I Don't Speak Spanish. What Do I Do?
I am closing on my first 4-plex on Feb. 15th. The current tenants are a mix of hispanic and caucasion. This is a highly hispanic area though. If I have vacancy's how do I deal with prospective tenants who speak spanish?
hire a bilingual property manager or get a spanish/english dictionary
I am managing the property myself. Are there resources availabe somewhere to help out with the communication barriers? I don't think standing there with a dictionary trying to explain the lease would be very good.
Contact me I may be able to help. I have done conf. calls for investors in the past.
Carpe Diem,
Veronica
Carpe Diem... Latin (Sieze the day)!
Don't you think "Adios Amigo" is the way to say goodbye considering this subject matter? (Just a quick thought I had when reading this <IMG SRC="images/forum/smilies/icon_smile.gif">
The conference call thing may work well. Everyone has a cell phone these days.
I see you're in Chandler, Arizona. You may want place a small flyer in a "Food City" (As you may know this is a grocery chain that caters to the hispanic community.) Something like
I Need help! Are you bilingual (Spanish/english)? English only speaking property manager needs ten minutes of your time, on the phone, occaisionally, to communicate with spanish speaking (possible) tenants.
I'll make it worth your time.
Hopefully you'll get three or four people on a list you can call when needed.
( Put an ad in the Arizona Republic and you'll get two hundred calls.)
Adios Amigo
(Being from Minneapolis originally, that's nearly the extent of my spanish.)
[ Edited by bigideas on Date 02/05/2004 ]
freedominvestments,
Glad to meet you.
Woudn't it be prudent to have your contracts in Spanish or any other information you require the same way.
This way when your tenant signs there is no, I thought I was signing something else the way it was explained to me.
Nothing like everyone being on the same page or contract.
John $Cash$ Locke
Puede ser muy util poder hablar espanol mientras tratar con los residentes de tus apartamentos. Lo podrias aprender, No?
I had the fortune of living in Spain for 2 years and picked up Spanish there. If you're going to be landlording for a while, this could be a great opportunity to learn spanish if you have the desire. If not, I'd recommend the following.
Find and educated latino who is bi-lengual in spanish and english. Create a flier to put on your "For Rent" sign that has all of the information in spanish. Make a note that they need to bring a translator when they come to fill out the applications and leases. It may sound strange for you, but for them this is very normal. Many of them have come straight from Mexico. They got here and had friends and family who helped them out. Now that they speak english, they'll do the same for others. Its how they get by. They bring an english speaking friend to the bank, the DMV, etc. I'd put a short, english/spanish message on your voice mail also.
Once your tenants know that you only speak english, it will be their friends that call you and tell you about problems in the apartments, etc. It does make it more difficult to communicate with them, but it can be done.
Welcome to TCI freedominvestments,
My favorite solution would be to find a nice Hispanic girlfriend to help me with my tenants( and I hope I'll not get caught) . My second best solution that I can think off quick would be asking nice Veronica from VA to help me in the 3 way call over the phone. I would also ask Veronica to record the message on my answering machine telling dear tenants that theire English speaking riend should call when needed in the future. All the leasing contracts and other comunique should be prudently signed and offered in the same lingo.
Hopping that you find this useful go do your thing and once you solve the problem, come back and let us know how you did.
Good luck !
PS
Can I to count on your help Veronica? I do have several happppy Mexican who as well "solo habla espanol". What do you say?
Por faaaaaaavor! [ Edited by omega1 on Date 02/05/2004 ]
No problem guys. Anytime! You know how to contact me.
Like John Locke says it has been my experience that people feel more at ease signing something in their native tongues. Now a days it is quite normal to see documents in english on one side and spanish on the other. I have done this for local investors w/ their personal contracts. This helps put people at ease. Reassures them you are not out to get them or trick them because they understand what they are signing instead of relying on someone telling them everything is ok and not to worry. They could be giving up their first born son for all they know.
What I would do if I were you is translate it and then have it looked at by a local biligual atty to make sure that the contract is sound for your state.
I have a very pleasant sounding voice in both languages or so I have been told. Soothing and reassuring... that in itself if half the battle anyways. I am also quite adept at gaining people's trust. I am a people person and am very upbeat. I always get told it transpires thru the phone... lol not to mention the many dates I have been asked on just from my voice while I am work. LOL
If you will be using anyone try and use someone with pizaz that will make them excited about working with you! I have seen my aproach turn skeptical sellers/buyers into eager ones.
Hope this helps.
Adios por ahora,
Veronica
Carpe Diem
Thanks for all of the great tips everyone. You made something that seemed like a pretty hard task look rather easy.
Quote:
On 2004-02-05 16:59, hibby76 wrote:
Puede ser muy util poder hablar espanol mientras tratar con los residentes de tus apartamentos. Lo podrias aprender, No?
I had the fortune of living in Spain for 2 years and picked up Spanish there. If you're going to be landlording for a while, this could be a great opportunity to learn spanish if you have the desire. If not, I'd recommend the following.
Find and educated latino who is bi-lengual in spanish and english. Create a flier to put on your "For Rent" sign that has all of the information in spanish. Make a note that they need to bring a translator when they come to fill out the applications and leases. It may sound strange for you, but for them this is very normal. Many of them have come straight from Mexico. They got here and had friends and family who helped them out. Now that they speak english, they'll do the same for others. Its how they get by. They bring an english speaking friend to the bank, the DMV, etc. I'd put a short, english/spanish message on your voice mail also.
Once your tenants know that you only speak english, it will be their friends that call you and tell you about problems in the apartments, etc. It does make it more difficult to communicate with them, but it can be done.
damn Hibby you did a mission to Spain, now that must have been fun. I can see you now handing out copies of Pearls of Great Price. You learned the language now that is a goody. And, most important, you left an alternate path behind you. May not convert, but oh how the minds will be opened. I really approve. A thousand years ago I had lunch with McKay, my reward for liberating two missionaries from Jail in Czech. I mean try to convert a priest, silly but brave.
Lucius
Here in California, almost all forms come in two www.languages.On the front page is English and on the back page is Spanish. Seems to work.
On my prior properties in the Latino areas the managers spoke Spanish and the crew chiefs on the maintenance trucks also spoke Spanish.
Be careful there is a lot of dialect and if you are looking for an upper class Castilian lisp, it aint thar. But the flavor is fantastic. In Calif it is imitating English, lots of word float and mutation. I call it mutilation but it does keep it alive. Like Vulgate Latin in the Roman Legions we are developing a similar use and it is called SpanEnglish. It is rich in idiom and acts as a bridge. Within 20 years if the drift continues all the kids in the Western states will be fluent. Fun.
Lucius
I have a similar situation with one family except their language of choice is one spoken in Cambodia! The good news is that they have some young family members who speak English as well. You may find similar resource in your Hispanic community.
I beleive some phone companies have a translation line. I used it several times (AT&T as I recall) when I worked in an ER. and not just spanish - we had a pamplet (about 50+ languages)that the patient could select his language, ( I recall that the Phillipines has 4-6 different languages). It worked pretty well ( if they were concious) but the other options mentioned are probably cheaper. It also reduced liability as the operators were qualified/certified translators in that language. Although we did wonder sometimes what the translator was saying after we threw in a lot of medical terminology and interesting and sometimes sad situations.
Welcome to SE Florida where the "official" languages are English, Spanish and Creole.
Creole due to the large influx of Haitians over the last years.
Who said RE Investing was easy? LOL.
[addsig]
eyeballing you have a good point. In reflecting upon what you might do in this situation I did some research and found that there is a cert that you can take as a translator that qualifies you as such in federal court. I ordered and just received the package. I am in the process of moving now, but once I am done I am planning on taking the tests: One is written and other is spoken. It is quite formal and at the end of it all you get a little cert. that says you are a qualified translator for court cases. Now here is the other thing. You can request the court to provide you with a list of qualified translators for the language that you need. It is public info. Although it may cost you a bit more than the average joe in the supermaket that happens to know both english and spanish (or whatever language you are in need of.) You can rest assured that they have the credentials to prove it. If federal court is willing to pay these translators $50/hr I am sure that the services they provide are of the highest caliber. The same applies to local/state courts.
Call the translators and see if you can hire them by the hr. Ya never know they could have other buddies in the court that might help you with other things as an investor. BTY one of the requirements to be a translator is to have own transportation to and from work that way you also know that they more than likely they can get to where you need them on their own.
Good luck.
Carpe Diem,
Veronica
http://dictionary.reference.com/translate/text.html
Far from perfect, but it can come in handy.