The 10 Cheapest Ways to Stage a House to Sell

When I first walk into a home I'm going to sell, I can usually tell in a few seconds what needs to be changed in order to stage it. However, many sellers don't have the budget to stage it the way I recommend, and some just don't want to change anything, because they think their personal taste in decor is just fine (they're usually wrong.)

Once in a while I walk into a home and wish I had brought some kerosine, but often I can suggest a few simple and cheap methods to stage a home for showings. Here are my top 10 cheapest staging methods:

1. Move and rearrange furniture. Most people make all the their furniture point at the TV, which is often not the best way to show a room. Moving furniture around in a house is a simple way to make things feel more open and usuable to a buyer.


2. Clean. You'll get more for a cheap house, and you'll sell faster. Scrub the inside, power wash the outside. Especially if you have Hawaii's infamous red dirt on your house, you have to power wash that off. Clean the bathrooms really well. Hire a professionaly cleaner if you're not going to do a great job.


3. Freshen the air. A lot of homes stink, literally. Especially in Hawaii, where people use a lot of Kim Chee and weird Asian spices (like my mom does.) Like the post below, you should use candles or Fabreeze. If it's REALLY BAD, you can get an ozone machine to take the must out of the air. It makes the house smell sort of like bleach, which is better than smelling like pets or Kim Chee.


4. Paint. This should be on the top of your list, even though it's #4 on mine. Paint is cheap and it can make any room or house look better. Read my post about painting non-neutral colors and freshen up your house. In Hawaii the colors that won't get easily dirty are best, because there is so much red dirt (see above!)


5. Flowers/plants. Go to the grocery store, not a florist, because flowers are way cheaper at Safeway than some little grocery store. They don't have to be perfect, just look lively. Get a lot of nice green plants. If you want, you can buy fake ones at Costco for about $100 each, and even take those with you to your new home. It doesn't matter if your home is in Mililani, Kailua, Town, Aiea, or Hawaii Kai, plants will completely change the way your home feels. You should definitely get some plants and flowers in your home.


6. Water. Get your grass looking nice and green. Get your trees blooming with flowers. Mow the grass and get your landscaping looking good.


7. Bake cookies, serve food. My wife and I visited a house a while ago where the owner was baking some cookies. It's been about 3 months, but she still remembers that house. Cookies won't sell your house, they will help the buyer remember. The smell of something is great for reinforcing the other senses.


8. Remove or change the window coverings. I see a lot of weird old curtains here in Oahu. Homes with big dark curtains, homes with little cheap plastic blinds, homes with ugly 70's style curtains. I see it all. It's better to have nothing than something ugly. Get rid of the old ugly stuff.


9. Play music. Put one a nice Hawaiian CD and it will leave your buyers with a pleasant mood. If they hear music they're less likely to hear any other outside noise, like traffic and airplanes.


10. Garage Sale. Get rid of all your junk. The more you get rid of, probably the better. I'm not sure why but Japanese people (like my family) tend to keep way too much stuff. There are a lot of these types of people in Hawaii (the type that keep stuff, not Japananese, though there are many of us too) so please have a garage sale before you list your home for sale. It will make my job easier.

Sell your house with - Candles

This week I walked into a condo in Hawaii Kai and the first thing we all noticed was the wonderful aroma of burning candles. The owner must have been burning them for hours to fill the house with such a nice scent. From that moment on we all had a nice pleasant time looking around her tastefully decorated home.

The thing is, this condo was right on Lunaluli Home Road, one of the busiest streets in Hawaii Kai. But my client barely noticed. The nice scent of the candles, which she said were from Pier 1, gave us a nice warm feeling as we looked around. (by the way, yes we have Pier 1 imports in Honolulu, it's right in Ward Center.)

If you can be home around the time of your showing, burn some candles to make buyers feel soothed, relaxed. One thing I really don't like is the smell of almost every air freshener. For some reason they tend to smell very chemical, like a cleaner. Now, most people like the smell of a clean house, and what they're smelling is probably some kind of cleaner.

While cleaners tend to smell ok, (not great) the air fresheners that you can buy for a couple bucks and plug in or spray seem to be less pleasant. One exception I have found is Fabreeze. I like the smell of it, but I don't know if most people do. Go with some nice candles (not cheap ones, they're cheap for a reason) and you'll be sure to give a good first impression.

Keep your appraisal forever

Whenever you get a loan a house, you're going to get an appraisal (usually.) The exception is when you do a loan with a very loan loan-to-value ratio, in which case some lenders allow an automated valuation model (AVM).

When you get the appraisal from your lender, file it away and keep it forever, because it has a lot of useful information that you might need later. Here are a few examples:

• the legal description - This is not all that useful, but once in a while you might need it for an insurer or for the tax office or something.
• TMK# - In Hawaii we don't use Assessor's Parcel numbers like the rest of the country, mainly because the government in Hawaii likes to make everything as confusing as possible for people not in Hawaii. The TMK (Tax Map Key) is used to identify your property for tax reasons, for Realtors, for various things.
• the MLS# of the listing - If you ever want to go back and find your old MLS listing, having the number will help. That also has a bunch of good information in it too.
• Tells the market condition at the time - might be interesting if you're trying to determine the market value of your home when you bought it. It might not be what you paid.
• Dimensions and size of the lot - Knowing the dimensions of your lot can be helpful when you're doing landscaping or planning a pool. Most people have no idea what their lot's dimensions are, including me. In Oahu, since lots are not square usually, the dimensions might be more than 2 numbers.
• Zoning information - there are so many different types of zoning in Oahu that will drive you completely crazy trying to remember them. The only thin you should definitely try and remember is the zoning of your home and what it means. If a dwelling is R5, it means you can have one dwelling per 5k sqft.
• FEMA Flood zone code - Since a lot of houses are in real bad flood zones in Hawaii, this is important too. Your home owner's insurance company will want to know what zone you're in before they give you flood insurance. Also if you live in a zone that is real bad, you should be more cautious about planning and preparing for a flood.
• Type of foundation - do you have a slab? is it post and pier? Sometimes this comes in handy.
• Year of your home's construction - Most people only know approximately what year their home was built, but there are certain things that depend on this, like the code at the time the house was built. If your home was built before 1976, you may have lead paint. If your home was built before 1980, you might have the wrong width on your studs.
• Actual square footage of your home - If you want to paint or carpet, you better know this number. The size of your home is going to determine the price of a lot of things, so commit this number to memory, or at least remember where you put your appraisal. The appraiser's measurement of your home is going to be more accurate than just about any other source you might have. Since our tax office in Honolulu moves at the speed of turtles on pavement, they may not have the correct square footage for several years after you do some remodeling or additions.
• Pictures of your home - The appraisal always has some pictures of your home, which can be useful if you want to see what the house looked like in the past.
• Sketch of the layout with dimensions - I like this one a lot. The appraiser will sketch the outside shape of your house and then give you the measurements of each outside wall. It's not a full layout like a floorplan would be, but it does give you an idea of your home's shape and size. Very useful for doing home improvement.
• Plat Map - The plat map shows the properties in your area, including any easements, roads, and other information that only a plat map can show.

So keep your appraisal handy in case you need any information about your home. After all, you paid about $500 for it!

Order your survey before you find a buyer

The Hawaii real estate purchase contract allows for buyers to review the survey of any single family home or land for a number of days agreed upon by the buyer and seller. If you wait until you find a buyer for your home, the buyer can take a look at something on the survey and decide to cancel the transaction, especially if he is already looking for a way to cancel.

Here is what the Hawaii contract actual says:

No later than days prior to the Scheduled Closing Date, Seller shall, at
Seller's sole cost and expense, have a registered land surveyor (a) stake the
Property even if the stakes are visible and, (b) if improvements exist along the
Property line, provide Buyer with a map (with surveyor's stamp) and accompanying
report to show the perimeters of the Property and the location of any improvements in the vicinity of the perimeter Property lines. This survey and map may not address whether improvements on the Property are in compliance with State and/or County requirements, and/or subdivision covenants, conditions, and restrictions. Boundary Encroachment. If an encroachment onto an adjoining
property or onto the Property by an adjoining owner is revealed or discovered,
such encroachment either shall be removed or Seller shall obtain encroachment
agreement with the affected adjoining owner(s) which is acceptable to Buyer. If neither occurs within ______ days of discovery or by the Scheduled Closing Date, whichever occurs earlier, Buyer may accept the encroachment(s) or elect to terminate this Purchase Contract and the termination provisions of Paragraph C-30 shall apply. Under Chapter 669Hawaii Revised Statutes (deminimis), certain tolerances for discrepancies involving improvements built along the boundary line of the Property for specific zonings are established, and such improvements shall not be considered encroachments.

It's the blank in the 2nd paragraph that you have to pay attention to. The property lines of Hawaii real estate are very often a mystery when you view them for the first time. Since our topography is so hilly and roads tend to be windy, lot lines are frequently curved and odd shaped. You rarely see just square lots anywhere, even in the new home tracts, because our land just isn't square and flat. Imagine trying to build a bunch of evenly spaced square houses on an island shaped like this.

So when walls and buildings are built, it's very common to have encroachments over boundaries of a house, especially in older areas of Kailua, Aiea, and Honolulu (town). I'm not sure if it's because of the surveying practices from the early days, but newer homes in Oahu have far less issues with encroachments. I rarely see problems in Ewa or Kapolei, and even Hawaii Kai, which was mostly built in the 60's and 70's.

So what you don't want is - you don't want your buyer to back out of a transaction 20 days into it because he sees that your land has a couple encroachments. It's better to show them the encroachments up front while they're still in love with the property. You can even demand that they sign off on the survey on the day of acceptance, so it doesn't become an issue at all. This is just plane smart. Even though the survey costs around $850 for a flat lot of about 7000sqft, it's money that you're going to need to spend anyway. Plus, the survey doesn't expire or need to be updated unless new walls are put up or old ones are moved.

So if you want to save yourself some headache when selling your home in Hawaii, get the survey done before your buyer shows up.

Why are there short sales in Oahu when real estate prices are up island wide?

Short sales are becoming more common these days, with home owners falling behind on their adjustable loans that have reset, or just falling behind on a regular loan. A short sale is a house for sale by an owner that owes more than their home is worth. It doesn't mean that the price of the home has dropped at all. In fact, in Oahu it's unlikely that the value dropped, since most of the island's home prices have been steadily rising.

It's more likely that the home owner borrowed 100% or more of this home's equity, as in, he took out an equity line for 125% of the home's value. So let's say he just took 100% of the equity, and the home value either stayed flat or moved only 1% up in the last year, because he lives in an undesirable area. If he lives on the North Shore, prices have actually come down about 10%.

But let's say it stayed flat, and the owner started falling behind on his payments because he lost his job or got hurt or he got some big medical bill. After a few months, the lender is going to start threatening to foreclose on him if he doesn't catch up. He calls the bank to get a new loan or home equity line, and finds that he can't get one because his credit now sucks due to his late payments. It's a catch 22. He can't pay the loan because he has no money, and he can't borrow any money because he hasn't paid the loan.

So now what? Enter the short sale. If he owes $800k including late fees and missed payments on his nice big Ewa Gentry house, and the house is worth $750k because it's a big house in Ocean Pointe, he has to sell the house and be short the balance owed to the lenders.

The lenders will go through a long difficult process of approving the payoff below the amount owed to them, because it's cheaper and faster than foreclosing on a house. They don't want to own houses, that's not their business. They just want most of their money back.

The approval of the short sale could take months. Literally, month. It might never get approved. The best thing is if you can get the lender to pre-approve the short payoff balance, because then you don't have to wait for the loan payoff approval, you just close in about 3 weeks.

The new lender is almost certainly going to require you to put 20% down, because it's a short sale and they don't want to end up in that position either. Short sales are not too common in Hawaii, but when you see one, it might be a good way to get a good deal on a house, if you have alot of time and a big down payment.

Paint your Hawaii house un-neutral to sell it!

Most people will tell you to paint your house "neutral colors" before you sell it, but I think you should reconsider. Neutral to most people means off white, which makes most houses seem very stark and uninteresting. If you're going to sell your house, I suggest you paint some rooms a nice soothing color that makes the trim stand out.

I like this green living room as an example. The furniture isn't anything special, just a couch and lamps, table, etc. But the nice soothing green paint really makes the white ceiling and crown molding stand out. Also notice the door is black. Nice contrast. Neutral colors in this room would make it boring to most buyers, who have seen a couch and lamps before.





You can do something similar in your kitchen. You don't want the kitchen to feel too cold or stark, Repainting it something nice like this light brown can be a great way to warm up the room.



When it's time to sell your Oahu house, you might even want to have me come over and suggest some colors for you. Colors that appeal to most buyers are usually greens, blues, browns, yellows. Stay away from red, purple, and black. Black is ok for trim, but not for walls. You're not selling a haunted house are you?

As for the outside, you might want to try what we did. We went to a new home tract in Hawaii Kai and asked the association manager for the color codes on some of the new houses they were building. The big builders spend big money on designers that choose all their colors, so we figured we would just use something that they chose, something we liked. So our house has about 5 colors inside and a nice light brown outside. Very modern looking colors, but also very soothing.

So take my tip, don't paint your house off white. Please.

Landscape your home, virtually

When it comes to selling a house, first impressions are huge. The landcaping is the first thing people see or don't see, depending on what your house has going on. I've seen some very average houses with great landscaping sell for top dollar because of the feel that the buyer had when they first saw the home.

I just saw this great software called Realtime Landscape Pro that allows you take a picture of your house and then impose on it your own custom landscaping design over the photo. This is a great idea for people thinking about how to lanscape their home. Since you can't really tell how things will look until you see them, this program is a great way to make sure you don't end up with something you didn't expect.

It's pretty easy to gorow things in Hawaii, with our year round sun and warm weather, so you can choose from almost any type of landscaping you can imagine. Also this program will let you change the color and texture of the heartscape, add waterfalls and pools, sprinkler systems, and create realistic photos and walkthroughs. What a great idea!

A pool is a huge asset to a house, so if you are thinking about getting a pool, this program will allow you to design your own and see how it will look before you ever start your project. I would say about 1/4 of my clients tell me that a pool is very important to their home purchase. In the hot areas like Ewa and Kapolei, a pool can make all the difference between loving your yard and never using it.

Another really cool feature about this program is that it allows you to take your created photo and turn it into night time visualization, so you can see how your lighting system will look, your pool lighting, etc. Awesome.

If you're thinking of selling your house in the next 3 years, let me recommend that you get started on your landscaping now. It's kind of lame to pay all that money, spend all that time, and then not be able to enjoy what you've done. So start now, let your plans grow and mature, and enjoy your landscaping while you still own the house.

Unless your house is at the top of your neighborhood's comps, you're probably not going to have to worry about over landscaping. The added value is tremendous, and as the plants grow, the value grows! Of course, you have to pay for the water in the meantime, unless you live in Manoa.

Military buyers - You should buy a home in Hawaii, but you need just a little more than just your BAH

There are over 50,000 military personel in Oahu, most of whom are stationed here for about 3 years at a time. The minimum Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) all military personel get is $1925/mo as an E1, all the way up to $3419 if you're an O7. At E1 paygrade, you're likely to get a small condo.


For 2007, the Hawaii BAH rates for military with dependents are

• E1-E4 $1925


• E5 $2035


• E6 $2412


• E7 $2553


• E8 $2584


• E9 $2892

For officers:

• O1 $2286


• O2 $2305


• O3 $2668


• O4 $2938


• O5 $3352


• O6 $3380


• O7 $3419

Also in Hawaii, the military pays overseas COLA (cost of living allowance) which can often be around $600-1000/month.


Since the BAH is non taxable, using it buy a house is like double dipping with the government. They give you tax free income and you use it to buy something that gives you a tax deduction on the rest of your income.

No matter what your BAH in Hawaii is, and whether you have dependents or not, and even if you have 20+ years of service, you're most likely going to use a little more than just your BAH to buy a house in Oahu. That's because prices in Hawaii have grown a lot faster than the BAH rates have.

But don't be discouraged, you can definitely buy something. For single people, it's common to buy a home for as much as you can possibly qualify for, and then rent out a room or two. Rooms rent for about $700-1000/month. I've also seen young guys get together and buy a house together, pooling their BAH so they all get some profit when selling. This usually works great if you know people on your post, but that's uncommon.

Every military family that I have worked with has made money on their home. I've handed people as much as $150,000 when they leave Hawaii, and while there is no guaranty for the future, the market certainly has been great up til now. Even if your home value is flat the entire time you're here, you've received a huge tax write off and hopefully you will have paid down your mortgage enough to have some equity.

If you're coming to Hawaii in the military, you should be buying real estate.

Increase your Oahu home's value - get a Putting green

I just recently installed a putting green in my backyard. Lots of fun, the kids love (too much) and it's a nice addition to the home's value. For about $5000 you can get a nice sized putting green that rolls like a real green, but no maintanence.

It's a nice addition to a house and makes it stand out among others, because it's so rare. If your buyer happens to be a golfer, they will be very inclined to buy the house, because even though they might not spend the money to do it themselves, the would be thrilled to buy a house that already has the putting green.

Where should I advertise your Oahu home?

When people ask me to list their home, they usually ask me how I will advertise.

"Will it be in the home magazines that are free on every corner? Will my house be in the newspaper classifieds? "

Then I have to explain in detail why those methods of advertising are a total waste of money. Last week a client of mine asked me to put her open house in the newspaper, even though I told her that it was a waste of money. So I spent the $100 to put it in the paper, and we had exactly 5 people come to the open house.

The previous 2 open houses were not in the paper and we had about triple the number of visitors. So clearly, the newspaper is a total waste of money!

I used to run a full page magazine ad in Homes and Land, which also happens to be a total waste of money. I never got one single buyer or client from that $800/month ad. Waste.

The only place where I have consistenly gotten great results is the internet. The web is powerful beyond your wildest dreams. I can reach people anywhere, anytime. I can pay for only the advertising I get results from. I can get free advertising. It's amazing.

If you ask me to list your house, I'll be advertising it on the web. I get about a dozen emails a day from people looking to buy homes. About 80% of my business comes from the web, while all my other advertising makes up the other 20%. It's a pretty amazing ratio isn't it?

So if you want to sell your home, find a Realtor that will advertise on the web. Find a Realtor with a great website. A website that makes you want to stick around and read it.

Living on the Marina vs. living on the Ocean

Since I love the marina at Hawaii Kai so much, I'm sometimes amazed at how much cheaper it is to get a marina front home in Hawaii Kai than an ocean front home almost anywhere in Oahu.

In order to figure out how much the cost of living on the marina is, I take an average marina front home and comp it to something similar in a neighborhood that isn't on the marina. In this case, I can comp homes in Anchorage on the water to homes in Anchorage that are not on the water.

What I find is that it costs about an extra $500,000 to live on the marina. But what about ocean front? You're going to be shocked.

If you take a home in Portlock that is accross the street from the ocean and comp it to a house on the ocean, you find that it costs somewhere around $2-$3million more to live on the ocean. And the nicer the house, the bigger the difference.

Why? I'm not too sure.

Living on the marina gives you the nice water view, the boat dock, the peaceful everything that the ocean gives you, but costs a fraction of the oceanfront homes. It's silly. The highest oceanfront home sale is somewhere around $18 million, but the highest marina front home sale is about $3million.

HELLO? There is a huge difference, and I have no idea why. Sure I love the ocean, but I love the marina too and I don't think the ocean is worth 4-6 times more. But guess what, it doesn't matter what I think, because there are buyers out there who think it's worth it, and that's who determines the price. Whoever is willing to pay for the difference are the ones that are making it so expensive to live on the ocean.

Don't forget to check the wind. It's a big factor in the value of your Oahu Real Estate

Wind in Oahu is more important than any other weather factor. Too little of it and your nice new home in Kailua will feel like a steam beath. Too much of it and your hilltop home on Hawaii Lao Ridge could feel like a constant tornado.

The temperature in Hawaii only fluctuates about 25 degrees all year. In the summer it might get 95 degrees on the hottest day, and in the winter it might be 70 on the coldest day. Also, it doesn't fluctuate much between day and night either. On an average summer day it might be 75 at night and 85 in the day.

In the winter once in a while the temp drops to about 60 in Hawaii Kai, but that's about as cold as I've ever been here. Anytime the air drops below 70degrees in Oahu, we put on jackets and sweaters. We are all very cold blooded like geckos.

But the problem is not the temperature so much as the wind. Even on a real hot day of 90 degrees in Oahu, if the wind is blowing about 20mph, you won't feel hot at all. But if the wind is not blowing, it feels hot even if it's only 80 degrees. I can't really explain the science of it, but we all know it's true.

There are some great houses in the back of Hawaii up along the hills, that get no wind. None. Especially back in Kamiloiki against the hillside, there just isn't any wind in there. By looking that geography you would never guess it, but it's true. There are even some houses in very windy Hahaione valley that don't get much breeze. The worst is probably the leeward side of Oahu, like Ewa and Kapolei. There are parts of those towns that are trapped behind something blocking our precious trade winds.

On the other hand...
I once visited a beautiful house on Mariner's Ridge in Hawaii Kai that had expansive ocean views. At about $1.1million, it seemed like a good deal. Then we opened the windows and the wind started howling at about 900mph. I had to hold on to my clothes to make sure they didn't get ripped off. I felt like we were reenacting the movie movie Twister! Wow, you could barely open anything up there without getting blown away.

About 90% of the year, the trade winds blow at least 10mph, cooling off our warm tropical island. But on those other 10% days, the wind either stops or becomes what we call, "Kona winds." A word of advice, if you have to shop for homes on a Kona winds day, make sure you go back and check the house on a tradewind day to see if it gets the trades.

A Kona wind day will deceive you, because they are not the prevailing wind and they are hot. Very hot. Sometimes, Kona winds just feel like no wind, but if you could measure you would see there is a little movement from the south. O yeah, trade winds come from the North East.

If you get nice trade winds in your home, it will make your home a much more pleasant place to live. It really doesn't matter where you buy your home you need to check for the wind. Whether you live in Mililani, Aiea, Diamond Head, or Kaneohe, you may find that a house right accross the street from yours gets a great breeze while yours gets none.

A lot of it based on the direction your home faces. Most homes have one or more sides with more windows than the other sides. You want most of your windows facing the trade winds, so they can get it. They only need a little window to get out.

So check your wind. It could be all the difference.

Never clean your own house when you sell it. Ever.

The Hawaii real estate purchase contract asks sellers to clean their home after they move out, have it cleaned professionally, or pay for a cleaning credit. Let me state my case for NEVER cleaning the house yourself, and NEVER have it cleaned either.

I always tell my sellers that it's best to just pay a credit in escrow for whatever amount it will cost to get the house cleaned. For your average 1800sqft 3bedroom home in Oahu, that might be around $400. In my experience, the level of "clean" of a home is far too subjective to leave it to chance.

I have had sellers who spent all day, even several days, cleaning their windows, doing their floors, etc, only to hear on the day of closing that the buyer is not satisfied with the clean-ness of the house. This is very discouraging to say the least, because then the seller has to pay for a cleaning after he has already spent hours cleaning it himself. Some buyers will just have a much higher standard than you will. I recently sold a Colony in the Hawaii Kai Peninsula and the seller did his best to clean it thoroughly, only to have the buyer complain that it wasn't clean enough. I personally ended up paying an additional $300 on behalf of the seller.

On the other hand, I once hired a cleaning lady for a house in Mililani, who charged me $400 to clean the house and then did the worst job cleaning I have ever seen. After she spent about 4 hours on the house, she left without mopping the floors, scrubbing the sinks, or dusting anything. I threatened to tell everyone what a crappy job she did, and she gave me a partial refund. The buyer was very unhappy, even though I gave her a $200 credit for cleaning.

The only way to be absolutely certain that a house is cleaned the way the buyer will want it to be is to actually have the buyer clean it. So the way to do that is through a cleaning credit. At closing you give the buyer about $400 and they get the house cleaned whenever they want. That way you move out at your schedule and leave the house empty but not cleaned. The buyer cannot complain no matter how dirty the house is because you have given him $400!

Also, it makes your moving day that much easier. You don't have to worry about anything except getting out of the house. This will save you a lot of headache, time, and worry.

Target is coming to Hawaii and bringing hundreds of jobs. Every job helps Hawaii real estate!

The Honolulu Advertiser reported today that "Target plans to open a 135,000-square-foot store at the former Costco site in the Bougainville Industrial Park and a larger store in Kapolei in March 2009. The Minneapolis-based company will employ between 200 and 300 people per store."

Ok so most of the jobs will be lower level jobs that pay very little, but there are also management jobs, corporate jobs that will bring new people into the state, and other related work with the construction, advertising, and logistics of bringing 2 new Targets to Oahu.

My wife cannot wait. I think she will camp out.

The point is, with 500 new jobs, there are certainly going to be some people moving into the state to do some of the upper level management. Even 10 new buyers in our market is a good thing, on an island where only a few hundred properties need to sell each month.

As Oahu continues to grow, it continues to be the place to own real estate in America. With our limited supply of homes and the ever growing demand, the prices of homes in Oahu can only go up!

How will the Fed Rate Cut change Lending in Hawaii?

This morning I received an email from Chase mortgage bank : "With the Fed's lowering the discount rate yesterday, Chase officially announces that we're lowering our prime rate to 7.75% (from 8.25%). This rate reduction is effective immediately for all HELOC transactions. "

Clearly we are immediately seeing things get easier for 2nd mortgage borrowers. First mortgages take a bit longer to get the benefit. At first the stock market rallies, causing bond prices to go down, and rates to come up. But after a week or two, everything should work out and 1st mortgage rates should come down to below where they are now.

In the end, it should be a little easier to buy a house in Oahu, since the cost to borrow will be less and less over the next year. A home in Hawaii Kai that would have cost you $5000/ month (had you bought a month ago) might cost you $4700/ month if you buy it today.

There will probably be a rush to refinance mortgages this month and next, and I'm sure every loan officer is getting dozens of emails and calls today from their past client who want to see what rates are.

The bottom line is that this rate cut is a huge benefit to the Hawaii real estate market, and buyers should be far more motivated than they have been. We hope.

I have about $10million in listings right now, so I would really like to get them sold soon!

New condos in Kailua by Schuller / Dr Horton

There has been much speculation about the new condos that are supposed to be built in Kailua by Schuller homes. The project, which will be called Ironwoods at Kailua, is planeed to be 153 condos on the north end of Kailua.

People have been calling and emailing me about this project for a year or so, and today I had a nice woman from Kailua calling me for more information because the Schuller site doesn't say much. So I called the Schuller office and spoke to a guy who said very plainly, "we don't have any new imformation about it yet."

I asked him, "Is it going to be a long time before you know anything? Years?"

He said, "It's going to be a long time."

The Dr Horton site doesn't have anything more than the number of properties that will be there. There are no floorplans, no prices, no nothing. I think they are having legal problems with the project. Either that or they are trying to finish off the Makakilo and Waianae projects, because that is what the guy said he has right now.

Whenever they actually do come out with the prices or any new information, I'll post it here, but you'll likely have to camp out in front of the sales office to make sure you get one. They are going to sell like hotcakes. Actually, they are going to sell like Kailua condos, which sell faster than hotcakes.

When you look up condos in Kailua over $500k, it's pretty slim trimmings. Only Bluestone, an older building, is priced around $800-$900k. Whereas in Hawaii Kai condos are everywhere, Kailua has very few. That's part of it's charm - mostly single family homes.

So wait until 2008 or later and I'll put some info here about Ironwood, the newest mysterious condos in Kailua.

FED to the resuce! Will Hawaii real estate boom again?

Mark this day in history. It's the day the national housing and mortgage crisis turned around and the economy of America was boosted like never before. We hope.

With a 0.5% discount rate cut and a 0.5% Fed funds rate cut, the Fed did far more than anyone expected. While most expected a 0.25% cut in the Fed funds rate, I don't think anyone was expecting this huge move. It's a signal to all that the Fed is ready to act against a huge mortgage and housing crisis.

Mortgage rates should probably go UP today, but within a few weeks should come down nicely. We expect buyers everywhere to believe that now is the time to get back in the market. What do we expect for Hawaii real estate?

Well Hawaii's market hasn't slowed the way that other states have. I should say, Oahu's hasn't. The other islands have been going down for over a year. Oahu real estate should continue to slowly (or rapidly) climb, now that buyers have a better confidence about the market.

Buyers at this point should (we hope) believe that mortgage rates are going to be lower, that housing has seen its worst already, and that prices are going to go up again.

I have a few listings that have been sitting for a couple months, which is long in Oahu, since homes are selling in about 40 days. These listings should now see more activity. Realtors should start calling their buyers who were on the sidelines.

Time to start selling!