A new agent has relocated to another state, and wants to know what he can do to kick-start his career.

Dear Blanche, I have been reading your articles and I think they are extremely helpful. This is my background. My name is Manuel and last week I passed my salesperson test. "Name" Realty in Jackson, GA, is sponsoring me. I am 50 years old and I speak 3 languages ( Spanish, Portuguese and English). I guess that is the only asset I can bring (for now) to the real estate world. Now, where can I start? I don't want to sit at home waiting for "Name" to call me and ask me what have I done. Please help me get started in the right direction. I recently moved to McDonough, GA, from South Florida. I will appreciate any help you could provide. -- Attentively, Manuel

Realty Times responds:

Manuel, thank you for writing.

You're facing some challenges beyond what a typical new agent faces and that is you've moved to another state, but that can be used to your advantage, because you can empathize with the trials of relocation and settling in.

I assume you moved to Georgia to be close to friends or family, so they will be a good starting point for you. Ask them to host a community party for you to introduce yourself to new friends and contacts. If you don't have anyone who can do this for you, do it for yourself by hosting a get-together for your neighbors. When you are in any group, make sure you meet everyone there, offer them your business card, and get their contact information -- name, email, phone. Try to remember details about people you meet, even if you have to write them down. You need to know who has school-age children, who's looking for a roommate, who's looking for a new job, etc.

The biggest challenge any new agent faces is how to let people they know (as well as strangers) that they are in business and ready to serve. You've crossed the first hurdle by getting licensed, but unfortunately this is where many new agents begin to fail. They don't take into account that starting a business involves start-up costs which include business cards, advertising, communication tools such as cell phones, laptops, MLS access software, and advertising. The less capital you have, the less you can do, but that makes face-to-face introductions even more important. They are more time-consuming, but it's much easier to make an impression in person.

You didn't mention whether or not your broker is planning any sort of introduction for you, but you can introduce yourself to the market on your own. Start where you live and get out every day and meet people. As you collect their contact information, put their names and what you've learned about them into a database so you can start email and phone call followups. Be sure to call and say how nice it was to meet these people and how much you'd like to help them with their housing needs.

Join the local real estate associations and start volunteering your time to assist any agent who would like to have someone work open houses with them. Not only will this provide added security for the agents, but the fact that you speak multiple languages should be a great plus.

There is also an association that supports Spanish-speaking agents, called the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP.) This would be good for you to join as the association can educate you on problems and solutions associated with serving Hispanic clients. It will also provide you with an additional referral network.

I know that you would like to serve all people, and that's how you should feel, but it would be foolish not to take advantage of your multilingual abilities. Immigration tends to happen in clusters, so it stands to reason that there is a community of Spanish-speaking and perhaps Portuguese-speaking residents where you live. Find out from your contacts if there are groups or clubs you can join to meet these people. It's natural that they would want to work with an agent who can speak with them in their native language, plus negotiate in English and write contracts in English.

Start gathering contacts that will help others relocate -- employment sources, maps, temporary housing sources, city services, artisans, contractors, title personnel, and others. Walk your neighborhood carefully so that you know where things are and how to direct people to places and people that will make their adjustment easier.

As others see your efforts to be helpful, you will make an impression, but that impression can fade if you don't follow up. I can't stress enough how important it is for you to spend at least two hours a day calling people whom you've met and telling them you enjoyed meeting them and something charming about what you've learned since you last talked to them.

Collect news stories that are relevant to your prospects that you can easily forward online. For example, Realty Times' stories have an email button at the end of every story that you can forward to specific or all contacts. A recent story by Realty Times' Lew Sichelman reports that Hispanics are turned down for mortgage loans at a much faster rate than others because of their lack of credit, by American standards.

In forwarding a story like this, you can add that you know how to help Latinos and others get loans without necessarily paying aggressive sub-prime rates. To do that, of course, you'll have to immediately start developing a network of lenders who are willing to learn about the Latino culture. He writes, "Several "very promising" credit scoring programs that underwrite immigrant and minority mortgage applicants using non-traditional forms of credit are available in the market, but "they are not being adopted to the degree we would like to see," says Gary Acosta, chief executive officer of Prado Mortgage in San Diego and co-founder of NAHREP.

Your only other choice besides meeting people and telling them what you do and who you are and how you would like to help them buy/sell their homes is to pay for advertising or get your broker to pay for it. Your ads, of course, should feature your multi-lingual ability, and be written in at least two or all three languages that you know.

These ideas should help you get started. Realty Times wishes you the best of luck and invites you to keep in touch and let us know your progress.