Roots & Real Estate: Shylia Hernandez’s Journey from Psychology Dreams to Property Success

[00:00:00] - [Shylia Hernandez]
I don't know.

[00:00:24] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Hi. Welcome to The Personal Side of Business podcast where every business has a story. Today, I'm excited to welcome Shylia Hernandez to the show. She is a San Diego based realtor with the Lewis team at Real Broker, a second generation real estate agent, and a proud mom of two. Shylia knows the San Diego market inside and out, and she brings a down to earth, no pressure approach to helping people buy and sell with confidence.

[00:00:48] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Welcome, Shylia.

[00:00:49] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Thank you so much, Jet. I'm really excited to be here.

[00:00:51] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Thanks. Pleasure having you. So let's start with your story. How did you get into real estate?

[00:00:58] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Okay. Yeah. So I've been in the business for about nineteen years. I've been licensed for sixteen. I am a second generation realtor, so both parents are in the real estate industry.

[00:01:12] - [Shylia Hernandez]
My mom's got thirty five years in the business, and my dad has twenty three years in the business, and they have owned and operated a real estate team called the Lewis team here for many many years. So kinda just grew up in the industry. I don't know if we can say child labor on here, but at about 14 or 15, I was printing flyers, creating and printing flyers for open houses. I was delivering the flyers for the open houses, I was doing data entry, I was putting listings on the MLS, my mom was getting my friends to come over and stuff envelopes for her geographical farm.

[00:01:52] - [Jet Bunditwong]
So you were free admin?

[00:01:53] - [Shylia Hernandez]
We were free admin. Yeah. I say it was a job, but being paid in pizza, I don't know how lucrative that Maybe at the time.

[00:02:00] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Did did you ever see yourself getting to something else or you were sold on getting to real estate?

[00:02:06] - [Shylia Hernandez]
That's a really good question. No. I went to college and I was like, I'm gonna do everything in my power to not be in real estate. And so I went to school to be a child psychologist.

[00:02:17] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Wow.

[00:02:18] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Yep. I went and I went to school to college in 2005. I left for college. I went to Orange County and studied child psychology my first year, and then was offered this great opportunity to do a study abroad program. So I went to Brazil and got to live in the communities in Brazil, different communities, and study the the different, you know, communities in Brazil.

[00:02:43] - [Shylia Hernandez]
It's really cool. And when I got back, it was like 2007, 2008, and it was like a bomb had gone off in the real estate industry, and everybody was like running around with chickens with their heads cut off. And and I decided, I'm like, I'm gonna take a break from school, come back home, and my mom was like, great. I've got a job offer for you. You wanna short you wanna negotiate short sales?

[00:03:05] - [Shylia Hernandez]
I was like, oh, that sounds like fun. No, not fun. No. No. No.

[00:03:09] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Nobody even knew what a short sale was at the time. Like we were working with banks and you know, was calling banks and trying to determine like, okay, what is a short sale? You know, this person can't make their payment and you need them to make their payment. And so there's a short on the sale and they can't sell it for what it's worth. You know, how do we put this together?

[00:03:30] - [Shylia Hernandez]
And so I that was like my very first, you know, big girl job in real estate was negotiating short sales with banks that aren't even here anymore like Countrywide And that's what I did for like the first year of being back and being in real estate. And then we had between 50 to 75 short sales at a time that we were holding, and then we got REO accounts. So we got, I think it was like two or three REO accounts with Bank of America, and it was just, they were just being flooded with these listings that they now owned because people foreclosed, couldn't make their payments, and we were taking those over. We were doing any repairs and kind of prepping them to come back on onto the market for sale. So I worked with asset managers and kind of managed that as well.

[00:04:23] - [Shylia Hernandez]
And then in 2009, they decided, okay, you know, in order to do that, we're gonna require that you're licensed now. You have to be licensed. So I'm like, went and got my license, easy peasy, and I came back and my mom's like, wanna be a buyer's agent? I'm like, heck yeah. Get me out of here.

[00:04:43] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Oh, you know, it was just hard. People were losing their homes, and, you know, banks didn't want to help at the time because they didn't didn't care. They just wanted their money at that time. So I was I was very excited to be a buyer's agent and get to deal with people, you know, who are buying their their biggest financial asset.

[00:05:03] - [Jet Bunditwong]
So Do you think at that time learning to do from short sale actually gave you more knowledge into now going into the sort of the easy part?

[00:05:12] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Number one, it taught me how to deal with all different types of people, which is really obviously very important in dealing with sales. It taught me how to problem solve, which is crucial in this business.

[00:05:27] - [Shylia Hernandez]
You have to be an expert problem solving. Risk management was a big one that I learned, and then just kind of like the the things that that you know, you don't realize that you know, like, you know, the ins and outs of contracts presenting a contract, you know, doing negotiations all of that definitely was learning in my journey of short sale negotiating.

[00:05:54] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Now when you started to get into real estate, actually getting your license and everything, was there a thought that, like, am I making mistakes? Should I go back to what I was with the school for?

[00:06:05] - [Shylia Hernandez]
No. What? No? Well, oh, so you mean child development? Yeah.

[00:06:09] - [Shylia Hernandez]
No, I kinda decided so I kinda had a terrible class. I'll I'll be honest with you. I had a class in college that really kinda just turned me off to psychology, and I don't know if it was like the teacher or we were like learning about these tests that they did on kids and like these really like creepy things. And so I was like, no, I don't I don't really I'm not feeling this. And so I I kind of dropped that idea, and didn't really know what I wanted to do at that point that I came when I came back.

[00:06:43] - [Shylia Hernandez]
But I was also so when I was in Brazil, I kind of toyed with the idea of staying in Brazil. So I'm like, I really didn't know what I wanted to be when I grow up when I came back here.

[00:06:58] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Does and does that mentorship that you've had through your parents, do you think that excelled your

[00:07:05] - [Shylia Hernandez]
100%. And I don't know, you know, my mom has a really, really amazing reputation. Our team has a great reputation for being very ethical, very honest, pretty much I would say 90% of the realtor I mean, that's a big number but a lot of realtors that I meet already know my mom or if they don't know her personally they know her reputation so We she's built a really really good name for our team and that has definitely propelled us forward.

[00:07:39] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Now when you started getting into or really, I wouldn't say getting into because you've been doing it for so long, but when you finally put both feet in, what were some of the hardships and issues that you were dealing with, like, that you didn't know before?

[00:07:56] - [Shylia Hernandez]
I would say so when I was negotiating short sales, it was a nine to five position. So clocked in, you did your job, and you clocked out, and that was pretty much all you didn't think about it again until really the next day. In real estate, you know, it's not really like that. So it's kind of a pro and a con, but the schedule. The schedule was something that I didn't realize was gonna it's a very demanding schedule, but it also has a lot of flexibility.

[00:08:26] - [Shylia Hernandez]
So it's kind of like you get the best of both worlds. So I was a young mom. I've got a 16 year old daughter. She was born in 2009, so 2008, sorry, just before I got licensed. And so I think that that was a blessing, and it was something that like, okay, this is amazing.

[00:08:49] - [Shylia Hernandez]
I get to be there, you know, mornings with my daughter, and you know, ease into the day, and you spend extra time with her. But it was also like, okay, you're working weekends. You're working when people, you know, when the average buyer gets off of work, that's when I clock in. That's when I'm showing property, meeting with sellers, things like that. So I think that was kind of a tricky transition.

[00:09:13] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Did any of that while you were raising your daughter in the beginning stages of her life, were you ever like, this maybe something else could be flexible, but this wasn't gonna

[00:09:24] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Wasn't even a thought in my head.

[00:09:26] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Like you were sold I feel like you got sold young. Got sold young. Yes. And it just stayed with you for years. And you're like, I don't know why, but I love real estate.

[00:09:36] - [Jet Bunditwong]
I can't

[00:09:36] - [Shylia Hernandez]
figure it out. Yeah, yep, exactly. It's kind of like, you know, yeah, you're going to boot camp, but Yeah. Yeah. But a way easier boot camp.

[00:09:42] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Yeah.

[00:09:43] - [Jet Bunditwong]
And what are let's kind of talk to people who are looking to get into real estate. What's a what's a day on that weekday, that Saturday look like for you? You know, when you're running around and showing home Yeah. And, you know, open houses.

[00:09:57] - [Shylia Hernandez]
So weekends are probably going to be your busiest time because you are either during, you know, if you're working with buyers and sellers, you're trying to, you know, get everybody in. So if you're not doing an open house that day, and you're just, you know, meeting with buyers and sellers, you're scheduling them back to back. And that could be early morning if you've got early risers, which I love because I'm a morning person. So it could start 08:00 in the morning, and then you could just be jam packed Saturdays and Sundays. I will say that doesn't happen every weekend, but there are busy times where you're just like, okay, this is what I've gotta do.

[00:10:41] - [Shylia Hernandez]
And you've gotta be flexible. Yeah. Have to be.

[00:10:43] - [Jet Bunditwong]
And what's the what's the work week look like? Or Monday through Friday? Is there are you doing a lot of more contracts, looking at

[00:10:51] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Mhmm.

[00:10:52] - [Jet Bunditwong]
You know, prepping for Saturday and Sunday?

[00:10:54] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Yes, absolutely. So a lot of the times, I'm doing a little bit more prepping for Saturday, Sunday. I'm on the phone. You know, I'm on the phones with people. I'm networking.

[00:11:06] - [Shylia Hernandez]
I'm meeting with other realtors. I've got a couple of listings right now, and actually tomorrow, I'm going be pitching them. So you're you're constantly thinking of ways or actively doing ways to market the listings that you have and or find properties for your buyers. I also do off market properties, which takes a lot of time and effort. I'm finding off market properties for your clients.

[00:11:31] - [Shylia Hernandez]
And so during the week, I'm trying to find them more properties.

[00:11:37] - [Jet Bunditwong]
And there's people that have gotten into real estate, I'm assuming, right? Because I've met some of these people that think it's it was right after COVID. We were like, everything was easy. You were making money, and now you really have to sell. Right?

[00:11:51] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Like, you really have to work and then try to get, you know, sell by. What are are there certain things that you feel like over the years that you've stuck to that have been working for you or or have worked for you? And it's like, if I stick true to these three or five things, they're always gonna work for people getting into the business.

[00:12:10] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Yeah. That's a really, really good question. So it's funny that you bring that up because we were just actually somebody had brought it up about how many open house signs were out. They were like, oh my god. There's so many open houses going on.

[00:12:22] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Made the comment like, yeah, you're not used to seeing that because we used to put a sign in the yard, and by the next day, we had, like, 30 offers. We didn't need to do open houses, barely. We had to fight to actually do the open house if we wanted to, you know, open it up and have showings. We're now, like you said, you know, agents are having to we're having to do open houses. We're gonna have to go back to the basics.

[00:12:48] - [Shylia Hernandez]
But to answer your question on, you know, what has worked for me is keeping in communication with my sphere of influence and my past clients and just loving on them. Just staying in front of them and you know, communicating with them, sending them things of value regarding their home. So I do a lot of comparative market analysis for them so that they know how much equity and what their value is, you know, going into this, you know, the new markets. And also just kind of being an ear, an open ear for them if they need help with, you know, a gardener, a landscaper, or whatever they need help with. I'm always there.

[00:13:28] - [Shylia Hernandez]
And then staying in front of them. And those types of people that you love on and you take care of are gonna continuously use you. So I would I would say that's number one key to sustaining my business.

[00:13:40] - [Jet Bunditwong]
And what are you looking for from week to week, month to month in the industry? Are there certain metrics that you like to pay attention to that help you as, you know, as a broker?

[00:13:53] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Yeah. So we're always constantly it's really important to keep an eye on how like, so we always look a month back as far as like what what's happening last month, and we always keep an eye on what pricing's doing. We're always keeping an eye on new listings coming on the market, but not only new listings, but the but how many listings have come on the market, and then gone into pending or gotten an offer. And then from that pool, how many is moving into sold? Yeah.

[00:14:27] - [Shylia Hernandez]
And that kind of gives us an indication on market time. It gives us an indication like a pulse on, you know, where the buyer's mindset is and so forth. I've also been kind of just on the back burner keeping an eye on lender mediated, so bank owned and things like that, and I'll touch on that really quick. Only we have, like, a 172 lender mediated in San Diego County. That's it.

[00:14:53] - [Shylia Hernandez]
There's, a 172 properties in foreclosure.

[00:14:57] - [Jet Bunditwong]
I'm assuming that's pretty low.

[00:14:58] - [Shylia Hernandez]
That's That's very low. Okay. So in 2014, we had 2,000. Yes. We're we're low.

[00:15:07] - [Jet Bunditwong]
What okay. Janette's it's kind of curious to me. So my assumption is if the economy was starting to go bad and people are starting to lose their jobs or having issues with money, that foreclosure would start going up. Mhmm. So that's not happening.

[00:15:25] - [Jet Bunditwong]
What do you think is a reason why it's low, but the economy is, in a sense, unstable?

[00:15:34] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Yeah. So I think that the the number is low because we've had such dramatic increases in pricing that I think that anybody who, you know, I know people are losing their jobs, you know, we've heard a couple of big industries losing their jobs, but I think that the people who have bought over the last couple of years have so much equity that they're really not being foreclosed on. It's more so like we lost our job, and we're gonna now have to either be renters, or we're gonna have to sell and downsize, or we're gonna have to do something. We can't stay here because can't afford the payment. But also those people anytime that if you bought before 2022, you got like a 2.3% interest rate.

[00:16:23] - [Shylia Hernandez]
So, you know, you're set up, you know, fairly well to where that kind of helps ease into, you know, not having to be foreclosed on. But I think that that's what's kind of keeping it low.

[00:16:35] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Okay. And to your point of what's going on in the market here, so let's kind of dive into what's happening in the San Diego market. So what are some things that you're seeing that people who are not from San Diego maybe they don't quite understand? Because we're in what do you I think you said the second highest, like, home market?

[00:16:56] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Yes. So our median sales price right now and this is this is single family homes, attached homes, which are like condos, townhomes, so this encompasses everything. But our median sales price is 900,000 right now. Yeah, here in San Diego. So we're second highest in The United States following Hawaii, but I would say, you know, we've got these beautiful beaches.

[00:17:21] - [Shylia Hernandez]
We've got the beautiful sunshine. We're kind of one of those, you know, places that a lot of people do want to be. On top of that, our inventory is still really low. So we are maintaining some some stability in our prices, and we were kind of just chatting about it a little bit. But although we're not seeing the growth that we have seen in prior years, like 2020, 2021, 2022, as far as increase in sales price, we are still seeing increases in sales price.

[00:17:53] - [Shylia Hernandez]
So in 2022 in February, we saw 17.5% increase in sales price that year. That's that's a big jump. Yeah. And then the year before 2021, we saw 15%. So those are big jumps.

[00:18:10] - [Jet Bunditwong]
And is that because inventory it's kind of going against inventory and they, well, if you wanna buy it, this is Yeah. Bidding. You're just bidding against everyone else.

[00:18:18] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Well, yeah. So yes. Exactly. And interest rates were so low that people were able to afford So it was like, you know, interest rates at at the time were what, two and a half to 3%, I want to say. And people were like, okay, well, I can afford, you know, 900,000, but price but, you know, appraisals and prices hadn't caught up to that yet.

[00:18:43] - [Shylia Hernandez]
So that house was really only worth 800,000, and so that's what the listing agent listed it at. But, you know, you had this buyer who really wanted it and could qualify for more, and they're looking at their payment, and it's, you know, whatever it was, $5,000 for 900,000. They were jumping all over it. So I think they were, you know, offering more, and that's how, you know, where we got the price increases from.

[00:19:10] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Now what does it take for someone to get into this? Because I'm gonna guess if someone heard that a home is almost a million dollars, they were like, there's no way. Right? And because people across the country are fighting to get into 350,000, you know, $400,000 because I think the the median for the country is still right around there. So I'm I'm wondering if someone were to hear this and say, would I have to make three times the amount of money in order to do that?

[00:19:39] - [Jet Bunditwong]
What are we talking about to get into a home right now?

[00:19:43] - [Shylia Hernandez]
So we're we're looking probably somewhere around, so depending on what you put down, right, and what you qualify for in interest rate, so everybody's situation is slightly different, but just roundabout, I would say you're probably looking at anywhere from to buy in today's median household price, I mean, I'm sorry, median sales price, 900,000, you're probably looking at about a 180 to 200,000 is what you need to make as a household. So whatever that might look like. Husband and wife makes a 100 and 100.

[00:20:17] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Yeah. Yeah. And what is your down payment? What are we looking at for down payment?

[00:20:22] - [Shylia Hernandez]
That one's probably about two yeah. 20%. 20%. And if you if you wanted to put less down, you're probably looking at maybe about $2.30 to $2.50 in income.

[00:20:35] - [Jet Bunditwong]
No. When when you're having buyers look at homes like this, are are you going through that conversation initially? Like, this is what it's gonna look like. Can can you afford this? Can we do this?

[00:20:47] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Or should we go look in a different area?

[00:20:50] - [Shylia Hernandez]
No, absolutely. 100%, before you start your your search, you should be talking to a lender. You should be sending them your documentation. You should be allowing them to pull your credit. I know people don't like to hear that, but you should because every situation is different, and because the interest rate is based on those things, it's based on your debt to income, it's based on your, you know, your whole financial situation.

[00:21:17] - [Shylia Hernandez]
It is important to talk to somebody and make sure and sit down and say, okay, what can we, what do we qualify for? But also, what are we comfortable with? Yeah. We don't, you know, I have some people who are like, okay, I qualify for this, but I'm really only comfortable, you know, $2,000 lower so we really need to be looking in that so that that is a 100% Very important conversation to have before we even go and look at property

[00:21:44] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Yeah, so I guess the initial thing is to go out and make sure figure out with a lender Mhmm. Figure out what you can do or what you can qualify for and then start to search. Because I think I would guess from a lot of people watching HGTV, it's probably the opposite. Right? You get excited.

[00:22:01] - [Jet Bunditwong]
You start to go on Zillow. Zillow makes you feel like a hero. You're like, I can do this. And Zillow's numbers sometimes aren't exactly correct.

[00:22:08] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Oh, yeah. Oh, well, yeah. So anybody listening, so Zillow auto populates. So nationwide, Zillow auto populates their insurance, and then they auto populate their their taxes. So I have a lot of people who are like, oh, I I think I qualify for this.

[00:22:25] - [Shylia Hernandez]
You know, where'd you get that number from? Oh, Zillow. And then we go through, and we're like, okay, let's let's relook at your situation, and it's different because it, you know, the tool on there on Zillow just automatically populates nationwide. Yeah. So it throws out some We're we're different here in San Diego.

[00:22:42] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Yeah, and I'm guessing with also with insurance costs that I'm a guess that AI is not really picking up like, oh, it's probably gonna cost me you're in a fire zone. It's like, you know, $900 a month extra for that insurance. So and you and I were discussing a little bit of the buyer assistance program. Could you explain that?

[00:23:03] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Yeah. So which is really exciting, actually. So there there's tons of buyers there's different down payment assistance programs here in San Diego. You've got down payment assistance. There's also down payment and closing cost assistance.

[00:23:19] - [Shylia Hernandez]
You can get there's grant programs that you can qualify for There's creative financing. You've got there's lots of different options depending on what you're looking to do as a buyer. You've got the USDA loan, which is a 100% financing in rural areas. Then you have your Calhafa. There's lots and lots of different options depending on what you're looking for, but down payment assistance is really cool because they've, well, they've got guidelines that you can follow.

[00:23:52] - [Shylia Hernandez]
You do have to have an approved lender, so they've got a list of approved lenders on their website. I know a couple of good ones, but they can they can help out on based on your income, what you qualify for. It's income in household. So but it's a really great thing to look into, you know, for affordability here.

[00:24:13] - [Jet Bunditwong]
And is that for all for first time homebuyers, I'm assuming?

[00:24:16] - [Shylia Hernandez]
It's all for primary, there's different ones, but it's it's for owners who are gonna live in their home.

[00:24:24] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Okay. And, do you know some of the qualifications for that for like different different programs?

[00:24:33] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Yeah, I've actually let me actually So there is one specific one and I bring this one up because I've seen a couple of properties on the MLS that have it listed as deed restricted, and I get a lot of calls on those because they are priced really low. And so that's the one that I kind of wanted to just touch on. So just for example, and there's different ones that are higher income, but this one is $95,600 for a household of two. So you have to qualify that, you know, if you're a household of two that you can't make over that. However, there are other ones that are like a 120,000.

[00:25:21] - [Shylia Hernandez]
So there's lots of different options. So even if, you know, 95, you you make over that, there's lots of different options.

[00:25:30] - [Jet Bunditwong]
And is that process I'm assuming you've helped some people. Is that process really difficult to get through?

[00:25:38] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Extra paperwork, a little bit of extra time. As long as you've got a lender who has done the programs before and knows what they're doing, easy. Yep.

[00:25:49] - [Jet Bunditwong]
What do you foresee the San Diego housing market to be in the next three to five years? Like, what?

[00:25:57] - [Shylia Hernandez]
I think I hate to say it because I really don't want to say it, but I think we're gonna see continuous growth. I'm hoping that I'm hoping that they're going to drop the interest rate. My fear is if they drop the interest rate, I think we're gonna see even more growth, but I think that we're not gonna, I don't think that we're gonna see that 17.5% increase like we did in 2022, but I do think that we're gonna see a couple percent here and there. I also think that buyers are going to start to kind of come up a little bit in the game as far as we're coming out of a market where buyers were giving up, you know, asking for closing costs. They were giving up contingencies.

[00:26:46] - [Shylia Hernandez]
They were, you know, paying over list price. They weren't negotiating a request for repairs because they were competing with 30 other offers. So I think and what we have started to see is buyers have a little bit more of an upper hand, so they're negotiating a little bit more with the sellers. They're asking for closing costs to be paid for. They're maintaining the contingency periods that they need to maintain.

[00:27:14] - [Shylia Hernandez]
They're taking their time, which is not a bad thing. So we are seeing a little bit more market time on listings, but nothing crazy. I mean, we're seeing three, four, five, six weeks, which is pretty average before COVID.

[00:27:33] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Really? What, if you were to kind of try to predict, do you think it's gonna go back down the growth to maybe like 2% to 3% per year, or you think

[00:27:46] - [Shylia Hernandez]
I would say, yeah. I would say that's probably pretty accurate. I mean, I don't think we're gonna I mean, again, unless they do something crazy like drop rates, I don't know if they will be doing that, but if they do, we could see more. But if they just maintain where we're at right now, six to six and a half percent, I think we'll probably see some slower growth.

[00:28:10] - [Jet Bunditwong]
I mean, in so I'm, you know, I'm not from San Diego, and you've grew up here. When you're looking at homes here, did you ever think when you were growing up that it was gonna be, close a million dollars average?

[00:28:23] - [Shylia Hernandez]
No. No. So I I went I grew up all over San Diego, but I mostly grew up down in Eastlake. And I remember, like, you could get a house, a big house, a very nice house for like 400,000. Yeah.

[00:28:41] - [Shylia Hernandez]
And actually, in fact, one of my very first sales was out in the woods, East Lake Woods, which is, you know, a really nice neighborhood, and her sales price was $4.50 for a single story, beautiful home. You just can't even touch a condo down there anymore. So, no. If I did, though, I would own several and I'd be retired now.

[00:29:06] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Now what does that look like for the next maybe two generations of

[00:29:12] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Mhmm.

[00:29:12] - [Jet Bunditwong]
People that are trying to get into this? Like, you know, I I don't know what the disparity of income is gonna be over time, but I'm gonna guess that there's gonna be if everything keeps going the way it is with the economy, we're gonna have less and less jobs that are making that 150 k, 200 k. Right? So what are we having this con what what's the conversation for kids now that are like, I'm graduating from

[00:29:39] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Mhmm.

[00:29:39] - [Jet Bunditwong]
From college now. I'm gonna have a home, but really the reality is gonna start to hit them. And something's the money's not gonna make sense against what the housing cost is in San Diego. What's your advice for someone in coming up in, you know, the world?

[00:29:55] - [Shylia Hernandez]
That's a great question. So for so I've got a 16 year old. And my advice well, let me let me kind of backtrack a little bit because when I bought my first home, and I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing, but my mom gifted me money to buy my first home.

[00:30:11] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Which I think I part of me thinks that there has to be some sort of assistance

[00:30:16] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Right.

[00:30:16] - [Jet Bunditwong]
From the family, a friend, or something happens where you inherit some sort of money Right. Order to get

[00:30:21] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Yeah. And and that so I bought a condo. I won't even tell you how much it was because it's makes me sad now that I didn't keep it. But I couldn't afford the down payment at the time. I was a single mom.

[00:30:36] - [Shylia Hernandez]
And she gifted me the down payment for that condo, and that allowed me I held on to that for about three or four years. Lived in that and then I decided that I wanted to put my daughter in another school very nice school up in a private school. So we sold that and when I sold it, I made a little bit of money off of it. And this was like back in bought my first home in 2013. So it wasn't like I bought it at like the bottom of the market or you know, anything crazy.

[00:31:07] - [Shylia Hernandez]
That allowed me to buy in a nicer neighborhood. I still bought a townhome. Wasn't like I bought anything, you know, spectacular, but it was just kind of my stepping stone. So my advice is start early if you can. Start early, utilize every single down payment assistance program, utilize all of your options.

[00:31:31] - [Shylia Hernandez]
If your parents are willing to gift you and and have the ability to gift you the money for a for a condo, buy it. Even if it's a one bedroom. Do what you can. I know a lot of people wanna save for their first home, and they wanna buy a single family home, and they want this neighborhood, and I think those are amazing goals, and I don't think there's anything wrong with saving and choosing a neighborhood, and and that's what you set, you know, your goal towards, but there's also a way of saving in that you're buying a condo now, letting it build equity, even if you rent it out, have your tenant pay down your balance for you. And then that way you have an asset that's working behind the scenes while you're saving money.

[00:32:14] - [Shylia Hernandez]
And then that way when the time comes and you're ready to buy your house, single family home in your nice neighborhood, sell it or rent it out and be able to do that. I don't know that the house that I live in today, I don't think I would have been able to save 20%. Right. You know, it was that I started early and sold and kind of built it up.

[00:32:39] - [Jet Bunditwong]
I just want to touch upon that just a little bit of the investment side of things, right? I think, you know, you and I were probably and maybe not you just because you grew up in the real estate world, but I think a lot of people, majority of people were brought up to think, buy a home, that's your that's your home, that's the dream. Right? But I think there's multiple ways to get into that. Mhmm.

[00:33:05] - [Jet Bunditwong]
And even for me, I look back on, one when, you know, first home I bought, I wish I would have I had the opportunity to get a duplex, and I was like, I don't wanna live in a dupe next to someone. Now looking back on it, was like, yeah, that would have probably opened up more doors, financial financial doors for me to be able to buy multiple properties and and grow because I think at the time, the one I was looking at near where I live right now was, I think it was, like, $6.50 for a duplex, right, which now they're, like, probably 2,000,000. So Yep. You look at that and, like, I could have sold that, keep keep the mind, get into, larger doors. Let's talk just a tiny bit about what's what that looks like when you're someone that's coming into it and you're like, I'm just I just wanna live in it.

[00:33:56] - [Jet Bunditwong]
This is gonna be my end all be our house. What do you say to them? Like, this might be an opportunity for you to, you know, rent it out and grow. Are a lot of people open to that?

[00:34:07] - [Shylia Hernandez]
It really depends on the buyer. I'll I'll be honest with you. There are some people who can't be convinced, and and and they've got, you know, a certain goal in mind, and that's okay. I'm I'm here to support your goals, whatever, you know, whatever path you wanna choose. However, I always lay out all of the options, and you bring up a really, really fun and exciting point about duplexes because you actually get to use part of that duplex, whatever rental income you get on one side as qualifying income.

[00:34:39] - [Shylia Hernandez]
So that can really help you, you know, buy a duplex. Yes. That could be, you know, an avenue of buying a property, your first property, second property. But it really, I'm here to give you all the the information, all the options, and whatever the buyer chooses is really up to them. Whatever, you know, whatever path they choose to go down, wherever they wanna, you know, wherever whatever their goal is, we go that way.

[00:35:07] - [Shylia Hernandez]
I'm just here as a as a support and a guide. I do have people who are like unsure. They're like, well, I would really like to, you know, look at a duplex, but I also don't like to live next to somebody, and so I really want to explore condo. But I also don't really want an HOA, so what are what are my options? We go look at everything.

[00:35:30] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Yep. So we find out what you qualify for, and then we go and we look at the duplex, we look how that lives, We go and we look at our options for condos. We'll go explore different areas. Okay, so we're you know, we have to stay within this price point, but what can we get in you know, maybe a little bit more rural area? Are you willing to travel to Ramona?

[00:35:51] - [Shylia Hernandez]
There's really nice houses out in Valley Center. You know, what are your Yeah. Where do you work? Let's get closer there. So I'm here as a guide where whatever wherever they want to start and wherever they want to end up, I'm just kinda here to to guide them and give them the best options.

[00:36:08] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Have you seen people now of the past, like, six or seven years be more open to that? Or you it's always been the same people just, I just wanna buy a house, I wanna live in it. I'm I'm asking this just because I've I feel like a lot of people become more educated from what I've who I've spoken to. Right? I just run into people, they're like, yeah, I was listening to this podcast or reading a book and something that triggered me to look at buying a home differently.

[00:36:36] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Is that something that's changed over the years?

[00:36:39] - [Shylia Hernandez]
I would say with some buyers, yes, because we we talk about the the whole duplex thing. Wasn't really a big thing. Like, when I was buying, because I also looked at buying a duplex in 2012, 2013, and it wasn't really a thing. Was kind of like, you know, people didn't really wanna explore that option. I see, I'd say the younger generation, but I see the younger generation willing to be more creative.

[00:37:10] - [Shylia Hernandez]
I'm working with a buyer right now, and she is, let me tell you, she is exploring all options. And it's nice to see because I'm like, when you want to explore all options and when you're open to it, it just broadens your horizons, right? So there's more opportunity if you're willing to kind of get creative, you know, and not just like, it has to be this way in order for me, because there's doesn't necessarily have to be that way.

[00:37:36] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Do you think in San Diego market or Southern California market, it's a little bit harder to be rigid in the what you want?

[00:37:43] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, because, I mean, our price points are higher, and so it definitely hinders people from getting exactly every single thing that they want, including location, price, and size. So you're gonna have you're probably gonna have to sacrifice one, maybe two, you know, to get that, or we can kind of, you know, maybe start a little bit smaller and then work our way up to it.

[00:38:13] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Awesome. Alright. We can close things out. Shylia, if you were to give advice to an up and coming realtor or someone who's already in it and doesn't really know their focus right now, what would you tell them?

[00:38:25] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Get a very good mentor. Do exactly what they tell you to do. I I talk to a lot of people who get into real estate, and they're like, I'm gonna make a bunch of money, and it's gonna be easy, and I'm gonna have all this free time, and let me tell you, when I when I first got in, I knew a guy who actually did very well, but what he was really good at was networking. So at every single because he was a golfer. He loved to golf.

[00:38:56] - [Shylia Hernandez]
So at every single golf, he was networking. He was working that ended up being his work. So if you're not, you know, a really really really good networker with your sphere of influence, You're gonna have to you know, do the footwork. You're going to have to do the open houses. You're gonna have to do the calls.

[00:39:14] - [Shylia Hernandez]
You're gonna be working, you know, for clients until you can kind of build that up. So get a really really good mentor. Like I said, do everything they tell you to do, and you'll be fine.

[00:39:25] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Alright. Thank you so much, Shylia. Where can we find you?

[00:39:29] - [Shylia Hernandez]
So I invest by text, (619) 981-3922. Or if you wanna see my cute kids and all of my fun real estate adventures, you can find me on Instagram. It's Instagram. My handle is just Shylia Hernandez.

[00:39:48] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Alright. Okay. Cool. Thank you, Shylia. Thank you for coming to the podcast.

[00:39:52] - [Shylia Hernandez]
Alright. Thanks so much for having me.

[00:39:54] - [Jet Bunditwong]
Thank you.