Prudential CA/NV/TX Realty Opens First Hispanic Office
California, April, 2005- Prudential CA/NV/TX Realty is opening the company's first Hispanic office in Redwood City, Calif., as part of an overall effort to address the underserved Hispanic market. Every staff member, agent and the entire management team will be bilingual.
Redwood City has one of the fastest growing Hispanic demographics in California's Bay Area, growing 48% since 1990 and now comprising 32% of the city's population.
The company's decision to locate its first Hispanic office in the downtown area of Redwood City coincides with the planned renovation of the nearby Fox Theater and other area improvement projects.
"Following a company-sponsored internal study, we saw a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on the Hispanic market's growing demand for home ownership," said Jose Dos Ramos, broker/owner of the Redwood City office. "We want to help break down the community's largely self-perceived barriers to homeownership by providing bilingual information and let them know about avenues to home ownership that are open to them. There's a lot of misinformation, particularly around loan programs, held by the Hispanic community at large. Our study revealed that most Hispanic homebuyers are served by B- and C-paper lenders because they're not aware of interest-only and low-down loans, such as the 103% LTV product recently introduced by our loan partner, The Home Loan Group."
Jose Dos Ramos began his real estate career in 1986. He was a consistent multi-million dollar producer before being promoted by the company to manager of the Burlingame office. He purchased that office on February 1, 1992, joining Mason-McDuffie Real Estate as a trademarked licensed company (TLC). That TLC came under the Prudential California Realty umbrella as part of the purchase of Mason-McDuffie by David Cobo and Ed Krafchow in 1997. Redwood City will join the company as a TLC. Ramos also owns TLCs in Burlingame, Half Moon Bay and Palo Alto. He is a founding member, sponsor, and Board of Director for the local NAHREP of Silicon Valley chapter.
"This office represents an historic combination of a national brand like Prudential with a Northern California Hispanic business," said Chester Ruiz, founder and honorary chairman of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) of Silicon Valley. "We see this as the beginning of a major trend to provide quality real estate services to our community in a bilingual environment. Prudential's effort will be watched by the Hispanic consumer in Redwood City and by NAHREP on a national basis as a template for future roll-outs of this kind."
The new office is situated at 2223 Broadway Street in the heart of the Redwood City's redevelopment efforts. It boasts a storefront location near the Fox Theater. To contact the new office, call: 650-298-7800 or 877-990-8080.