All Forum Posts by: Ally H.

@Johnny Aloha @Val Csontos @Michael Mazzella

Thank you for your advice! I think that unless we find a SFH or a multi-unit that fits our criteria, renting while we keep searching would be wise. Neither of us really know much about construction, but we're willing to learn. Thank you all!

Hi, my husband and I will be moving to Hawaii this summer for my career (military), and we are looking for our first RE purchase. We'll be in Honolulu for the next 6 years and will most likely return to the island in the future.

Our long-term goal is to buy-and-hold SFHs and multi-units. However, the downside to our sunny move is the average price of SFHs in Honolulu is pretty hard to swallow as our first purchase (and we are both from the San Francisco Bay Area, so we are accustomed to high prices). Thus, we started to look at condos*, and although their prices are more compatible with our budget (with enough cushion for emergencies), we fear having a lack of control over HOA fee increases (only one direction to go, in our opinion). As it's well-known, it's very difficult to achieve something near the 2% rule in markets like Honolulu and the Bay Area so having a large factor like HOA fees out of our control increases our anxiety about condos being our first purchase.

Although we are apprehensive about entering a RE market with such high entry prices, we are even more apprehensive about investing remotely (only other market we are interested in is the SF Bay Area, where both of our families are). Fellow BPers, what do you think we should do in order to help us balance our desire to add RE into our portfolio and our situation of living in Honolulu? Thank you in advance!

*For those familiar with the Honolulu market, we are specifically looking at the Salt Lake/Moanulua area.

@Troy Fisher @Joe Sillaman @Nathan Wilkus @Paul Timmins: Thank you for all of the great advice!

I must admit that despite being used to RE prices in the Bay Area, the SFH prices in Honolulu make me pretty hesitant to make that my first buy. I was looking at condos, specifically in the Salt Lake area, but I really, really hate the idea of always having condo-associated fees that I have minimal control over. For those familiar with the Honolulu market, what do you think about SFH vs condos there?

Oops! Yes, PCS is military for Permanent Change of Station, which just means that we are being moved to another station/location/assignment.

Hi there! I'm Ally, and I was born and raised in the SF Bay Area of California. Although I've read quite a bit on RE investing, I have yet to make the jump with the primary reason being that I've been focused on my military career in the past few years and have not lived where I want to be in the long-term future.

I'm most interested in buy-and-hold properties (SFHs and multi-units) in locations where I see myself returning to and/or staying long-term, so primarily in the Bay Area and Honolulu (actually PCSing there in a few months for a guaranteed stay of at least several years) right now. Hawaii seems to be one of the most difficult markets to start out with, so we'll see how that goes:).

Looking forward to being part of BP!
Ally