All Forum Posts by: YuYing Chen

I am from Honolulu, Hawaii and I agree, Hawaii is very expensive (both price and HOA) and Oahu is not a cashflow market (unless you buy a leasehold with long land lease). Many people I know who invest here are doing either flips or BRRR (or short term rental, if you are willing to do the work or hire someone). You may want to start talking to agents and see they can find something in that range. I would recommend Loren Graham at Graham Properties is very familiar with leasehold properties. He is also very knowledgable with investment properties here on Oahu as well.

Hi Mio,

Thank you so much for replying! there's definitely a lot to learn in this market and thank you for the connection!

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Quote from @Bryan Vukelich:

Aloha @YuYing Chen

Congrats in finishing up in school. If you want to share, what are you majoring in? And also curious, what attracts you to O'ahu compared to the other islands? Whatever the reason, applaud you for putting yourself out there and getting new experiences. Only thing I really regret about moving to Hawaii is that I didn't do it sooner.

Regarding your real estate questions - It will be difficult but you can find a BRRR property on O'ahu for that loan amount. One example is I had a client last year buy a 3 BR townhome in Ewa for $286k. He did a fix and flip and sold it after a handful of months for $450k cash. It could have been a decent long term rental but he wanted to free up his cash.

I'm also a fan of vacation rentals. There is quite a bit to know here about rules and regulations and City Council is going to soon vote on some new regulations - so things may be changing. There are a few decent 1 BR legal vacation rental units that sell in the high $300k's and gross around $4-4.5K a month. But there are also studios between $220K-$350K that might appeal to you and gross around $3k+. Just know there are some buildings that are better than others to own a legal vacation rental unit. You are welcome to call me at your convenience, if you'd liked to chat more about the real estate market here as well as living in Hawaii.

So if I were in your shoes, whether it was a BRRR, or a vacation rental, I'd definitely try to buy real estate here. And I'd only look for "fee simple" property. Leasehold works for some and I've had some clients look into leasehold but all eventually end up buying "fee simple" property.

Happy to answer any other questions you have,

Aloha! Thank you for replying! I'm majoring in Environmental science, and I think Hawaii would be a great place for me to start applying my environmental science knowledge too! I also kind of plan to continue my education at the University of Hawaii Manoa. I think I'm more interested in the BRRR, my main goals are to develop environmentally friendly, energy-efficient, and affordable houses. I'm trying to make my first move here, definitely kinda scary but exciting!

What are your viewpoints on these leasehold estates? do you think Hawaii will ever get rid of it? and what about HOA? do you think these HOAs' are helping or hurting the locals?

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Hello everyone,

I'm finishing up school in Boston and thinking about relocating to Oahu, Hawaii in September ( I know, literally across the whole country). But I think it's good to get myself out there and get some new experiences. Anyways,
I would also want to use this opportunity to start my real estate investing journey since I've been following bigger pockets for a while now. I don't really have much money laying around, only enough for a downpayment. Talked to a loan officer, he said I can probably get a loan of around $300K

After doing a little research about the housing market I was quite surprised. A lot of the real estate is leasehold (which means you will never really own the land and you will have to give it back after a certain amount of time) but yet, but these properties are still being listed in the 200k range and most of them are studio/ 1bedroom apartments...

Aside from that, a lot of these apartments have crazy HOA fees! which definitely adds up to the mortgage payment...

I'm wondering if there are any properties around $300k that I could maybe do a BRRR?

Would it be better to buy a property at that price range and use it for air b&b rental? and I would just rent with some roommates?

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

-YuYing :)

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All Forum Posts by: YuYing Chen

YuYing Chen has started 1 posts and replied 3 times.

Post: Rookie investing in Hawaii, need some advice!

Post: Rookie investing in Hawaii, need some advice!

Post: Rookie investing in Hawaii, need some advice!