Michael S. Mackey REALTOR® ABR, CRS, GRI, RSPS

It's obvious, that to be a realtor, the main requirements are a designer wardrobe and a foreign luxury vehicle. Throw in a generous dose of advertising, with your glamorous head shot photo, and you too can join the ranks of the privileged Real Estate Agent. If you are really going to be a top agent, you will become a Staging expert too. Let your creativity loose, helping homeowners choose the designer fabrics, the perfect accent pieces, the exquisite color palettes. You might even venture into offering advice based on Feng Shui principles, to get that extra something that takes the property over the top.

You hire photographers to capture the character of your latest listings, be it the beachfront villa or the hilltop estate with the killer ocean views. You write copy for the brochure of the penthouse condo; "The views of the city simply must be seen at sunset, and imagine having Diamond Head right outside your bedroom window!"

So what else do Real Estate Agents do, besides look at pretty houses all day? Judging by what is broadcast on many television real estate shows, and featured in the many real estate magazines, the life of the real estate agent is simply life in Shangrila. Well, I live and work in Hawaii, and as the whole world knows, this is Paradise.

To give you a real inside view of what we realtors deal with on a day to day basis, I thought I would share some photos of some properties, with an eye on telling "the rest of the story".

Sure, we get to work with some very nice homes, and we want to show them in their best light. Not all the homes are the grand estates on twenty acres, but they are decent homes and they have their own brand of hominess and charm.

The fact is, most homes are just average, everyday bread and butter type dwellings. The logical extension of that, is that most real estate agents deal with average, bread and butter type listings. Every once in a while, you may have the opportunity to list a simply outstanding property. Depending on the crowd you run with, you might be so lucky that you only rub elbows with multi-millionaires, and all of your listings will be million dollar properties.

Now, here's the real inside story. Many times, as a realtor, you will deal with some of the least desireable properties. There are many types of real estate investors, and unless you are dealing exclusively with that upper crust, privileged class of clientelle, be prepared for some real eye-opening experiences. Many wealthy investors actually own some properties that, to put it frankly, are disturbingly attrocious.

Here are some actual photos of investment properties that I have dealt with, which were owned by investors.

As you can see, these type of units are the most basic types of units, and they are located in the less affluent areas. They are decent dwellings, and "home" for many.

Besides the investors, a large segment of the population can only afford to purchase at the lower end of the market. As realtors, our job is to help people attain their dream of homeownership. Sometimes, we all have to start at the bottom, and hopefully work our way up.

Then, there are the truly disturbing situations. Sad to say, there are times when people for any number of reasons, have reached the bottom. As real estate agents, we come across these situations all too often. When we do, we say a prayer for those who are in these situations, and give thanks that we have been more fortunate in our own lives.

This looks like an ordinary bathroom at first. As I drew nearer, I could see it was not very clean, and I began to get a more apprehensive the closer I got.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw next. The photo on the right is the inside of the shower curtain, that is visible in the center photograph.

This bathroom was in a tenant occupied rental unit. Fortunately, I went in while the occupant was out, and I did not meet the person who lived in these conditions.

I will spare you any more photos that illustrate the fact that there is an unglamorous side to property ownership and living conditions. The point I want to make, is that all real estate agents are just people too. No matter what your occupation, we all have challenges in life, and some of us are more fortunate than others. As real estate agents, we often see the less glamorous side of life. And, as real estate agents, we do want to help others pursue their dreams, as we pursue our own.

I just hope that we will all think about the blessings we have, and give thanks. The next time you see the glamour shots, and the pictures of the perfectly staged mansions, give thanks that we are in a position to appreciate our own good fortunes. We might also say a prayer for those who are less fortunate, and if possible, give a helping hand to those we can.

It's hard to believe how fast time flies. When I first moved to Mililani, back in 1977, I was a young 26 year old, enjoying life as a freewheeling mortorcylce salesman. Mililani was the first Planned Community in Hawaii, and it was planted "way out" in the pineapple and sugar cane fields in what has now become Central Oahu. Back then, it was "the boonies".

Driving home after dark used to be a lonely trek down the unlit two lane road, part of Kam Hwy (Kamehameha Highway for the tourists), until the H-2 freeway was built. The first phase of the freeway got you to the Waipahu exit, at which point you jumped back onto Kam Hwy, drove past the sugar cane on your right, pineapple on the left and on through Kipapa Gulch into Mililani. Once in a while an owl would swoop out of the trees and float across the road, momentarily brightened by your headlights. On dark rainy nights, the Bufos (fieled toads) would come out to the roads edge and stare up at the sky, soaking in the gentle rains.

Little by little, the planned community took shape. On my routine jogging route, I would run past the Mililani Shopping Center, the first evidence that an actual community was taking shape. Anchored by McDonalds, the fire station, and Foodland Super Market, the community soon began to spread across both sides of Kam Hwy.

The Mililani Golf Course soon had an entire neighborhood on the south side, and Meheula Parkway was extended another mile from the highway. Halfway down the Parkway, the Mililani Market Place sprung up, with a Safeway supermarket and a Long's Drug Store. Across from the Marketplace, the Mililani Parkway Apartments sprang up, just behind the Hokuahi'ahi apartment complex. Next came the Mililani Town Center, with Star Supermarket, another Longs Drug store, and a three plex-theater. At last, no need to drive twenty miles into town to go to the movies!

Now, some thirty years later, the Star Market and Longs drugstore are just a minor part of the Mililani Town Center. There is now a WalMart, a fourteen-plex theater, a Starbucks, a slew of fast food outlets, restaurants, shops, businesses and a bus terminal to boot. There are pizza parlours, a home improvement center, banks and a Radio Shack. I still take my routine jogs, but now when I cross Kam Hwy, I have to wait at the stoplights. Wait for the lights to change, to sequence through the left turn for one direction, then for the other; wait for the oncoming traffic to cycle through, then for the cross traffic.

When I jog down the tree lined streets, I see some of the trees that are bent from when hurricane Iwa blew the immature trees in 1982, just enough to lean them slightly, not enough to knock them down. Then there were the ones that, having grown bigger, were brought down by Hurricane Iniki in November 1992.

Mililani is no longer the sleepy little bedroom community that it was thirty years ago. It's now a a vibrant bustling planned growth suburban neighborhood, with all the conveniences of shopping and entertainment, a location that is central to anywhere on Oahu, close to Schofield and Hickam Air Field Military bases, and yet still maintains the hometown atmosphere I remember when I first moved here in 1977. The trees are matured, the homes that were so new when I first moved here are now often being remodeled, with new additions and second floors. The little children have grown up and now have children of their own, attending the same elementary schools they went to as kids.

Oh, Home, Sweet Home!