Amy Kong, the AREAA National President and Founder of Trust Real Estate Team explains what agents should know about AAPI real estate professionals and the current climate they’re experiencing. Next Amy talks extensively about AREAA community, networking, education and activities. She also discusses the rise in Asian hate crimes, house discrimination and other obstacles her community is facing. Last, Amy talks about the steps AREAA recommends a realtor should take in case they witness a case of discrimination.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Amy Kong can be reached at amy@trustreca.com and (650) 740-9928.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
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Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keeping it real, the largest podcast made by real estate agents. And for real estate agents. My name is DJ Paris. I am your guide and host through the show. And in just a moment, we’re going to be speaking with Amy Kang from the Asian Real Estate Association and she’s also the co founder of trust real estate in California. Before we get to Amy, just a couple of quick reminders. Please help us by telling a friend think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from hearing from top producers like Amy and send them a link to our website that anyone can find us right at keeping it real pod.com Whether you’re a podcast person or not, and you can stream every episode we’ve ever done right from your browser. If you are a podcast person or the person you’re going to refer to us is a podcast person, just have them pull up any app that does podcasts and search for keeping it real and hit that subscribe button. And also please follow us on Facebook you can find us@facebook.com forward slash keeping it real pod or just search for keeping it real podcast in Facebook and also hit the subscribe and like button so that you can see all of our updates every single day we post an article that we find online specifically designed to help agents grow their business. So thank you for continuing to support and listen to our show and now on to our interview with Amy Kang.
Okay, today on the show we have any hung from the San Francisco Bay Area. Amy is an immigrant from Hong Kong and she has served the San Francisco and MidPeninsula real estate markets since 1988. She is the co founder of trust real estate in San Bruno California. Honesty and integrity are her core values in the business and also in community outreach. Among her various local and nation national endeavors. She is now the the ARIA national president Aria is the Asian Real Estate Association of America. Amy is bilingual and English and Cantonese. And I’m gonna read you Arias mission really quickly because we think it’s very important. Aria is dedicated to promoting sustainable homeownership opportunities in Asian American communities by creating a powerful national voice for housing and real estate professionals that serve this dynamic market. Now, please visit Amy on her website, which is trust R E. C a.com. And also learn more about REO visit reo, which is a r e a.org. Amy, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for being part of us.
Amy Kong 3:24
Thank you so much for having me, DJ, very nice meeting you.
D.J. Paris 3:28
It’s a pleasure. We Amy and I were just talking for about 20 minutes before we even started. And I realized, boy on a lot of this we should have we should have recorded but we’ll go over it again. Because Amy has a lot of good things to say. And we are really grateful. We should also mention that it is May which is which is AAPI Heritage Month, which we should talk about what API is because we’ll be using that acronym at during this conversation. So do you mind defining what a API is?
Amy Kong 3:57
Absolutely. API is not a homogeneous group API, combined together represent more than 50 countries. So the short form, the long longer description of API is Asian American Pacific Islanders.
D.J. Paris 4:14
Wow. And we should mention that the AAPI community in the realtor community best that we can tell is about 7% or so of the overall realtor a makeup and so we have now we have about a million and a half Realtors so that translates to roughly 100,000 AAPI realtors out there so it’s about not a not insignificant group or number of people and you know also the the bigger conversation I think we’ll we’ll be having later on in the conversation is is the rise of some, unfortunately, some Asian anti Asian hate crimes that we’re experiencing. We want to have conversations to raise awareness in the realtor community about that. But before we get get to that, we’d love To hear Amy about how you got into real estate, we’d love to hear that journey all the way back from to 1988 to today. So can you tell us about how you got involved in real estate?
Amy Kong 5:09
Well, I’m, I’m an immigrant, right? I’m immigrant from Hong Kong in 1988. Right before the 1997. You know,
D.J. Paris 5:20
hangover transfer of power. Yeah, yeah.
Amy Kong 5:23
So I came from a very traditional family. So I did not get an opportunity to go college. So someone with no college degree, it’s very difficult to locate a, quote unquote, better job, right. So at the moment, you know, we have a relative that introduced me and start working in a very traditional real estate office in San Francisco Chinatown called the chin Rio de. And at the time, I started as a receptionist, to handle the book was, like part of the property management work, right. And then later on, my broker found that, hey, how can you finish your job so quickly? So while I was young, right, so everything, we can computerize it, so then I, he started to give me an opportunity to learn what mortgage is all about. So I started to do mortgage. So you can imagine back in 1989, when the global recession started, yeah, interest rates started to come down, right. So I get the privilege of surveying a group of Asian people within Chinatown to refinance their mortgages. So naturally down the row, I started to tap into real estate buy and sell. So I became an independent broker and run our own business since
D.J. Paris 6:50
year 2000. Wow, well, congratulations. That is That is quite a quite a journey. And, and how big is is the is the trust real estate team? I know you have several, several team members.
Amy Kong 7:03
Yes, ever since the year 2000, I’ve been telling myself that I really need to deliver quality work. So our office has never been big, is always I call it a boutique office. So now trust me as they grow to a team of approximately 12 people, I didn’t count that. But it’s like Around 12 people. But it’s interesting, you mentioned that because ever since I partner with sai end, which is a technology based company, right? The the level of availability of my time to not just serve the community, but also doing my business are increasing. So the production and that kind of care towards our agents increases. So I’m very happy with the new partnership.
D.J. Paris 7:53
Let’s talk about that partnership only because I will absolutely forget to mention to ask about it later. So let’s talk about siding and the sort of technology platform that that assists you in your business.
Amy Kong 8:05
Well, you know, in 2000, I started to become a business owner, so I have to do everything, anything within the office. And then 2001, I gained my broker license and become the broker of record. So you know how that is, as a broker record, you always have worry about everything out there, and all kinds of stuff. Of course, you know, I’m lucky because I have really good licensees that, you know, work together with the same vision to do the best we can to serve the company. But you know, as time goes by, I got tired as well. But when I joined psi, you know, I offload this kind of responsibility. But I can really focus in making sure that the next generation realtor are doing their job, because a lot of times that because of technology like DocuSign, and all kinds of stuff, it eliminates a lot of personal touch with our consumer. So back in the old days, I’ll have to bring my you know, contract, go into my clients house, explain to them one by one and what they’re entering into nowadays, a lot of people don’t even know what their contract did getting their client into. But we’re siding with the technology and the background. It gives us more time. So the interaction with consumer are much better now. So I really love the partnership so far.
D.J. Paris 9:30
That’s wonderful. And, you know, let’s let’s talk about about ARIA because this is a very important organization that, you know, our audience might not be as familiar with. And, you know, now where, unfortunately, we’re seeing a huge uptick in in violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. You know, it’s becoming more and more prominent in the news and we want to continue to bring that awareness to to our audience, but can you talk a little bit about what ARIA actually does.
Amy Kong 10:03
Aria actually, but before I go into Aria, let me share this with you some statistics that I just pull up. It’s like, just in the 2020. Last year, you know, the ancient hate crimes against Asian American dramatically increased 150%.
D.J. Paris 10:22
Yeah, I saw that same same statistic. And what was what was most interesting to me about that statistic is that hate crimes overall, actually decreased, which is even more shocking, that that the Asian American community had this massive increase where other groups actually saw a decrease. So this is a major, big, big problem. And, and it is finally getting some media attention. But it is it is something that that is just so shocking. And I’m curious, and I apologize for cutting you off. I’m just curious on where you think that stems from what’s happening, that that or what’s our best guess on on why we’re seeing that uptick in the AAPI
Amy Kong 11:05
symbol, I guess all these conversations started when our previous president trum, started to call all these China virus, Kung Fu, all kinds of thing and pointing the finger over to Chinese people. So from that point on, we see all these things happening. There, I tell you, there are a lot more verbal abuse than at actual hate crime that you can see on TV. And we are blessed that because there is some Asian reporter that dedicated their lives to report all these incidences, otherwise, I tell you, a lot of people would not even know about it. So we’re, our culture has been so quiet, we have been so quiet, you know, we are taught not to rock the bow we are taught, you know, to, you know, take things in without creating a lot of trouble. But I guess this is not going to continue happening. Our community is standing up, our community is speaking up. So we would not allow things like that happen again. And again. So ARIA, what are you do is that we are not any social justice organization. But at the time when people comes to us, because all of our member, our chapter leaders, are so passionate about our community, and nobody would like to see our people suffer like this. So when we all get it together, we will like, number one, what has it to do with Aria? It has a lot to do with Aria, because our members are the one that is serving this community. You tell me how people are living in fear. They cannot even walk down the neighborhood for a decent morning walk, we are so worried that our senior will be attacked. That’s the kind of fear and insecurity of building within our community. We as a realtor, we have to really know what we can do in order to protect this group of people from being harmed, not just physically. But for the housing needs. Right? This has a lot to do with fair housing. Think about it. You’re right.
D.J. Paris 13:26
I imagine. I imagine you’re seeing right, I was gonna say I imagine you’re seeing an uptick in discrimination with respect to housing for the A Pei community as well.
Amy Kong 13:38
Yeah, so you imagine if our people are so fearful and living in a certain neighborhood, but that neighborhood is something that is affordable to them, that prohibit them from going over there and started a family and started the American dream to own their own home. So that’s why we put together the diversity and fair housing summit to make sure number one, we know how to be empathetic to everybody’s situation, not just to the Asian for everybody, even though our African American brothers and sisters, right? We have to be empathetic and understand be on somebody’s choose on what the situation is. Number two, we really have to speak up when we see things, having discrimination action against our community, we have to speak up. Number three, we will do all things possible to report incidents like that, yes, we might not be able to prosecute a person right away. But at least once we file that incidence, continuously if these people continuously doing discrimination action against certain groups, it will pile up and we can prosecute them.
D.J. Paris 14:48
Yeah, it’s it’s it’s so interesting. You were we were talking about the increase in the statistics of of the violent crimes that are reported but you brought up a really strong point, which is Most of us have have the real crime, or it really isn’t violent and doesn’t get reported. It might be verbal, or or it may be violent and not reported. And so I’m sure those numbers are actually much higher. And as you said, maybe part of the culture is to sort of take it and not always report. And I applaud you for trying to, to change that to bring more awareness so that when you see something, say something, whether it’s, you know, in a PII member witnesses something or somebody who’s not part of the community, but witnesses that kind of abuse, that that can report. And I imagine, you know, landlords are probably, you know, denying more API people than in previous years, I would assume, although that’s probably not reported, either. So it’s a really difficult time right now, to be an API. person, I imagine.
Amy Kong 15:54
Yeah, well, yeah, it’s a difficult time for a lot of people, you know, within the federal level, we have a group of protected class out from discrimination, right. So we also bring to the awareness of our group. Sometimes, if you’re not in a situation, it’s hard for you to understand what the struggle and where the tears coming from. So being empathetic, is something that I will do you know, real estate professionals, will they have to rethink the way how we do business? Sometimes it’s not about money. Sometimes it’s about am I providing a safe place for this person?
D.J. Paris 16:36
Yeah, and also, we should talk about the AAPI realtor community is probably also experiencing additional challenges that, you know, maybe they didn’t experience as much of it in previous years. And I know that your your members have had been communicating with each other and sharing those stories of discrimination. You know, realtors can be can be petty, they can be mean, they can be just like anyone else and treat other realtors poorly. Have you? Have you seen an increase in the reporting of the realtor members with their own business being affected by by some of the anti Asian sentiment that’s going on?
Amy Kong 17:18
Well, I guess. You know, a couple of years ago, the news, the report from New York, really spell out a lot about the action in that particular region in New York, on how we alter discriminate people, right. But I can certainly tell you, right after the report, the realtor community has been working so hard to making sure that you know, our members are not ignorant, our members are well informed and now have the knowledge to how to handle different situations. So that’s one good improvement. But if you’re asking this question, I would like to share some comments and stories from our people. You know, Amanda, realtor community, woman Realtors outnumbers the male realtors. And a lot of times because of all these crazy hate crimes going on, and all kinds of crimes been going on, especially in our region, I have heard from some of our female Realtors now, uh, hesitating to go out and show property to to all these strangers that found them online. Sure. So what does that translate it limited, you know, their, their possibility of making money, wanting their family. So that’s not anything good. But in the meantime, you know, we are always advising and suggesting to our realtor member when you go out and show properties not just female, right, but also male, you have to be really cautious about your safety to where you should park and you know how, how you supposed to present yourself. Those are the things that we really have to be cautious.
D.J. Paris 19:03
And also possibly having a first meeting in a more public space with lots of people probably, you know, decreases the risk of anything violent happening. But but it is still a risk and it is a very difficult risk and it’s very sad to me to think a realtor gets this lead is excited to want to help that home buyer or home seller or renter and then feels unsafe going to service that client and of course they they’re feeling unsafe. And and it’s just an unfortunate place to be right now.
Amy Kong 19:43
Yeah, it is realistic that we have to protect ourselves as well.
D.J. Paris 19:51
Yeah, and what I love about ARIA is not that well that I do love that that of course the the primary mission is to empower homeownership opportunities for for the Asian American community, but also to provide support to those realtors to the AAPI. Realtors or for realtors in general who who work with AAPI buyers and sellers, investors renters? Can you talk a little bit about the community that Aria is created where you know, those realtors can communicate and support each other?
Amy Kong 20:23
Well, absolutely, we have conventions, we have opportunities, networking opportunity all the time. So I tell you, a lot of the people not just call ARIA not just to help people that I’m already a member. So a lot of times that people will say I’m part of the ARIA family. You know, this is how we are you know, as time goes by, we ended up become really close friends, because we have common topics to talk about, you know, our business, our encounter our family, how our spouse is supporting our business, oh, no, what we can do all kinds of stuff. So ended up we really become close friends. And as you mentioned earlier that you know, a lot of people are moving away from California, the migration, the API migration from some of the statistics are showing that people, Asian people are actually moving down to the south east states like Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, Alabama, Texas. So within our area, we have a lot of referral business organically growing and continuing. So that’s another fun part of being part of the ARIA family. So the networking opportunity is just tremendous. And also, the education program that we put together, also very inspiring as well, like, at the beginning of the year, I was chatting with my edge chair, Aria has a group called Edge, which is all these young professionals. So I was like, hey, maybe we should put together some program and bring to the awareness of the young realtor, that this is a time for you to start building your retirement income by investing in real estate. So we call that a fire movement, which is financially independent and retire early. So that’s something that like our x group just put together an event last month, it was fascinating. We see a lot of these young Realtors actually has been doing things like that. So for others on the audience, they were like, Oh, maybe I should start doing it. Especially interest rates so low, why not? Right? Yeah.
D.J. Paris 22:36
Wow, it sounds like your offer a tremendous number of programming. Also, you know, community and, and support. And we should mention, too, if anyone, if any of our listeners are either part of the AAPI realtor community, but aren’t a member of ARIA, or you are, even if you’re not part of the AAPI community, but you want to support Aria, what’s the best way somebody should get involved?
Amy Kong 23:03
You know what, TJ, you don’t have to be an Asian in order to be part of the reo family, I tell you, I have 42 different chapters across the US and Canada 17,000 member, a lot of our chapter leaders, they are non Asian. And what you can do locally, just look for an aria chapter locally, right? If you don’t know where you, you know, whether your location has a chapter, go to our website, aria.org, contact us or you can look upon all of our chapters demographic, then you will be able to find a local chapter to connect. But then again, if you cannot find anything, feel free to reach out to myself or to ARIA national staff, we will definitely help you connect. And the most exciting part is that reasonably, because we know that there is a huge Asian migration to the southeast states. The newest chapter is in Charlotte, North Carolina. So I’m waiting to go there and visit them and put them all in store as chapter leaders.
D.J. Paris 24:07
Very excited. Well, congratulations on the the expansion of ARIA. And it’s really a magnificent organization. And I will tell you, we reach out to many organizations, realtor Association organizations, and we we usually get a good response. But oftentimes the president themselves does not that does not often come on our show. So we are so grateful that you were willing to spend the time and I also want to ask sort of a final question about you know, if anyone in our audience who is a practicing real estate, professional witnesses, any sort of AAPI discrimination, whether it’s to another realtor or to a client, a customer, or maybe has, you know, just witnesses something that violates fair housing, or possibly violates just just law in general How should a realtor go about sort of reporting that? Where should if they don’t know where to report that, should they reach out to reo and say, Hey, I just witnessed something. What should I do? Or do you have any any proactive steps of how they can proceed from there?
Amy Kong 25:14
Oh, absolutely. So as a realtor member, of course, you know, we always suggest that, go ahead and talk to that broker of that agent first, right? If you cannot resolve that issue, bring it up to your local association or realtor. Right, I’m pretty sure that they will definitely take action. Yeah, so you still don’t see a satisfactory result. Go ahead and report it to HUD. Right. Yeah. And all these resources are all on our REO website, you know, so go ahead and go to the reo website, and you’ll see resources on there. And if you still don’t know what to do, feel free to reach out to us and then see what we can do to connect you. I can share one story with you our diversity and fair housing summit co chair and Lisa, she’s from Denver, Colorado. It is very difficult for her to every time you know, tell this story, but the condo she lives in is something that is like really high end in Denver, Colorado. And majority that people of course is not Asian. She’s the one that only Asian girl in there. She’s a single mom with kids and she was pregnant. At the time, the HOA keep bothering her neighbor keep complaining about her on the ferry and reasonable level. So ended up she feel like Is it because I’m Asian that people do things like that to me. So and then up to file a complaint to the HOA, the HOA, ignore her everything. And then she filed a complaint everywhere ended up she filed a complaint to HUD to make a record there. So down the road, if anybody move into this complex that are not in the same color, and experience, things like that, at least there is a record. And that person in the future can absolutely do something about the HOA. So that’s part of the action that we can do. And we should not continue. And we will not continue to second. You know, our name is AAPI. A lot of times that people will love us because our number is more, a lot of statistic people will put coat white, African American, Hispanic, and other right. Some years ago, Aria did an app policy advocacy effort to change to ask for change on the quarterly housing report produced by the Census Bureau, to our Congress and Senate to review, they lump us into order and ended up they created a new separate category called API. So if you wanted to help the API community, and make sure we no longer the perpetual foreigners, make sure on all of your research, your report include us, and our name is AAPI. We are not other and we will not tolerate anybody cause other.
D.J. Paris 28:18
That’s a very, very strong point. And it’s a not insignificant number of people in this country. You know, II 5.4% sounds small as a percentage, but we have hundreds of millions of people in this country. You know, we know there’s almost around 100,000 AAPI realtors, in the United States alone. So there they this is not an other, and nobody should be in the other group anyway. But But yeah, there is a large community of API buyers in in this country, and they are going through a tough time. Right now. This is a difficult, difficult time. And the main reason that that we asked me to come on was well, of course it is Asian American Pacific Islander National Heritage Month in this country, and we want to support that, but also to bring awareness, unfortunately, to some of the, what we’re seeing in the news and AAPI realtors are experiencing this as we talked about, of course, a not non realtors who are part of the AAPI community are you know, of course dealing with horrific crime. There were four I think it four incidences in New York over the weekend, which were, you know, which were, unfortunately very violent. And so this is a real thing and we just want to continue to raise awareness and, and let’s have empathy and compassion for those AAPI realtors out there and AAPI customers who are scared there’s real violence happening. And so as Amy said, you know, if you see something, say something, report it, whether it’s to police or if it’s a realtor issue to your local association. And then continue up that chain of command, and also report it to HUD if you see any housing violations, but we hope that it’s so interesting to me as, as I was thinking about, you know, and it’s so I feel so ignorant to not have put this together. But I was I was saying earlier to me before we started, I said, I’m embarrassed to say, but I was thinking recently, like, I wonder why there is an uptick in all this violence. I didn’t even connect that because the previous administration had so demonized China in particular, for for COVID, that that would translate into real world violence. And sadly, it has, and that seems to be the most explainable reason for this uptick in violence. And so it’s something that that we need to remember that words matter. And words can can can create unfortunate action. And so the more awareness I think we have, and the more compassion that we can some it sort of summon up in ourselves, as is, I think, what the best antidote maybe we have, and also legislation in place to protect, protect those those marginalized groups. So I applaud you, I know this is a difficult time for for, for your community right now. And, you know, we just want to, you know, thank you for coming on our show and raising our awareness, and continuing to, you know, support the AAPI community and letting us know what we can do to support to support the AAPI community as well. So Amy, on behalf of Oh, and we should mention real quickly to for everyone listening, please go and visit Arias website, which is a r e a.org. Learn more about it, sign up, become a member. They are a fantastic organization, they have an amazing reputation, and they do a lot of good work. So go do that. And then Amy, if there’s anyone out there who happens to be a buyer or a seller or renter and investor who is in the San Francisco Bay Area and wants to work with somebody on your team, because this is an amazing time in real estate. Of course, with low interest rates and just a lot of people itching to, to move, what’s the best way that that anyone out there who wants to work with with somebody from trust, should reach out to you
Amy Kong 32:20
go ahead and miss it our website trust are ye ca.com. And I will give you my contact information. And then if anybody inquire about it, feel free to share. Honestly, I’m here to really make sure you know, the AAPI community is being noticed. And and again, you know, it’s not about the deal or the money. It is about putting somebody in homes, that they feel safe, happy and grow their family. So DJ, I really appreciate the opportunity to share some of the work from Aria. So I’m hoping that our community will continue to be better. I wanted to end this. I always share this with a lot of people. I really like Bruce Lee, not just because he’s handsome. But because there’s things that in his mind will inspire us. Remember one of the interview he has with the producer, the producer asked Bruce, do you want people to see you as a Chinese or an American? And Bruce answer is, I want people to see me as a human being. So yeah, housing is not just for API, but it’s for everybody. So that’s what ARIA wanted to promote and create this kind of peaceful environment. And quietly, we will make the change.
D.J. Paris 33:46
Well, I love Bruce Lee as well. And he he was quite the philosopher which a lot of people might not know, he had a lot of really intelligent beliefs and thoughts and he he’s he had written a lot of them down. And so if you’re interested in learning more about Bruce Lee, there’s there’s books that capture a lot of his his philosophies of life. And that is a perfect example of a really progressive thought back, you know, at the time when, you know, those those thoughts weren’t as common. So I appreciate you bringing bringing that up. And so we are want to continue to support Aria. And we will continue to, to to, you know, let our audience know about the different events that you have coming. And if there any Is anyone out there that wants to join that ARIA please visit aria.org ar e ae.org. And Amy, thank you so much on behalf of our audience, we appreciate your time we know how busy you are running a company as well as Aria and doing all the other amazing things that you do. So we know how busy you are, especially this month. So we appreciate the time you took to come on the show. And then of course on behalf of a Amy and myself, we want to thank our audience for continuing to support our show. And if the best way you can help us is to just tell a friend, think of one other real estate professional that could benefit from having heard this great conversation with Amy and send them a link to our show. Easiest way to do that, you can send them right over to our website, which is keeping it real pod.com Every episode we’ve ever done, you can stream right from the website. If they’re a podcast person, just have them pull up a podcast app and search for keeping it real, and have them hit the subscribe button. And then they got all of our episodes. Now. Amy, thank you so so much. And we will hope to see a decrease in the next time we talk in Asian American violent crime. And we hope that that that obviously changes course and we’ll do everything we can to bring that awareness to our audience. Thank you so much.
Amy Kong 35:48
Thank you, you have a good day.
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