I have some little old lady friends who pick the pears from their tree when they are good-sized, still somewhat green, and free from blemish, wrap them carefully in newspaper, and pack them in a box.  I don't know how they tell when they're ripe from there, and seems labor intensive to me but that's the way they do everything.

When I had a pear tree, I'd just pick them when the skins turned yellow with a little pink blush.  But different varieties could vary, and I don't know what kind of pear tree it was as it was there when we moved there.  HTH!  Ilene

These little old ladies do everything precisely and S-L-O-W-L-Y.  I'm a "fling it in the pan" person and so it drives me a little nuts!  But I love them so I put up with it. 

They keep the box(s) on their back porch, where it's not air-conditioned but there's shade back there and it gets a good breeze.  I've heard of some people, who have pears that don't ripen till late fall, that do the same kind of packing thing but put the box in the attic and they say they can eat on them all the way up to Christmas. 

I guess a lot depends on the weather where you are.  This is Oklahoma, and it's 126 degrees in my attic today.  I don't think that'd be very good for pears.  But I've been putting my dehydrating trays up there and so far I've dehydrated chopped onion, hot peppers and squash!  –Ilene