A review that made me blush.

My lovely clients occasionally Yelp me good reviews. For some reason Yelp does not post most of these reviews (possibly because I do not pay them), so no one sees them including me. Occasionally, I'll go through the two step security process to look at the filtered reviews and check if there is anything new. Today I did and I found this gem from a recent buyer in Atwater:

Filtered Reviews for Preferred Realty and Loan

Note: The reviews below are not factored into the business's overall star rating.

• 0friends
• 25reviews

• Tyler P.

Los Angeles, CA

7/21/2011

No one likes long Yelp reviews right?
I'll make it simple: if you're even THINKING about buying a house (especially on the East Side), give Sky a call. Just do it... thank me later.
If you have more time to read specifics, however...

Pros (in order of importance):

-Sky likes a good bargain (being active in real estate himself)... and that translates very well with investment savvy clients like myself. This is incredibly important. A lot of agents (95% of them) won't go the extra mile and take the risk and submit an offer for a dangerously low price because it means less commission for them, and it could cost them the deal. They'd rather just make excuses as to why the house is "worth" the ask price and not make an effort. Not so with Sky... he'll go to bat for you and has a talent for throwing around ball park numbers with the seller's agent to find out where the absolute floor is, ie where you're almost spitting in the seller's face. Sounds crude, but that's all potentially future money you'll be paying out of YOUR paycheck, right? We ended up taking 15% off the ask price after several negotiations, which is pretty good.

-Seems like the guy genuinely enjoys his job, and that he's done pretty well in real estate himself (owns multiple units), so there is a readily apparent feeling of "doing it for fun" that goes a long way towards not making you feel pressured to do anything you don't feel like doing because he's likely not THAT dependent on the commission. He's also genuinely fun to be around and has a redeeming sense of humor, not like other stuffy agents.

-A "knock your door down" professional across all levels. Half the time, my wife and I were done for the day, but he always had more suggestions to go look at. Even though we ultimately bought one of the first houses we saw, there were a few that we saw in the later stages that that very well could have been veritable backups had our primary fallen through. That means a lot to a buyer, to have options.

-Supremely more tech savvy than any other agent (which is important... up to the minute automatic updates on market moves and new listings in your exact desired market, and lightning fast with emails).

-Knows the market unbelievably well (I mean, laughably well... ie pointing out new trends in housing, and several houses that were done by same developer that look 100% alike, even though 10+ miles apart)

-Last but not least, free lunch 8)

Cons:

-None. Absolutely none.

I would advise you call him soon, though, because his weekends are starting to fill up.

-----

Many thanks to my buyers Ty + Pia for the Morel Orel Tshirt and for

being good sports while I drug them around to so many houses.

See you guys at Hugos Tacos!

Thanks!!

Rave Reviews for Sky Minor+Preferred Realty and Loan

Rave Reviews for Sky Minor and Preferred Realty and Loan.



From Jeannie G. 12/2009:

Special Thank You to PREFERRED REALTY & LOAN, Sky Minor, Rachel Mintz and especially my real estate agent Cesar Briones. Their hard work, talent, charm and limitless determination to
get me my house paid off. Frank and I look forward to turning this
house into a home for our family. Thank you guys, love you for fighting
with me for this house!!!



From Michelle C. 11/2009: Driving around looking at open houses, I came across one of Sky's listings. As soon as he heard I would be going the FHA route, he was
straight-up and said why that house wasn't for me. We got to chatting
and it seemed like we had a similar mindset, plus he liked my tokidoki
bag...which meant he had decent taste :) I wanted a multi-family
property and my previous realtor had told me it would be near
impossible to find in the areas I wanted (Eagle Rock/Highland Park). I
don't think "impossible" exists in Sky's vocabulary.



So...5
offers later, about 20 houses walked-through and a 30 day escrow that
turned into almost 60 (thanks to my lender going out of business
mid-stream and Wells Fargo losing my file for a couple days), I have
the multi-unit property I wanted, have my first renter and am moving
into my unit this weekend...all before my first mortgage payment is due.

Sky found the property for me less than 3 days after it hit the market. We
made an offer immediately and, thankfully, it was accepted. He's really
up on technology...makes it easy to keep track of files when they're
digital and texting/email is so much more efficient than faxes and
voicemail. And in this market, a couple of hours lag could be costly as
to whether you get that offer in or not.

If not for Sky, theprocess would have literally made me INSANE. He stepped up while my first lender disappeared (while I was out of the country, no less) and
found another one with an amazing interest rate. He rolled with the
punches when I melted down because of all the FHA hoops we had to jump
through.

This is serious grown-up stuff, but Sky isn't stuffy and uptight. He's the right balance between professional and chill. In the end, he got me exactly what I wanted and I'm still kind of stunned that I am an actual homeowner now!



From Megan C. 5/2009:

Sky is the Limit.

He is wonderful, professional, smart, friendly... I definitely recommend Sky Minor.



From Ricky L. 3/2009:

Sky got me up and moving to find my first investment property. He
offered sound advice that I initially thought was too conservative, but
he ended up being right about what he was saying. He found me a
terrific duplex that is my first cash-flow rental property but not my
last! Thank you, Sky.



From Jon R. 7/2008:

I've never encountered another real estate agent with more concern for
getting the best house for ME, at exactly the right time with a killer
interest rate on my mortgage. Sky's been infinitely patient and aided
me in searching for exactly what i want in a house as well as advising
me on the exact moment to by. It's a true no pressure approach and the
man understands the housing/loan market better than anyone I've ever
encountered. I can tell some of the other agent's I worked with before
I found Sky are only interested in a quick commission pushing you to
make offers on houses that don't even make sense... Or not putting in
any legwork at all! Seriously, i didn't make an offer on anything for
the first five months I was shopping with Sky and it was at his urging

because he felt the market was still dropping! Now I'm looking at
buying an AMAZING house for cheaper than I ever Imagined....

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!

From Miki H 5/2009:

Sky sold an investment property for us. He got full asking price in less than two days. The buyer had a tough time getting his financing together, and took over a month to close, but I credit Sky for sticking with it.

From Bastien B. 8/2009

It was really a pleasure to work with Sky in finding-buying my new home. He has the ability, in today's complex real estate market, to make any complicated situation simple. He really went the extra mile in helping me finding the perfect house and all his advises were extremely valuable.

It's sometimes difficult to find a Real Estate Agent that you can really trust, and Sky's realistic and judicious advices made the purchase of my house totally easy and smooth with only good surprises!

I definitely thank him for making my dream come true in such a professional and friendly way.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED