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Genshiro Kawamoto is a man some Kahala residents would rather forget. The 76 year-old man currently owns 22 homes in Kahala, with 20 of them on prestigious Kahala Avenue. The gripe from Kahala residents is that Mr. Kawamoto is letting his homes fall apart. A little history about Mr. Kawamoto Remember the Japanese bubble? It started about 20 years ago here in Hawaii. Affluent Japanese businessmen started buying up luxury homes in Kahala and other areas. There were instances where homeowners he... Read Full Post

For those of you working hard out there, these numbers maybe interesting. Non-realtors often think of our job as "a cruise" and how we're so overpaid. I'll admit I've had harder jobs - I graduated from the University of Hawaii majoring in accounting. Passed the CPA exam and worked in two CPA firms. Then I moved on to be the controller of a property development company for eight years. Tired and stressed from that, I worked as controller at a trucking company for four years. That job was equal... Read Full Post

Oahu's home prices took their biggest hit of 2008 in September. Prior to this, we had been happy to say that the U.S. housing market's slide had a minimal effect on Hawaii. Last month, median prices of homes and condos on Oahu fell about 10% compared with prices one year earlier. Sales volume (the number of properties sold) was down 16% for single family homes and 26% for condos and townhomes. The median price of a home on Oahu was $590,000 - home prices have not been below that figure since ... Read Full Post

Have you had computer problems lately? In the past few years my computers caught a few mean viruses. Despite using top of the line antivirus software (Norton and Symantec for example), my computers got infected badly. In 2006 and 2007 I reformatted my desktop computer's hard drive twice to eradicate viruses. In 2007 I was on vacation and my laptop computer picked up a virus over a wi-fi network. After that, all it would do is startup, reboot and continue rebooting. I took the computer to a sp... Read Full Post

Earlier this month I wrote about a customer's shocking bill from Hawaiian Electric. He and I did some brainstorming about conserving electricity and monitoring our usage. He started checking his electric meter everyday and flipped switches off in his breaker box when he and the family were away from home. Note: he did keep the refrigerator on. As of this writing he has not received his latest bill. However, he continues to monitor his electric meter and his kilowatt usage is down from 30kw pe... Read Full Post

I wrote about some loan problems a homebuyer and I were having in a recent blog entitled Beware of Quicken Loans. It turns out that somebody at Quicken Loans read my blog! A marketing representative named Clayton Closson e-mailed me and apologized for the problem. He asked for details of the transaction in order to follow up. I provided enough info for him to figure things out through his organization's channels. I was careful not to divulge too much info, just in case he was not really a Qui... Read Full Post

This house is on Lincoln Avenue in Kaimuki. It went on the market for $525,000 on September 19th, 2008. If you've watched Honolulu home prices for awhile, you know that a house for sale in this neighborhood in the $500's is a rarity. The price was reduced to $505,000 on December 12, 2008 and $495,000 on January 16, 2009 and reduced again to $475,000 on March 12, 2009. Does it need work? Yes. However, the house seems to be fundamentally in good shape. Some aspects I like are that it has copper... Read Full Post

Honolulu residents know that a house in "town" is worth its weight in gold - even in this down market! Finding a house for sale in town for less than $500,000 means one of three things: 1) It's a miracle! 2) The house is a tear-down. 3) The house is on the smaller side. This house in Palolo falls into category #3. It's a two-bedroom cottage with approximately 601 square feet of interior area on a 2,930 square foot lot. It has a carport attached, suitable for one vehicle and there's additional... Read Full Post

A dinner cruise on the Star of Honolulu We were invited on a dinner cruise with several real estate customers recently. This was our first time on the Star of Honolulu and we were ready to enjoy the sights, sounds and good food. The cruise starts and ends at Aloha Tower. The ship departs at 5:30 p.m. and returns around 8:00 p.m. Guests check in around 4:30 p.m. and either shop at the Aloha Tower Marketplace or go right on board the ship to have a drink and relax. We chose the Polynesian Sunse... Read Full Post

August 8th was a big day for weddings We had been together for three years and finally tied the knot on 8/8/08! My then-girlfriend got the idea for this date in 2007, when we heard on the news that there were a lot of weddings on 7/7/07. We're not the types to do everything based on lucky hunches. On the other hand many asians believe "8" is a lucky number and we have a lot of asians living in Hawaii. The date was determined. Like every couple, we had our usual daily lives to take care of and... Read Full Post