How do we get Heads in Beds? It takes marketing my friends ....

24 hours a day, 7 days a week working continuously to get the word out about our beautiful slice of paradise, The Beach Villas on Honu Lagoon, Ko Olina, Oahu Hawaii

Once we have captured a potential guests interest, we need to follow up quickly with high quality photos, videos, panorama shots, maps and other information to makes the guest comfortable that we are the best fit for their vacation accommodations.

Once the guest has reserved, a little pre arrival pampering is in order along with the appropriate thank you's, once the guest has completed their stay.

Of course the most important part of the process is the guest stay and ensuring that our guests are happy and are having the time of their life. This requires anticipating the guests needs, (even ones they may not have thought about) and then providing them with more than they asked for. This is what makes a stay memorable and keeps them coming back.

It's all about the guest experience and giving our guests a terrific and memorable time through the entire process with a what can we do for you and it's our pleasure attitude.

Enjoy our latest marketing piece to get the word out!

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Alfred Harding is a licensed Hawaii real estate professional providing clients with insight and knowledge as it relates to the Beach Villas at Ko Olina on Oahu, Hawaii. He is also a homeowner at the project and operates an active rental program.

You can also find him blogging about the resort at: Beach Villa Resort Blog and on Facebook Beach Villas at Ko Olina Blog. Vacation Villa Reservations available at: Beach Villa Resort Reservations.

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If you are thinking about purchasing at the Final Sales Event at the Beach Villas, please allow me to represent you as your buyers agent on selection day. There is no cost to you and your purchase price is exactly the same. However, the villa you select and how much you pay for it will make a big difference in your profitability; both from an appreciation standpoint and if renting, covering expenses by "getting heads in beds".

(All of the thoughts expressed in this blog are my own personal opinion, they are no guarantee that you will achieve similar results, it's just me sharing my own experiences and what has happened in my own situation. I cannot know what will happen in the future.)

For those of you paying attention to the calendar, what seemed liked the distant future in January is quickly coming. The best guess is that there are currently 130 +/- reservations in place for the remaining 120 units. Conventional wisdom is that there will be enough fall out from those parties with reservations that there will still be available units with the current count of reservations.





What is unknown is that assuming the Developer's intention to sell all the units is still soundly in place, what the developer will be willing to do to achieve that goal. More than ever, I think it is important to place yourself in the position to have the opportunity to say yes or no. I am not convinced that as we speak now, we know the final terms and incentives that will be placed on the units and we certainly don't know what the ultimate prices will be.

Everything I've heard is that the bulk of the interest is in the lower priced units and I think that a reservation placed in the near future will still have an excellent chance of being able to purchase some of the nicest units in the buildings. Depending on how they set the ultimate prices, there may be opportunities to purchase Ocean Front luxury fully furnished condominiums for as little as $1.625 MM which were selling for $2.8 as recently as 6 months ago.

If you would like to look at some pictures of these units, here is a link to several on Flickr Beach Villas on Flickr .

There is a lot to talk about regarding the sale event and time is drawing to a close, so I would love to hear from you if you would like to spend some time on the phone to hear about them. If at the end of the conversation, if you are still interested, we can take if from there. To quote Woody Allen, "90% of life is showing up".

There are also some great rates available during the event at the Beach Villas themselves and at the JW Marriott Ihilani Hotel. Both are having rates under $200/night plus tax, although the Villa rates are based on a minimum 7 night stay. Still, I think that may be the least expensive rate I have ever heard of at the Villas and apparently includes their entire inventory of units which would mean to me that you should be able to get a unit that is great for you or your family.

This sale is a product of the current housing enviornment and could be looked back on as a "What was I thinking? " when the opportunity passes and the results are in. Lenders are in place with sharpened pencils and if nothing else, it will be a fascinating event to participate in on June 6th and 7th.

For earlier articles on the Beach Villas by myself, follow these links:


Introduction to the Beach Villas at Ko Olina

Announcement of the Final Sale event in February

March Final event update

If you want me to mail you more information, you can reach me at Contact Michael





Aloha

In almost any conversation I have with people who are interested in Real Estate, the question always comes up as to whether we are at the bottom of, nearing the end or expecting to continue the current declining market. It is a question that I don't know the answer to. The data that I read seems to indicate that in our local market, that we are closer to the end of the downturn than the beginning, but I think it would be premature to say that we are in the rebound stage.

Hawaii in general and Oahu in particular seems to have been uniquely positioned to better weather the financial storm that descended into the real estate market over the past few years. Factors benefiting Oahu seem to be the combination of employment, supply versus demand of housing and a lower than average of number of subprime mortgages. That said, in the latest analysis of subprime mortgages in Hawaii shows that 10.87% of the mortgages in Hawaii were subprime mortgages as compared to other state averages from 16% (Florida and California) to 4-5% in states like North Dakota, Montana and South Dakota. So, that sounds promising.

Unfortunately, of those 10.87% subprime mortgages in Hawaii, 19.22% of them are seriously delinquent as of the 4th quarter 2008. As a state, Hawaii falls into the middle of the pack with the highs in Florida at 36,4%, Nevada at 31.4%, California at 28.9% and Arizona at 27.3%. Those are the top for states with "serious delinquencies", and while we are way below Florida, we are not nearly as far below Arizona for instance as I would like to be. With 20% of 10.87% of the subprime mortgages heading toward foreclosure, that would carry through to 2.2 % of the entire mortgage market in Hawaii. Add to that the simple fact that VA, FHA and Conventional mortgages are not immune to foreclosure and that translates to a continuing large portion of the marketplace being made up of distressed sales which traditional places downward pressure on prices.

For a great nationwide analysis of the Real Estate market follow this link to The PMI research site and review one of the best analysis's available of the downside analysis.

As to Oahu, my favorite subject, April had continuing declines in the Median Price range and the number of sales in both the single family and condominium categories as compared to April 08:

Single Family Median Price -8% Units sold -32%

Condo/Townhouses Median Price -7.3% Units sold -42%


As always, these numbers reflect the closed transactions. What I am hearing and seeing in my travels of showings, conversations with agents and experiencing on my own listings is that Buyers have reappeared and there is much more activity than there was a few months ago. Multiple offers on well priced listings, lower "Days on Market" and higher numbers of "Active Continue to Show on the MLS listings and it seems that buyers are coming back into the market and that our market is more robust than it has been for a while.

My favorite stat that the Board of Realtors provides is the months of inventory remaining. Since December '08, here are the numbers:

Month Months of Inventory Months of Inventory
Single Family Condo/Townhouses
December 08 12.0 13.1
January 09 9.8 10.3
February 09 15.8 15.8
March 09 14.7 16.1
April 09 9.7 10.1

April had a very significant drop. These numbers reflect the relationship between the number of active listings in a given month and the number of closings for that given month. The lower the number, the higher the odds are that a listed home will sell in a given month. A Hot seller's market has numbers like 2 and 1 which we say in 2004 and 2005. A pure buyer's market has numbers over 20 months like we saw in 1995 to 1998. Most of 2008 was in the 7's and 8's. During that time, with approximately 6,670 closings and 14,700 listings (single family and condos combined) the odds of selling your home if you listed it were 44%. It will be interesting to see how 2009's odds begin to develop.

The Oahu market had not crossed 10 months until the fall of 2008. The last time the inventory had been in the 10 month area had been the spring of 1999. How long we stay in the 10 month area, whether we trend higher or lower over the next several months will all begin to tell the story of that original question... "Where is the market going".

The short answer is this. There are a lot of properties on the market that are currently priced below the current market value. There are a lot of properties that are currently priced at market value. I am a believer that this is not the best time to pay retail for a house. Determine the type of home you are looking for and watch the available listings until a well priced distress sale property becomes avaliable that meets your needs and be ready to make your offer. That would include having a preapproval in hand, being familiar with the current and past sales of the area you are looking at and being mentally prepared to act if what you are looking for becomes available. If you are able to purchase a property for 10 to 15% below market, you have the advantage of taking advantage of todays interest rates and having some cushion in the event the market continues to adjust. The question isn't really "Is this a good time to buy?" I believe the question continues to be "Is this a good house to buy at this price?"

For the full Honolulu Board of REALTORs April 2009 statistical analysis which was the source of some of this data, Click Here

As always, if you would like to contact me, I may be reached at Contact Michael

Aloha

An appropriate reflection from Rudyard Kipling's If regarding the real estate market these days.

According to today's Honolulu Star Bulletin article, 724 homes went into foreclosure in the month of March, a 503% increase from last year.

The Waikoloa area on the Big Island had the largest number of forclosures. Here on Oahu, the West Oahu resort market of Ko Olina is experiencing large price declines as available inventory continues to increases. The city of Kapolei where the Ko Olina Resort is located, experienced the largest number of foreclosures on all of Oahu during the first quarter of this year.

So what does this mean for everyone who is thinking about purchasing a Beach Villa at the Beach Villa's at Ko Olina during the "Everything Must Go" sale that Centex is holding over June 6th & 7th?

My thoughts are that this is going to put additional pressure on Centex to price their inventory appropriately and I would take this to mean additional downward pricing pressure. aka: price decreases. So if you haven't registered for the Beach Villas at Ko Olina Final Sales Event being held on June 6th & 7th at the Ihilani Hotel, please call me ASAP.

So "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs ..."

I believe that everything is coming together to make this one of the best value buying opportunities that we will see in our lifetime regarding Hawaii Real Estate.

So if you are thinking about buying and your own personal financial situation has not been affected much by the economic downturn and you can still afford to buy, then be prepared to pick up some fantastic out of this world bargains. Five to ten years from now, you won't be the one kicking yourself in the tail for missing out. Happy shopping!

Link to the article: Finding it hard to hang onto home.

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Alfred Harding is a licensed Hawaii real estate professional providing clients with insight and knowledge as it relates to the Beach Villas at Ko Olina on Oahu, Hawaii. He is also a homeowner at the project and operates an active rental program.

You can also find him blogging about the resort at: Beach Villa Resort Blog and on Facebook. Vacation Villa Reservations available at: Beach Villa Resort Reservations.

--

If you are thinking about purchasing at the Final Sales Event at the Beach Villas, please allow me to represent you as your buyers agent on selection day. There is no cost to you and your purchase price is exactly the same. However, the villa you select and how much you pay for it will make a big difference in your profitability; both from an appreciation standpoint and if renting, covering expenses by "getting heads in beds".

(All of the thoughts expressed in this blog are my own personal opinion, they are no guarantee that you will achieve similar results, it's just me sharing my own experiences and what has happened in my own situation. I cannot know what will happen in the future.)

Pulte Homes agrees to buy Centex in $1.3B deal. Just announced this morning. I received a heads up from a fellow Beach Villa's homeowner who reads my blog. Thanks!

The deal is supposed to close in the third quarter of 2009. Interesting, as the big sales event to sell the rest of the Beach Villas at Ko Olina happens on June 6th & 7th, right on the cusp between second and third quarters. It will be interesting to see how this play's out for current and future homeowners.

As you may or may not know, as homeowners all we own is the interior air spaces of our villas, everything else is owned by Centex. So the handoff between Centex and Pulte will be very important. Interesting times.

Chicago Sun Times Article

Alfred--

Alfred Harding is a licensed Hawaii real estate professional providing clients with insight and knowledge as it relates to the Beach Villas at Ko Olina on Oahu, Hawaii. You can also find him blogging about the resort at: Beach Villa Resort Blog and on Facebook. Vacation Villa Reservations available at: Beach Villa Resort Reservations.