Prepare Your Honolulu Home Before You Go To The Market!
August 27th, 2008 categories: Honolulu Real Estate 101
North Carolina Realtor, Sandy Sibley, has 8 great suggestions for increasing the value of your home. She says the following.
“Enrich with color. Paint’s cheap, but forget the adage that it must be white or neutral. Just don’t let sellers get too avant-garde with jarring pinks, oranges, and purples. Recommend soft colors that say “welcome,” lead the eye from room to room, and flatter skin tones. Think soft yellows and pale greens. Tint ceilings a lighter shade.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST.
A little preparation ahead of time can lead to a quicker sale and more money in your pocket. Call me at 808-737-2093 if you would like me to take a look at your property.
Today’s picture of a dragon fly on my sleeve was taken on my recent trip to northern California. He (the dragon fly) hung out there for at least 10 minutes.
OTHER POSTS WORTH READING!
Loans For College Condos
The Value Of A Realtor
Realtor Code of Ethics
Determining Offering Prices
| Discussion: No Comments »
Honolulu ranks among top affluent cities!
August 27th, 2008 categories: Reasons To Sell
Read Pacific Business New’s Article.
| Discussion: No Comments »
Sell Your Honolulu Home Before Buying Another!
August 25th, 2008 categories: Honolulu Real Estate 101, Negotiating
Sara MacLennan and Sheldon Johnston, real estate agents in Edmonton, recently wrote a great article regarding the problems created by Buyers making offers on their new home before their old home is sold. They say the following.
“In order to get this condition accepted, every other part of your offer needs to be very strong. When we’re representing a seller and we receive a subject to sale offer, we will generally advise our clients to counter strong. The sellers really have nothing to lose, since the likelihood of the deal actually going together is slim to none. So as a buyer, you end up in a weak negotiating position, and will likely have to pay top dollar, with a large deposit and tight time frames on your other conditions - in fact, you could very easily end up paying for an inspection, only to lose the home to another party.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST
I concur with their findings and highly recommend that you get your home sold before you try to buy another.
Today’s picture is another fish that I had a chance to meet on my recent vacation.
| Discussion: No Comments »
Now May Be The Time In Honolulu
August 21st, 2008 categories: Honolulu Real Estate 101, Rants & Riffs
Find your courage. If you are a long-term investor, now may be one of the best times to buy real estate. A recent Wall Street Journal article talked about an investment bank in San Diego that sees opportunity amidst the town’s slow real estate market.
“Mr. East, a managing principal of Silver Portal Capital LLC, a small real-estate investment bank, is raising $150 million to purchase foreclosed houses in and around the firm’s hometown of San Diego. He is scouring lender portfolios and real-estate listing services — as well as spots to get a cup of coffee — for houses that he can rent out and then resell in five years. That is when he bets that the local housing market will have recovered.”
Translate this to Honolulu. Our market is stronger, it has much less of an ability to add new homes and the still relatively low interest rates, and I believe a purchase now will be looked upon as a terrific move 10 years from now.
Today’s picture was taken on my recent trip to Antelope Creek Ranch in the Mount Shasta area of Northern California. As always, no fish was harmed in the taking of the photo.
| Discussion: No Comments »
Honolulu Board of Realtors Enter The Technological Age!
August 20th, 2008 categories: Honolulu Real Estate 101
Hip-hip-hooray! The Honolulu Board of Realtors has finally adopted a lockbox system that is consistent with the technological age in which we find ourselves. The new lockbox allows me to maintain detailed information concerning who and when your home is shown. It also gives me a much stronger ability to control overall access to a listing. All in all, it is a great system that will lead to more showings, which means a broader market for you property and the highest selling price. To learn much more about this system go to SentriLock.com.
When interviewing a Realtor to sell your property, be sure to ask if they will use the lockbox? Believe me it brings a great deal to the game.
| Discussion: No Comments »
College Student Bound for Honolulu? Buy A Condo!
August 19th, 2008 categories: Honolulu Real Estate 101, Rants & Riffs
Consider using your room and board to buy a condo, instead of sending to the college! Why not use that money to invest in real estate? The FHA has created a loan program for this very purpose. Wells Fargo Home Loan calls it the “Kiddy Condo” loan.
Here is an overview.
•Down payment-2.25% ($2,250 for every $100,000).
•Your son or daughter must live in the apartment.
•The student need not have income or credit.
•Standard FHA rates and terms will apply.
•The unit must be located near a college campus.
•The condo must be FHA approved and have at least 51% owner occupancy.
(This information was taken from a flyer provided by Well Fargo Home Mortgage)
Call me if you would like to find a building that will meet these requirements. I can be reached at 808-737-2093.
Today’s picture is of Aloha Tower Market Place.
| Discussion: No Comments »
Star Wars In Honolulu?
August 18th, 2008 categories: Rants & Riffs
Maybe it’s just me, but Matson’s cranes at Honolulu Harbor remind me of something one might have seen in a “Star Wars” movie. Perhaps my son has built too many of the “Star Wars” Lego kits! Think about this…just about every product to come to Oahu has had to be lifted by these mammoths.
| Discussion: No Comments »
Comment On Honolulu’s General Growth Plan!
August 15th, 2008 categories: Reasons To Sell
Much of the growth in core Honolulu housing stock could occur in the General Growth Management’s Victoria Ward area. In the last few months General Growth revealed a proposed master plan. Now they are seeking your comments.
“General Growth Properties plans a major redevelopment of the 60 acres it owns at Ward, with more than 4,000 additional residences, new roads and three public plazas over the next two decades or more.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE STAR BULLETIN ARTICLE
Today’s picture of Honolulu’s famous landmark Aloha Tower was taken from the deck of the Hawaii Super Ferry.
| Discussion: No Comments »
From The Frying Pan Into The Fire?
August 14th, 2008 categories: Reasons To Sell
Are those ice cream swirl shaped light bulbs really that good for the environment? Surprise, surprise, surprise! They contain mercury! Yes that same mercury that makes some fish very dangerous to eat. So let’s see we are be told to change all of our incandescent light bulbs for these energy saving replacements. And when all of us start throwing these millions of mercury laced light bulbs into land fills, then what? Could the mercury leaching into our water tables poison us? I don’t know, but we better think about the unintentional outcomes of our choices! A report from npr.org (not generally considered a right wing think tank) goes into the problems in great detail.
“But the bulbs contain small amounts of mercury, a neurotoxin, and the companies and federal government haven’t come up with effective ways to get Americans to recycle them.
“The problem with the bulbs is that they’ll break before they get to the landfill. They’ll break in containers, or they’ll break in a dumpster or they’ll break in the trucks. Workers may be exposed to very high levels of mercury when that happens,” says John Skinner, executive director of the Solid Waste Association of North America, the trade group for the people who handle trash and recycling.
Skinner says when bulbs break near homes, they can contaminate the soil.
Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, and it’s especially dangerous for children and fetuses. Most exposure to mercury comes from eating fish contaminated with mercury,
Some states, cities and counties have outlawed putting CFL bulbs in the trash, but in most states the practice is legal.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST
Today’s picture of downtown Honolulu was taken from the Hawaii Super Ferry while it sat at its’ mooring.
| Discussion: No Comments »
The Art Vs. Science of Honolulu Real Estate
August 13th, 2008 categories: Reasons To Sell
Many people look at statistics and numbers and the technological side of the real estate business. In my opinion, anyone can do this. The true value in having a qualified and experienced Realtor representing you, is that they are experts in the art of real estate first and the science second.
A great broker will know when the market has turned up or down before it has actually hit the statistics. If you are a seller selling, and want to save money when a market is declining, this broker can make you money by helping you avoid further market drops. Likewise, if a market is rising, then the market-selling price should be greater than that shown by the most recent sales. In this case, the Honolulu real estate broker will make you money through their knowledge that the market values are up. In my opinion, in any market, if you want to know the value of your property ask a great agent what price will sell it in the next 30 days and that is probably the fair market value. What about appraisers?
I’ve had the opportunity to work with numerous institutional owners of real estate that tend to rely on appraised value to determine their market price. In a rising market, they leave money on the table because the most recent closed sales will not show recent movements up in the value. Without knowledge of the upward trend an owner can pick too low of a price, thus leaving money on the table. In a declining market, the most recent sales will have sold for more than a current listing can get. Thus, a seller relying on an appraisal may pick a price that is too high, extending the market time and leading to a lower price.
A Realtor’s instinctive sense of the market direction is the real value he or she brings to the game. No amount of statistical analysis at Zillow or any of the other real estate information web site, can compensate for the “boots on the ground” knowledge gleaned by local real estate professionals. In a nutshell, trust them and trust their sense of the market.
Today’s picture is of the two towers of a condominium in Honolulu known as One Water Front
| Discussion: No Comments »
