View all Kauai Foreclosures →

Here are the latest list of Kauai Short Sales and Kauai foreclosures for the last two weeks.

Sub $100K Kauai condo without kitchen.

1) Listed at $75,000, Unit 126 (MLS# 232544) at the Kauai Beach Resort is in building 1 with an ocean view. Many people are attracted to a Kauai condo at the sub $100,000 price. It’s crucial to know that this unit is a hotel room and does not have cooking facilities. It DOES however have consistent revenue as the Kauai Beach Resort is a wonderful place to stay and vacation.

This is one of the lesser priced homes on Kauai’s eastern shores.

2) This small home on Puka St. (MLS# 232705) on the northern end of Kapaa is not quite a short sale but for an offer under $220,000 it will most likely become one.

New REO in Kapaa.

3) The REO listing on Papau St. (MLS# 232990) like all Kauai REO properties comes AS-IS. That IS one minor benefit of the short sale, as a buyer can often get a Sellers disclosure that is not available when purchasing from a bank. A careful inspection is highly recommended when purchasing any distressed property.

Waipouli Beach Resort REO already under contract.

4) Offered at $675,000, Unit A404 at the Waipouli Beach Resort (MLS# 232766) is a new REO and is already under contract. This luxury resort affords great opportunities for buyer’s who prefer luxurious amenities and convenience. With Subzero Refrigerators and Wolf Ranges, these are some of the most luxurious units on the island. This unit is a First Hawaiian Bank REO and comes AS-IS.

5) 4530 Kuawa Rd #E (MLS# 232635) $595,000

6) 3874 Hunakai St (MLS# 232974) $434,900

Stay in touch with my blogs for updates on Kauai foreclosures and short sales. Email me for a list of all pre-foreclosure Kauai properties.

View all Kauai Foreclosures →

Join the experts from Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, Title Guaranty Escrow, Hawaii Life Real Estate, and 101 Financial who are co-sponsoring four free first-time homebuyer seminars on March 22, 24th and 26th and the following week on April 1st. Register online →

Sometimes when buying a first home, home buyers can get overwhelmed by the paperwork and the process. By attending this seminar, you ‘ll get a great head start on understanding this process of home ownership and acquire the knowledge that will help you be more confident when purchasing. Attendees are suggested to bring a notepad to take notes, and there will be plenty of handouts for each of the seminar participants sponsoring the event.

Learn

• How banks function in distressed property sales, like short sales or REO (real-estate-owned by banks) transactions.
• How the new HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Avoidance) program will streamline the short sale process and improve the environment for Kauai home buyers.
• About the New Downpayment Assistance Program for New Home Buyers.
• About the USDA Rural Housing no-money down programs and FHA loans.
• How the escrow process works as we explain step-by-step how a successful real estate transaction is completed.

Our group of presenters will tell you what you need to know and help you avoid an potential scam that may come your way.

The first step in home ownership is to get your financial house in order. 101 Financial will show you how getting out of debt and improving your credit score are essential in preparing yourself for home ownership.

Obtaining a loan is also key to home ownership; the lending industry has changed dramatically in the last year. Come and find out what’s available. Interest rates are historically low.

It’s not too late to take advantage of government-sponsored incentives. First-time homebuyers could be eligible for a credit up to $8,000 if they have not owned a home in the past three years. Existing homeowners could be eligible for a credit of up to $6,500 if they have lived in their home for five out of the last eight years.

Ron Margolis, RA and a Certified Distressed Property Expert will be joined by Rankin Telles of 101 Financial, Ellen Henderson and Lisa Ledesma of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, and Jeri Miyaji-Ventura, escrow officer, of Title Guaranty Escrow Services. Together this team of local professionals will share with you their experience and knowledge about home ownership. Bring your family, bring your questions, get the answers.

Participants are encouraged to register online or call (808) 346-7095 for one of these free sessions:

Lihue Neighborhood Center – Monday March 22, 7pm
Princeville Association Community Center – Wednesday March 24, 1 pm
Kilauea Neighborhhod Center – Friday March 26, 7 pm
Kalaheo Neighborhood Center – Thursday April 1, 7 pm

Be sure to arrive 30 minutes early for registration and refreshments!

There are many great values today in bank-owned properties and short sales currently on the market. With prices on Kauai continuing their adjustment down, it’s a superb time for qualified buyers.

I am sure this question has been on the minds of many prospective buyers. Pardon the expression but it is a “scary” market out there if you are not informed. I hope this article will relieve some of your concerns and answer some of your questions about Hawaii’s current real estate market.

Between the changes in the lending guidelines, the negative media blast about how the U.S. housing market is at its all time worst with no way to recuperate and a short supply of housing inventory, no wonder prospective buyers could easily be scared off. The good thing is that it doesn’t have to be this way. A little knowledge can go a long way…

Qualifying for conventional loans is more stringent.

• Lenders are looking more closely at appraisals, and who chooses the appraiser has changed.
• The debt to income ratio has decreased from 60% to 45%.
• Larger down payments are required.

Fortunately, you have alternatives, one being private mortgages. If you have any family members, distant relatives, friends or acquaintances that have money in a savings type account they are most likely making no more than 3% interest in this market. They could be making 5-7% interest as a private mortgagee.

Another alternative is FHA financing, if you qualify you may only have to pay as low as a 3.5% down payment with lower closing costs and possible easier credit qualifying. Go to www.hud.com or www.fha.com for more information.

Beautiful 2 bedroom/2 bath oceanfront condo located at 75-6106 Alii Drive (MLS# 231993)

The media blast about the housing market could easily turn anyone off from thinking of purchasing in Hawaii at this time. But on the contrary, this is the time you should seriously consider buying. Remember that old adage “buy low, sell high”, that is what it’s all about now.

Well, what happens if the market never goes back up? Historically, in the United States, when there has been a down turn in the real estate market there has always been an upswing. This might take 2, 5 or maybe even 10 years, but if history repeats itself, it should go up. It’s like the stock market, we cannot predict the ups and downs, but we know they happen.

In regards to low inventory, statistics do show it is lower than 3 or 5 years ago, but the inventory we do have in Hawaii is good and worth looking at. One problem a buyer might run into is the time it takes to find exactly what you want. If you have flexibility in your expectations you will have a better chance at snagging a good deal.

If you are one of the brave ones and want to explore the short sale/foreclosure arena they are abundant. This process can be frustrating to say the least, but if you prevail you accomplished your dream.

Now a storm is brewing between appraisers and Broker Price Opinion (BPO) professionals vying for valuation work for short sales conducted through the Making Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives (HAFA) program.

Hawaii is a State where real estate agents are prohibited from receiving payment for BPO’s (so I am not sure why BPO’s are used). However, it is true that a BPO is less expensive than a professional appraisal and that may have something to do with the banks policies.

This short sale rim home (MLS# 227307) listed above had a compelling offer of $585,000 submitted. But, the banks BPO came in at 640,000 and the buyer walked away.

The Appraisal Institute—a trade group that represents appraisers—released a public letter it wrote to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday, calling for an end of the practice of using BPOs for Making Home Affordable modifications and refinances, as well as amending the rules for the upcoming HAFA program to require appraisals to determine value for government-incentivized short sales. Seasoned short sale agents like myself are looking forward to the HAFA program to bring a new efficiency and streamlining to what has been a long drawn-out process of a short sale.

“Generally speaking, real estate agents and brokers are not independent or properly trained valuation specialists. They have an inherent bias towards quick results and action which produces a fee for themselves irrespective of whether the lender/services/investor/property owner/borrower gets a fair return on the short sale,” the Appraisal Institute said in its letter.

“We believe that such conflicts can and should be mitigated by implementing basic requirements reestablishing independence and competency in the valuation process,” the letter also said.

Specifically, the Appraisal Institute called for the short sale process to include appraisals conducted under the regulations outlined in the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP).

I’m hopeful that this letter finds resonance with the government agencies . Many buyers, sellers, and agents have been frustrated by short sales that have blown up from an inaccurate BPOs.  It’s also good for the appraisal business which has been greatly softened due to the contracting of the numbers of transactions in each market throughout the state of Hawaii.

HAFA (Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative) is set to launch on April 5. It provides monetary incentives for borrowers, services and lenders to who complete a short sale under the program’s terms.

Learn more about the short sale process if you are interested in purchasing a distressed property on Kauai

Hawaii is Good for your Health!

The Gallup Well-Being Index is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, where a score of 100 would represent ideal well-being, across six sub-indexes:

1. Life evaluation,
2. Emotional health,
3. Work environment,
4. Physical health,
5. Healthy behaviors,
6. Access to basic necessities.

The 2009 Well-Being Index score for the country (65.9) is unchanged from 2008.

For detailed information on this poll, Well-Being: Hawaii Tops Utah for Nation’s Best →

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index measures the daily pulse of U.S. well-being and provides best-in-class solutions for a healthier world. To learn more, please visit well-beingindex.com.

CFL’s use approximately 1/4 the amount of energy needed to power an equivalent incandescent lamp.

CFL’s (compact fluorescent light) produce light differently than a normal light bulb (incandescent). If you had a lightbulb that was 100 watts, your replacement CFL would be approx. 25 watts.

That is where you will save money on your electric bill. The CFL lamp is more expensive than an incandescent to purchase, but is less expensive to use and maintain. It does have some heat as output but nothing near as much as an incandescent. CFL’s have become more popular with the availability of bulbs for different tasks; dimmable, 3 way, flood, spot and chandelier style. They are also more “easy on the eyes” with the availability of incandescent style light; cool white, brite white, daylight, etc.

There are even more energy efficient fluorescent tubes to replace the standard T12 (common ordinary tube lights). Those replacements are called T8 which emit 35% more light and are more energy efficient. (The T12 & T8 denote the diameter of the lamp T12 = 12/8 of an inch and T8 = 8/8 of an inch.  Lamps are measured in terms of its diameter and I will leave it at that.)

Useful CFL Tips

1. When a lamp states a lifetime, such as 5000 hours, that means that in a controlled test, 1/2 of the lamps tested lasted over 5000 and 1/2 didn’t make it to 5000 hours, so, you may have the lucky lamp that lasted that long.  Does that make sense?  Your lamps longevity will be affected by the following items.
2. Never screw in your bulb by the tubing.  Always use the ballast.
3. Keep your lamps on for at least 15 minutes before turning them off.
4. If you use them in an enclosed fixture, the little heat that they do produce will have an effect of reducing lifetime.
5. The last longer when installed in a fixture that has the lamp with the tube facing up, not down.
6. Always enclose them when using as an outside treatment.
7. Use the right bulb for the right purpose; dimmable for dimmer switch, 3 way for 3 way fixture, etc.

So, I think it’s time to wrap up this discussion on CFL’s. Next time, we will talk about the new kid on the block…..LED (light emitting diodes). Have you seen how much those puppies cost? Until next time.

Peace – Out

theenergymi$er

What this means to all licensees in Hawaii is that next year, they will have to schedule more time for education. Most states have much more difficult re-licensing requirements than Hawaii. As President of HAR, I see all different levels of competency across our state in the real estate practice. This step is very positive in that it requires all agents to increase their skills in areas that really count for the consumer. Consumers will be able to have greater confidence that their agent has taken core skill courses in ethics, changes in state and federal laws, agency law and other key areas that affect the Hawaii Real Estate industry.

The bill still awaits Governor Lingle’s signature, but her record on consumer protection issues clearly follows that she will likely sign the bill in to law.  We look forward to higher standards and consumer protection in our industry.

Tracy S. Stice

REALTOR-Broker, ABR ,CRB,CRS, GRI,Green

President , Hawaii Association of REALTORS

tracy@hawaiilife.com

My fish pond is suffering, the taro is wilting and tangerines are not getting picked. It has been a busy, but very fast first two months. My term officially started Jan. 1 and I actually got 4 days off before we had our first executive board meeting. Since then, I have traveled to Hilo, Lihue, Palm Springs, Washington DC, and to Honolulu 8 times. Additional, I opened a new real estate office on Maui as BIC. In my spare time, my son Jeremy and I closed 6 escrows and took 8 new listings. Now you know why my chickens don’t get fed unless my wife Laura or my daughters Chloe and Brianna do it.

We have had tremendous success in committee building this year. Almost every committee is off and running at full speed. Education has been totally transformed by chair Beth Holiday. She has 18 members and every one of them is excited about their participation. They all have jobs and are accountable to each other to get them done. The state convention committee is new and is planning our convention for fall 2011 on Oahu. We still need a few volunteers for this committee. GAC chair Rowena Hong and her committee have their hands full trying to push our bills to extend continuing education to 20 hours per biennium, keep GET taxes from increasing, holding on to the hurricane fund with a tight grip, at the same time watching hundreds of bill that affect our business. Finance chair Felix Osorno and Standard Forms chair Colin Dunlop are on steady courses making sure we budget and balance as well as have the correct forms to do our business.

Get ready to do battle. As we get closer to the close of the state legislature, we expect big tax increase proposals. We are ready. The GAC committee has requested $100,000 from Issues Mobilization for opposition to a GET tax increase. We will involve all local boards and NAR in our fight. The dire effects of a tax increase on unemployed workers, increased costs to home builders and buyers, crushing blows to business and the huge multiplier effect of layered GET which according to Lowell Kalapa from the tax foundation makes the GET higher than an equivalent 10% sales tax make this a very important fight. How many REALTORS ® would be happy with just a 20% pay cut from their 2007 earnings right now? We have cut staff, closed offices, turned off air conditioners, drive very used cars, and shop at Ross. We know what cuts mean.

President Elect Berton Hamamoto and 1st Vice President Stephany Doughty are headed for the second Leadership Academy in April along with 12 lucky associates who will be chosen to attend in the next couple of weeks. Beth Holiday will again be the instructor and course developer. All of the 2009 graduates are now in leadership positions around the state. I wish that I could attend again, the skills that I learned have really helped my business, my personal life, and my leadership ability.

The best is for last. We get to elect a new congressperson! Our RPAC trustees will be meeting shortly to pick a candidate to support in the upcoming special election to be held May 22 for the seat vacated by Neil Ambercrombie, now running for the Governors seat. Look for calls to support our choice of candidate. We don’t all get to vote in this race as it is for the 1st congressional seat on Oahu. Remember however, this person represents Hawaii in Washington and we only have 2 Representative and 2 Senators. This is a very important race and we will support the REALTOR ® Party candidate.

If you are a broker, expect a call over the next month to sign up for the NAR Broker Involvement Program. We need your agent’s voices on our NAR calls to action. Look what happened last fall; we managed to get the home buyers tax credit extended because over 200,000 of our members used our call to action. We need 400,000 next times! E-mail me and I will send you the details: tracy@hawaiilife.com

From this totally remodeled home (MLS# 219726), you can see all of Poipu, Port Allen and west to Niihau. Perched above Kalaheo, this 3,000+ sf home has been completely redone.

This Kalaheo short sale has been approved by the lender which means you can avoid the delays typically associated with short sales (close in two weeks if you so wish).

PRICE: $829,000 ($-666,000)
ASSESSED VALUE: $949,800

Agents Notes: It would be hard to replace this view and quality for under $1M anywhere on this island.

Highlights

• All Cherry Kitchen with six burner stove and dual ovens
• Solar heated in ground pool with full size Jacuzzi, outdoor sink and fireplace
• Koa staircase and koa trim on all window sills and baseboards.
• Fully accepted offer signed off by BOTH lien holders.
• Separate 1 bedroom apartment in rear accessible from family room or separate outdoor entrance with kitchenette and meditation room with Tatami mat installed.
• Two auto sensing skylights that self-retract if it is raining.

Photos

View all Kauai Foreclosures →

View all Kauai Foreclosures →

My new listing of 10.8 acres on Kuamoo Rd. offer a superb opportunity for a developer.

Zoned R-2, 2 homes to an acre, this is an opportunity for a smaller subdivision or CPR. Let me know if you need a preliminary map or topo of this property.

• Kuamoo Rd ($699,000)

Kauai Beach Resort short sales are not a new thing, but there are 2 new listings under $80,000.

These luxury hotel units are granite, travertiine and smartly furnished. With the rental management of Aqua Resorts, the Kauai Beach resort units  make a great and affordable vacation home on Kauai that can be rented out when you are off island.

• Kauai Beach Resort #1303 ($60,000)
• Kauai Beach Resort #2542 ($79,000)

At $179,000, the REO 2 bedroom at Paradise Court in Lihue qualifies for the title, “Lowest Priced 2 Bedroom Condo On Kauai“.

• Paradise Court-kauai #C ($179,900)

The 2 new Kauai Short Sale Listings located on Malakia and Olopua streets, on the northern side of Kapaa, are both good-sized homes at 1,700 sf.

This home on Malakia is very attractively priced at $349,000 and the 4 bedroom home has some nicely remodeling improvements making it a home that needs minimal work upon move-in.

• 1649 Malakia St ($349,000)
• 5471 Olopua St ($395,000)

Our Kauai Foreclosure Galleries afford you a visual presentation of our best bank-owned and short sale properties. Here are the rest of the new foreclosures over the past 2 weeks:

• Islander On The Beach #371 ($165,000)
• Princeville Paniolo #107 ($217,000)
• Banyan Harbor #74 ($300,000)
• 04-1078 Kuhio Hwy ($399,000)
• 4002 Hoohana St ($529,000)

Buyer’s have a lot to be thankful for this year.

View all Kauai Foreclosures →