Welcome to SAHARAA - Monthly Newsletter

You are invited to join SAREAA, a site that helps first time South Asian Homebuyers realize their American Dream of Home Ownership.


Upcoming Events

South Asian Real Estate Association of America invites you to a Workshop "Cross-Cultural Communication in Real Estate"

The workshop will offer concrete guidelines on cross-cultural awareness; bilingual agents will come away speaking with confidence. We will also give you tips on how to communicate effectively. The session is conducted by a veteran real estate and loan trainer with a background in action reduction. Reserve Your Seat Now!

Date: Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Time: 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM
Location: Mayuri Indian Cuisine
                2232 El Camino Real, Santa Clara 95050

Speaker: Mary Shoane
               REL: Real Estate and Loan School
               www.MaryShoane.com

Registration: $20 (includes lunch)
RSVP: Yogendra Singh
           (408) 636-3115
           Yogendrasingh@comcast.net


Past Events

South Asian Real Estate Association of America organized a Lunch Seminar on June 27, 2007 the details of which are below:

The topic was "Bankruptcy, Foreclosure and Short Sales, A Seminar you don't want to miss. Everything you wanted to know about (...but were afraid to ask!)". Shawn Parr, Attorney-at-Law was the guest speaker.


SAREAA has a mission to promote the general success of South Asian American real estate professionals by providing the opportunities to network with fellow real estate professionals serving South Asian American housing market, through a nationwide network.

SAREAA membership is presently FREE to all Real Estate practitioners who abide by the NAR code of ethics and are serving the South Asian American communities helping them realize their American Dream of Homeownership. To join SAREAA, visit www.SAREAA.com.

SAREAA, the South Asian Real Estate Association of America has been incorporated in the State of California as a Non Profit Mutual Benefit Corporation and is dedicated to the mission of providing the Consumers resources that will help them realize their American Dream of homeownership.

SAREAA will provide the consumers a web based countrywide database of real estate professionals who speak South Asian languages and or understand the real estate needs of the South Asian communities. The users will be able to search the database of real estate practitioners easily by visiting the web site www.SAREAA.com and clicking on the "Find a Member" link.

SAREAA is also developing SAHARAA, a multilingual resource center that will help both the consumers and real estate practitioners & affiliated businesses understand the real estate and mortgage processes in their language of choice. The consumers can visit the web site www.SAHARAA.org and learn about the home buying, selling, mortgage loan and other financial assistance programs by choosing the language of their choice, that is, English, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu or Bengali.

"SAREAA will be an important resource in our community" said Colleen Badagliacco, President, California Association of REALTORS® while commending the efforts made by SAREAA in developing a multilingual resource center.

Allen M Okamoto, Chairman, Asian Real Estate Association of America has rightly said that, "It is groups such as SAREAA that will help close the homeownership gap experienced by Asians" and "will create a level playing field so that all Asians will have the equal opportunity to compete for the American Dream of Homeownership".

"Building the Community with Bricks and Trust" is the slogan for SAREAA.

SAREAA membership is free to real estate practitioners and affiliates who believe in helping the communities realize their American Dream of homeownership.

To join SAREAA visit www.SAREAA.com or write to SAREAA, P O Box 18243, San Jose, CA 95158.


Would you like to advertise on this NL? The rates are as follows:
Quarter page $600 for one year. Visiting Card size (3.5"x2") $300 for a year.
Copy to be provided by the advertiser. Write to info@saharaa.org


SILVAR Supports SAREAA and SAHARAA

Friday, March 23, 2007 - A dinner and program held at the Embassy Suites in Milpitas on Friday, March 23, marked the official launching of the South Asian Real Estate Association of America (SAREAA). SILVAR is one of SAREAA's major sponsors.

SAREAA seeks to promote the success of South Asian American real estate professionals by providing them opportunities to network with fellow real estate professionals serving the South Asian American housing market, through a nationwide network.

More...

Realty agents urged to update their Web skills

To thrive in an overpopulated field and keep up with their technologically savvy clients, real estate practitioners must become "Realtor 2.0," the president of the California Association of Realtors said last week when she met in Santa Clara with members of the South Asian Real Estate Association of America.

Colleen Badagliacco, 2007 president of the statewide trade group, is also co-owner of local brokerage ReMax Valley Properties. At a lunch meeting May 25 she spoke to a few dozen members of SAREAA, as the South Asian realty group is known, about "what I've affectionately called '2007, the year of Realtor 2.0,'" she said. More...

By Sue McAllister Mercury News

Emerging markets will affect real estate industry

It is estimated that by the year 2010, 60 percent of all first-time homebuyers will come from emerging markets. According to the most current data from the U.S. Census Bureau, some 33.5 million foreign-born residents live in the United States, making up 12 percent of the country's total population. A majority of immigrants, 53 percent, are from Latin America, 25 percent are from Asia, and 14 percent from Europe, with the remaining 8 percent born in other regions. However, the homeownership rate of immigrants continues to lag that of native-born residents by as much as 30 percent.

Major barriers for minority homebuyers are language, the lack of knowledge of the home-buying process, lack of credit, trust (fear of being "ripped off") and the lack of sufficient funds for a down payment. Many immigrants lack formal relationships with U.S. financial institutions and are not familiar with cultural or language-based government-sponsored or nonprofit homeownership programs.

"Language is the key to a culture and cultural behaviors. If we want to reduce the homeownership gap among immigrants, we need to empower them with knowledge of home buying and financing processes in United States," said Yogendra Singh, a broker with Realty World, California Best Properties in San Jose. More...