All Forum Posts by: Dede Christensen

Welcome Brandon! Read the blogs carefully on this website to gain knowledge.  Take your time to acquire knowledge of your target market. I live in the Bay Area and invested in a single family house in Honolulu.  I understand how the costs of providers, materials, etc. can eat into profit.  We invested long term in this Honolulu rental to diversify from the Bay Area.  My suggestion is to  diversify in a small single family house in a high growth area on the mainland. 

You have a huge task ahead, to recover from devastation, and you will recover! I wanted to take a moment to say my heart goes out to everyone who is suffering injury, loss of life and property.

Thanks @GarryC!

Diamond Head/Kahala  area: Over 2 1/2 months showing SF house, over 3k sq ft, 16 inquiries, 10 tours, 3 no shows, 3 never arranged a tour. 0 rented. We did not see how bad the market was in April. Since then, we dropped price $1500 a mo. and that's the sweet spot now.  A realtor friend said she has not seen the market so bad for 17 years. Comps stay on the market for 30 days, some for 90+ in luxury market. Short term agents call us and employ heavy sales tactics to get us to list as a VR, but we ran numbers and don't see it as a viable model, but that may change. 

Oahu, and the rental is in Diamond Head, on a unique street above Kapiolani  Park. 

That is what Im planning to do, also. Staging a rental makes sense/ it could just use a few nice pieces to help people visualize their own furniture there.

I agree with Deanna McCormick. This is a great selling tool, that you are the landlord/owner/manager and there is no middleman. I'm experiencing a saturated market where my investment is, so thanks to everyone for their advice. You have experience- but that's why we are on BP, to get feedback. I expect to get some snarky responses sometimes but thank goodness not on this post, as this is a painful reality for me.

The Hawaii market is flooded with inexpensive condos, so I was aware of this when we bought into the house market. Does anyone local have a reasonable prediction when the long term rental market will turn around? It is so thin, there is interest but I've asked "what do you like or what stopped you from renting?" I hear it's the cost of rent- and ultimately cost of living.

I sold out of the mythical Bay Area for the tropics. Lots of nicely finished renovations, no tenant. I want to give all the nice furniture to a charity and rent it for $1000 less. Still holding out....

Not your typical property described here, but you can divide total cost here by bedroom (divide by 2 for two bedroom house). Utility cost for 4bed 4 bath -with pool, hot tub= $500 water/sewer, $450 electricity (even with photovoltaic), gas-$85, garbage pickup is covered in prop. tax, in Honolulu.