

 

We closed the loan a week later, but after 21 loans to the family I never got another. I saw one of the Granddaughters and ask her about it she said Grandma said no.

 

Be Careful When Speaking Lender / Real Estate!

 

Posted by

Bill

William J Archambault Jr

The Real Estate Investment Institute

wja@reii.org      Cell 832-259-7078,      Houston 832-582-8415,       Las vegas 702-516-1569

     http://www.reii.org  Back Cover One House At A Time http:www//reii.orghttp://www.flippingforfunandprofit.info/ http://www.billarchambault.com   

From my past: GRI 1975, FLI 1974, Catalyst from a client 1974 an agent that makes things happen, REII, The Real Estate Investment Institute 1995.

http://www.reii.org

©William J Archambault Jr   ©The Real Estate Investment Institute   ©REII

Comments (14)

William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

Readers,

Maybe it's fitting, I don't speak HTML ether and I'm having troubles with the changes in how we post!

Bill

Aug 07, 2011 05:55 AM
Virginia Hepp - Mesquite NV REALTOR
Desert Gold Realty - Mesquite NV Homes For Sale - Mesquite, NV
Mesquite NV Homes and Neighborhoods - Search MLS

Bill, good lesson and thanks for sharing it.  I admit, I laughed all the way through it. 

You gotta love a culture where the family shows so much respect for their elders - Grandma Says No.  That's it, no further discussion.

Aug 07, 2011 06:09 AM
William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

Virginia,

They were a total marreartical family, I knew it was over when Grandma shook her fist! I did allot of loans with her sister's family, too. Those old Ladies moved their families legally to the states and in about 40 years they had made all their married adults home owners and quite prosperous! Immigrants turned true Americans except for a language problem.

Bill

Aug 07, 2011 06:39 AM
George Souto
George Souto NMLS #65149 FHA, CHFA, VA Mortgages - Middletown, CT
Your Connecticut Mortgage Expert

Bill that is a funny story now, but I am sure it was something you would not want to live through again.

Thanks for the comment on my blog, I went back and clarified it.  I don't want anyone chasing after me ....... LOL

Aug 07, 2011 01:48 PM
William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

George,

It was about a $20,000 a year hit!

But, now it is funny!

The worse part is I knew better than to use more than one syllable words with so young a Vally Girls.

My only excuse was I was tired.

You clarified it the day before I posted, it was a very good post once you defined "new home" buyer, a great opportunity for consumers!

Bill

Aug 07, 2011 02:08 PM
Bill Roberts
Brooks and Dunphy Real Estate - Oceanside, CA
"Baby Boomer" Retirement Planner

Bill A, It looks like I'm going to have to learn how to blog all over again. How are things in Texas?

Bill Roberts

Aug 08, 2011 07:05 PM
William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

Wow! Mr. Roberts,

It's good to have you back!

All is well, relatively speaking.

Bill

Aug 08, 2011 10:20 PM
Bill Roberts
Brooks and Dunphy Real Estate - Oceanside, CA
"Baby Boomer" Retirement Planner

Bill A, I'm serious, I really want to know what is going on here. How long do I have to participate before you will 'splain all this new stuff?

Bill Roberts

P.S. I've been thinking about Texas tax deeds. Any thoughts?

Aug 10, 2011 07:37 AM
William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

Mr. Roberts,

You already have over 100,000 points, that's the first badge.

You already have Features, that's the second.

You already have an outside blog account that's the third.

Rain camp need attended that's number four, a good time and the networking is great. They're doing them on line now, I don't know if those count.

"Called Shots" is relatively easy. You simply have to "hit the suggest" button. If ten (I think,) of your suggestions get featured you get the badge.

To be a "RAINMAKER" you have to be grandfathered in or subcribe.

I haven't heard of them offering any "AMBASATOR" classes in the last two years, maybe three.

So much for what I know.

To help you get the "Called Shots" badge you may feel free to check the suggest button on my new post. Any thing to help a friend.

Bill

Aug 10, 2011 08:04 AM
Bill Roberts
Brooks and Dunphy Real Estate - Oceanside, CA
"Baby Boomer" Retirement Planner

Bill A, Thank you. I'll go there now.

Bill Roberts

Aug 10, 2011 09:14 AM
William James Walton Sr.
WEICHERT, REALTORS® - Briotti Group - Waterbury, CT
Greater Waterbury Real Estate

Oh, wow, Bill. That's an experience that I would never want to have...

Aug 10, 2011 02:34 PM
William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

Mr. Walton,

I wouldn't want to do it again!

Bill

Aug 10, 2011 04:40 PM
Jon Zolsky, Daytona Beach, FL
Daytona Condo Realty, 386-405-4408 - Daytona Beach, FL
Buy Daytona condos for heavenly good prices

Bill,

this is a funny story (not the part about losing their business though). I dealt a lot with Russians when I worked in New York in Social Services office. The interesting thing was that the only person speaking English was a girl or a boy, and proud parents would not hesitate to use them as interpreters, and tis rarely worked. It is not only English, it was also understanding the terminology, the realities of life that kids had no idea about.

It was so often a big problem. I have see people who would asked their chidredn to translate contracts and they were sure that what they were getting had a lot to do with the real contract

Aug 11, 2011 05:16 PM
William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

Jon,

I didn't see this come in.

I dealt with allot of people that spoke Tagalog and Spanish, but this was the only family that combined them. Most of the young adults grew up here and didn't speak the family dialect.

What people don't know is that real estate and finance have their own separate dialects of English. It's not enough to be bi-lingual to understand and translate you must also be fluent in the professional dialect, too.

I was fornuate, I had a former bank opperations lady who I had trained in lending who was flunalt in Tagalog, English, Lending and passable Real Estate. She was hired away from me by my farvoit whole sale lender and helped me when I needed her. English to Spansh to Lender or Real Estate had allot of great helpers.

This case was esclated because the girl's English was "Valley Girl!"

Bill

Bill

Aug 16, 2011 01:55 AM