Hawaii homes

On Easter Sunday, my wife and I met her brother and a few friends for some surfing at Diamond Head! When we got out of the water, we saw this monk seal relaxing on the beach.

The weather was nice and the monk seal looked quite content. He opened his eyes and looked at us a few times, then went back to sleep.

Those little yellow signs are posted by volunteers, reminding us to keep our distance and not bother the cute monk seals. I used a zoon lens to get this closeup.

I e-mailed the picture to KGMB9. They included it in the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. news reports.

We're starting to see more sunny days and the weather is warming up in Honolulu. Life here is great!

Aloha, Mike Bates

Hawaii realtor

Woodbridge is a neighborhood at Ewa by Gentry. This is an upscale area, where homes typically have 3-5 bedrooms and 3 baths, 2,600+ square feet interior and 5,000+ square foot lots.

Ewa by Gentry Woodbridge homes were built from 2002 to 2006 - they're comparatively new for a Hawaii neighborhood. Woodbridge is an ideal choice of neighborhood for large families looking for an affordable, upscale home.

Home prices have fallen in the past couple of years and deals can be found at Woodbridge. A quick check reveals that the majority of listings on the market now are priced below what the owners paid a couple of years ago. The difference between the current market prices and prices paid by owners sometimes goes beyond $100,000. Now's the time to "buy low" so we can "sell high" later!

View our Ewa by Gentry Woodbridge webpage and find a home that fits your needs. The page includes a comparative market analysis (CMA) report so you can see what homes have sold for recently.

Aloha, Mike Bates

On Oahu, for many of us it's all about getting to TOWN - that is, downtown Honolulu.  Most of the island's employers are in Honolulu. 

Here's a screen shot from the KGMB Channel 9 drive time report a few days ago.  These times stay about the same from day to day, except when there's heavy rain or freeway closure due to an accident.

Kapolei is near Makakilo and Ewa Beach, we can expect similar drives coming from those areas into downtown. 

What's the trade off for driving into town?  Home prices.  In town, home prices are much more expensive than they are for comparable homes in the outskirts.  Large homes selling in neighborhoods such as Ocean Pointe and Kapolei Knolls might go for $600,000 - $700,000.  Put a similar home in Nuuanu or Kaimuki it will probably be worth an extra $150,000 because of the location.

How about Hawaii Kai?  That's a popular place.  The drive to downtown Honolulu is about 12 miles and according to Channel 9, it generally takes about 35 minutes.

Note that there ARE employment opportunities in other neighborhoods besides downtown Honolulu.  Kapolei is expanding its job base with a new Costco store, Target, Petco and others.  Some executive positions are available too.  The City and County of Honolulu also has offices in Kapolei.

Military personnel and civilians working on bases have diverse possibilities.  Many military like Ewa and Kapolei because the home prices are more affordable and homes in these neighborhoods have features they like - such as garages, central air and interior area!

Looking for info about Oahu's neighborhoods and home prices?  Want to know where the deals are?

Call Mike Bates (808) 548-1220 or send an e-mail (see the tab to the right of this blog).

Aloha, Mike

Talking on the phone with buyers and e-mailing listings is a standard procedure for Hawaii realtors. The Honolulu Board of Realtors uses the TEMPO system for searching the MLS and contacting customers.

TEMPO works great! We sometimes find that buyers have questions about properties that can be answered by taking a close look at the Customer Full Page, which we e-mail to them. Buyers might just see too much information and don't want to look line-by-line for answers to their questions.

I pulled up a current listing and added some highlighting and arrows to point out some of the more relevant information that buyers look for.

The info is posted to our website as the Honolulu Board of Realtors Customer Full Page.

If you haven't seen the Customer Full Page before, please note that this is not the normal page posted on our real estate websites. The Customer Full Page includes more detailed information. When you're getting more serious about buying a property, your realtor will e-mail the Customer Full Page to you.

The highlighted info on our website will help you find what you're looking for on the Customer Full Page.

Aloha, Mike Bates

Kailua Realtor

Anekona Companies, the troubled developer of the Ilikai will see its interest in the property auctioned off on April 15th, 2009.

Brian Anderson, owner of Anekona, bought approximately 343 of the Ilikai's rooms and commercial spaces in July, 2006. One hundred and forty of the renovated rooms were successfully sold. As the real estate market hit its peak and turned downward, Anekona was stuck with condotel units that it couldn't sell for a profit.

Anekona's holdings at the Ilikai are currently 203 condo units and 16 commercial properties. Before we all get excited about bidding at the auction, please note that the units will be sold in bulk. Yes, one bidder can buy them all.

Individual owners are a bit relieved, while also concerned about changes to come. Part of the concern is with Anekona's unpaid maintenance and electric bills owed to the homeowners association and said to be in excess of $1 million.

Other headaches were the possible closure of the Ilikai. The former court-appointed receiver, Joe Toy had put closing on the table as a possibility. Mr. Toy said the Ilikai's income was not enough to keep Anekona's 203 units open unless Anekona's lender, IStar FM Loans LLC would fund the operation.

Apparently IStar didn't like what they were hearing and they asked a judge to replace Mr. Toy with George Van Buren, a Honolulu attorney. Mr. Van Buren was appointed in late February 2009 and he immediately announced that the Ilikai would remain open.

Buying Ilikai condos

Oahu's housing market has slowed significantly in the last year. Many owners of units for sale are selling at a loss. It's possible that prices could go down further. On the other hand, now that there's light at the end of the tunnel for Ilikai condo owners, prices may stabilize.

Click here to view condos for sale at the Ilikai

Visit our Hawaii foreclosures webpage and click foreclosure notices dated 3-15-09 to see auction info for the Ilikai.

Aloha, Mike Bates

Oahu MLS