Mortgage Professional: Cholo Insua
Brokerage: Invis
Location: Lower mainland, Vancouver
Niche: Newly landed immigrants, mostly from the Philippines
Canadian Mortgage Professional: How did you identify your niche?
Cholo Insua: Well I'm an immigrant as well - I came here 20 years ago from the Philippines - and I noticed that a lot of misinformation comes in, and since immigrants tend to gravitate towards their community they ask a lot of people who really don't know what's right and wrong.
CMP: What is the best way to successfully serve this niche?
CI: I do a lot of talks in the community and advertise in the community paper, and these people are very loyal once you serve them right so I get a lot of referrals. The demographics for new immigrants has changed so much over the years as well, whereas before you had people with no money coming here and now you have to be skilled in a trade and have $10,000 in the bank per adult in order to get in. These are A clients now, they just don't have a credit bureau.
CMP: What is the best way to identify a niche in general?
CI: The process I did when I first started was that I looked at what sort of people I would feel comfortable with, and, of course, being an immigrant this made sense. You just need to look at your local neighbourhood, to the sports you play and things like that. Eight-five per cent of my business is now new immigrants, and it's something that just came naturally.
CMP: What are the specific demands of your niche?
CI: Trust, and being from the community definitely helped. It's not a closed community, but being involved with it does help. You must be active in the community, advertise within it, give good service so that word of mouth spreads and people can know you are legit.
I used to hold seminars for first-time buyers, which were great and that helped a lot, but I don't do that anymore because once word spreads in a tight community, you can depend mostly on referrals.
CMP: How do you educate yourself in the area of newly landed immigrants?
CI: There are a lot of newspaper articles on the changing demographics of this market, so it's not really a special thing. In the last two years, especially last year, the changes have been crazy with government policy. Now a new immigrant doesn't have to be here 100 per cent of the time right away, and can travel back and forth between Canada and their country for up to five years while still building a credit history. The first thing I tell them though is that as soon as you land, put your money in a bank, take out a pre-paid credit card and establish credit. They don't know this because in the Philippines and Asia, for instance, they don't like credit - they want to pay everything in cash. It's just a different mindset and I need to tell them they can't do that here.
CMP: What specific financial products are available for this market?
CI: I depend on CMHC's program for new immigrants, which allows them to put 10 per cent down. The government recognizes that they are a big source of business, not to mention that their arrears rates are non-existent - they would rather not eat than not pay their mortgage.
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