A rock pile ceases to be a pile of rocks the moment a single man contemplates those rocks as a cathedral

Latino Real Estate Roots
Latino real estate broker sees beyond the broken gate to see the flowers beyond the gate


He’s an artisan of a different kind. He sees houses and creates homes. He sees a prospective buyer and sculpts until he creates a homeowner. He connects buyer with seller and creates roots. And it’s been 28 years worth of roots that connect him to perhaps the most powerful influences in the country: Hispanic homebuyers.


George B. Izquierdo, President of Las Casas Realty in LA’s Highland Park community, is known as an artist. Like Michelangelo said “I saw the angel in the marble and I just chiseled until I set him free,” Izquierdo sees a home when others only see a pile of rocks. We all know a rock pile ceases to be a pile of rocks the moment a single man contemplates those rocks as a cathedral.


Since the late 1970s Izquierdo has been a man of such vision. A native of Ecuador, and married with a family of three, Izquierdo envisioned not only the need of the Hispanic community but their ability and willingness to be homeowners. At the age of 30, he set out to turn his vision into reality.


Today, Las Casas Realty is thriving and bursting with success and opportunity. George Izquierdo continues to serve but in ways others only now are dreaming of. Las Casas Realty is a buying and selling agency. It is a loan qualifying entity, and a mortgage loan broker. And Izquierdo offers entry-level, mid-level, and professional employment opportunities to hundreds of Hispanics in greater Los Angeles, serving as mentor and leader. “After all, to be first, we must first be servant,” he says.


Either in English or Spanish—and sometimes in a situational language only Izquierdo and his clients understand—Las Casas Realty goes well beyond the traditional real estate office or brokerage firm: People are not just clients, customers, buyers or sellers. They are people…persons with a need. People who seek a sincere, honest and healthy relationship…personally and professionally.


Some 30 years ago, Hispanic real estate outreach and opportunity was limited, if existent at all. Real estate persons at that time could not see “beyond the broken gate to see the flowers beyond the gate.” They could not or would not see how Hispanics were either part of the American dream or its landscape. And they did not envision the “mattress” under which came a viable down-payment. What people saw was what they heard: Hispanics struggling to communicate--in broken English--their wishes and dreams.


Today, success is new and vibrant at Las Casas Realty. But what hasn’t changed is Izquierdo’s vision and philosophy: Action springs from thought and from readiness for responsibility. Izquierdo has done well by doing good. He continues to advocate: “We can afford to be kind: It only costs a thought.” For what lies behind Izquierdo and what lies before Las Casas Realty are tiny matters-- compared to what lies within. Izquierdo and Las Casas Realty is not just another Chicken Soup success story. It’s a realization about Los Angeles, and America, and Hispanic America.

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Las Casas Realty, Inc. is committed to the highest standards of service via diligent real estate professionalism. Las Casas Realty, Inc. is located at 5713 York Blvd. Los Angeles, CA., 90042. www.lascasasrealty.com. For an interview or for further information, contact Tricia Bautista at: 818.521.3060 or email at tlbautista@aol.com.