On the Big Island of Hawaii we have run into a lot of issues lately with quality control on VRBOs (Vacation Rentals by Owners).  Although some guests do have positive experiences, the horror stories of renting through VRBOs is multiplying to the extent that I believe it is hurting my business as a vacation rental company. The most common issue of late are guests arriving to a dirty vacation rental and not being able to get a hold of the owner on the mainland to have it taken care of.  In these cases either the owner did not have an on-island contact or they were unresponsive. Is anyone else having similar issues or have any thoughts? Here is a post I wrote about why I think it is better to go with a management company versus a VRBO 09/20/2011

  Google places was a great idea google started a few years ago, but even after a few years they are struggling to have success with it. Since Google is giving high weight to Google places and is placing it on the front page of many of searches, many people are trying to get their information on there. The thing I find most interesting is that after years Google is still struggling big time in making Google places a true success.  Many times I try to use it to get information on how to get somewhere and find the information to be wrong. My listing with Google Places is very screwed up.  I have done everything I should to get Google the correct info and if you look below the address is the address of a vacation rental company, but not the address for Kolea, the phone number is of a diffe... 08/21/2011

Real Estate Recovery in Hawaii with Realtor Lance Owens, Aloha Kona Realty Inc, www.WestHawaiiCondos.com  2011 Real Estate sales in West Hawaii are just seeing some incredible sales numbers. Today we are here to talk about the  South Kohala, Waikoloa areas, and they are no different. Although July sales were good, the (YTD) Year to Date numbers are  staggering, do you know that YTD, these areas are up 42.86% - Number of Condos sold – Not bad Hawaii. Do you know what this means in $Dollar figures – Over $14,000,000 more money put into the economy this year alone Even better news, 2010, July, Year to Date sales: were up 98% - yes 98% over 2009. This is pretty good evidence, with 2 years of solid recovery, that Hawaii is a good place to BUY. A few more facts: Did you know last year, “Islan... 08/05/2011

The Waikoloa Beach Resort is one of the top vacation destinations in the world.  It is also home to the Hilton Waikoloa, one of the largest and most well known hotels in Hawaii.  In the early 2000s a new beachfront development was built, Kolea. Kolea offers luxury two and three bedroom villas with square footage up to 2200.  Each of the villas have luxury accents such as granite counters, stainless steel appliances, mahagany wood, and stainless steal grills on the lanais.  The "front row" three bedroom villas offer easy beach access and magnificent ocean views. As the years have passed Kolea has become a popular destination in Hawaii.  It has received the #1 place to stay in Waikoloa Beach Resort by TripAdvsor.  Although the economy has struggled, the popularity of Kolea has increased o... 07/30/2011

Yahoo Real Estate reclaimed the top spot in May on a list of the most popular real estate websites compiled by Experian Hitwise, bumping the National Association of Realtors' official listing portal, Realtor.com, into second place. Hitwise showed the two sites with virtually identical market share - Yahoo Real Estatecaptured 6.51 percent of traffic in the category, compared with 6.46 percent for Realtor.com - and with comfortable cushions over third-placeZillow (5.69 percent) and fourth-place Trulia.com (4.77 percent). Also climbing the ranks of the Hitwise top 10 were fifth-place MSN Real Estate(2.42 percent market share), which was up three positions from April, and HGTV'sFrontDoor Real Estate (2.38 percent), up four places to sixth. Those sites' gains came at the expense of seventh-... 07/13/2011

Another luxury Kolea condo for sale has taken a price reduction to short sale territory.  Today's price reduction on Kolea 3E from $1,395,000 to $1,250,00 comes iwth the caveat that this is now a short sale subject to bank approval...and a bargain for some lucky and patient buyer! Pocket doors open to view from Kolea 3E (MLS 239266), now a short sale priced at $1,250,000 This is the largest of the Kolea condo villa flooplans, at 2,174 sq ft of interior space, 3 bedrooms/e.5 baths.  Kolea 3E is a second floor unit that current overlooks one of the 17 lots at Kolea, this particular one vacant and not yet built.  Many owners and renters prefer the quiet of this side of Kolea, farther from the Beach Club and the Marriott.  Even though the view is a bit more distant, it is west-facing for th... 05/20/2011

  In my previous reports this year on Halii Kai condos for sale, the market has been completely dominated by short sale, foreclosure and developer sales.   There is currently one REO (foreclosure) - Halii Kai 4B - still in escrow with at least two more in the pipeline. There are currently five short sales at Halii Kai with accepted offers being presented to banks for approval, which as of yesterday would have left only four available.  Coincidentally, all of them happen to be the groundfloor 3 bed/2 bath outside unit that is usually the most popular floorplan. However, today we saw the release of two new resale listings at Halii Kai, both of which are short sales with great ocean view locations on the golf course. Halii Kai 12C is a 2BR/2BA with a solid rental track record in the buildi... 05/03/2011

Yesterday's West Hawaii Today had a notice of foreclosure sale for a Halii Kai condo at Waikoloa Beach Resort. The ActiveRain blog post that has brought me more prospective buyers than any other was the announcement of the listing of Halii Kai 16C as a foreclosure--and this notice is for the mirror-image unit next door! Careful distinctions are in order here.  Usually when people ask me about "foreclosures" they are actually interested in what banks and real estate agents refer to as "REOs" or real estate owned by a lender after completion of the foreclosure process.  Less commonly, they want to know how to find out about properties up for foreclosure auction, such as this Halii Kai condo. The Halii Kai condo set for foreclosure is in one of the closest buildings to the private Ocean Cl... 04/25/2011

It was like "old home week" at the Kolea Waikoloa Beach Resort property auctions yesterday.  Surprisingly, rather than generate a lot of interest from Concierge Auctions huge database, it seemed that most of the bidders on both the home and condo for sale were people already "sold" on the Kolea lifestyle, including several current owners and a former salesperson for the developer! I can't reveal what the final selling prices were until the sales close escrow.  For the condo, that will be on or before April 21st according to the contract.  However, the fine print in the oceanfront Kolea home contract is that it would be subject to bank approval at the final bid price.  Like any short sale, that means that it will really be up to the mortgage holder to accept the shortfall, and the curre... 03/22/2011

Late last night I got an email from the Concierge Auction manager regarding the auction today of the Kolea Beachfront Penthouse Condo Villla at Waikoloa Beach Resort.  This is not a foreclosure auction, but a professionally managed auction designed to move a property at premium pricing in 30 days. Only this time, an REO came on the market the week before the auction and stole their thunder. With front row Kolea 10F offered for sale at under $1.4 million, it may have changed expectations on which property was the better deal. Now they are looking for last minute registrations. Three of my clients who had decided to pass are now weighing their options. Key to their decision will be that any bid, even a lowball, will still have a buyer's premium of $175,000 tacked on for the auction house.... 03/21/2011

March 15, 2011 I am putting the date at the top of this post, because a Kolea penthouse showing up as an REO (bank-owned property for sale after foreclosure) for only $1,390,000 is the kind of blog post that will attract continued attention! This is the view from Kolea 10F of the beach at Waikoloa Beach Resort  (MLS 243619) I am putting the date at the top of this post, because a Kolea penthouse showing up as an REO (bank-owned property for sale after foreclosure) for only $1,390,000 is the kind of blog post that will attract continued attention! History of Kolea 10F, which is located in the building right across from the Beach Club, meaning right across from the path to the beach at Anaeho'omalu Bay: The developer sold this to the original owner in 2005 for $2,950,000. When it was fina... 03/15/2011

Hawaii experienced its second tsunami warning in about a year. It was interesting to see how google reported the information this year as opposed to last year. Last year when the tsunami warning came about I searched terms such as hawaii tsunami warning to see what was going on.  The first result was a local news station that did report information, but was not as fresh of information as they were reporting on television.  That was the only real useful information provided from the google search so I just watched the news. This year I did the same search, which provided an entire different set of results.  First was "News", which had 4-5 recently written articles about what was going on.  Further down there were videos, which featured webcams of some areas where the tsunami was supposed... 03/12/2011

"Short sale, foreclosure or auction: which is currently the best buy in Big Island real estate?" was the question I client posed to me yesterday after receiving a mailing about the beachfront home and penthouse villas being auctioned at Kolea at Waikoloa Beach Resort on March 21st. The only answer to the question is "it depends" and for a particular property, community or location on the Big Island, the only way to answer for sure is to know the market and recent comparable sales.  The other important information to have concerns hidden costs in the different auction scenarios. The first question to ask is who is conducting the auction.  If it is an auction house rather than a foreclosure auction, the winning bidder must pay a "buyer's premium" of 8-10% of the purchase price to the auc... 03/10/2011

Coming up on March 21st will be the first Concierge Auction at Kolea Resort for the extraordinary property at 69-1065 Kolea Kai Circle, and unparalleled home with stunning architecture, location and style. Also check out Kolea 2C that will be up for auction. Click here to read entire article, photos & more! 03/04/2011

Even the buyer of foreclosure Halii Kai 24C (MLS 242791) can walk down to the Ocean Club for sunset At the beginning of January I wrote a review of Halii Kai condo short sale and foreclosure activity and although this is titled February update, I have to confess that 7 weeks have passed. Since my previous post, all of the action has been in short sales, REOs, and DEVELOPER inventory, hence the revised title of this post.  The activity over the past couple of weeks contains a few surprises. SOLD SURPRISE There was only one closed sale during this time period, one of the REOs.  I was surprised both by which one of the three REOs for sale went first, as well as by the amount of discount to the asking price (typically when banks list property they only accept offers close to asking price, ... 02/25/2011

Kolea 2C in the upper left corner is set for auction on March 21st (MLS 235065) List Price: $2,295,000. Earlier this week I blogged on the Hawaii Life website about the planned auction of one of the oceanfront homes at Kolea on the Big Island's Kohala Coast. This morning I got a call from another agent to let me know that one of his listings, Penthouse Villa 2C, was going to be included in the March 21st auction by Concierge Auctions. That is the same auction company known around here for auctioning Cher's house at the Hualalai Resort for $8.7 million. Buyers seeking a deal are often attracted by the word "auction", but as I explained in my Hawaii Life post, there is a huge difference between a foreclosure auction and an auction conducted by a company such as Concierge.  The purpose of... 02/25/2011

This week (February 22, 2011) a buyer client who first called me after reading my blog posts closed on one of the last remaining short sale deals at beachfront Kolea on the Kohala Coast.  The smaller 2bedroom condos in the 12-plex buildings originally (and in early resales) sold for over $1 million, so my new owners feel there is plenty of upside to the $421,000 they paid for theirs. But with no 2-bedroom short sales or foreclosures on the market, and only one I am aware of in the pipeline, the least expensive of this floorplan is 3rd floor Kolea 16J (MLS 233827) at $798,000 ....and I say least expensive because the other 2 bedroom currently for sale just INCREASED its asking price to $830,000 (that one is a 2nd floor unit with some interior upgrades).  Designer-furnished Kolea 16J is ... 02/24/2011

I just recently had a photographer come out to do some shoots of properties I manage at Kolea at Waikoloa on the Big Island of Hawaii. I knew what he could do as far as stills of the interiors go, but he also did videos. He shot a video of the pool and surrounding areas with his camera (not a video camera). To my surprise it turned out great! You can enjoy it below. Comment if you have had any success shooting videos really well and what type of camera you used. 02/09/2011

The Waikoloa Beach Villas developer townhouse-style unit for sale (MLS 241983) has a built-in grill like this With the developer of Waikoloa Beach Villas having moved most of their remaining inventory in 2010, and the short sales and foreclosures having been snapped up at attractive prices, the beginning of the 2011 high season finds prospective buyers with very little to choose from. Of the four condos currently listed for sale, three are developer.  One of these is a 3-bedroom on the golf course side offered for $569,900.  Of the eight (yes, 8!) condos with offers on them, four are 3-bedrooms, at prices ranging from $449,900 for an REO(bank-owned) property to $499,900 for another developer unit.  The REO was a great buy for someone.  It had lots of cool upgrades, with the only downsi... 02/09/2011

  View from Halii Kai 12H, now listed as a short sale at $999,000. In the past month since my most recent market update, two REO (foreclosure) listings and two new short sales have appeared at Halii Kai in the Waikoloa Beach Resort.  That means there are currently 18 Halii Kai condos for sale excluding developer listings: 6 short sales 2 REO (bank-owned) 10 non-distress listings. For reference, in 2010, what sold at Halii Kai was: 7 short sales 1 REO (the only one for sale) 1 non-distress oceanfront resale 13 developer sales. Foreclosures are the lowest priced condos for sale Last year the developer sold out its remaining smaller 2bed-2bath units that were going in the $400,000 price range.  Luckily, the two foreclosures may be an even better deal for the savvy buyer at this price point... 01/04/2011