Hawaii real estate news

My friends just bought a 10-year old home a few months ago. Escrow offered them a home warranty and we discussed the pros and cons. I recalled a case where the buyer moved into a home that was just four years old. Within a week, the built-in microwave oven died. The new owners paid about $55 for servicing and American Home Shield repaired the oven. That was good enough for my friends and they purchased the home warranty. A basic home warranty covers the major appliances for one year. This cou... Read Full Post

We've watched energy bills climb over the last year due to oil prices, which peaked at $147 per barrel back in July. Since that time, oil has declined to $51 per barrel today. It's hard to believe - oil prices have gone down to about 1/3 of what they were four months ago. Hawaiian Electric recently announced that customers can expect their bills to go down as a result of the price reductions. This month I noticed the cost per kilowatt hour had gone down, which was a relief. More importantly, ... Read Full Post

The U.S. Government did a great thing for homeowners back in 1997. The Taxpayer Relief Act allowed a homeowner to exclude up to $250,000 of gain on a residential sale. Married homeowners filing jointly could exclude up to $500,000 of gain. Tax-free profit - that's hard to beat. Many of us were able to use the exclusion and sell a property, then upgrade to a better home. With our economy going the way it is (not so good), Congress is making some changes that will affect the home sale exclusion... Read Full Post

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

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

In Hawaii we encourage our buyers to use local lending institutions. Buyers wonder why and sometimes think we're trying to help a relative or somebody else make some money. Here's a great example of things going wrong with a mainland lender doing loans in Hawaii. A customer decided to make an offer on a townhome at Makaha Valley Plantation listed for $150,000. We had previously made an offer on another listing in the same complex and obtained a loan prequalification letter. The offer on that ... Read Full Post

Buying a vacation rental in Hawaii Vacation rentals are a popular topic for mainland investors buying in Hawaii. Buyers often think about owning a property here, renting it out like a hotel room for a tidy sum and living in it when they vacation in the islands. It's a great idea! There are some considerations that buyers should be aware of. The difference between a vacation rental and a normal rental In Hawaii, a transient rental is defined as being for a period up to 180 days. Residential (n... Read Full Post