Hawaii real estate blog

The City and County of Honolulu offers a special tax credit to homeowner occupants on Oahu.  The credit is available to homeowners in certain situations.Eligibility Criteria: Real Property Tax home exemption must be in effect when the credit is applied for.  If you don't presently have the home e...

Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) PropertiesDHHL properties are designated for persons of Hawaiian ancestry.  Department of Hawaiian Homelands properties are leasehold - that is, a "buyer" purchases a long-term lease to use the property.  Thus, the "buyer" is a lessee (Department of Hawaii...

False Alarm Scares Hawaii residents and vacationersJust after 8 a.m. on Saturday, January 13th, smartphones across Hawaii received the Emergency Alert to inbound ballistic missiles heading towards our state.  The alert advised "Seek immediate shelter.  This is not a drill".My first thoughts were:...

2017 Tax Reform is now law and it has created a stir...  One result is a rush of individuals going to their State tax offices to pay their property taxes before the end of the year.  The reason: the new tax law will limit deductibility of state taxes (income, sales and property taxes) to $10,000 ...

Tale of the Pacific Paradise On October 10, 2017 the Pacific Paradise, a fishing vessel, ran aground on the reef near Kaimana Beach at Diamond Head with 20 people on board.  Efforts to remove the vessel were plagued with complications.Within days after the shipwreck a salvage team boarded the ves...

Illegal vacation rentals under scrutinyMany condominium associations are stepping up enforcement of vacation rental laws in 2017.  Recently I spoke with an investor who used to own and operate one such rental.  Illegal rentals are common on Oahu, talk to enough people and you'll find somebody who...

Waialae GardensLocated in Waialae Nui Valley,  many consider Waialae Gardens and the neighboring townhomes (Tropic Gardens and Tropicana Village - Makai) as part of the Kahala neighborhood.  After all, Kahala Towers are adjacent to Tropic Gardens.  The Kahala Mall is on the makai side of the H1 f...

What qualifies as affordable?  Oahu's median home prices were $745,000 in May, 2017.  The more popular neighborhoods in town (Honolulu, that is) are often priced near $1 million and  higher.Looking for a home in the $300,000's is challenging.  Common "wants" for buyers include: No homeowner assoc...

This morning I received an e-mail titled "wire transfer instructions" and it appeared to be sent by Docusign.  I wasn't expecting wire transfer instructions and suspected this is a "phishy" e-mail.Checking the spam folder, there were two more identical e-mails from the supposed author, Cameron Sm...

This morning I received an e-mail that appears to be from a realtor in Arizona and I live in Hawaii. Here's the message:Hello, how are you ? Please review attached Cash offer for the above property, let me know if you have any questions or if you need any other information. Buyer is very motivate...