There's No Place Like Maui

Betty’s Real Estate Corner

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There's No Place Like Maui
August 20th, 2013

Betty Sakamoto: Aloha and welcome to Betty's Real Estate Corner brought to you by Sakamoto Properties where prestige is our business, reputation our foundation. Again, Danny Couch starting off with "I Love Hawaii". If anyone doesn't have a Danny Couch CD, Google it today and get some. It's fabulous. He is such an amazing Hawaii entertainer, he has entertained basically around the world. But you'll definitely find all of his music, he's usually got something going on in Honolulu, if you're over there. But check out Danny Couch.

Roy Sakamoto: He's very upbeat.

B: Isn't he?

R: I love him, I love Hawaii.

B: He's super.

R: And when I hear that it makes me realize, with every word of it, how much I love Hawaii and how fortunate we are to live in Hawaii. And Roy, my husband Roy Sakamoto, happened to be one of those lucky guys who was actually born in Hawaii.

B: Well somebody had to be.

R: Somebody had to be.

B: Yes, absolutely. Last week Roy, we had David Freedman here and we kind of told the story about how David is living in the house that you grew up in. So we were telling a little bit of the story of the house on Lahainaluna Road. But it was such an amazing, fabulous home. Just a small cane house but lots of love there and lots of happiness and his mom and dad were absolutely the greatest people I've ever known or probably will ever know.

R: Lots of great memories with that house and I'm glad that David is taking great care of it.

B: He is really taking good care. You know, we got quite a few phone calls from a few people asking about David, that are thinking about mortgage loans so I think I'm going to at least give you his number again, it's (808) 385-8558. That's David Freedman I-Lend Mortgage and he's really great. He does mortgages to any amount but he's really great at taking the time and has all of the patience for any of you first time homebuyers that are trying to figure out how you're going to qualify, what you do, what you need to do to clean up credit, etcetera. So again, call David Freedman at (808) 385-8558 and that's I-Lend Mortgage.

R: Or call Sakamoto Properties (808) 669-0070, you can e-mail us [email protected] or [email protected] [email protected] or look at our website SakamotoProperties.com

B: Woo-hoo. Now also, find us on Twitter @MauiSakamoto, connect with us using hash tag #BettyMauiRadio ?

R: I don't understand what that all means.

B: So, you can find us. We're very findable so you will find us.

R: You can also call Meyer Computer if you're looking for us. They know how to find us.

B: That's right, they know how to get us set up on all these things, with Twitter and hash tags. We're doing a little bit of everything because of Meyer Computer. Jesse was here with me quite a few weeks back now talking about what they do. Kind of an interesting thing is that until we met them we'd been trying to redo, actually we had twice done a website from other places. Once was through a luxury real estate site and the other was someone that we had found that was supposed to be really great but it never got us anywhere and it cost us a ton of money and in the end we never really had a website until Meyer Computer.

R: Yes, we have had so many comments on how great our website is.

B: So check them out too MeyerComputer.com

R: And look at their work at SakamotoProperties.com

B: You can probably Tweet them but I'm not going to tell you how, you're going to have to call them. You're going to have to go to MeyerComputer.com to figure out how you're going to Tweet those guys.

R: How about Les Mis?

B: Yes.

R: Let's talk about that for a second. Wow, what a show.

B: We were there on Saturday night, the second night. Really, it is, the people in Maui that are in this show, it's hard to even believe that we have people that are so talented. We had a couple of friends, people that we know that are in the show and they were amazing. Leah, I can't remember the name of ?

R: The epitome.

B: The epitome, it's a really great role. She, Tony Kreig is her dad, he's the CEO of Hale Makua here on Maui, and boy she has a voice that is unbelievable and everybody should see that.

R: Oh, the whole cast was awesome, the orchestra was great, the staging was awesome and it was quite a production for Maui.

B: It really was.

R: I've never seen anything like that for Maui.

B: And it's only weekends, I think it's three or four weekends. Last weekend was the first weekend and we've got some people here from Japan that want to go but I'm not sure they're going to be able to make it to the weekend. They were hoping that there would be at least one something in the middle of the week but I think, again, you've got to think that a lot of these extremely talented people actually have real jobs. And how they ever find the time to do what they're doing there. They've got to be practicing almost every night in order to pull off what they've done.

R: Oh, a fantastic show and what a credit to Maui.

B: What a credit to Maui.

R: And hopefully this is the start of many more shows coming to Maui.

B: You know, KAOI, I believe, has had something to do with that. Our radio station here KAOI and, I think, Cindy Paulos has either helped with or she's been on a lot of the committees. But I think she's part of what pulls off things like this and actually makes it happen.

R: You know, that's the great thing about Maui. The saying, "It takes a village", well Maui is a village. For all of us that live here, we live in a village. For all of you visitors out here who'd love to be a part of our village and buy some real estate, we welcome you. It's one heck of a community.

B: That's absolutely one of the truest things of all. Maui is a village and everybody is willing to step up. We've seen so many times that either somebody has been sick or somebody has been in the hospital or different things and the whole community around that person will gather ? just like any other little town in the United States. And because Maui has so many visitors people see it differently and there's such a huge amount of wealth and these huge homes and again on any given day, the visitor count is huge. But for everybody else, for any of those people, including us, who are living here if we need something there's a community around us that will step up in a minute. If you ask for help or you say, "I need something", it's going to happen here.

R: We were at a dinner party last night and these are people we were with, people that travel all over the world, from the Caribbean, to Bermuda, to Florida and so forth. And there's no place like Maui, they come back to Maui and feel like they're coming home. It's the aloha spirit that does it and I think will continue to exhibit the Maui spirit.

B: It is the Maui spirit, fortunately for us that I would say drives the real estate market because people would not be doing this. They would not be coming back and forth here several times a year at huge expenses and having second homes or in some cases it could be a third or a fourth home. But they're coming here because they love it and they love our people, they love all of us because we have a great life here and we share it with them. And it's really, we've all got to be thankful for everyone that's willing to step up and share a little part of their life with the visitors who are here. Whether it's some who work in the restaurants, working in Safeway, the Napili market. If you watch, there is so much happiness going on and sharing of love and information here in Maui that it really is an extremely important part of everything that happens on this island.

R: True, absolutely true. So how about buying real estate on Maui?

B: How about that?

R: Yeah, well you can call us Sakamoto Properties at (808) 669-0070 and ask for Roy or Betty or any one of our professional agents would be able to help you. You can also, again, find us at SakamotoProperties.com or e-mail us at [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected]

B: What about Twitter?

R: Okay, you do it.

B: Twitter @MauiSakamoto, for Twitter it's @MauiSakamoto hash tag #BettyMauiRadio. So hopefully, you know how to reach us which is good. You know, this morning we were up at Erehwon Ranch ? if you can't figure out how to pronounce that, yet alone spell it, it happens to be "nowhere" backwards and it was named that a long time ago. It's an amazing, amazing property and Roy happens to be the expert on it but the home up there is extremely old, fabulous, wonderful home. It hasn't been occupied for a lot of years but we're always hopeful that somebody buys that, I'm sure they're going to build a huge estate property but if they keep that home, it is so one-of-a-kind. I would like to see it always be there. Whether they use it as a guest home or maybe someday it would be something that they just would just show people through because there's a lot of history with that house.

R: That home was built in the 1920s, it's a little "Tudor" style home and the bedrooms are a little small. It's older since they built it in the 1920s but it's a fantastic centerpiece for the ranch. The whole ranch itself is about 3200 acres and it stretches from Kekaulike highway all the way up to the summit of Haleakala, up to the observatory. So it's 3200 acres, the upper half is zoned ? well the upper third, about 1100 acres ? zoned conservation and the lower two-thirds, 2200 acres, is zoned Ag.

B: It is, it is. It's one of those amazing, amazing, very, very, special properties. The home that we were describing that was built in the twenties. During World War II there were meetings there with a lot of the top generals, etcetera, that were in the islands and there was information on it somewhere, but there had been a huge wall that everybody had signed on a day and that wall was actually removed from the house because it had so much historical value to it. But knowing some of what went on in this home it really is, probably will be someone that is a little bit of a history buffet, etcetera, that will end up really hopefully buying and hanging on to that. You know, one of the things Roy, if someone's listening to this, we have had a couple of people that have looked at the home recently and are thinking about donating a lot of the upper property to either the, Hawaii ?

R: There's the Hawaii Island Land Trust, the Nature Conservancy, or there are a variety of land trusts that would gladly take this. I'm sure that the National Park would surely take this since we border the national park. It's just one heck of a parcel.

B: The thing would be somebody that could do that and set it up to purchase the property and then at some point, make the decision to donate a portion of it. They would be able to then, I believe, write it off. I'd say check with your accountant on all of this. But for someone that has that kind of a history and would like to be able to do something, it really is going to be an amazing thing to leave behind that, that property is used by everybody forever.

R: Oh one of a kind property, no question.

B: Some of the other properties, Roy, we started talking the other day ? David and I ? about the first time homebuyer. And again, we do seem to have a lot of listings that are very upper end and we're thrilled about that. It's been a part of the market that we've been fortunate enough to work in and we love it. We love the people that we've met and we have clients from all over the world. But David and I, in talking the other day, were saying that there is never anything more fun though than trying to help somebody find their first home. So a lot of you, today, can do that and it's never going to be as good as it is today. We still have great value available and the loans are still as low as, I think, we'll probably see for the next ten or fifteen years. So I think that it's time for each one of you to give that a little thought. Talk to a real estate broker, talk to one of us at Sakamoto Properties and we'll have one of those people that specialize in that get together with you and try to help you figure out how can end up, for your family, for your heirs, for everybody, with that special piece of Maui that you can live on forever. It's available to you today. There's some very special financing available for first time homebuyers. Again, your mortgage expert or talk to us at Sakamoto Properties (808) 669-0070 or David Freedman or your banker or whoever you'd like. But, there are special programs for the first time homebuyer and you've got to take advantage of it, you absolutely have to take advantage of it. There's properties today and loan programs that you can pretty much do with very little down but it's an effort. It's not something that you walk into the bank and go, "I want to buy a place with nothing down" and they go, "Oh, here it is". It's not easy. Nothing that is this important in your life is ever that easy. But it can be done, there's great programs. A lot of the properties around Maui will qualify for the programs and if you get in, you can always in one year, two years, or five years, upgrade or change, you know. But you'll hopefully have made a great purchase, you'll have established equity for yourself and it's the real way that people end up accumulating wealth.

R: Yes, how about some other properties?

B: I'm down for that.

R: Okay, I've been showing a couple of Bay Villas. One in particular is the 25B3 of the Bay Villas. It's a one-bedroom, two-bath. It's listed by Hank Williams from Sakamoto Properties. It's fantastic, the upgrades are incredible, it's got bamboo flooring. The half-bath downstairs has been converted to a full bath. The upstairs, the open loft, and the original plan has been floored in so it's a full townhouse, and it's available. The asking price on this is $1,099,000 for one-bedroom and two full baths.

B: You know, again, sticking to the moment at Kapalua just because that's kind of what you just started with, another great value there is 27T7 in the Golf Villas.

R: The Golf Villas, great.

B: It was totally done to what once was being called the "Gold Standard". It's in impeccable condition, it was originally, the floor plan was a loft but since that time they've enclosed the loft which really gives two totally separate areas. You walk in on the ground floor, you have to go upstairs to the bedroom. But again, if somebody needed, they could use also the downstairs. If you had somebody traveling with you that needed to be downstairs, it's really great. And a second one, another really amazing building 24T1. Huge, huge views, $795,000. Impeccable quality, fabulous upgrades, and they captured a lot of interior square feet by taking the loft across. So there's about 1100 square feet of interior. It's on the 11th fairway, or overlooking, more or less, the eleventh fairway of the Kapalua Bay Course. So again, Kapalua has everything that our visitors really want. There's two championship golf courses, there's ten tennis courts in a garden setting, there's walking trails, and the best trails of all are just getting up in the morning and walking out your door. Walking around the resort, stopping at the Honolua store, maybe slipping into the Ritz-Carlton for a cup of coffee. There's so much happening at Kapalua. The beaches starting in Napili Bay and then Kapalua Bay and Honolua Bay and then the beach at the Ritz, Flemings, and you can just go all along the coast there. There's so many beaches, so many great things that you can do. We've got an amazing, in Kapalua, there's an amazing, amazing resort.

R: It's a comfortable living, it doesn't have the dryness of some of the other resorts around Hawaii. There's a little more wind, and a little bit more rain. But as you get yourself comfortable in Kapalua, there's greenery, fresh breezes, it's really refreshing and something that everybody should experience.

B: In Napili, you know, just stepping outside of Kapalua, that's another great place. I mean I think that you could find, for some people, a little more comfortable price range. There's a variety of homes that Elizabeth from our office has pretty much specialized in the homes at Napilihau. She has a fabulous home there for sale which happens to look back toward Kapalua. It has a huge view, it sits on a ravine, a great deck out there, but that's another great living place. It's again, you aren't spending Kapalua prices, you're close, it's a very safe community, lots of kids and families and you know, several generations living in a home. So really, I think that is a really great place: Napilihau. Check in with us, at the moment I don't believe anything is on the market there but I know that Elizabeth is following it constantly because she is the one, when you're looking for Napilihau or looking for something like that. But again, reach her at our office (808) 669-0070 and she'll help you find something. And she is one, wouldn't you say Roy, from the standpoint of a first time homebuyer, she's all over it.

R: Oh, no question.

B: She works with every lender and she'll see to it that if you're a first time homebuyer, you're comfortable and you will find what it is that you want.

R: And while we're in Napili, how about the oceanfront house we have there?

B: Oh, yes.

R: 5205 Lower Honoapiilani Road, it's a three-bedroom, three and a half baths, and you're right on the sandy cove and there's some surprises down there on the cove.

B: There are some surprises on the cove.

R: It's some really neat stuff.

B: The house also has a one-bedroom, one-bath Ohana which is very large, and the lot itself is over 20,000 square feet. So you've got a huge lot, lots of land around you and down below the house there's a little secret cave where the honu live.

R: Well, a bunch of honu.

B: They were telling us one day, one of the kids down there, that they had counted something like 32 at one time. It is so amazing. I've only counted seventeen. But they are out there, you'll be looking like in the morning and I think later in the afternoon, depending on the tide and when they're coming in. But this is going to be one of those that when it's gone, there is no second choice. To get something like this, it's $7.9 million. We have a listing at Kapalua, it is an amazing home on Kapalua Bay which is twenty-eight million dollars ? R: Twenty point eight million dollars.

B: Twenty point eight million dollars, okay, I just kind of added eight million. But it's unbelievable, one of finest homes in the world, but again, we don't all have that amount of money. And at $7.9 million, this other one with the honu is really great. So somehow we're showing both of those homes a lot. There's so few oceanfront homes right now that there is some great values. R: And if you want to check it out, courtesy of Meyer Computer, they helped to set up our website for this house. It's NapiliBeachHouse.com so check it out, go to NapiliBeachHouse.com and look at all the photos.

B: It's great. It really is great and it's a really wonderful living home. The lanai is huge, the owners built the home and they actually came back in about eight years later and did some remodeling just to kind of make it live better. So after they'd lived there for about seven years, they made some really interesting changes to it. But you walk in and go up a few stairs and upstairs is the primary living areas and a great TV room. Then you go down just a limited number of stairs and that's where the three-bedrooms, three baths are. Then you walk straight out into the pool and then down to a really sweet, sweet, sweet sandy beach.

R: Okay, well I know we were jumping around a little bit but we're starting to run out of time but one more interesting listing is 480 Haniu. It's down in Makila Plantations, just south of Lahaina town and you're sitting on five-acres, there's a three-bedroom, two-bath Ohana. There's a great workshop, it's already plumbed and you've got the electrical for the nursery and it's listed at $1,650,000. It just had a price adjustment on it and it's a beautiful property. B: You can step in on that one and build your own home. So you can come in and it's very livable like it is, it's perfect, you don't ever have to do a thing. But if you choose to set up on that property you can come in and build the home of your dreams and still utilize the Ohana, etcetera.

R: We've got sunsets all around there.

B: Sunsets all year round.

R: And you can watch whales in the wintertime and it's very easy to view. So call us (808) 669-0070. B: Going back to the house for just one minute, it's not that hard to get to the beach. You know, you just go down there to the Launiupoko Beach and last week we were saying, David and I, it was really fun because the whole idea is wherever you're living in Maui, the odds are you're not more than a mile from a fabulous beach and this would be even less. So call us ?

R: I hear Danny.

B: Danny Couch is back, aloha.

R: Aloha.

B: Thanks for joining us.