Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers » Agents

Protected: Big Island ROCKS! Day 26 of 2012 and I’ve Been to the Beach 18 Times…

Katie Minkus, R(BIC) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:28:26 +0000

Margaret Reynolds, R(B) Joins Hawaii Life as Broker-in-Charge, Kailua-Kona

Katie Minkus, R(BIC) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:45:29 +0000

It’s an honor and pleasure to announce Margaret Reynolds, R(B) has joined Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers on the beautiful Big Island of Hawaii as Broker-in-Charge, Kailua-Kona.

When you ask anyone around “Kona Town” about Margaret Reynolds – especially REALTORS – the responses typically include something along the lines of, “I LOVE Margaret! She’s the best! She’s so ethical, and kind, and calm. She really helped me a lot during this transaction when she taught me…” More than one of Margaret’s colleagues tells me that they flat out won’t go after her expired listings because they have “too much respect for her to do that.” This is not just respect for her real estate sales stats, which are impressive.

Margaret Reynolds Real Estate Stats (2011)

Most sold transactions in the $700K+ market in Kona Town by one agent: 6 = 10%
Over $12M in sales volume
Top producing agent for residential sales in Kailua-Kona town, excluding condos. (Including condos, she was #2 in sales volume. #1 was a team specializing in condos).

About Margaret Reynolds, R(B)

What’s noteworthy is the enormous amount of respect Margaret has gained from her peers simply by being Margaret. She wakes up every morning determined to be the best person she can be that day. Her attitude is positive and her presence is calming. She volunteers her time, makes time for her family, and she always has a smile to give and a great story to tell. I’m not exaggerating – no one has a bad word to say about Margaret. That’s impressive in an industry where negotiation often feels personal, and in a small town where everyone knows everyone.

Margaret also brings a vast background experience in pharmaceutical sales, education, and development, which the Hawaii Life Big Island Team is excited to learn more about. She looks forward to coaching and supporting Hawaii Life Brokers and Agents to take their businesses to the next level. And she’s quietly determined to make Hawaii Life Big Island #1 in every residential market on island.

Welcome to Hawaii Life Big Island, Margaret. It’s a thrill to have you on board!

Hawaii Life Oahu Agents Nominated For HBR 2011 Aloha Aina Award

Sandra Sagisi Moser, RA — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 03:16:32 +0000

(Honolulu, Hawaii) The Honolulu Board of REALTORS® each year asks Hawaii real estate customers to nominate their Realtors for the prestigious Aloha Aiana Awards. Nominees are real estate agents who go above and beyond servicing their clients and maintaining the highest ethical standards in the real estate industry.

Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers would like to thank our clients for nominating members of our Kahala office on Oahu for the HBR 2011 Aloha Aina Award. It has been a pleasure serving you and we look forward to working with your friends and our new customers finding their dream homes in 2012.

Below, in alphabetical order, are the 2011 Aloha Aina Nominees:

David Buck, R, Broker-in-Charge of Oahu Sales

Caron Ling, R, CRS

David Hite, R

Kelly A. Lee, R

Sandra Sagisi Moser, RA

Mahalo, Hawaii Life customers, we wouldn’t have done it without you! We invite you to call on us should you need any further assistance in Hawaii real estate. Mahalo!

Protected: Big Island ROCKS – Update #1

Katie Minkus, R(BIC) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 04:43:01 +0000

Luxury Portfolio Welcomes Hawaii Life On Kauai & Maui

Matt Beall R(B), Owner, Principal Broker — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:49:17 +0000

Hawaii Life’s Kauai and Maui offices were selected by Leading Real Estate Companies of the World as Luxury Portfolio’s exclusive teams for both of those islands. With 67 of Hawaii Life’s listings priced at or above $1M on the Luxury Portfolio site, our world-wide exposure is multiplied by thousands of times.

Luxury Portfolio InternationalTM is the base for Leading Real Estate Companies of the World® — the largest global network of the world’s most powerful independent luxury brokerages. When launched in 2005, Luxury Portfolio’s award-winning website featured more $1 Million+ residential listings in its first year, than any other luxury real estate organization in the world. Now, Luxury Portfolio actively markets over 25,000 of the world’s most remarkable properties each year, with more than 1.2 million visits made by high-end clientele annually. By presenting a gallery of the finest luxury properties and brokerages worldwide, their brand is recognized throughout the world as the luxury standard of excellence.

Based in Chicago, Illinois, Luxury Portfolio InternationalTM is backed by the experience of the most well-respected and well-known experts in the luxury real estate market. Take a look at the 200 member firms in the Luxury Broker Collection. They represent a component of this organization encompassing nearly 550 companies, 4,600 offices and 140,000 associates who produce $225 Billion in annual home sales from 30 countries.

Luxury Portfolio has developed advertising partners with The Wall Street Journal, Unique Homes Magazine and the duPont Registry. Hawaii Life’s participation in this showcase of international exposure adds to our arsenal or Smart Marketing.

Since November 1, 2011, Hawaii Life’s listings on the Luxury Portfolio site have already received over 45,000 hits. These hits not only come from the US, but also from visitors of over 200 countries and territories. The Luxury Portfolio site is also versatile and customizable. It can be viewed in nine different languages and includes a price conversion tool for a number of currencies. At this time, nearly $40 Billion in properties can be found on the Luxury Portfolio site.

Mahalo Nui For An Amazing 2011

Matt Beall R(B), Owner, Principal Broker — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 02:00:41 +0000

Mahalo nui for an amazing 2011. I’m blown away at what we’ve accomplished, and how much everyone has contributed to the meteoric rise of this locally-owned, homegrown, non-franchised company. By every measure, we’ve succeeded in surprising the entire industry (perhaps even ourselves) in 2011…

We helped over 1000 people buy or sell property in Hawaii (at last count, we did 500 transactions this year, so I’m acknowledging us all for helping the other side of the transaction, too, as we do…).
We contributed to dozens of local and national causes, both publicly and anonymously. Schools, The American Heart Association, The Paia Youth and Cultural Center, The Hanalei Watershed Hui, The American Cancer Society, Habitat For Humanity, and more…
We welcomed some of Hawaii’s top-selling brokers and agents into the company all over the State, a huge acknowledgement to all of us, and a great opportunity to continue to show how marketing and representation of real estate in Hawaii should be done.
We have two Board Presidents, 3 Hawaii Association of Realtors Board Members, another Leadership Academy Graduate, a ton of local and state level volunteers, and several salespeople who passed their brokers’ exams this year.
We were nationally acknowledged by Inman News (again), as one of the most Innovative Brokerages in the company and for one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Real Estate.
Oh, we more than doubled our 2010 sales volume. Our 2011 sales totaled over $320 million. Wow.

Thank you. I know this year wasn’t easy. In fact, there’s a lot we’d love to forget about. In the face of that, and the innumerable stupidities that we deal with in this industry, you’ve made Hawaii Life shine. We’re humbled, honored, and grateful.

Mahalo Nui Loa, and here’s to 2012,

Matt

PS Just so we’re all clear about the title of this post. We are also grateful to our mascot, Mr. Nui, (without whom very little of this would be possible).

Truth in Advertising – The Most Powerful Search in Hawaii?

Katie Minkus, R(BIC) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 04:07:20 +0000

One of the many reasons that I am honored and proud to lead the Big Island team for Hawaii Life is that we are committed to telling the truth about ourselves and our technology, in our advertising and to our clients and customers. In doing a bit of market research, I stumbled across some interesting information about another brokerage that really made me giggle—and then more seriously consider the importance of “Truth in Advertising.”

What made me laugh is that someone is advertising that they run “the most powerful search in Hawaii” (referring to searching for listings on their website). It’s no secret that real estate agents can use cryptic marketing messages…“Top Producer,” “Unbelievable Value,” and now… “Most Powerful.”

“Powerful” is a relative adjective. So, I turned to facts and figures by logging into my account at compete.com and checking out the analytics. After finding 10 other real estate websites in Hawaii with higher traffic numbers and lower worldwide rankings (lower is better in website rankings), I stopped looking. It was clear to me that this particular brokerage is seriously deluding not just the general public, but themselves, their agents, clients, and customers about the actual “power” of their website.

The National Association of Realtors is a unique organization in that we “police” our own members and have a comprehensive Code of Ethics by which we are to practice our business. Standard of Practice 12-10 specifically states that “REALTORS obligation to present a true picture in their advertising and representations to the public includes the URLs and domain names they use, and prohibits REALTORS from…deceptively using metatags, keywords, or other devices/methods to direct, drive, or divert Internet traffic, or to otherwise mislead consumers.”

The reality is that it doesn’t matter how “powerful” your website search is, what matters is how many people are looking at your website. This is sales 101—the more eyeballs you have looking at your product, the quicker it will sell, and for a higher price.

Let me put this another way: you can spend a lot of money on a killer TV advertisement, but if you run it at 2a.m. instead of during the Superbowl, how “powerful” is the ad, really? What are the real-world results for the sellers who hire you to market and sell their property? Any Broker can list a property for sale on the MLS. Very few of them have the “power” to sell those properties. Hawaii Life does. That’s our “Truth in Advertising.” And our sellers are giggling—all the way to the escrow closing table.

Hawaii Life: Made For TV

Matt Beall R(B), Owner, Principal Broker — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:20:06 +0000

Would you believe that a major television network might be interested in airing a documentary about Hawaii Life? Last week, a production company from New York came to Hawaii to shoot footage of our brokers and agents in action all around the State.

Interviewing Matt Beall, R(B) on Maui

At first, the idea of being on television was novel and exciting. But, when it became a reality, it was a little more intense than we expected. Personally, I’m not particularly shy. I don’t get stage fright, and I’m not usually concerned about speaking on camera. However, the responsibility of accurately representing Hawaii, our clients, the lifestyle and the culture is something we take very seriously. So, when the cameras started rolling, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we had a newfound focus on the words that we use and the interactions that we had.

Neal Norman R(B) & Winston Welborn on camera on the Southern Star

At the end of the day, I think most people would be stoked to see a TV show that documents our business and how we do it. Unlike most reality shows, we probably don’t need to add any artificial drama (there’s plenty to go around in the real estate business).

What do you think? Would you watch “Hawaii Life: The Series”?

Roni Marley, R(B) Closes Historic Kauai Sale

Matt Beall R(B), Owner, Principal Broker — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 03:09:54 +0000

Hawaii Life’s top-producing agent, Roni Marley, R(B), was recently acknowledged in the Wall Street Journal for representing Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith in the sale of their home on Kauai’s North Shore for $20 million.

There have only been 4 residential sales in Kauai’s history for $20 million or more. All of the others included several hundred acres, whereas the Smiths’ sale of their property overlooking Secret Beach was only a 7-acre parcel. Considering that Roni represented both the buyer and seller in this transaction, I think it’s safe to say that she’s closed the largest residential transaction in Kauai’s history.

We are honored and inspired to have Roni at Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers. We’re looking forward to seeing her make headlines on a regular basis.

Hawaii Life Company Year-End Party at Camp Naue, Kauai

Hawaii Life — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 02:39:14 +0000

This past Saturday, December 17, 2011, Hawaii Life hosted our “Y-Not” at Y-Camp, the year-end bash for the whole family at the YMCA’s Camp Naue in Haena, Kauai. Words do not begin to describe the fun we all had!

Beginning at noon, this beautiful oceanfront arena hosted us usually ‘serious’ Realtors and allowed us to bond as friends through fun and games. To be able to live in paradise and work for a company who is ohana (family) is a dream come true. This is Hawaii Life Real Estate Brokers.

Beginning with lawn darts and volleyball, the day and fun began. Decked out in our Hawaii Life logo camouflaged hats, the highly competitive sport of Bocce Ball commenced. As we separated into teams, our Bocce warriors (Matt, Justin, Winston, and Ben) dominated our course of miniature mountains and valleys, complete with mud pond hazard and squalls of rain. We were all too busy having fun to take pictures!

Around sunset, we all gathered for the grand unveiling of the imu, an underground traditional Hawaiian oven in which fresh, wild caught boar had been cooked all night and day under banana leaves, thanks to Winston, his wife Larissa, and their family. I know everyone agrees with me that this kalua pig was so incredibly ono (delicious) that it was no ka oi (the best)!

Accompanied by a delightful buffet of island delectables, hardly anyone spoke during dinner, it was that good. As night fell in the magical land of Haena, I was surrounded by such nice people and felt so grateful to be a part of such a truly wonderful company.

Whether you are a client, a Hawaii Life agent, or a new friend, know that Hawaii Life cares about people, and that is what real estate is truly about.

Happy Holidays and a successful 2012 to all!

Mahana Dunn, R(A)
808.280.3327
mahana@hawaiilife.com