Betty Sakamoto: Aloha and welcome to Betty’s Real Estate Corner brought to you by Coldwell Banker Kapalua.
Roy Sakamoto: Coldwell Banker, Sakamoto Properties.
BS: It is that Coldwell Banker. Here we are again, my husband Roy Sakamoto and myself. We have worked together in this for like 45 years etc.
RS: Yeah
BS: 48, I’m not sure we’ve lost track but it is a great run of real estate and etc.
RS: Yeah and today we are having Norm Estin. Dr. Estin from doctors on call calling in again and updating us on the vaccine progress.
BS: That’s really pretty interesting right now because we really do all have to. Again, not real estate related but in the big picture everything has to do with covid and making covid officially go away. That does mean vaccinations for everybody. Everybody unless they have some sort of a major reason that they can’t get vaccinated has got to step up in the near future.
RS: Totally
BS: Totally
RS: I was just reading about a good friend of ours who passed away from covid in December. Charley Pride who a lot of you might know, a lot of you might not know but Charley was really the first well-known black country Western singer in the US. A good friend of ours and unfortunately we lost him to covid in December. Betty and I financed a scholarship in his name for a graduating senior at Lahainaluna from the class of 2021 and hopefully, his legacy will live on here on Maui and in Lahainaluna.
BS: Right. He loved Maui, loved Lahaina. They visited here a lot in the last x number of years I can’t remember. They haven’t been here, but we were able to participate with them in their 50th wedding anniversary in Dallas many years ago.
RS: That’s right, you flew to Dallas.
BS: Right. They have been together since I think teenagers and their history and story are absolutely fabulous. A wonderful family. Everyone around them that I have met and spent time with is just fabulous people. A great family, a family life, and family love, and music. It is really spectacular. He is such a loss to have lost him to covid shortly after and I wonder he had gone to an event where he won. Do you remember the award?
RS: The lifetime achievement.
BS: The lifetime achievement award on CMA.
RS: Yeah, Country Music Academy.
BS: Anyway, it was really sad, and not that long after he ended up hospitalized and never left the hospital. It happened very quickly.
RS: That’s interesting and interesting history for Charley. He told us years ago that he was in the army, got out of the army, recorded this single that became a big hit, and was invited to tour with a company of well-known country-western singers. His first public appearance was in Canada. He was about the 3ird act or 4th act in this 6 or 7 act show. When the announcer announced that Charley Pride was going to be up next the crowd went totally nuts and Charley started singing before the curtains open. Started singing his song, the crowd was going nuts, the curtains opened, and there was a black man singing. There was silence.
BS: Dead silence. He said he was scared to death.
RS: Yeah
BS: He didn’t know what would happen next.
RS: They were not used to a country-western singer that was black.
BS: They went with it.
RS: Yeah, after a couple of moments the crowd got back into it and got on their feet and were clapping and singing along with them and all was good.
BS: The rest is history, Charley Pride.
RS: It scared the heck out of him at first when it all went silent.
BS: Charley with an EY Pride. Look him up sometime he got a great history, fabulous music, and it might be something you still want to get before one of these years goes away.
RS: Yeah. That’s a little story from our past.
BS: That is right. It’s a wonderful story from our past. He was so fun.
RS: There was another Charley Pride story. About 2 months ago I was doing a photoshoot on the Bay Course on Par 3 it is now the 17th hole. For those of you golfers out there it is the Par 3 over the ocean by the Ironwoods. I was doing a photoshoot for father’s day for Kapalua golf and I’m out there and all of a sudden I hear, Sakamoto was that you? I looked up and here’s this chubby guy coming down. I said who in the hell is that? It turned out to be Lee Trevino who was staying in the woods and we hugged and caught up. He taught me a few tricks that still don’t work on the golf course.
BS: Charley fan, big Charley fan.
RS: Yeah
BS: Friend
RS: Charley and I, I remember playing many years ago. Played 9 holes on the Bay Course against Lee. I think Charley got a stroke a hole from Lee and I got 5 or 6 strokes for 9 holes. Lee shot a 30 for 9 holes and there were a couple of bucks that changed hands with Charley and Lee.
BS: But Lisa not playing with Charley Pride is like losing money.
RS: Yeah
BS: We better get to some real estate.
RS: Right, just a story from the past. We have been around for a lot of years so we’ve got a lot of experiences.
BS: Many years.
RS: Yeah. Anyway, this is a real estate show and again for real estate info, Betty is at 870- 7062 and Roy 870-7060. I will lead off with something that was kind of interesting. Yesterday, I ran an MLS study of what is available in terms of single-family homes in West Maui. There are a total of 27 homes
available and interestingly the prices start from $750,000 on up. A lot of people feel that you have got to spend a million dollars plus to buy a home in West Maui. Not so, basically from $750,000 on up, and now is an excellent time for everybody to get back in the market.
BS: Everybody also should be taking a good look at we still have the great interest rates going on. Even if you feel like you are paying a little more because of the pandemic and because of this crazy market that we’ve gone into. It will get offset somewhat by a great mortgage. It really is worth taking a look not a lot of inventory so it’s a little difficult. Sometimes you end up discovering that maybe you can buy 1 of the condos in and around town rather than a freestanding home. If it gets you into the market and gets you a great interest rate it’s really worth it. It is hard Elizabeth Quayle today was mentioning she has a number of great listings. She just made a comment that was saying that for the majority of her listings right now she is getting an offer almost immediately. It is happening quickly and then often above the asking price. I think we may have Norm Estin. Dr. Estin from doctors on call on the phone. He is going to give us a quick update on vaccinations, covid, etc. We are going to kind of jump off of real estate again and hopefully, we’ve got Norm Estin in here. Aloha Norm.
Dr. Norman Estin: Aloha Betty and Roy. Wonderful to hear you on the radio.
BS: Welcome
NE: Thanks. I have got good news on our latest Maui covid report here. We are doing well. We are getting vaccinated slowly. We are up to about 57% of the island now is adequately vaccinated. Again, we have 2 targets, 1 is 60% when we can relax some of the precautions and then 70% of life can go back to “normal” which means that we have no mask, no restrictions on gathering and social activity. There has been a development that I am sure all the listeners are aware of that. We have had these variants appear and variants are normal mutations in the virus and or mutants. There are 3 variants that we’ve been hearing about. There’s the British one, the California one but more concerned is the Indian one which is now known as the delta variant. This one is now the predominant one throughout the world. It is of concern for a couple of reasons. I will tell you about it in a second but we have it here on Maui already. It is responsible for about 1 in 4 that’s 25% of the cases in the entire United States. The problem with this variation of the virus is it’s twice as catchy or communicable as the 1st version of the virus that we had earlier last year. In other words, it’s twice as likely that you will get it if you’re exposed to the virus or somebody who has the virus. That means it’s more communicable than even smallpox. It is amazing how catchy this is. That means that vaccination is even more important. If you have been vaccinated already you are protected from this new delta variant and in the extremely unlikely possibility that you do catch it. You will have a very mild illness. You won’t be on a ventilator, you won’t have to be in a hospital and you certainly won’t die. On the other hand, if you have not been vaccinated yet you will certainly get this illness. It is so catchy and that’s what has all of us in public health around the entire country especially here in Hawaii concerned that we need to get more people vaccinated to prevent the spread of this new variant. There is some evidence that it may even be more serious than the initial one. if you have any symptoms of a sore throat, fever, headache, or cough you do want to check with your doctor, health care provider and get tested. If you haven’t been vaccinated yet please go ahead and get vaccinated. If you have been vaccinated the best thing you can do is to get to your family, your friends, and your neighbors to get vaccinated otherwise they are probably going to catch this.
BS: It is interesting Norm, right now my understanding is that they are offering, like almost prizes. Sometimes you get miles on Hawaiian airlines if you get vaccinated. Is that really happening?
NE: It is true. There are a number of incentives the state after their HI got vaccinated. HI meaning Hawaii is having a number of prizes including the miles you refer to, some restaurant prizes, a couple of other donations from lots of industries especially on Oahu. A couple of local outlets here on Maui are having incentives. Hotels are offering incentives to their employees to get vaccinated. It is easily available anywhere. Again, it is free. All the pharmacies have it, a lot of community groups have it. We are not having any more of the giant vaccination drive-through, walk-in clinics although we probably will have one starting in the fall once we have the vaccine approved for kids under 12. Right now, the vaccines are approved for all adults and for teenagers over 12.
BS: Interesting. Do you think it helps getting people out that there are these I’m calling them prizes?
NE: I think so. I think for some people they will respond to these things. If the incentives that some employers are that they are going to get some direct pay or a couple of hours of benefits for getting a shot regardless of how many people show up and the prize basis is sort of on a chance basis where 1 or 2 people per day per location may get a prize. It may incentivize some people to do it. It has a little bit of fun to it and I don’t see anything wrong with it. The real important thing is to make sure you do get vaccinated so you can protect yourself and your family and your loved ones.
BS: Maybe it’s time for us making this a little bit of a shout out to everyone who has employees to come up with something like you said a minute ago whether it’s a couple of hours off or a day off or anything that we can all come up with. It doesn’t necessarily have to be cash but offer something and that would if we all did something like that it would really help from the standpoint of getting some additional people vaccinated.
NE: That’s true. This is one of the things that is always an issue in public health and preventive medicine. How do you get people to change their behavior for something that they haven’t yet experienced? We deal with it with a lot of preventive medicine control. Let’s say, having to take medicine for your blood pressure or having to take medicine for high cholesterol when you don’t have any symptoms yet but we know from medical experience that there will be problems later on if we don’t take these things. It is sort of like changing your oil your car may be running pretty well now but if you don’t change your oil every couple of thousand miles you are going to have trouble down the road. It’s the same thing with getting vaccinated.
BS: Well, okay then. Let’s hope that shout-out helps.
RS: Yeah. What about the supply Norm? Is there an issue with it?
NE: There is no problem with supply. We have 3 vaccines in great numbers. The Pfizer is a 2 dose vaccine so you get 1 dose and then another 1 about 4 to 10 weeks later. The Moderna is the same way. You get a vaccination, which is a tiny little needle in the arm that most people don’t even feel, and then the 2nd one anywhere from 4 to 10 weeks later. The Johnson & Johnson is just a single dose. One and done kind of vaccine. They are all very effective.
BS: Okay. Well, I guess that gets us every little bit of everybody so maybe we’ll try to sell some real estate here Norm.
NE: Very good. Happy to give you the update.
BS: Thank you so much
NE: Thanks again.
RS: Thank you, Norm.
BS: Aloha Norm. See you later.
NE: Bye
BS: So now back to real estate.
RS: Yeah. Thanks to Dr. Estin who’s done a lot for the vaccination program here on Maui endless hours that he’s donated.
BS: You are right. He has endless hours.
RS: Yeah
BS: Everywhere
RS: We kid him that he puts more miles on his car than anybody I know in between running around to meetings and so forth and trying to get the vaccine word spread throughout Maui and throughout Hawaii.
BS: One of the things Norm has said. Dr. Norm Estin gets vaccinated so life can return to normal. Think about that a little bit. It is very simple. If we all do our best go ahead get vaccinated and life will return to normal.
RS: That’s right. We hear all these excuses for various reasons and there are some legitimate reasons for not getting vaccinated but come on let’s all try to get vaccinated. Those of you who haven’t we strongly urge that you do. It is going to be a help for all of us in the community.
BS: I think no question about it Roy. We’ve got to all remember this is vitally important and if we take a little time every so often to urge someone else on it’s going to take care of everyone in Maui and Hawaii.
RS: Yeah and the sooner we can get life back to normal as we know it. There’s been a lot of public outcries as far as visitors taking over the island and so forth which is true. We do have an awful lot of visitors here on Maui right now but they are helping to replenish our economy which really went into a tailspin. There’s a kind of a double-edged sword here. They are bringing a lot of needed money into the economy here. We should all be a little bit more tolerant of our visitors here.
BS: I believe you are right Roy. I think we really do have to be kinder, gentler because it doesn’t help I mean like even we’ve listened sometimes to somebody who’s kind of ranting and raving on this today. The tourists this that and there are hard things but I always just say let’s call them our visitors they are visiting. They are visiting, they are spending money here, they are keeping jobs going. Without them, the island could become a disaster.
RS: Totally. Absolutely.
BS: We already have all this infrastructure I mean think it all out. Let’s just try to be a little kinder to everybody. Let’s all be kinder and the world will be a better place.
RS: Okay, back to real estate. Part of my research yesterday was running the condo market in West Maui. This is just in West Maui but an interesting inventory. We have got as of yesterday 94 condominium apartments available for purchase in West Maui and these range from a low of $219,000 on up. There is no excuse for anyone not being in the market for buying real estate.
BS: One of the ones that I keep looking at it is been on the market for 21 days, 1133 Front Street. It is located a very short walk to Baby Beach. A small house, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2,000 square feet basically a $1,995,000. It is one of Elizabeth Quayle’s listings. She can be reached on this at 276-6061. (808) 276-6061, and it is occupied off and on but it is one that you will be able to see fairly quickly hopefully. If you are looking for anything that’s close to the ocean and in this price range under $2,000,000. It is fabulous.
RS: Yeah. What a great location right on Front Street close to Baby Beach which is the boy.
BS: Fabulous
RS: A lot of people learn to swim at Baby Beach. It is a great location, you can walk to town very easily. What was Elizabeth’s number again?
BS: (808) 276-6061 or she can be also reached at [email protected]. Give her a call it is a really great listing.
RS: Here’s a kind of an upscale home for sale right now. It is listed by Robert Myers. Robert many of you may know as the former Marlboro man.
BS: He is the former Marlboro man and he looks the part today and every day.
RS: Right
BS: He is amazing.
RS: He is one of our star agents with Coldwell Banker Island Properties. Robert can be reached at 283-3067. Give them a call if you want to see 381 Wekiu Place. It is a fabulous 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3,600 square feet. It is in the Kaanapali Golf Estates and it’s listed at $3,200,000. Very easy to see. Just call Robert again, 283-3067. See 381 Wekiu Place in Kaanapali Golf Estates.
BS: Another great Oceanfront home is 6291 Honoapiilani road. It is listed at $9,900,000. I have it listed or co-listed with Mary Anne Fitch. We have both been working on this for a while. 3.5 acres amazing it is known as The Alaelae Peninsula really spectacular. For somebody still out there looking for a spectacular oceanfront home, this could be the one. It is been really difficult to show it for a while because it’s occupied by a family. Give us a little bit of time on it but it really would be worth taking a look at if you are in that price range. I think Roy we are going to run down pretty quickly here. We’ve got maybe 2 minutes left.
RS: Yeah
BS: 2-minute warning? Oops, 2.5-minute warning.
RS: Okay
BS: Okay
RS: Here’s a quick Kahana Manor. It is a condominium apartment, a 1 bedroom, 1 bath, apartment number is 313 listed at $499,000. Listed by Rick Kepler from Coldwell Banker Island Properties. Rick can be reached at 283-3729. 283-3729 Rick Kepler and tell them you want to see Kahana Manor apartment number 313. It is a 1 bedroom,1 bath listed at $499,000. Great buy.
BS: And it’s a great location. You walk right across the street to a beach. It is a great location, a great pizza place right there in the building.
RS: You’ve got Dolly’s pizza.
BS: Dolly’s pizza
RS: You’ve got great sushi downstairs also. Kahana Manor great location.
BS: That’s a really super place. As we come down to the end, Roy do you have any final one you want to get out there?
RS: Yeah, real quick. Kahana or Hale Ono Loa apartment number 116, 1 bedroom, 1 bath listed as $624,000. Listed by Chip Anderson also with Coldwell Banker Island Properties. Chip’s number is 740-2100. Great price on this Hale Ono Loa. It is a 1 bedroom, 1 bath listed as $624,000.
BS: I think we are going to be coming up and have our I love Hawaii song in about a minute. Is there anything else that we should talk about? Do we want to have any more on the coronavirus? Another quick real estate moment?
RS: No. I think we need to stress getting vaccinated.
BS: There it is.
RS: Everybody gets vaccinated. Aloha.
BS: Aloha
