EUGENE — Getting ready to move to Eugene from Arizona last summer, Jesus Ochoa and his family knew one thing for sure: They wanted a real estate agent who spoke Spanish to help them find their new home.

The family of six speaks English. But Ochoa and his wife, Laura, both originally from Mexico, feel more comfortable communicating in their native language — especially important for understanding all the paperwork involved in buying a house, he said.

"Other real estate agents, when they do not speak Spanish, sometimes they just jump to the end of the page," said Ochoa, who previously owned homes in Arizona and California. He wanted to work with a Spanish-speaking real estate agent, he said, to make sure he "understood every little thing."

Bilingual real estate agents are in high demand among Hispanics, the fastest-growing segment of the area’s real estate market, local agents say.

The Ochoas, who recently purchased a three-bedroom home in west Eugene, worked with Chris Suarez at Re/Max Integrity in Eugene, following recommendations from people at their church.

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After a few months of looking, Suarez found the family a nice house in their price range and in a desirable location, Ochoa said.

"Chris was different. He said ‘I want to work with you. You can find another real estate agent at any time if you are not happy with my work,’ " Ochoa said. "He was working the whole time."

Suarez estimates 40 percent of the buyers he represents are Hispanic, and they find him largely by word of mouth.

"It started just with people seeing my last name," he said. "I do some volunteer work in the Spanish community, and people recognized I do real estate. They started calling me."

As the calls picked up, he added a Spanish greeting to his voice mail, although he still advertises only in English.

David Rodarte, a real estate agent with Prudential in Eugene, figures about 85 percent of his clients hail from Spanish-speaking countries, including Mexico, Peru and El Salvador. Like Suarez, Rodarte didn’t have to go searching for his niche.

Word spread fast that he worked with Spanish-speaking buyers, he said.

More than 15,000 Hispanics lived in Lane County in 2000, according to census figures, and their numbers grew by 17 percent between 1990 and 2000. The population today is estimated between 17,000 and 18,000.

Hispanics are streaming into Oregon and looking to buy homes in part because of the super-heated housing market in states such as California, where nearly one in three residents are of Hispanic origin.

Understanding trends and cultural norms within Hispanic cultures helps real estate agents serve this segment of the market, Suarez said. It’s common, for example, for Hispanics to invite parents or siblings to move in with them, he said. So many Hispanics are in the market for larger homes or ones they can expand.

Finding people in the lending and real estate fields they can trust is especially important for Spanish-speaking people, who have become the target of predatory lenders pushing high-risk loans and fraudulent schemes, Halonen said.

Hispanics are more vulnerable to deceptive practices in part because of the language barrier but also because of their cultural background, which can include a lack of knowledge of how American institutions work, Halonen said.

"They’re at a disadvantage," she said.

That’s why referrals are so critical, said Suarez, whose parents are from Spain and who learned Spanish as a child.

"The Spanish community is built on trust," he said. "If they find someone they can trust and have a good experience with, they refer all their family members and friends to you."

His wife, Mirel Marquez, is from Mexico. She’s a mortgage broker with Precision Funding, which is affiliated with Re/Max Integrity. The two often work with the same clients.

"Even though my Spanish isn’t perfect, they are comfortable with certain things being explained in Spanish. It helps, for sure," Suarez said.

Jesus Ochoa said having a Spanish-speaking real estate agent he could trust made all the difference, after a previous bad experience with a real estate agent in Arizona who seemed interested only in maximizing his own financial interest.

Suarez and Marquez "gave us some honest advice what to do," he said.

Ochoa said he’ll recommend Suarez to others, including his mother, two sisters and two brothers, all in California.

Rodarte, the Prudential agent, was born and raised in Mexico and has been in the United States for 15 years. He said most of his clients are younger than 40, and some are in their late teens and early 20s. Higher rents in recent years have persuaded some younger people to take the plunge into home ownership, he said.

"There’s not much difference from paying rent and owning. You pay a little more," he said. "It’s a good thing, a long-term investment."

He recently found a home in Springfield for a young Hispanic couple with a 4-year-old son. She works two restaurant jobs. He works for a stone and tile company and speaks no English.

"In order to do it the right way, we needed someone to speak Spanish," said Rodarte’s 23-year-old client, Alyha, who declined to give her last name. "I am very happy, very satisfied with David’s work."

The couple had been renting in Springfield. They moved into their new home in November.

"We know it’s going to be a bigger bill," Alyha said. "But we’re happy with the house."

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On the Net:

Re/Max Integrity Chris Suarez: http://integrityonline.cc/getagent/show.php?aid=007600102&oid=007600 001&chom

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