All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Chivas Miho Excellent advice- thank you Chivas! Very true on all accounts. I think that long term, our current and first home will appreciate incredibly being in Kailua, but trying to do mainland things here will be very difficult and maybe much too risky. We will consider OOS! Thank you! 🙏🏼

@Isi Nau

Amazing amazing post - thank you for sharing! Love what you say about delayed gratification - I'm seeing that this is so true, especially in this type of market in Hawaii. It's all about sacrificing especially in the beginning. I need to up my game on making time to get to know the market better. I have a ballpark idea, but what you said about knowing the current value of your home/property at any given time is wonderful advice, and knowing all the "numbers." Need to improve there! 

We are also blessed to know a lot of good brokers both personally and professionally (I work for a developer here in town and work closely with brokers daily). The ones I do know do have investments here. 

We are in our first live-in flip and currently have a 1yo child, our first, so much easier than with 5 school-aged kids! ;) But, that's also why I want to hit the ground running now, before our kids get older and it becomes more difficult to start out and make the bigger sacrifices. 

MAHALO again for sharing your story! It's so encouraging and inspiring!

Originally posted by @Duc Ong:

@Account Closed Oahu can be a difficult market to break in to, but it can also be very rewarding.  It's more of an appreciation market, but there are a few deals that can cash flow.  They are just harder to find and structure properly.  It just depends on your goals and how much you have to work with.  

 Thanks for the input, Duc! It's very difficult to break into and we are very lucky to have had help via a personal loan from my parents for the down payment for our first home in 2016. We are just trying to figure out where to go from here in the next few years in the matter of timing. Thanks for your encouragement!

@Account Closed Thank you for your insight! It's really helpful and makes a lot of sense. I think you're right in that looking for deals not necessarily in the MLS would be the way to go. Luckily a lot of things in Hawaii can be found by word of mouth since it's a smaller community here, so I guess it's just a matter of meeting the right people as well and keeping our eyes open for an opportunity. We bought our first home (already at a good price - owners were very motivated to sell quick) in Kailua in late 2016 with a loan from my parents for the down payment and have done a lot of improvements already which has upped our equity quite a bit, so at this point, we are waiting for at the very least the 2-year mark as well as a few other improvements before we sell again, and we are hoping we will make a pretty good profit, pay my parents off, and have leftover to move on to the next property.

Thanks again for taking the time to share your wisdom!

My husband and I are in our late 20’s and live on Oahu, Hawaii. Real estate is very expensive here, so I was wondering if anyone had advice for starting out in a market like this, is it even possible without a lot of capital to start off with?