Broker marches to the beat of his own drum

“I was born and raised in Cuba, and when I first started in this career, I was dealing – I’m still dealing – with a wide variety of backgrounds with clients coming from different places,” he said. “I’ve always been aware that culture and language might be a barrier for people to reach their goals”

One of the most evident hurdles was the language barrier itself, he said. Upon embarking on his commercial brokerage career, he immediately noticed how some of his clients leaned heavily on relatives already well accustomed to business transactions given the absence of Latino brokers who understood their language and culture.

“I noticed there was a gap to fill in the way they carry on the tasks of growing their commercial real estate,” he said. “I have Hispanic clients who still rely on some of their relatives to accomplish some of the commercial loans because of miscommunications with lenders during negotiations. I noticed it was easier for me to build rapport with them. We belong to the same culture, and we understand ourselves better.”

With his Spanish proficiency, Gamez doesn’t limit his work only to fellow Cubans. With a service area that encompasses Chicago, New York, New Jersey and Las Vegas, he said he deals with many other cultures – among them people from Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico and more.

That’s a good pace for someone who just entered the commercial real estate business two years ago – after immigrating a mere seven years ago from Cuba where he worked as a drummer. “I used to be a musician before I left Cuba, a completely different background. But I always liked math and numbers. This country, for me, is just amazing, it completely changed my mind and way of thinking. I started to find new passions, including real estate work. I reached a point where I was finally able to mix two of my passions – finance on one side and real estate on the other – to where it was what I wanted to do.”