Language no longer barrier in housing hunt

The Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors (HGAR) has launched a website search tool that links prospective clients in real estate deals with Realtors who speak their native languages.

The “We Speak Your Language” tool at hgar.com was the idea of Eydie Lopez and Kevin O’Shea of HGAR’s Fair Housing & Cultural Diversity Committee. Persons looking to buy or sell a home or lease a residence can choose from 187 languages in their search.

“Our focus this year was to reach out to our culturally diverse population and help them find real estate agents who can deal with them in the language they are most comfortable speaking,” Lopez said in a press release. The service and languages database was especially needed since HGAR’s Multiple Listing Service has expanded to include eight counties stretching from the polyglot Bronx to Ulster and Sullivan Counties in the mid-Hudson Valley.

The new tool also makes the HGAR website more user-friendly for persons visiting it from foreign countries and for U.S. residents for whom English is not their primary language.

The Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors represents more than 9,000 real estate professionals in Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Orange counties.