Well, the State is lowering the boom on those of us who are not filing our GET taxes!   Another realtor was just sentenced for failing to file GET taxes.   One of us just pled guilty to six counts of willfullly failing to file her returns for tax years 2000 through 2005.  This agent was directed to pay $28,935 plus $12,000 fine and court fees.   Best to keep even with the requirements of the state. 

Anyone conviceted of this kind of offense can be assessed a fine up to $25,000 per violation, a period of incarceration not to exceed one-year and corporations can be fined up to $100,000 per violation.    

While many of us may consider it grossly unfair that we are taxed at all by this regressive tax, we need to be certain that we are on top of filing unless we want to be hauled before a magistrate.   Never mind that no other profession has to pay GET on their commissions or salaries!  Never mind-never mind!   Realtors are perceived by the public and their legislators as being rich and thus, that we need to pay more of our "wages or salaries or commissions" than anyone else.    Ahhh, wonderful living in Paradise.  

Well, here we are on the day after a "safe and sane" July 4 holiday.   Back to reality for awhile.   Crude oil prices are now our top economic concern, outweighing the housing market and credit problems.  I guess this means we can now focus on selling homes in a new environment?    Maybe the FED will hike rates soon just to keep things interesting?   It seems that the experts, whoever they are are looking for a couple of hikes before the end of the year, just to keep us on our toes.   Ahhh, life is good if we don't weaken.   Of course, the price of gas could fall precipituously by then and thus, they wouldn't know what to do?   Think that might happen?   Ah my, what a good life!  

RE/MAX Kai Lani  -- 25 Kaneohe Bay Drive #109  --  Kailua, HI 96734  --  808-237-5300

The Chinese Are Coming, The Chinese Are Coming, The Chinese Are Coming

Wow, we have long been awaiting for the Chinese to break out of their insular habits and get out and mix with the rest of the world.   Well, it is finally starting.   And maybe even, they are bringing some of the dollars we have been sending their way to buy goodies and services of every shape and kind.  You never know, they might even discover that our homes and land are cheap by their standards and you never know, this may usher in another boom in our Real Estate Market.  I think so!  

The Honolulu Advertiser broke this news to us as a big splash in their article, "China opens up package tours to U.S." in the June 18th Business Section.   It seems the whole thing grew out of an agreement negotiated last December that gave the U.S. and Hawaii, China's "approved destination status".  This is no small achievement.   China has long guarded its country, boarders and people from mixing with those of us who are not Chinese in a big way.

But what this change means is that Chinese travel agencies can now market package tours to American destinations and it permits U.S. destinations to advertise directly to the Chinese public.  This is an enormous change!  

On June 17, an initial group of more than 200 tourists flew in from "Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou for a 12-day visit that will take them to destinations such as Hawai'i, New York, Washington and Los Angeles. The trips cost about $4,000 each."   Once these folks find us and the word gets out, we can expect a sea change in the culture of the country and from a very selfish perspective, a very large inflow of capital into the USA, and from our own perspective, here in Hawaii.  

I can only say Welcome!   Good times are just around the corner for real estate agents.  Be happy and learn to speak a little Chinese.  

And, just to keep our perspective, China is not what it used to be.  It is a modern thriving economy struggling hard to not only join the rest of the world, but to lead the rest of the world.   Keep your fingers crossed. 

Are you ready?

RE/MAX Kai Lani, 25 Kaneohe Bay Drive, Kailua, HI 96734   ---   808-237-5300

Are we lucky or what!   Denise Saunders has just chosen RE/MAX Kai Lani over all of the other real estate companies in Kailua.   She already has three listings!   Sometimes it feels like she sucks all the air out of the room when she walks in.  She is a veritable dynamo.  We are happy, happy, happy to have her on board.   Denise is a Farrington High School Graduate putting her in good standing in the community. 

She is a true Hawaii Born outdoors person--in love with the beach, loves to walk barefoot in the sand and let the waves flow over her feet.  "I LOVE the Beach".   And   ...   she Loves to Cook.   Can't tell it though because she is in fantastic shape -- looking good.  

We are all so pleased to have her on board that we can hardly stand it.   Welcome Denise! 

RE/MAX Kai Lani -- 25 Kaneohe Bay Drive, Kailua, HI 96734   ---   Telepone:  808-237-5300

Reality bites if we are not aligned on our perceptions.  Here are some thoughts to get you interested in reading the attached link.   I have to tell you, this gets you thinking. Edward Marshall wrote an insiteful article at the attached link.  Here are a few of his thoughts to get you started.  

"Perception is reality. Or is it? Is my perception true about a particular work decision? Or am I simply trying to convince myself that I am right? What if others disagree? Does that make them wrong? What if our differences in perception involve key decisions critical to the business? How important is it that we are aligned and on the same page?

"If we are not aligned on how we perceive these things, we run the risk of falling into the Perception Trap - a situation in which everyone is right and no one is wrong, but no one is on the same page and the business is directly affected.

"To understand the power of perceptions, envision yourself wearing a pair of glasses. Your lenses are shaped by your history, experiences, expectations, hopes, understandings, needs and perspectives. They affect how you perceive everything you see.

"Now, realize that everyone else has their own glasses with lenses shaped by their own experiences. Everyone is looking through different lenses and perceiving different things.

"Therein lies the challenge.

"The perception trap happens when a group of us have to come to a decision, resolve a problem, or address a concern, and we don't completely share our perceptions of that reality. We work through the issue, think we have arrived at a decision that we all agree with, and then leave the meeting with what we thought was the agreement. Then we find out we didn't agree at all the way we thought we had. Hence, everyone is right and no one is wrong, but we're not aligned." 

http://www.bizjournals.com/extraedge/consultants/in_the_workplace/2008/04/28/column15.html?ana=e_sol

Just a quick Reminder!!!! 

It's time to quit wishing for sales success, and make a plan to achieve it!   This is a tough buyer's market, but one can't sit by and wait for cleints to come knocking!    A goal without a plan is only a wish.   Most of us just sit by wishing for things to happen and they seldom do.   In this kind of market, you might now have a little time to get planning.  Make a detailed plan of action and then start implementing it.   Your business is up to you.   Just a short thought for the day.  

RE/MAX Kai Lani, 25 Kaneohe Bay Drive #109, Kailua, HI 96734 - Aikahi Park Shopping Center  -  www.remaxkailani.com

If you receive email requesting confidential information of any type, please be very VERY careful.  "Phishing" and "spoofing" email cannot be taken at face value; they are fraudulent in every sense of the word.   They may appear if you look at them only casually, to be from a well-known company and ask you to click on a link.  They may ask you to provide, update or confirm information that may not even appear to be confidential, but may be a route to confidential information they can access by other means with the information you provide. Most of us are pretty alert to watch for requests for Social Security numbers, bank account numbers and passwords.   Even your clicking on a link can sometimes be dangerous, even if you don't answer the questions asked.   A Word to the wise should be sufficient.   Be Careful! 

RE/MAX Kai Lani, 25 Kaneohe Bay Drive #109, Kailua, HI 96734 Telephone:  (808) 237-5300

Sales of single-family homes on both Maui and Lanai fell dramatically to their lowest point in several years in January.  There were only 56 homes sold last month, 55 of which were on Maui and only one on Lanai.   This compares to 106 that were sold in January of 2007.   

This was the lowest number of sales in the last five years.  By comparison, the lowest number of sales last year occurred in September when 74 homes were sold.  I surely hope this isn't catching.   

RE/MAX Kai Lani, 25 Kaneohe Bay Drive, #109, Kailua, HI 96734  (808)237-5300   

It's not easy to be a Seller's Agent in this Buyer's Market.   And, while our agents really love to work as Buyer's Agents, it is not at all wise to pass up an opportunity to take a good listing.

I doubt that it comes as news to anyone, that all Housing Markets are "Local".  This is true even in a "Small Town" like Hawaii.  

With a little research, however, our odds of making and closing any given sale are improved tremendously. 

William Poorvu, professor emeritus at Harvard Business School and author of "Creating and Growing Real Estate Wealth." Notes that "You've got to know more than you would have if you'd sold a year ago."   Boy, is this ever true now when the number of units being sold is down, waaaay down!  There are still some serious buyers out there, but boy, are they shopping hard for the right home at the right place in the right condition, in the right location.   And this at the RIGHT price.       

Looking at the Monthly Stat report published by the Honolulu Board of Realtors there are significant differences in what similar units sell for from area to area.   Duh!

I guess the state of Hawaii is a good case in point.   While prices throughout the mainland are generally down, Hawaii prices are, at worst, level, but even here, some regions on Oahu are going up while others are down.  Condo prices might be going up while single family home prices are going down a little, or vise versa.   High end properties behave differently from the homes the rest of us live in. 

I guess it might be an oversimplification to note that this just reflects the supply and demand requirements of the market.   There is a lot more demand for homes in Kailua, than there might be in Aiea for example, but even this statement is an oversimplification because demand is not necessarily the same for the same type of home.   Demand changes depending on the price range as well as the neighborhood and locale.  

This is where our research must get specific.  One has to ask, specifically, how much demand is there for a house like your client wants to sell in the area where the home is located.   A multimillion dollar home in Makakilo is a lot harder to sell than would be the same home in Kailua, and it would sell for more in Kailua, particularly if it were to be "on the beach".  There is just not a large pool of home buyers looking to spend a couple of million dollars in Makakilo; there are a few looking to do so in Kailua.   

Here is where we council our agents to look carefully at what is being sold and the prices at which similar units are sold.  It's not good enough to wet one's pointer finger and hold it in the wind; you simply have to do your research. 

We have to look at the comps, study prices for the places that have sold.  And one has to look at what sold over the past year, nine months, six months, three months, and consider what the market was doing then as compared to now.  

One has to ask, what the trends are, particularly in the specific area where the home is located.  What are prices doing in the area, are they going up or going down, and how much are they changing and how quickly.  How long did the comp stay on the market.   When pricing the unit, it necessarily needs to be priced ahead of the trend.  It hardly ever works to follow the trend, particularly in a dropping market.     

Looking at the homes that have sold, did the seller have to mark them down from the original listing price, and by how much?   It is really important to have the home priced right at the time it is first listed; a quick sale benefits everyone.   If the seller is being greedy, it may help to remind him how much he is losing every day the property doesn't sell because it is priced too high.  In this effort, rental values can be used to make the situation understandable, and this is where an alliance with a competent Property Manager can be a big help.   It is not unusual at all for me to get a call to meet with a client of another agent, even from another office, to help him determine rental values of a property. 

And, in the final analysis, one has to be really careful to realize that the selling agent on any comp one is evaluating, may have had to throw in a few, or a lot, of concessions.   This information will not be readily apparent, and one might be well advised to call one of the recent selling agents of a comp to find out. 

Research in pricing our listings is an imperative of the Buyer's Market in which we now find ourselves.  

Surviving in a buyer's market is tough at best.   At times like this, it is imperative that one makes themselves and their companies indispensable to the people they serve.   We must all become the "must-have" provider of solutions for our clients and for those who will be buying, selling, or leasing property.   This means that they need to believe that they simply can't get by without our services, and that no one can service their accounts as well as us, and here is where it becomes really personal.   We all need to be as customer service oriented as we can possibly make ourselves and strengthen that personal relationship we all have with our clients.  This often means that we will need to swallow our pride and get our emotion under control.   Remeber, you are the professional!   Remember, that's why your client needs you.  Keep your cool at all times, even if it makes you want to cry.    

RE/MAX Kai Lani, 25 Kaneohe Bay Drive 109; Kailua, HI 96734 www.rxkl.com