Even though there was a competition for that property, we ended up garnering the first spot, because of my knowledge and being able to explain it to the listing agent and demystifying the process for her, and at the same time securing the property for my client because of that knowledge and being able to explain it. When you know all of the angles, you can salvage a transaction and help a person achieve their goal and their dream. This family had two cute babies. They really needed this property. They had searched the Irvine market—a very difficult market for their price range—for over a year. We were successful. That’s the difference knowledge makes for each client. Translating that knowledge makes you able to pivotally affect every step of the transaction. If I didn’t have the financing knowledge, maybe I would have scratched my head and moved onto the next property just because that agent said, “It’s not doable.”
Question: So when somebody comes to you, you can look them straight in the eye and say, “I can help you.”
Tyler-Pires: That’s correct, and explain why.
After more than 30 years in Real Estate Sales and more than 28 years in Real Estate Financing, when I sit down with a client I am able to explain the process from every angle and provide VITAL information that they need to make informed decisions. Wrapping up all this knowledge and experience in a humble and direct package that always keeps my client’s goal in mind is what I do every day. There is no greater satisfaction than working with my clients through every step of the sale of their home and the purchase of their new home. Selling and buying a home is a huge and complex process. I LOVE demystifying the process and helping my clients through every step to a successful completion.
Question: How did you discover you could do this so well?
Tyler-Pires: Just by doing it day in, day out. There is no other magic bullet. You work, and learn, and do. My mindset has always been to help the client. That last downturn in 2000, I separated from the builders and the title company because they had a different mindset, more of a profit margin mindset. My mindset has always been to treat each client in such a way that they would always come back to me because I’m the one they can trust, and they know why they trust me.
It’s a funny comparison because it’s a different kind of service industry, but think about when you’re looking for a new mechanic. You’ve taken your car into one and you just don’t know if you’re being taken advantage of because you don’t know how difficult it is to fix your car. The selling and buying of a home is much more complex, but it’s the same concept. If you don’t have somebody you trust who can explain every step of the way, calm your fears, and tell you what the accurate next step is, it’s just scary and frustrating.
Question: What are some of the most common questions your clients ask you?
Tyler-Pires: Nowadays, one question I often get is, “Can I put an offer for a home before I sell my house?,” like a contingent offer, and once I say no they want to know why the seller would not take a contingent offer. I then have to explain to them in a way they can understand the reason that it makes no sense for someone to take a property off the market for a contingency.
Another question I get asked very often is why their credit score is different on the credit report I ran for them than on the one they obtained themselves just last week. Credit scores are industry weighted. If a mortgage company runs a credit report, the score that will come out will be weighted for that industry. If an insurance company runs a credit report, there’s a different insurance model for the credit scores that are pulled up. In other words, the credit reporting companies (TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian) will issue different credit scores based on their formulas for each industry. When a client gets their own report through one of those “run your own credit report” sites, that’s not weighted at all. They don’t use a specific formula. It’s more of an average.
When you go to your mortgage company and they run your credit report for the specific purpose of mortgage financing, it may come out different. Sometimes they’re very close and sometimes they’re worlds apart, depending on the circumstances. Just yesterday I ran into a situation while talking to one of my past mortgage clients who was looking at refinancing. She says to me, “I just ran my credit score last month and it was 730. Why is this one only 648?” Then we looked at the credit report, and I explained it to her. That’s one very common thing for people not to know. As a matter of fact, a lot of people in my own industry don’t know credit scores are weighted for different industries, that they are not the same across the board. When a client runs their own credit report, I can’t necessarily take that because it may not be the same, because the lenders price everything off of the industry-weighted report.
Another very common question I get is, “What is the best financing option for me?” For this one I must say that there is no one answer that fits all, but there is a bit of a formula. When you are trying to invest in mutual funds with a broker, they usually come up with a questionnaire for you, and then they do a risk assessment and figure out what your risk comfort level is. They’ll typically do that for a family, and many times there’s a little difference between the husband and the wife. He might be a bit more of a gambler, so then he might be willing to invest in things that bring potentially higher return, but also potentially higher losses if the market moves. The wife may be more conservative. The broker will invest differently for each of them, or they’ll come to a consensus that covers both of them, i.e., they’ll do part of the investment at a certain level that’s a little more aggressive to satisfy him and part of the investment at a less aggressive level to satisfy her.
