Betty Sakamoto: Aloha and welcome to Betty’s Real Estate Corner brought to you by Coldwell Banker Kapalua, Sakamoto Properties. Here we are again and we’re still all surviving the pandemic etc. My husband, Roy Sakamoto, here in the studio today with me. We’ve got a bunch of things we want to talk about today, part of it being related to the virus and we want to talk about Coldwell Banker. We kind of went together with Coldwell Banker over a year ago but so many people are just catching up on it so I think we’ re going to take a few minutes and tell you somewhat of the story on that. Norm Estin, Dr. Estin is going to check in with us in a few minutes, Board Certified Internist. West side offices in Kaanapali at the time supermarket and at in Kaanapali at the Hyatt. They are going to be opening..
Roy Sakamoto: Soon to open in the Wailea shops.
BS: Right.
RS: Shops at Wailea.
BS: He is been everywhere is what’s going on right now. If there’s testing or vaccinations going on you’re probably going to find Dr. Estin, also well known for his work on behalf of the Whale Foundation. He is an amazing doctor, an amazing member of the community and working so hard on so many different things. Every day if we call him he’s on the road going from West Maui over to quote the other side for something. If we really want to get to him we’ve probably got to catch him while he is driving back and forth. He should check in just a few minutes. Maybe, while we’re thinking about that we should do a little bit of a start on how we got from Sakamoto Properties to Coldwell Banker and how a year has somehow or almost a year has passed.
RS: It’s about a year.
BS: It’s kind of.
RS: Yeah. It’s funny we’ve had Sakamoto Properties. A lot of people know us by Sakamoto Properties, 40 years?
BS: 40 plus.
RS: 40 plus and very happy we were kind of a niche boutique real estate firm. Loved our office, loved our sales people, loved our clientele. We’ve been talking to Coldwell Banker Island Properties for probably 15 months before we finally decided to join their network.
BS: A couple of the great people there. Tommy Muldoon, Bob Cella and then eventually we met Steve Houle and between them all of a sudden we knew that it was what we should do.
RS: Very homogeneous corporation. It’s big but yet very personal. Everybody is treated as you would be one-on-one and we love it.
BS: There’s so many things that I’m finding are great about it. Number 1, they have a particular person. Steve Baker who’s the broker in charge for many of the agents that are Coldwell Banker Maui. He has to be the most amazing person in the world because he is always awake.
RS: Always available.
BS: If you try to get to him at 11 pm, you send him a contract to review and sign, he’s probably going to get it back to you by 20 minutes after 11. Now, I know what that’s like and so does Roy because we’ve had agents that we were responsible. And I’ll tell you if somebody got to me at 11 o’clock they weren’t going to hear from me till morning. Roy might have still been awake. But anyway, he’ll be getting into us. To try to get from where we started to now I think is really important because by the time we got started and then all of a sudden we had this opportunity. Roy had been working on with Coldwell Banker also that we were going to be able to take over the offices at 700 Office Road at Kapalua.
RS: Right. The old Kapalua Realty office.
BS: Right. We were able to enter into an agreement with Maui Land and Pineapple which was probably, I don’t even know that the date anymore. We finally closed our office and I would say moved over around June 1st.
RS: June, July something like that.
BS: Yeah. It’s become a blur and I think almost everybody understands the thing. I call it, I have a corona virus brain but our whole last year was one of such a huge transition. We left the office we had been in for 40 years. We had so many files and stuff and things that have ended up in storage. Some we had to shred and get rid of things and move a lot to our house and then to 700 Office Road.
RS: And we’re still having fun.
BS: And we’re still having fun.
RS: Yeah
BS: We got a great crew. Absolutely amazing agents are with us and that tends to be growing a little bit because that is what we’re up to. We are hoping to still come up with a few more agents to keep all the time covered. We are finding there that it’s a great spot to be meeting people because right outside there’s restaurants all around us and people walking and talking and from early morning until probably 8, 9 o’clock. If you’re paying attention there’s people around that might be talking real estate with you.
RS: Yeah, our neighbors are Sansei Kapalua and the Pour House restaurant.
BS: Kapalua Florist.
RS: Kapalua Florist, busy little neck of the woods there.
BS: It is. The Florist has brought us some absolutely spectacular flowers from time to time. Looks like we have Norm Estin. Dr. Estin who we’ve been talking about for the last 15 minutes or something that we’ve been talking about Doc Estin. Are you there Norm?
Dr. Norman Estin: I am. Good morning Betty. Aloha everybody.
BS: Aloha.
RS: Aloha Norm.
BS: We’ve just been telling who you are and what you do and how tied you are to the West side of Maui. What I said a little while ago is that more recently you’re everywhere. If there’s testing or vaccinations going on you’ll probably find Doc Estin. That you also the Whale Foundation. We want to hear everything that you’ve got to tell us about testing now and vaccinations and what we can all do.
NE: Oh, that’s great. Thanks Betty. Thank you Roy. You know, it’s an exciting time for a doctor because we’re on the cusp of turning this around. We’ve had a terrible year and now we’ve got a solution and a treatment. It’s only weeks and a couple of months away so we’re close to normal again. The vaccine has changed everything. Vaccine are the only way to effectively fight a virus and create an immunity and resistance individually. These new vaccines that have come out are fantastic. We’ve given 2 of them out right now as everybody knows the Moderna and the Pfizer product. The Pfizer is being given in two shots by the Maui Health Systems and the hospital. The Department of Health under the direction of Mayor Victorino and Dr. Pang the director of the department else here are giving the Moderna vaccine. I’m assisting them with a bunch of other doctors and we’re doing hundreds every day and we’ve already done thousands in the last few weeks. It’s been fantastic. The vaccines are easy to give. They’re painless, they’re safe, they’re effective, there’s no side effects and it’s fantastic. This has been the best roll out of a vaccine that we’ve had in the history of mankind. To have a vaccine develop this quickly with all the researchers in the world coming together and be able to test it as effectively as we can and have had no side effects. The demand’s incredible here and around the world. People who are originally hesitant to get one to realize “Hey man”, there’s no side effects here and let me have it. The doctors and nurses and providers are all lining up to get it and we’re just trying to get the supplies. The state and the federal government have trouble supplying what we need so we’re working on that as fast as we can. I tell you, this is a chance for people out there to save their lives, to protect themselves, protect the lives of their loved ones. The sooner we do that the sooner we get on to having the kind of lifestyle we had hang on with this pandemic here.
BS: Norm, what would you say to someone right now who’s really hesitant about getting the vaccination? We know some people like that and I try to stay out of it. Obviously, I’m a big pusher of getting vaccinated. I think it’s so important. What would you say as a medical person?
NE: Well, I can understand that totally. People don’t want to experiment on things. They don’t want to be guinea pigs. They don’t want to try something until it’s been proven and that makes total sense to me. I’m the same way in my own life.
BS: Did you get the vaccine Norm?
NE: I was the first in line. I’ve had 2 doses and everybody in my office that’s the provider has done it. For me, personally I didn’t even know I had a shot. It was fantastic. I wasn’t sore. Some people get a little bit of an arm soreness or feel a little bit achy for a day after 1 of the vaccinations but it’s minor. We’ve got no serious reaction. And now we know having given millions of these in the world and thousands of this on this island. We know how safe this is. We’ve had no serious reactions and I think people are starting to realize. God, if everybody else is doing this and they’re not having a problem I ought to think about it. What will really have people starting to get this is going to be in a couple of weeks when we have the single dose version that’s coming out from a new company Johnson & Johnson arrive on islands. When we can start giving this in doctors’ offices and in the pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens that is going to get people lining up to get it. Right now we can only get them either at the hospital or the Department of Health site at MCC and of course the nursing homes and congregate living facilities. They are being taken care of by Walgreens and CVS.
BS: Hey Norm, you had a major rain out yesterday, didn’t you at the site?
NE: We did.
BS: That was crazy.
NE: You know, it’s Maui. It’s the tropics. We had a perfect day and the next thing you know it’s drizzling a little bit and then everybody’s soaked. It’s a major monsoon and we have 50 miles an hour winds blew over some of the national guard tents and then it’s fine again.
BS: You got back opened up, right?
NE: Yeah. We are back open now so we’re fine and the staff is great. The people giving the vaccines are phenomenal. We’ve got participation from the national guard and the entire MPD and other law enforcement branches. We’ve got the entire mayor’s office and county’s office providing personnel. We’ve got the Department of Health under Dr. Pang and Mark Nishimoto using all their resources and we have the incredible university of Hawaii Maui campus group. I tell you, their Chancellor has been amazing in providing the support of the institution and their culinary academy is providing us plate lunches. How’s that, I mean…
BS: That is amazing.
NE: If you want a perfect place to go through a pandemic on Maui. Here we are giving out vaccines and the college is providing us plate lunches to all the volunteers. It’s fantastic.
BS: Is that the greatest story of all time. I think we might go to there for lunch today.
NE: It’s terrific and you can get a choice of a vegetarian or meat or chicken. They are great and these guys are going to be great chefs and cooks when they finish their program. It’s wonderful and they’re very well appreciated. I’m very pleased that the rollout we have a clinic scheduled for tomorrow and then we have 3 of them scheduled for next week. We have to wait and see how much more vaccine we can get from Honolulu delivered the week after next.
BS: You’ll be running out as years more or less?
NE: Well, we’re not going to run out, we just don’t have supplies to take care of the numbers of people who are going to want this going forward. We have enough supplies to give the second dose for sure for all the people that have had the 1st doses. We want to guarantee that they are 100% protected. We want to get more supplies to start giving more 1st doses to people as they want them.
BS: Perfect. That sounds really great. Norm, are you going to come in here in the studio one of these days and hang out with us? We keep trying for that but this worked pretty good.
NE: This has been great. I’d love to do that. Maybe a follow-up in a few weeks.
BS: Perfect.
NE: Tell everybody how it’s going. Maybe answer some questions. I think the one thing I do want to emphasize to everybody is even with the vaccine it’s very important to continue the W’s. All those things we do to keep safe so that means we have to wear a mask whenever we’re outside. We have to watch our distance from people. We have to watch out for big gatherings and we have to wash our hands. So, ongoing for the whole rest of this year if we want to get this under control the most important letter in the alphabet is W. Wear the mask. Wash your hands. Watch the distance. Watch big gatherings and the more we do that the more we’re going to get this under control and open up this island again.
RS: One more question Norm before we let you go. How effective is the vaccine with all the variants of the virus that have come out?
NE: That’s a great question Roy. So far all the vaccines we have been very very effective and the rapid tests that we have will pick up the variants and mutants as well. Now, one of the problems is that viruses like any life form are just trying to reproduce and exist so they will mutate or change to the conditions around them just as humans have changed over the course of history. Viruses like any other living being changed. They are just trying to reproduce their own DNA and RNA. They’re mutated on a natural basis then there’s no way to stop that. So far the vaccines we have are working but all the companies are working on new doses and trials of different additional vaccine boosters that may be necessary in a few months or a year to improve our immunity.
RS: Good to know.
BS: Yeah. That is. That’s amazing. It is amazing to even understand that a virus can do all of that or attempt to or get away with some of it. I guess if we fight it we do all the W’s you’re mentioning and everybody get vaccinated. Let’s see to it that happens. We better let you go Norm and get on to your next spot.
NE: Terrific
BS: Thank you so much for calling in with us and we’ll probably see you later today. Aloha.
NE: Thanks for the opportunity.
BS: Thanks Norm.
RS: Thank you so much Norm.
NE: Thank you so much. Aloha. thank you
BS: Thank you so much. It’ll mean a lot to a lot of people. Aloha.
RS: Aloha.
NE: Aloha Betty And Roy.
BS: So now, what about a little real estate? I’m not sure where we got to now.
RS: We were talking about..
BS: Coldwell Banker.
RS: Coldwell Banker. One thing for and I know there are agents out there, real estate agents who listen to our show because we’ve had comments. If any of you agents are looking to change companies to enhance your professionalism maybe getting into a bigger network please call us. I think you’ll find Coldwell Banker could be a good roosting place for you.
BS: Yeah. It’s not going to be simple always. I know that the selection process everybody cares we want to be sure that we get agents that are really great and either are seasoned or want to learn. I think that the new agent can sometimes step into something like this especially being at the Kapalua resort. It will make a major difference to someone’s career so I’m hoping that will happen.
RS: Yeah and we have a great training program. Boy, you can learn everything about learning how to sell real estate from A to Z with the Coldwell Banker program. We’re proponents of it.
BS: They make it fun. Don’t you think?
RS: Yeah and I’ll say this, we are just not hiring everybody just because you may have a license doesn’t mean we’re going to accept you. We are going to go through an interview process and make sure you fit with us and that vice versa. You know, has to be a workable program for both of us.
BS: Yeah and it isn’t. I mean, whatever each one of us in our real estate careers and whatever we’ve done it’s important that you find people that are kind of like-minded with you. Once you’ve got that you should stick with it.
RS: Absolutely.
BS: But I think it’ll be a fun time.
RS: Yeah and as we mentioned earlier in the show we went through a whole vetting process of Sakamoto Properties. Should we stay very small like we are? Should we join a larger company? Shall we just retire? Which was not really an option but it was a thought and here we are.
BS: We spent probably 15-18 months talking about it.
RS: Yeah
BS: And then somewhere along the line between Tom Muldoon and Bob Cella who are two amazing real estate brokers and amazing people we ended up making the decision. I think, it’s been a really great decision.
RS: Yes, absolutely.
BS: However because we did this in the middle of a pandemic one of the hard thing was we’ve been doing a major renovation at our office at 700 Office Road at Kapalua so it was a little bit difficult. We brought Gary Lincoln in a great contractor who worked with us to get some of the early renovations done. Everything’s been a little bit slow as you can imagine.
RS: How about Scott Lehman?
BS: Oh, Scott Lehman is the best.
RS: Scott, if you’re listening thanks.
BS: Yeah. He’s one of the greatest. I call him a handyman. He is been a licensed contractor in the past but he is here and he has a small yet giant business and he can do almost anything. He can also bring someone to you if we need an electrician or we need someone. He’s got access to pulling someone from somewhere and magically getting almost anything done whether we need a licensed person or not. He really is absolutely the best of the best. He is really super. Gary Lincoln, Scott Lehman..
RS: Big shout out to them.
BS: Big shout out to them.
RS: How about some listings?
BS: One of the bunch Roy that I’d love to hear you talk about is. We have a new listing at 9 Kapalua Place. I think Roy should tell the story on that one. Unbelievable place.
RS: Oh no. This is attracting. Quite a bit of buzz amongst the real estate community as well as the general public. This is an awesome 4 bedroom, 5.5 bath home. Located right on Oneloa Bay in Kapalua. The address is 9 Kapalua Place. It’s a 4 bedroom, 5.5 bath. A little over 7,400 square feet. Listing price on this is $16,000,000 which sounds like a lot but it’s really heck of a bargain. When you look at about 30,000 square feet of land. A little over 30,000, immaculately landscaped and the 4 bedrooms, 5.5 baths comes fully furnished. Nothing you need to do, just move in. It was originally built in 2001 and remodeled in 2018, 2019.
BS: This is actually 7,500 square feet of living space.
RS: Right.
BS: And then there’s so many open areas and lanai areas and really pretty spectacular.
RS: Sliding doors that really open up to the outdoors, from the master bedroom downstairs in the dining area, the living room. Fantastic location, fantastic house.
BS: A great TV viewing room.
RS: Yeah
BS: Great for movies if you were going to be trying to show really fun movies there with a family together or friends and neighbors and whatnot. Really, it’s quite a place.
RS: Call Roy 870-7060 or Betty at 870-7062 and we’ll make arrangements to have you take a look at this.
BS: One of the agents, Elizabeth Quayle who you can also reach (808) 276-6061. She was here a week ago or 2 weeks ago with me and was talking about a lot of different listings. I know she has some new listings at the Masters and etc. She really has a great take on the market. She’s really great about being able to work with someone getting financing etc. We’ve got some great people in the office. Maybe Roy, what’s the next one you’ve got?
RS: Okay. Here’s a little change of pace. It’s out of our Kapalua neighborhood but it’s in Makena. 4584 Makena Road is the address. It’s an older home. It’s a 2 bedroom, 3.5 bath home. The property size, the land size it’s over one acre. Sandy Beach Front listed at $11,500,000. It’s just South of the Wailea Resort. The Grand Wailea Kea Lani and so forth. Just south of that resort is 4584 Makena Road. Again, call Roy at 870-7060 or you can also call Tom Muldoon on this one 870-9083.
BS: You know Roy, we did just get the 2 minute warning.
RS: Wow
BS: This will start making us think of super bowl on Sunday.
RS: Yes
BS: Yeah
RS: Yeah
BS: The 2 minute warning has just happened. Can you think of anything in particular in closing? I mean, one thing would be our office is open 7 days a week. If you’re out that way and you want to stop by to say “Hello” I can’t say that we’re there all the time but there should be someone there pretty much every day between 9 and 5. Stop by, see the office, say Hello, pick up a coffee at the Honolulu store or if we’re there we’ll fix you a cup of coffee. It is fun to have people come by and look at our office and see where we’re going with it all.
RS: Great location, adequate parking, right in front so come on by anytime. Again, call Betty 870-7062, Roy 870-7060.
BS: Now, it is the 1 minute warning so pretty quickly we have Danny Couch coming back on and for anyone that doesn’t know Danny just listen to this. “I Love Hawaii” you can find his records everything online and at dannycouch.com. This is my all time favorite.
RS: This makes us so happy.
BS: This makes me so happy.
RS: Everybody should be.
BS: Everybody should be happy when they hear I Love Hawaii.
RS: Yeah. That’s why we live here.
BS: That’s why we live here. Roy was born and raised here.
RS: Yeah
BS: I’m from Buffalo, New York and yeah they lost the super bowl but it’s okay. It’s the greatest city. If I couldn’t be here.
RS: Yeah
BS: Buffalo anyway. Aloha.
RS: Aloha.
