Betty Sakamoto: Aloha and welcome to Betty’s Real Estate Corner brought to you by Roy and Betty Sakamoto. Both here in the studio Coldwell Banker at Kapalua. Here we are again Roy just kind of settling down in the middle of the week almost the end of the week.
Roy Sakamoto: Almost the end of the week.
BS: A lot of stuff going on still.
RS: I was just thinking we are kind of the in our ideal dresses today.
BS: Yes, we are.
RS: Betty’s got a jacket on kind of almost like a suit and I am in the studio in a golf shirt, shorts, and slippers.
BS: Slippers. Yes, slippers
RS: Yeah
BS: It is. We didn’t realize till we got in the car. It is funny though because I moved here from Buffalo New York and then lived in Chicago for a while. I’ve been here for 47 years or something, but I still have that little part of me that if I am going to be meeting certain clients or I am meeting someone in the office I really kind of like to dress up and look like it’s a business deal. Now for Roy, I think that if he puts on his golf shirt, shorts, and slippers he is ready for a business deal.
RS: Absolutely
BS: And it works for both of us. We both kind of smile when we look at one another in the car sometimes. It’s like we didn’t see how he got dressed in the morning. Today, we’ve got a whole bunch of different things. Dr. Estin is going to check in with us in about 15 minutes I think so that will be fine but good to hear from him again to learn what’s going on. We’ve got a bunch of different properties that we are going to chat about and maybe different market ideas. I brought with me a thing that I’ve read a couple of times over the years but it’s kind of definitely more the same today than it was. This was originally in Farm and Land realtor magazine in October 1917. You remember this, don’t you?
RS: Yeah 1917.
BS: Well, not exactly 1917.
RS: Well, that was a good year though.
BS: Yes.
RS: Yeah
BS: Anyway, it’s called procrastination. I hesitate to make a list of all the countless deals I’ve missed. Bonanzas that were in my grip. I watched through my fingers slip. The windfalls that I should have bought were lost because I overthought. I thought of this, I thought of that. I could have sworn I smelled a rat, and others grabbed them at that price. It seems I always hesitate, then make my mind up way too late. A very cautious man am I and that is why I never buy. How Nassau and Suffolk grew. New Jersey Staten Island too while others scald those brawling farms and welcome deals with open arms. A corner here, ten acres there, compounding values year by year. I chose to think and as I thought, they bought the deals I should have bought. The golden chances I had then are lost and will not come again. Today I cannot be enticed for everything’s so overpriced. The deals of yesteryear are dead, the market’s soft and so is my head. Last night I had a fearful dream. I know I awakened with a scream some Indians approached my bed for trinkets on the barrel head in dollar bills worth 24 and nothing less and nothing more. They’d sell the Manhattan aisle to me. The most I’d go to was 23. The Redmond scowled not on a bet and sold to Peter Minuet. At times a teardrop drowns my eye for deals I had but did not buy and now life’s saddest words I’ve pen “If only I’d invested then.” We are seeing a lot of that right now.
RS: Yeah. It’s interesting that 105 years ago that was written. Imagine that.
BS: Imagine that.
RS: And people are still using the same excuse or still coming up with the God I should have bought last year, or I should have bought four years ago whatever. For people like that there’s never a good time to buy. We’ve had people say “Hey, I’m going to wait till the market bottoms out, and then I’ll buy.”
BS: We’ve watched that enough.
RS: Yeah. We’ve been in business a lot of years and we don’t know when the markets are at the bottom.
BS: The only way we know the market has bottomed is exactly what’s in that article. That it’s back up.
RS: Yeah
BS: Oh shoot, I should have should a would a could a. It’s amazing. It’s an amazing article from 1917. Here we go again where again there are fewer listings than ever or for a long time but there are people that are still buying. I still think if we all think about where we’ve seen interest rates in the past the worst was around 19% and people were buying real estate at the time.
RS: Yes, absolutely.
BS: I remember I sold a million-dollar property to somebody at a time that things weren’t selling like that. It was a brand-new home. The person that bought it really loved it. She could afford to do it. I was stunned when it really went through. She did that mortgage but then in the end she paid the mortgage off maybe a year and a half later. The house turned out to be the deal that we all should have invested in.
RS: Absolutely. Remember we had the first million-dollar listing in Kaanapali?
BS: Yes, Hakui Loop.
RS: Yeah. A lot of agents in our business kind of laughed at us. You are going to sell that house for a million dollars, are you serious?
BS: We sure did.
RS: Look at where the market has gone.
BS: Yeah. You can’t buy anything less than two million now and on Kaanapali Hillside.
BS: Pretty much you are right I mean darn close to it.
RS: Right
BS: Two million is almost just acceptable today. Interest rates are going up, but I still think if you look over the past 20 years the interest rates are still pretty good.
RS: Very good.
BS: Yeah, I totally agree.
RS: Absolutely.
BS: Prices obviously are up but I’m just it’s not like there’s been just a short surge in the market. I believe the market has totally changed. It could slip again but we are not going to see it back 10 years.
RS: No. And you know what’s interesting? People from out of the area we’ll call them visitors are looking at Maui in particular and saying wow your deals are pretty good here. We are seeing condominiums, and homes being snapped up by these visitors who are looking at second homes or perhaps eventually moving here to Maui. They can see the values in real estate here in Maui and a lot of our local residents can’t.
BS: I totally agree with you. I mean you are right most of those properties are somewhat normal second-home investor properties. People are doing short-term rentals the ones that are legal I mean it has cut out. Most of the people doing illegal rentals I think are getting pushed out of that.
RS: And should be.
BS: And should be. It’s time that everybody the law is the law. Let’s all be civic-minded. It’s just doing the right thing. You are right I mean like sometimes now when somebody’s looking to buy a home or a place to live in if something’s available take a good long hard look at it because it’s going to be for a long time better than rent and with the current interest rates. If you can find something that works for you and your family give it some thought. Talk to a lender, and get together with your real estate agent.
RS: Yeah. Your first step should be to contact a realtor whether you are looking for a primary residence, a second home, an investment property, or whatever. Start with a realtor who is familiar with the market, and can help guide you to the right lenders, the right escrow company, the right professionals including home inspectors, and so forth. Start with the realtor. You can start by calling Roy or Betty. My number is (808) 870-7060, Betty is (808) 870-7062 call us. If we can’t help you directly, we can certainly point you in the right direction or help you find a realtor that can help you. Call us.
BS: We have a great office. We are located right now at Kapalua. We can have you stop by and chat with us if it’s something that we aren’t as attached to or we’re not as knowledgeable about there’s someone in our office it is. We can have you talk with someone. We have Ethan Kaleiopu has been here with me a number of different days and he is fabulous. He worked a lot with local residents. He really, I’d say fairly expert today at helping people get loans and work toward getting qualified. He is really great. Lahainaluna graduate and worked with Roy when he was still in High School. He was interning for us. It was amazing. He would do anything and that’s how we always operated over the years. If you had to clean the lanai or race through a house and pick it up as fast as you could or hide all the dirty laundry, we all know how to do that.
RS: Yeah, Ethan is interesting. He called during his senior year he is looking for a senior class project and he wanted to learn about real estate so he called and asked if he could learn about real estate under us. I asked him to come into our office then and he came in in a couple of days. We sat and talked. And I asked him why would you want to go into real estate? I will never forget his answer. I thought he was going to come back and say well I want to make boatloads of money, buy two cars, buy homes here buy homes there, and so forth. His answer was, I want to help people make a decision and find the right property. That stuck with me. That’s Ethan who has kind of been kind of our underling I would say. He is grown a lot under us and hopefully, he has learned a lot from us.
BS: He may have been an underling.
RS: No
BS: He is knocking it dead right now. He is fabulous. He is the sweetest, nice guy.
RS: He is sword and so happy for him.
BS: I am. He can be reached at (808) 868-8123. I think is the best number for Ethan.
RS: Right
BS: (808) 868-8123. He really is a great one for a first-time homebuyer. His dad has worked at Kapalua forever and he is an amazing person. He knows Kapalua, he knows Kaanapali. He grew up. He is a Lahainaluna boy and really great.
RS: Local boy.
BS: Local boy
RS: Call Ethan. What was Ethan’s number again?
BS: (808) 868-8123.
RS: Ethan Kaleiopu. He is with Coldwell Banker Kapalua. Again, call us Roy at (808) 870-7060.
BS: Or Betty (808) 870-7062. We will direct you in any way we can help you with anything, and find a great property for you. It’s a hard time but properties are available and it’s never too late.
RS: Exactly
BS: Yeah
RS: Yeah
BS: We should hear from Norm shortly, but I think we could take a look. Do you want to see if any of those properties that we brought along with us? We might want to share some information.
RS: Yeah. Here’s a condominium a one-bedroom, a one-bath condominium at Kulakane in Honokawai in West Maui. One bedroom, one bath, apartment number is 108. It’s a ground-floor unit listed at $600,000 by Ray Chin from our office. Ray can be reached at (808) 344-2677. We repeat numbers quite fast so just kind of remember Roy or Betty Sakamoto. If you take down our numbers, you will be.
BS: We will get you to everybody.
RS: Yeah, absolutely.
BS: Here’s another one Roy, Channel House in Lahaina unit A204 listed at $385,000. It’s leasehold but really fabulous location for anybody easy place to live. Listed by George Nunez also a Lahainaluna graduate. He can be reached at (808) 385-4665 or Lena Taberna at (808) 281-4240. Really great one bedroom one bath. You are right there across from the water in Lahaina. You can get everywhere. It’s a perfect spot to have a second home or rent it long term and I think that it’s a great location really nice shape also.
RS: Or to live in.
BS: Yeah, or to live in. Perfect.
RS: Yeah, what a great price.
BS: We would have loved that at one time.
RS: Yeah
BS: Yeah
RS: For sure
BS: It was perfect.
RS: Here’s a Pohailani unit it’s a two-bedroom unit number is 219. It’s listed by Elizabeth Quayle from our office. Listed at $697,000 which is a great price for a two-bedroom. It’s at Pohailani in Kahana. Elizabeth can be reached at (808) 276-6061 and this is for Pohailani number 219.
BS: Another listing that we have right now at Kapalua is Nine Bay Drive and we haven’t ever talked about it on the radio. It is directed more at the very top of the market. If someone you know check in with Roy, he’s been tied to the owner and it’s a spectacular home between The Montage and the Kapalua Bay Villas on Acreage. It is really unbelievable.
RS: Yeah. It’s just under 10 acres of land a good portion of it is under a conservation easement to the Hawaii Island Land Trust. It’s for the protection of the Hawaiian seabird. Actually, they are starting to nest as we speak right now and soon we’ll have these little hatchlings little birds.
BS: It’s so sweet.
RS: They are little white fluff balls and it’s great to see these birds take flight. A good part of these 10 acres is the nesting ground for the Hawaiian seabird. BS: Another great thing they put in a lot of fruit trees almost every fruit that you can think of that can grow in Hawaii is growing on that property. It’s really one of the sweetest most wonderful places that I’ve ever been.
RS: Yeah. It’s six bedrooms, seven baths around a central courtyard. The home itself is about 6,500 square feet something like that.
BS: A couple of extra small bathrooms.
RS: Yeah, and with the courtyard. There’s really about ten-eleven thousand square feet that you’re working with as your residents.
BS: It’s all interior space really.
RS: Right
BS: You come through it’s very safe, it’s interior space you’ll be living in that courtyard a good deal of the time.
RS: Oh, yeah. A good portion of the property zone conservation. For those of you looking to vacation rent a property, this is not it. You will never be able to vacation rent which is great. It should be that way.
BS: You can always have your guests stay next door at The Montage or on the other side at the Kapalua Bay Villas, at The Ritz Carlton at Kapalua. It is that one special property. We obviously aren’t showing it that often because there’s a limited number of buyers. I just thought it was time that we mentioned that on the radio because everybody listens to the radio, I think.
RS: Yeah. We have it listed at $59,500,000. We’ve had some very interesting showings. There’s a buyer already that’s seen it but it’s still available right now and so call us. Call Roy at (808) 870-7060 or Betty at (808) 870-7062 and ask us for more info on Nine Bay Drive.
BS: Good. That will be a fun one.
RS: Yeah
BS: It will be great. Here’s one other listing Roy and maybe even the specific unit doesn’t matter but it is there is a listing one bedroom one bath at the Maui Eldorado which is one of the oldest condominiums more or less I’d say in West Maui. It connects to the water by way of the Kaanapali Golf Course. They have a great cabana that belongs to them on right down sitting on the beach that I’m not so sure if that ever gets taken out by a wave or something you’re going to build it again. It really is one of the greatest places anytime you’re walking along the beach there and you see that cabana. It’s the place you’d like to be hanging out. The Maui Eldorado beautiful room’s beautiful location you can walk everywhere in the resort. There’s a beach there you can get down to the other side Kaanapali beach in front of the Sheraton Maui Eldorado.
RS: Whalers village.
BS: Yeah. Anyway, perfect spot.
RS: Here’s a great one at Kahana Reef and this is listed by Dave Quandt. Dave’s number is (808) 457-0604 and hopefully Dave’s listening. I think he listens to our program quite a bit. Anyway, this is one bedroom one bath, apartment number is 411. It’s listed at $895,000 for a one-bedroom one-bath Kahana Reef right on the ocean. David Quandt is the listing agent.
BS: Okay, good news we have Dr. Estin on the phone. We are going to be coming up to the end of the show and we’ll get to have Danny Couch again but right now we’ve got Dr. Norm Estin doctors on call from Kapalua to Wailea. Dr. Estin?
Dr. Norman Estin: Hey, aloha Betty, and Roy. Gorgeous day here in paradise, as usual water is clear as ever, full moon is giving us big tides low lows high highs and it’s just gorgeous. It’s a wonderful place to be. Turns to covid we’re doing great very few very sick people, but things aren’t perfect. There are three places in the country that have lots of cases. Like we say in Hawaii lots of cases. They are Puerto Rico, Florida, and Hawaii. We are in the top three because we have so many visitors coming in on planes still bringing us covid. Even though we’re not really sick in the hospital we’ve got big numbers. The warning for all of us who live here is one if you haven’t been vaccinated or boosted yet go and get it because it will prevent you from getting really sick or winding up in a hospital or worse. All the vaccinations are free at any pharmacy or your doctor’s office. Secondly, if you are indoors still with a big crowd, especially strangers it’s wise to mask up. If you are at all compromised in terms of your ability to fight off infections or getting older then you want to mask up indoors for sure. Now going forward this probably isn’t going to go away. About five months ago I said Hey we had omicron everybody’s going to get it but nobody’s going to be really sick that’s exactly what happened. In January, February, and March everybody got sick with a little sinus infection. Two months ago, I told you Hey Elvis has left the building but the covid has not and that’s exactly what it was. We still had the covid around and now the news I have for you is it’s not going away. It’s always going to be with us and that’s why we have to be especially protective and not let our guard down. Again, indoor masking, and vaccination, boosted if you haven’t yet. The reason is you don’t want to get this because of the risk of long covid. That’s where you have symptoms that last for years and years and years affecting your heart your lungs or your nervous system and your brain. We do not have a test for that yet.
BS: Hey Norm, we have hit the two-minute warning so we’re going to have to say that that’s the end of our notice to everyone. It’s got to be taken as that it’s a serious notice. If you haven’t been vaccinated, get vaccinated. Go to doctors on call. Call first, go there to get vaccinated, or wherever else. They are doing vaccinations at this point. Do it. Get boosted and make it all happen because otherwise no one’s protected. If each of us doesn’t take care of the other someone else is going to have it and someone else.
RS: That’s right and wear your mask as Dr. Norm just said. Anytime you are indoors when you’re on an airplane. A lot of us are traveling this summer.
BS: I think the grocery store.
RS: Keep a mask on grocery store, anywhere indoors.
BS: Any place no matter where you go, I mean even if you’re walking into doctors on call put your mask on. It’s not going to hurt us until we sit down and are trying to talk or something. Let’s do it if you go to a movie God forbid wear a mask. Wherever you are today if you look around and you’re going to be close to people let’s mask. let’s do it it’s not that hard.
RS: No, very easy.
BS: We are again I don’t know if Norm has quite hung up yet, but I think we are. He did. Okay, thank you, Norm, so much. You can reach doctors on call at (808) 667-7676. We are here now Danny Couch is back with us so aloha to you and hello Danny Couch.
RS: Aloha