Hawaii and Oahu Real Estate & News

#4.  Messing with your credit, killing the deal. You've gone to all the trouble to get a good mortgage quote and get preapproved, you've found the house and had your offer accepted, and you are in escrow.  Your mortgage officer and Realtor told you not to spend anything on anything until the deal...

#3 Not getting a local loan approval. You should shop for your mortgage of course.  But one of your estimates should be a local loan officer's pre-approval.  Yes, it's a pain to get all those docs together, but you are going to need to do it anyway.  And why local?  Hawaii has very unique land la...

#2  Not getting your own agent and committing to them. Preferably one that primarily represents buyers  or has been accredited as a Buyer's Agent. There are two or three subtopics here.  First is the buyer who thinks they'll save money by just walking into the listing they are interested in and t...

#1.  Picking the home/area/whatever before you get pre-qualified.  Actually, to be safe you want to get pre-approved.  Don't you just love watching those real estate shows on TV?  Well, me too, especially the international ones!  The firsttime buyer show doesn't quite match the way we do things i...

Do you know how many cool things there are to do for FREE in Honolulu, Hawaii?  It's amazing how people come here and think they need to spend so much money on entertainment when the real good stuff is absolutely FREE! Tonight I went rollerblading with my husband while he rode his mountain bike j...

Are you getting transeferred to Hawaii? If so you are in for a treat!  Honolulu and all the areas on Oahu are surrounded by military bases.  There is one literally at every single side of this island.  The great part about it is that you have access to all of them if you are active military.  The...

We all have likely thought about buying a home in Honolulu, Waikiki, Ewa Beach,  Hawaii Loa Ridge or somewhere else on Oahu or in Hawaii. If this is still your position, the only way to truly know if you are eligible is to ask a lender, preferably local Honolulu. That is where it becomes your res...

I have previously blogged about the sorry state of the Kapiolani Community College Farmer's Market, primarily due to the busloads of tourists to whom the market now caters.  Tons of prepared food booths, homemade jams, lemonade, etc. but very little left in produce.  And the stuff is vastly over...

Have you seen the new Disney Resort in Hawaii?  It is absolutely awesome!  Disney put a lot of care into building this resort and all the details that went into it.  They literally worked hand and hand with local Hawaiians to assure that the spirit of Aloha and Hawaiian culture and Disney  was we...

Nosy Neighbors in Hawaii I live in Kailua Oahu Hawaii, the most beautiful place on earth. Homes in Hawaii are smaller and closer together than most mainlanders are used to (there's that limited land issue).  So you get used to being "close" to your neighbors. A few years ago there was an older, ...