Betty Sakamoto: Aloha and welcome to Betty’s Real Estate Corner, brought to you by Roy and Betty Sakamoto, Coldwell Banker, Sakamoto Properties. Roy is in the studio with me today. We’ve got a variety of listings we’re going to talk about. Want to talk a little about staging a home, getting the property ready for sale, and really taking that part of it seriously.
BS: I think the market could change at some point. And if you’re ready to sell, you know, listen to us, listen to your realtor and get ready to make it happen.
Roy Sakamoto: And it’s really quite easy. You know, a lot of people think, well do I have to stage my property to bring it on market? And absolutely not. And we’ve gone through this a lot of times with different sellers. T first step is basically declutter.
BS: Declutter is huge. And we all know that because most of us live with clutter.
RS: We do.
BS: Yeah, we do. We know we do. If we had to sell right now, I don’t know what we would do though, it would be a problem just moving stuff up. We’d have to fill the garage and not sell the garage with the house or something.
BS: Might work. No I’m Kidding.
RS: Right now, you’d have to look at your house or condominium, whatever you’re selling and put your buyers hat on. If you if you walk in the front door, what do you see? Do you see blankets strewn all over or do you see chairs everywhere? That’s all added to clutter.
RS: And it’s a very simple matter, less is better.
BS: Absolutely. It is hard, though. I mean, it’s harder than you think. And if you want to do it just to even make yourself feel better, walk in your house, take a look at what’s in the entry or in the first space that you walk into. And really think about it. Take photos yourself and step back from it, because I think it really does matter and it makes your life better. If you can get rid of clutter, I think everything you do, everything you think, etc., becomes easier.
RS: A lot of experts have said that.
BS: Yes. Yeah, we’re the experts, we think. But we aren’t living the expert world.
RS: No, no.
BS: But maybe by the next radio show we’ll report to you. This would be something, we will report in. The next radio show, we’re going to report whether we have de-cluttered and how we did it. That could be interesting.
RS: And we got to look at it through a buyer’s eyes, too, as if we were selling our house.
BS: Yes. Well, then that would really make it a serious issue.
BS: We could do it.
RS: clutter is a big deterrent for showing your property and lighting. It’s amazing, you may like dim lighting in your living room and so forth, but change the bulb if you’re selling the property. Change the bulbs to the brightest that you can, light everything up.
BS: Absolutely. I mean, just start, you know, with little things. You know, you don’t have to start with huge upgrades, etc., but start with little things that are happening there. I mean the declutter thing is big, but you take a home if you’re selling your home and it’s actually a large property or a small home, if you just look around and walk around the house and get out a ladder, get out whatever you’ve got. But clean paint, I mean, you don’t necessarily have to totally repaint everything but clean, you know, so that everything is spotless.
RS: Clean and windows really as clean as you can get them.
BS: Driveways.
RS: Driveways.
BS: Get a big brush and clean your driveway. You can hire someone to do it. But in a lot of cases, it’s stuff that maybe you want to get done yourself, but either way. Maybe you’re only going to do it for yourself like I am right now, I’m going to try to do that. But like what Roy said, lighting, including light bulbs or buy a few new lamps if you have to. But be sure that every light is as bright as it can be so that when you walk in, it appears to be clean and perfect. And then there’s the clean word.
RS: That’s right.
BS: Because that’s your next thing, which is a very time consuming project. I mean, even though most of us our home is clean, it’s fine. But to really make it, I’m going to say sparkle for lack of a better word. It takes time and you’ve got to do that. You’ve got to wipe down every counter, put every little thing away, put all food where it belongs, and not on the counter. And move from there, because when somebody walks in your house, if it’s clean and sparkles, they may just love it, even though it’s missing something that they really wanted in a home.
RS: Oh, it’s a big plus at showing your property. So clutter, lighting and cleaning, very simple. There’s no need to go out and hire a professional stager. There are stagers that are available and you can run into several thousand dollars if you were to hire a professional stager. But a lot of these items you can do on your own.
BS: You can. I mean we use somebody, Molly. Molly is pretty spectacular. She’ll come in, she doesn’t clean at all, so things have to be clean and have to be ready. But she’ll come in, she’ll take a good look, let us know what she thinks and then we kind of move from there.
BS: But then she’ll come up with an estimate and Roy’s right, in a smaller house, probably a couple thousand dollars. The bigger it gets, the more it costs. One she did recently, I think was about 7000, but a large house and it really needed stuff. And she brought in a variety of artwork that looks great. It’s really good.
BS: And it helped us to sell it actually in one day.
RS: Right.
BS: But it really I think the staging did matter.
RS: But again, not necessary. And oftentimes just adding color, also, maybe some colored pillows just thrown around, adds color, maybe a lamp, a red lamp or something.
BS: Colorful.
RS: Yeah.
BS: Flowers.
BS: And you don’t necessarily have to go to your local florist. You can do this by going to your backyard or picking up something at let’s say, a swap meet or anything. Just pick up flowers that they have and put them in vases and change them from time to time as your agents showing the property.
RS: Right. No, and oftentimes your agent will have contacts with local florists that, that will help stage your home so very inexpensively. A little bouquet here and there when your photographs are being taken for whatever you’re selling, the condominium or the house.
BS: Well, that’s true. I mean, there’s a whole other thing is getting flowers and making the staging work for photographs, etc., so when someone looks at it online. It will also help you when you’re trying to get it ready again for someone to come and view, is to kind of take a look at that and move a few things around or put the flowers back where they were or grab some more flowers.
BS: And like you’re saying, the pillows, bright colored pillows help substantially.
RS: Yes, they do. Yeah, absolutely.
BS: Hey, one more thing, though.
RS: Sure.
BS: We were going to talk about different charities, that we’ve talked about. And I think right now there’s, again, so many needs going on that it really is extremely important. One of our favorites is Hale Makua. Which we’ve always said, it helps the frail and the elderly, but they also do a lot of rehab work or they were doing a lot of rehab.
RS: They still do.
BS: They still do. Yeah, I don’t know too much about that right now.
RS: No, a lot of rehab and there’s some exciting things coming on with with Hale Makua. We’re expanding over to the what is known as the Gate Ball Park or in Kahului. We’re expanding our facilities, we’ll be engaged in a fairly large fundraising project coming up. So you’ll be hearing more about this fundraising project for Hale Makua’s expansion and exciting news. We’re going to be adding some more rehab facilities, some more rehab beds and so forth. So stay tuned.
BS: This would be inpatient and outpatient rehab?
RS: Right.
BS: So somebody maybe that had surgery or something would go there a couple of days a week until they…
RS: They could or, if it’s say a little bit more drastic surgery and so forth and you’re recuperating, it’s a great place to go.
BS: Okay. Maui Food bank.
RS: Maui Food bank, we keep talking about Maui Food Bank also. Four meals for every dollar you contribute, that’s that’s pretty awesome.
BS: It really is awesome. And sadly, there are so many people in Maui that are in need of that. And we’re all a little bit annoyed from time to time by the issue. But I think that when you think of anybody hungry in Maui, that’s a real tragedy.
RS: Very sad.
BS: I think some someone that’s way smarter than I am needs to really figure out what we’re going to do to help with the homeless issue. But there’s got to be a way that it’s better than it is right now.
RS: Well, there’s affordable housing issues and so forth. So it goes deeper than just the homeless. And I know there are some very bright minds working on this. Our mayor elect has been leading the front for affordable housing and so forth. So let’s hope that this can be at least partially solved. I don’t think we’ll solve it completely.
BS: I especially think in Maui it’s going to be hard to ever solve it completely because for anybody living anywhere around the world, if they can figure out the greatest place in the world to be homeless, theoretically it’s probably Maui. And that’s…
RS: Not a bad place.
BS: Not a bad place, but it’s really a serious problem for everybody else on the island when that happens.
RS: Yeah. So anyway MauiFoodBank.org for their website. If you’re thinking about Hale Makua, it’s HaleMakua.org for their website.
BS: And Lahainaluna High School.
RS: And Lahainaluna High School Foundation.
BS: The LahainalunaHighSchoolFoundation.org and they’re always looking for money. I mean, and they do get some great contributions from time to time, but it really has helped the school a lot to be able to have. Without donations they would still not have a football stadium. And now, I mean, it’s been really a nightmare and just keeping things funded there.
BS: But I think it really is important for the whole community and it goes on and on. So when you see something on that, come up to the school, check things out, learn more about it because it is something that feels good to take care of.
RS: Yeah, here’s another great organization. It’s a women helping women on Maui. Their website is WomenHelpingWomenMaui.com , WomenHelpingWomenMaui.com. What they do for assisting women that are subject to domestic violence and so forth is fantastic and what a great organization to support also. Women helping women.
BS: Maui Humane Society. Now that’s another one and I know right now that they’re flooded with kittens. So anybody…
RS: And dogs.
BS: And dogs, it’s all very difficult. But I think again, I hate to see any animal just arbitrarily quote, “put down” because there’s no homes and yet they can’t be on the street. So I don’t know, if there’s any of us that are ready to take another animal into our home, go over there one day and talk to people. It may be something that you decide you might want to help out with over there. They need someone that just comes and feeds animals, or plays with them, etc. You can all find the Maui Humane Society, and I think it is one that is totally worth spending some of your time and well-earned money.
RS: Yeah, here’s another one. I’m not real familiar with, but in just reading a little bit about it, I’m starting to learn a lot more. It’s the East Maui Watershed Partnership, it’s to protect the watershed from degradation by protecting our water supplies from invasive species, just protecting our native forests. EastMauiWatershed.org is their website and what a great organization. I will learn more about it, East Maui Watershed partnership.
BS: We’ll know more about that for the next one, the next radio show. I just noticed that when you gave me these on the very top, the house listed for sale. Now this is kind of jumping back to real estate.
RS: Yeah we are a real estate show.
BS: We are. Yeah, we forget that sometimes. But it is fun to talk about the other things that are going on in the world and things that concern us and I think concern our whole community. But there’s a house 11 Hua Nui Way which we built and sold a few years back and it’s listed for sale now for one million eight seventy five.
BS: It’s across the street from the ocean and the Kahana area, really extremely well built, the house is let’s see square footage, I kind of forgotten…
RS: I think it’s 2200 square feet with at least the square footage downstairs where the garage is and there’s lots of storage. It’s a fantastic location right off the lower road in Kahana and across the street from the ocean.
BS: Really well built. The downstairs is again around 2000 square feet, a little bit more than that. Then the upstairs is 2000 square feet. The downstairs is basically a garage, but it’s a 2000 square foot garage, so that you can have – we had three cars parked there and then we still had almost 1400 square feet. I would think.
RS: Right.
BS: Of space to store, to store our clutter. Yeah. We should buy this house.
RS: Yeah. Instead of naming individual agents that we usually do on the show and giving you their phone numbers, call us, Roy at 8088707060 or Betty 8088707062. Or look at our website Sakamoto properties.com and you can get more info on these properties and feel free to call us and we can direct you to whoever the listing agent is and give you all the information you need.
BS: Or we could possibly show you the house.
RS: Sure, absolutely.
BS: But I think it is worth giving us a call and we can fill you in on anything and direct you in the bestway that we can.
RS: There’s another listing is a 33 Haku Hale Place. It’s listed by Robert Meyers with our company. But again, call either Betty or myself, Roy. You can reach me at 8088707060 or Betty at 8088707062 or SakamotoProperties.com.
BS: SakamotoProperties.com will get both of us and we’ll call you back, so we won’t keep saying phone numbers over and over.
RS: Right this 33 Haku Hale Place is a three bedrooms, two baths, a little over 1300 square feet in Kahana. It’s listed at 1,469,000. Just been on the market six days, so less than a week. I’m sure there’s been a lot of showings already.
BS: Here’s a Pohalani. That’s a great spot. It’s a condominium located in Kahana. Two bedrooms, one bath, listed at 639,000. I haven’t seen it myself, but it’s supposed to be very turnkey, fully remodeled and in pretty much move in condition. So again, listed at 639,000. It’s a good place to live. It’s close to our old house.
RS: Yes it is.
BS: And it’s across the street from the beach. So I think again, if you’re looking for a first time location, I would at least give that some consideration. And we can help direct you to mortgage companies or talk to your bank and start a plan in place for being able to qualify for a mortgage.
BS: A whole other issue here.
RS: Yeah. Here’s another great listing. It’s at 1640 Kuuipo Street in Lahaina. It’s actually in the Wahikuli Homesteads area. It’s four bedrooms, three baths, listed price as 1,600,000, and it’s listed by Mihaila Stoops from our company. If you want to reach Mihaila, easiest is to call again, Roy at over 808707060, Betty at 8088707062.
BS: Okay. We also have Kapalua Ridge unit 2122 listed right now for a million four ninety five. Really really nice. Located on the I don’t know the fairway number anymore.
RS: It’s on the bay course now is number three.
BS: Used to be nine.
RS: Yeah used to be nine.
BS: Anyway really nice two story. It’s supposed to be in excellent condition, but it really worth taking a look at.
RS: And another funny thing, we used to own that.
BS: We did and we have not owned that many properties, but it is funny that all of a sudden they’re all on the market again. But I really loved living there. It’s a great location. The pools right across the entry, more or less, it’s close enough, so everything is. It has a great washer, dryer, totally furnished.
RS: And you’re facing south westerly, so you’re out of the wind at the ridge.
BS: We aren’t saying the ridge is windy, but if you’re in certain locations.
RS: It can be.
BS: It can be windy.
RS: Yeah.
BS: We actually lived in a building at the ridge at one time. I’m not going to say which building at this point, but somebody once said to me, “how often can you use your lanai?” and I said, “never”. Now that was a little exaggeration, but it was somewhat true because it was windy.
RS: Well, yeah, we were facing directly north and right into the trade.
BS: Some days you’d wake up and almost dress warmly because it was so cool and then walk out the door and think, what was I thinking? It would be way cooler in our apartment than it was in real life out the door, right?
RS: Yeah. So 2122 is facing southwesterly out of the wind.
BS: And that’s Marci Rhody. Did we say that? Marci Rhody from our office has that listed. And you could reach her at 8082802255 and again, one bedroom, two baths. It’s really a great unit. You can sleep four people there easily.
RS: It was a great listing. It’s an 85 Hui F Roam, in Napili it’s a three bedroom, two and a half bath home, a little over 2100 square feet and listed again million 925. This is 85 Hui F Road.
BS: I have an important question on that one. Is it Hui Road F or Hui F Road.
RS: Hui F Road.
BS: Excellent question. Yeah. Okay.
RS: Now oceanfront, here is a great oceanfront property 1441 Front Street in Lahaina. It’s a three bedroom, three baths, about 6800 square foot as far as the lot size and just under 2000 square feet, home size, three bedrooms, three baths. Direct Oceanfront in Lahaina listed a 3,250,000.
BS: Okay, I have one that maybe will be, could be almost our last, a two bedroom two bath in Kaanapali at the Masters, listed by Elizabeth Quayle. One million five seventy, really a great, great property, good location, great ocean view, in what I would consider to be really good condition.
RS: Yes, the Masters is one of the better projects in Kaanapali, very, very popular also.
BS: It is. It’s popular. It’s a lot of local residents, which is really great.
RS: It’s mostly owner occupancy. Actually.
BS: I don’t know that it’s enough, though. Is it owner, occupant wise, mortgage wise, is it? Yes. Oh, that’s great, because that makes a big difference or can make a big difference in your interest rate. If the majority of a property is locally occupied?
RS: There’s a listing at 627 Anapuni Loop. This is in Lanikeha, a subdivision in Kaanapali. It’s a four bedrooms, four bars, about 3200 square feet, and it’s listed by Robert Myers , ith our company. And again, for information on this property, easy as it is to look at our website SakamotoProperties.com or call Roy 8088707060 or Betty 8088707062.
BS: Okay. It looks like we’re on our two minute warning, so let’s go back to a couple of these things that we talked about a minute ago, like the Humane Society and I gather that they have right now a huge number of little kittens and dogs. So it is a time that if you’ve ever considered getting a pet, you know, go there. I mean, at least just go there, walk in, walk around. It’ll get you to do it if you really want to. Another time. It’s not like you’ve got to go there and walk out with a cat or a dog, but I think it’s worth going there and considering it and thinking about it and understanding how well they’re taking care of the animals and that might give you cause to make a contribution.
RS: Yes. And we ourselves have adopted kittens out of there.
BS: Yep, we have. And they’ve been really wonderful.
RS: And every time we visit, you get a good, warm feeling. They’re doing a heck of a job.
BS: They really do. They are really working hard. There we go. We’ve got Danny Couch popping up right now. Aloha.
RS: Aloha, thank you.
