D.R. Horton partners up with Jade Financial

The Las Vegas Division of D.R. Horton Inc., the largest home builder in the United States, and Jade Financial, a Las Vegas-based home mortgage company, have partnered with a group of native-Asian real estate professionals to create a real estate team to serve the Asian community in the Las Vegas area.

These real estate agents represent seven different Asian languages and cultures, including Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Japanese and three Chinese dialects: Cantonese, Mandarin and Toisanese.

"Our goal is to make the process of finding, financing and closing a new home even more convenient for our Asian home buyers," said Ralph Gomez, director of multicultural sales for D.R. Horton Las Vegas. "We want our customers to feel comfortable during the home-buying process, and we believe that having experienced real estate professionals who can converse with our Asian buyers in their native languages will enhance the buyer's experience.

"Teaming up with Jade Financial and local native-Asian real estate agents will enable us to differentiate D.R. Horton Las Vegas' customer experience in the dynamic Las Vegas real estate market," Gomez said.

Through this partnership, Jade Financial will provide the Asian community with an in-language, in-culture experience when obtaining financing for a new home, Gomez said. Jade Financial's mortgage team serves the same seven predominant Asian languages. Home buyers can now enter any of D.R. Horton Las Vegas' more than 40 sales offices and speak their native Asian language as they tour the models, obtain home financing and close escrow on a new home.

D.R. Horton Las Vegas and Jade Financial are removing many of the language and cultural barriers to homeownership facing the Asian community. Gomez said.

"We commend both D.R. Horton Las Vegas and Jade Financial for their forward thinking that ensures the Asian home buyer understands their real estate transaction," said Emily Fu, national chairwoman of the Asian Real Estate Association of America. "Many corporations are hesitant to market to the Asian community because of the many diverse languages and complex cultures. So it's always good to see companies that embrace and reinforce the importance of the Asian community."

"We identified a strong need in the community for in-language real estate services to increase the comfort level of Asian and Pacific Islander home buyers," said John Fukuda, managing partner of Jade Financial. "Having the leadership and support of the Las Vegas division of the nation's largest home builder only validates our position. We are pleased that D.R. Horton Las Vegas has made the decision to launch this trail-blazing initiative utilizing a minority-owned finance company."

D.R. Horton Inc. delivered 41,000 homes across the United States in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2007. The company has operations in 82 markets in 27 states. D.R. Horton sells homes in a wide price range, from $90,000 to more than $900,000.

Jade Financial is a subsidiary of Venta Realty Group Inc. Founded in 2005, Venta Realty is a 100 percent minority-owned and -operated mortgage banker and broker. Jade/Venta is a Las Vegas-based community mortgage lender serving diverse cultures and languages, including Spanish, according to Fukuda.

Using the Internet, advanced mortgage processing software, automated underwriting systems and a multilingual sales and service team, Jade/Venta also speeds up the mortgage process, Fukuda said.