All Forum Posts by: Kenneth Burdick

@Jon Schwartz Inland Empire and work in LA. And I know a lot of people who tell me they are anxious to leave, just lining up their ducks to do so. This is all anecdotal, and I'm all for relying on data. I just wouldn't balk at the thing entirely.

My experience tells me otherwise, as well as my local realtor. I can't tell you the last time I met someone in our area who moved here from out of state, but almost not a day goes by that I don't hear from someone I know that they're leaving the state. I wouldn't necessarily shrug off the "California Exodus" story - it's not made up.

Appreciate the honest input. Makes good sense. Thank you!

Hello BP community,

Hope you all are doing well and staying safe.

I guess I actually have two questions:

1) If you were going to either sell a home now or in three years,...would you do it now? I've heard several predict that a softening is coming.

2) What are your opinion of discount-commission real estate agents? In my area, I see more and more realtors advertising 1.5% commission. And I know there are services that operate on a flat commission fee. I'm not sure if these types of realtors end up saving you money in a hot market like this where houses seem to "sell themselves" or if their limited services actually end up costing you in the form of lower sale price.

Let me know what you think! Thanks!

@Jennifer A Barry Jennifer, great to hear from someone working through the same "first timer" process. Interesting to hear your of your experience with the real estate market in Oahu right now. Would love to hear more about your strategy and the part of the island you are looking at.

@Isi Nau Thanks you for the thorough and insightful response. I do agree that in the long-term, the Hawaii real estate market seems likely to continue to have strong appreciation, I just think about the old saying that "money in real estate is made when you buy, not when you sell," so I want to be thoughtful about my entry point. Would love to connect sometime.

Hello BP community! Newbie here, so go easy on me :) I live in Southern CA and own a home in which we have over 50% equity. At some point, me and my family would like to relocate to Hawaii ... most likely Oahu, for the weather/beaches/lifestyle, etc. I know this is a difficult market from a LTR perspective, but I continue to be drawn to the idea of buying a duplex/triplex and renting it out for a few years until circumstances allow for us to wisely relocate there (want to let a child graduate from high school and then figure out what the employment situation will be). I'm thinking of putting 20% down on a home (will likely need to leverage some of the equity we have in our current home, either through a HELOC, cash-out REFI, or just selling the house altogether...) that would provide modest positive cash flow out of the gate while allowing us to get our foot in the door of the Hawaii market at current prices rather than higher purchase prices that I assume will exist a few years from now. Eventually, we would move into one of the units there and I would hope to add on and do more real estate investing locally there.

A couple things give me pause:

- COVID fallout. Is this an overly risky time to be buying in Hawaii? I know timing the market is impossible, but I wonder if prices could actually decline over the next year and I might be wise to wait and save a little more.

- Being so new to all of this, is it unwise to start with a million dollar home in a market like this? I don't want to stay on the sidelines unnecessarily because I want to "get in the game" and get some momentum, but I also want to make sure I'm not overextending myself right out of the gate.

Any thoughts you all would like to share would be very welcome. Loving the site so far. Thank you!