Casa Latino Real Estate, whose Danbury office is shown above, is now making a splash throughout the country.

Robb Heering is racking up some serious frequent-flyer miles.

The chief executive officer of Casa Latino Real Estate in Danbury has spent the past month plugging franchises of his company, which caters to the ever-increasing population of Hispanic homebuyers, in cities across the country. He has been to Las Vegas twice and to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and he will soon be visiting Phoenix – to meet with an organization that bought four Casa Latino franchises there – Atlantic City, N.J., and Detroit before taking some time off for the holidays.

The interest in the new company has been phenomenal, and in November, Casa Latino was selling a franchise every three days, according to Heering.

The company’s original office in Danbury opened last January and has enjoyed success there, Heering said. He came up with the concept for Casa Latino after hearing about the experiences of certain customers of his mortgage company, Fortune Lending in Southbury. One of his mortgage brokers was of Puerto Rican descent, and that broker drew in a large Hispanic customer base to get pre-approved to buy a home.

But Heering started hearing that those customers were having trouble finding a real estate company that really catered to them. So he started Casa Latino, a firm that specializes in first-time homebuyers. There is a formal, one-on-one education program, during which the agent sits down with a potential homebuyer to make sure he understands the obligations – such as taxes, insurance costs and maintenance – that go along with owning a home.

The concept has proved popular around the country. As of last week, Casa Latino had franchises in Phoenix; Albuquerque, N.M.; Las Vegas; St. George, Utah; Fort Lauderdale; and Austin, Texas.

“We are definitely on the map,” Heering said.

People are calling the office from across the country, and Heering thinks that he will surpass his original goal of having 50 franchises up and running by the end of 2008. That will probably happen by next July, he said.

“It’s a model that was certainly desired by the marketplace,” he said.

Heering and his staff officially unveiled its system last month at the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals’ annual convention in Las Vegas and at the National Association of Realtors’ NARdiGRAS Expo in New Orleans, although only one franchise was sold before that.

Heering said he expects California to be a big market for Casa Latino, but he has not touched it yet. The final paperwork that will allow the company to do business there is going through now, he noted. There also has been interest in Boston, and he is planning to open two more Connecticut offices – one in Waterbury and another in Bridgeport.

Using Caution

Heering is cautiously screening all the people who show interest in a Casa Latino franchise.

“I don’t want to sell a franchise just to sell a franchise,” he said.

Most successful franchise companies tend to have a list of closed offices almost as long as their list of operating offices. It is the way that industry tends to go, Heering said, but not the way he wants his company to operate.

“The goal is, five years from now, I don’t want to have closed offices and disgruntled franchisees,” he said.

So he is being careful about who is allowed to buy a Casa Latino franchise.

He has turned down some people who want to use the brand to take advantage of Hispanic homebuyers by getting them into houses their customers cannot afford and using predatory lending practices.

“That’s the opposite of what we do,” Heering said. The Hispanic community is tight-knit, and “good news travels fast, but not as fast as bad news,” he said.

Part of the company’s business model protects against having franchisees who do not subscribe to the mission statement.

“It’s really a long-term relationship to make sure we’re all on the same team,” he said.

Heering estimated that his company is in the process of responding to about 100 inquiries about new franchises. He hopes to soon penetrate Texas, New York, New Jersey and Florida, and to be fully involved in California by the first quarter of next year.

He expressed hope that the services offered by the central office to all franchisees will help keep them, and their clients, happy.

Aside from education for first-time homebuyers, the central Casa Latino office will follow up with all clients of any franchise. The company employs four bilingual call center representatives so far, and will hire more as needed.

“We’re going to be there for you by being there and making the calls and making sure you’re happy,” he said.

The call reps make several calls after a client purchases a home. The first is on the seventh day after the deal’s closing, to make sure the client is settling into the new home. The Danbury office has found clients whose parking spots in their condo complex were occupied, or who did not know how to pick up their mail. In such a case, Casa Latino calls the condo association or management company and figures out how to solve the problem.

The call reps then make a 30-day call, to make sure the client is happy and to talk about the fact that the first mortgage payment is due in the coming month. The company tries to help each client stay on track with credit, Heering said.

After 180 days in the new home, the company calls again to talk about the client’s credit rating and to ask for any referrals.

After about a year, the company calls one last time to talk about any desires to move up on the housing ladder.