Betty Sakamoto: Aloha and welcome to Betty’s Real Estate Corner, brought to you by Sakamoto Properties, Coldwell Banker, Kapalua, everything that is the West Side. It’s a great day here. It’s going to be a super show. We had a lot of talk today driving here about the show, what we were going to say, what we are going to talk about. But I think as we sat down, everything seems to fly away. But there’s so many things going on right now. Obon.
Roy Sakamoto: Absolutely, yeah.
BS: Lahaina Hongwanji is…
RS: Actually it’s in August sometime.
BS: Oh, I thought they were still coming up now.
RS: In August, yeah.
BS: Oh, no, but I didn’t know that. Okay.
RS: But all of the local Buddhist churches will have the Obon festival, which is a celebration of the departed and great food, great dancing, great music and great camaraderie for the community.
BS: It’s a very happy time, to me, when we go to those. And it’s been many, many years now. But I can remember the first one that we went to and having no understanding of it, but it was happy. You know, people were all coming together, talking about who had passed. We would go into the church area …
RS: Columbarium.
BS: The columbarium and take out ashes, etc., you know, and open the doors so that they would be able to come out and dance and be a part of the celebration. And that really was interesting to me that everybody thought about them and talked about them, so whoever had passed on…
RS: They did not have that in Buffalo.
BS: Did not have that in Buffalo, it was quite different there.
RS: Yeah.
BS: But there were also in Buffalo though there were things that happened when someone passed and people don’t forget. I think it is important to always remember who’s already gone before us, and what they’ve done and what they’ve given us. When I think of Maui and your dad and your mother and what they did to help me along, they were amazing people. Absolutely amazing people. And she cooked.
RS: And she cooked?
BS: Yes. If we were going to have a barbecue, it would be, we’d have hotdogs and maybe some macaroni salad or things. But then Roy’s parents would arrive and they would have a car full of stuff, like this special chicken, homemade sushi, anything that you could think of.
RS: Peanut butter chicken.
BS: Peanut butter chicken, one of my all time favorite things. That was fabulous. Roy’s mom would always show up with it. She never seemed to have, I should have asked Dad about that, she never complained about cooking, making these things. I don’t know if anyone helped her clean up because I was never there.
RS: Dad.
BS: Yeah. Daddy?
RS: Yeah.
BS: Was he mean about it?
RS: Nah.
BS: Or was he really happy? Oh, let me help you clean that. I can do that. I can help with that.
RS: Speaking about our dearly departed, how about Sue Cooley.
BS: Yeah over the last few days, for some reason, maybe, it’s the 4th of July. It’s different things, when you start remembering and remembering different days gone by. Now Sue Cooley, who hopefully everybody remembers, made huge contributions to Lahaina Luna High School to see to it that the stadium got built. And it was a lot of money. I mean, beyond at the time, my total comprehension. But she sure loved Lahaina, the school, everybody there, her boys, the football boys. And she went through a number, theoretically of not quite generations, but generations of teams. There would be the next team coming up, and she had always get to meet them and there’d always be a moment that we’d be there and the kids would all – I remember the first time one of the kids said to her, “Could I hug you?” and she said, “Well, of course”, and then all of a sudden, every kid that was there, the whole football team, was giving a hug, the biggest, most fabulous hugs in the world. Yeah, it was great.
RS: These big, burly kids.
BS: Yeah.
RS: Wanting to hug this frail, elderly woman.
BS: And she loved every minute.
RS: She had a heart so big that it was unbelievable. Plus, not only Lahainaluna, but a great supporter of Hale Makua and a great supporter of other community activities.
BS: I remember the lady, Sue called me one day and told me that there was something in the paper, and I’m sorry that I never kept a record of this, and this woman was looking to get some donations because she was trying to take her girls there. You know, maybe it was girls and guys.
RS: A trip to?
BS: A trip, there was a special trip. Yeah and she really didn’t have enough money to make it work. Some of the parents didn’t have enough and the kids have been doing different things. So Sue asked me if I would call her and ask her what she needed. So I called her and found out exactly what she needed, to do it. And Sue wrote a check for everything.
BS: I got the check to her and all of the kids together went on this big adventure. And maybe it was. I was thinking it was the mainland, but maybe not. Maybe it was Honolulu or Molokai or wherever, because these kids got to take one fabulous trip because of Sue Cooley. She really cared so much.
RS: And that was Sue.
BS: That was Sue. That was absolutely Sue. She was the best. And she would have done almost anything for anybody.
RS: Right. In the stadium at Lahaina, Lahainaluna, Sue D. Cooley Stadium is named in honor of Sue.
BS: Yeah, that was a big thing because it was coming up to getting it named and everybody was waiting for Sue to say what it should be named. And she wanted it to be like, “the Lahaina Luna People’s Stadium”. I’m exaggerating “people’s”, but you know something that would infer that the whole world really took an interest and did this. And somehow that really never seemed right to me. So I said it should be the Sue D Cooley Stadium, but I knew I couldn’t talk her into it. So I named it the Sue D Cooley Stadium, and it’s forever the Sue D. Cooley Stadium, and it should be. And everybody remembers her and everybody thinks about it, and she deserved that much. She really deserved it.
RS: Yeah. How about our friend Neal Everett from ESPN? Oh, remembering Sue.
BS: Yeah, Neal Everett. Neal Everett was in Lahaina and helping the foundation at the time that Sue was named the…
RS: One of the legends.
BS: … a legend of Lahainaluna.
RS: Right.
BS: High school. And they kind of connected and they were really cute together. But at one point, Sue was going to say something and Neal was holding the microphone. Sue just took the microphone. I think, isn’t that one of the first rules of broadcasting? Never give up the microphone. You can see him just kind of laughing to himself. And Sue’s just thanking everybody and happy and how much the kids mean to her. It was absolutely the best. So he never forgot her and met her, I’m sure, other times after that. But then after she passed away, the day she passed away, we had let him know that. And he did on ESPN nationwide a thing about Sue. It was touching, beautiful…
RS: A great tribute to Sue D. Cooley.
BS: Yeah and we’ve got it somewhere we’ve got to bring that out again and put it on something because it’s worth everybody hearing that again and again. It was perfect. It was really great. Sue D. Cooley, we miss her a lot. And recently I heard from Neal because I had sent him something to say it was her hundredth birthday, and he got back to me saying that he’s I guess he’s more or less leaving ESPN.
RS: He has left.
BS: Yeah, has he?. He probably wants to come over here and work with Lahainaluna High School or maybe the radio’s KAOI.
RS: Maybe go into real estate.
BS: He might go into real estate. We’re going to get him on the phone.
RS: Absolutely, we should.
BS: That would be a lot of fun.
RS: Yeah, what a nice man too.
BS: Yeah he is really super nice. So what else is going on right now?
RS: Well we always talk about Maui charities that need help and there is always Maui Food Bank. We keep saying MauiFoodbank.org. Eevery dollar you you donate leads to four meals for the hungry.
BS: Yeah. That’s amazing.
RS: Yeah.
BS: I can’t get one meal.
RS: No.
BS: So obviously they’re getting the greatest contributions from our community and that’s got to say a lot for everybody that contributes or does anything for them.
RS: Yeah, Maui Foodbank. There is Hale Makua.
BS: Hale Makua.
RS: One of our favorite charities.
RS: Yeah. Hale Makua is spectacular. The kindness there over the years, every time you go there and you talk to someone and I think they really do as good a job as anyone can do for the people in their care.
RS: Unbelievable.
BS: It really is. Remember Luna? He was wonderful.
RS: Yeah.
BS: A young man that was there and he was amazing. We used to go in and visit with him, and he passed away quite a few years ago now. But there was so many people like that, that you’d get to talk to and still do.
RS: Well what really makes it is the staff. It is such a caring, unbelievably caring staff and from the room cleaners to your RNs. Fantastic.
BS: I totally agree. And you’re right. The room cleaners. When the room cleaners come in, when your mom was there, when they would come in, it was great. They were wonderful.
RS: They were.
BS: And they would anything that was out of place, they would take a minute. They’d say, Hello? Hello, Mrs. Sakamoto, Everything okay today? And it was great. Even if the person wasn’t verbal or wasn’t talking that day, they were wonderful. Everybody there.
RS: Yeah. So Maui Food Bank, Hale Makua, just two of the best charities on Maui.
BS: HaleMakua.org.
RS: HaleMakua.org and MauiFoodBank.org.
BS: Each of those, we can really speak to what they’ve done for people.
RS: Absolutely. So we are a real estate show.
BS: So we might want to say something about real estate.
RS: What’s interesting, people are saying, well, mortgage rates are high and so forth. But I’ll tell you, our market reflects a lot of activity. There’s not as many sales as before, say, six months ago or a year ago. But inventory is still very, very low. And it’s a great buying market.
BS: I think it’s still a great buying market. Recently, we were talking to some people that really can’t find a place to live, and they don’t have a lot of money. Obviously, if you’ve got a lot of money, you find a place. But that’s really hard on so many people that it’s really a nightmare.But they think that they can’t do it. And yet there is a lot of opportunities for financing. One is seller financing, and there are times that you’ll find a seller who’s willing to carry financing because he can make more money that way on an ongoing basis. Now, usually whoever is selling wants to have all of their money right away. We all do. So it’s kind of normal. But I think that there is a possibility of finding owner financing and the owner, if the person that they’re going to finance has good credit, etc., might just be willing to do that. And then there’s still interest rates or if somebody buys the interest rate down for you, and they work on it, the sellers often will do that, don’t you think?
RS: Sure absolutely.
BS: So there’s a lot of options for getting financed and everybody thinks that there’s zero chance, but there is a chance. And I think that for anybody paying huge rent, it’s worth talking to somebody and working on it. We talked a lot about that on the last radio show, or a second to the last.
RS: Yeah.
BS: It was a lot of fun. Ethan was here and Elizabeth Quayle and we really had a great time with that.
RS: So how about real estate?
BS: How about real estate?
RS: Here is one listed by Ray Chen from our office. Its address is 112 Oleander Place, that’s in Kahana Ridge Subdivision in West Maui. It’s a three bedroom, three bath, just hit the market. It’s a little over 2400 square feet. And instead of giving you Ray’s phone number, easiest way to contact Ray is through us. Call me, Roy at 8088707060 or Betty at 8088707062. Or check it out on Sakamoto Properties.com. Our website where you have access to all the listings on Maui.
BS: You know that’s a great idea Roy. We can repeat our numbers toward the end of the show so we don’t keep repeating them. But I notice another one here and Natalie has listed. I cannot pronounce her last name. So I’m not going to try, but Pohailani in West Maui, it’s close to the ocean Unit 137, two bedroom, one bath, really nice. Listed right now at 639,900. That’s a mouthful there.
RS: That’s a great price.
BS: It’s a great price for that. It’s really a great, great price. So I think that it’s worth looking into that one. It’s situated in a great location on the property between the two pools, well-manicured, lush landscaping, close proximity to the public beach access, etc. It’s really worth taking a look at. So we can get Natalie on board for you when you’d like to get a look at it. It’s really pretty spectacular.
RS: Before we go any further, I want to say give a big shout out to one of our newest listeners, Paul Summerville.
BS: Yes.
RS: Hey, Paul, welcome back.
BS: Hey, Paul.
RS: Yeah, here’s another one. Fairly new listing by Robin and Mark Harlow. This is an appeal. It’s a three bedroom, two and a half bath duplex, one half of a duplex, three bedrooms, two and a half baths listed at a million 188 one million eight eight eight. And it’s a great location. Napili is a great area, built in 1987 and this just had a price adjustment, had been listed slightly higher and is now listed at a million 888. So again check it out on SakamotoProperties.com or you can always call Roy at 8088707060 or Betty 8088707062.
BS: Perfect. You know, here’s another. Napili Point phase two. Interesting location right on the ocean. There’s a one bedroom, one bath listed at 1.1 million. It’s been on the market for a limited number of days. So I think that really, again, a lot of these properties are priced good. Now and we are seeing some price adjustments in each and a lot of them, that one not so much. It’s been interesting to see that there are a lot of price adjustments happening.
RS: And how about our newest listing, the Ritz-Carlton? We have the entire penthouse at the Ritz-Carlton on the north wing of the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua. It’s a two bedroom, two and a half bath unit, a little over 2500 square feet interior space, 707 square feet of Lanai space. Runs the entire top floor of the oceanside, at the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua. Just listed at 8.9 million. I think, a fabulous price for…
BS: It’s amazing for someone that wants to be there at the Ritz and or utilize it as a rental property. You’ve got both options, I believe.
RS: Yes absolutely.
BS: And it really is monumental even for whatever period of time you would spend there. The fact that you can keep it rented the rest of the time makes it, a good investment.
RS: What’s interesting is we’ve had some inquiries on looking at this and the toughest part is going to be working around availability and between rentals.
BS: Yeah, I think we’ll have to get the owners to kind of help us a little on that.
RS: Yeah.
BS: In order to show it.
RS: But it’s a great location, top floor Ritz-Carlton Kapalua, Unit number is 1626 listed at 8.9.
BS: You know who else we should say hello to? Christina, Paul and Christina. Now, I don’t know if Christina came and listened to the radio show, so I didn’t think she was going to, but just in case. Hello, Christina. See you soon.
RS: We’re having dinner tomorrow night. Yep.
BS: Yeah. Christina Summerville, dinner at the Ritz. We’re going to have dinner at the Ritz Bar. It’s one of our most favorite places to hang out. They have the best food, fast service and they’ve got music.
RS: Always great hamburgers, great sushi.
BS: A smashburger.
RS: Yeah.
BS: Yeah. And then they have the person there that says good night to the sun, really. That’s how I always think of it. But he’s spectacular too. It’s so much fun to be at this and to listen to the music.
RS: Yeah at 6:00, they have a sunset ceremony and a brief history of the location of the Ritz Carlton at Kapalua. Really a fun place.
BS: Here’s one Roy, that Mihaela has listed, Mihaela Stoops. It’s 1640 Kuuipo Street in Lahaina, it was originally a million six. The price was adjusted fairly recently to a million four ninety five. And it’s a great lot. It’s over 10,000 square feet. So typically you can have an ohana there. I’m not sure, I’m looking at this pretty quickly and I don’t want to… it’s worth calling us about, checking in, because I think it is one of those properties that will be really worth seeing. And the lot itself in the big picture is going to be worth it forever.
RS: Price is attractive on that.
BS: I think it is too. And there is an ohana, one bedroom, one bath, 500 square feet. Now, I think you can have a larger than that, can’t you, on 10,000?
RS: Right. I think you could have up to 750. But I got to say, don’t hold me to that one.
RS: Okay. Here’s another great buy. It’s the breakers. It’s a one bedroom, one bath, the breakers in West Maui. It’s listed by Mariana Rini from our office and listed at 599. It’s a one bedroom, one bath. The Breakers has a lot of owner occupants, long term tenants. There is no short term rentals allowed, which is great for continutity and for peace and quiet.
BS: You know the other one Roy, that I was going to almost miss today. 11 Huanui Way, which is a house that Roy and I built and lived in for ten years or so, more than ten years. So we loved it. It was like our favorite house. And I didn’t think we would ever sell it and then we did. We’re really happy where we are, but we sold it and now that owner is leaving and has it listed for sale with Ray Chen and Al Chiarella. And it is a wonderful house. It’s about 20. Let’s see, square footage is 2000 didn’t come out all the way. Let’s say it’s 2000, a little over 2000 square feet. And then the downstairs area, which is a two theoretically a two car garage, you can put four cars in there pretty or at least three pretty easily.
RS: And a lot of storage.
BS: A lot of storage. I mean, you can live down there. I mean, you can’t legally live down there, but it’s really so spectacular. Kids can play and run. When we had young grandkids, it was the greatest place. It was more fun. Well, maybe not more fun than having a pool now.
BS: So I think but they have loved it.
RS: There’s a brand new listing. It’s Mahina surf. It’s a one bedroom, one bath, listed at a great price, 854,000. Mahina Surf is an oceanfront development in Honokawai in West Maui. Great price, brand new listing, listed by Julia from our office. Again you can check out our listings go to SakamotoProperties.com call Roy at 8088707060 or Betty.
BS: 8088707062. Give one of us a call and we’ll fill you in on everything that we can about real estate.
RS: We’ll direct you to the right agent and we’ve got some great properties to view.
BS: Absolutely. We’ve got a lot of agents that are available and we can get somebody set up with you immediately, if we’re not available at that time. But I think that we can really help someone today try to come up with a new home and a place that you can live forever. I mean anywhere on this island is way worth it.
BS: We’re hitting the one minute warning and Danny Couch is about to come back on.
BS: Whoa and here he is. And it does happen. I have Danny Couch in my purse.
RS: Yeah.
BS: Yes. Aloha.
RS: Aloha.
