Tina Burke
Realtor / CALDRE #01838777
A little about me
Long Beach · LA Coastal, California
Tina Burke
“I’m a straight shooter. I’ll always tell you my opinion — good or bad.”
Certified appraiser, 27 years. Realtor, 16. I know what a house is worth before anyone else weighs in — and which repairs will pay for themselves before you spend a dollar.
About
Most agents guess at the number. I can prove it.
Nobody hands you a manual for selling your mother’s house from three states away. Or for figuring out how to buy the one-story place near the water before you’ve sold the one with the stairs.
I’ve been a certified real estate appraiser for 27 years and a Long Beach agent for 16 — in that order, which is the part that matters. Appraising came first, and it never stopped. It means I can tell you what your home is actually worth before anyone else weighs in, and exactly which improvements will return their cost before you spend anything.
For buyers, that means I’ll tell you when you’re about to overpay. For sellers, it means pricing strategically from day one, so you don’t leave money on the table or sit on the market for months wondering what went wrong.
I’ve talked more than one client out of a renovation they didn’t need.
I work with two kinds of people, mostly. Retired couples who love where they live but not the stairs, and adult children who’ve just lost a parent and inherited a house in a city they don’t live in. Both are standing at the start of something that feels enormous. My job is to make it small and specific: here’s the number, here’s the plan, here’s what happens Tuesday.
I’m direct, in a kind way. I make my living in real estate, but I’d never steer you toward a decision for my own benefit. If the answer is “don’t sell yet,” that’s the answer you’ll get.
Who I work with
Two situations I know better than anyone.
You’re ready for a smaller place
You own your home outright. It’s beautiful and it’s too much — too many stairs, too much yard, too far from the water you actually want to walk to. You’re not in trouble. You’re just done with the maintenance.
The thing that stops most people isn’t the decision. It’s the week in between: how do you buy the next place before the current one sells, without ending up homeless or carrying two mortgages?
That’s what Destination: Freedom is for — my step-by-step process for running a concurrent closing so the two transactions line up and you move once.
- Concurrent closings, timed and coordinated
- Realistic pricing from an actual appraisal
- One move, not two
You’ve inherited a house you don’t live near
You just lost a parent. Now you own a home hundreds or thousands of miles away, you’re not a real estate expert, and people are already mailing you offers.
Most of those offers are below what the house is worth, and the gap is usually bigger than the work it would take to close it. You don’t need to fly down. You don’t need cash for repairs either — my contractors get paid at closing.
I’ll appraise it, tell you the honest number, and tell you which repairs are worth doing and which aren’t.
- As-is and as-repaired valuation, in writing
- Repairs managed start to finish, remotely
- Contractors paid at closing, not up front
One example
$35,000 of the right work. $140,000 more at closing.
A client living in Washington inherited her mother’s house here. She’d already had investors offer $700,000 sight unseen and was close to taking one just to be finished with it. I appraised it, walked it, and found the specific work that would actually move the number — paint, the kitchen floor, landscaping, one bathroom. Not a renovation. A cleanup.
She never flew down and never paid a contractor out of pocket. It’s easier than most people think to put real money in your pocket — and it takes less work than they expect.
Where I work
Long Beach, and the coast on either side of it.
My core market is Long Beach and coastal Orange County. Because my clients are downsizing seniors and families settling estates, I follow them up and down the coast — San Diego to Santa Barbara.
Find out what it’s worth first.
Before you decide anything — whether to sell, what to fix, whether that offer in the mail is fair — get the number from someone licensed to produce it.
Book a callMessage me