All Forum Posts by: Ally H.

@Andy V. and @Meghan Reed, thank you for your suggestions! 

The bushes are now down, and we will be working on getting colors in and accentuating the walkway.

Aloha! We're considering transitioning our primary home into a rental and need advice/ideas on how to improve our (older) home's curb appeal. We're not looking into turning it into prime flipping condition, but we want our exterior to be more attractive, inviting, and easier to maintain.

The first 2 pictures are of the front (with the standard Hawaiian open carport on the left). The last picture is from the front door. We're getting conflicting advice from family/friends, so we're interested in polling all your professional opinions before we get started.

To start off, since it's hard to see the front door right now, we think chopping down the front bushes is a start, but some people mentioned that they like the privacy screen that it offers? What do you think? Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

@Scott K., perhaps contact the Officer of Consumer Protection to clarify the above and/or a RE attorney who has experience in this realm to make sure that you're looking at all the possible options and which ones make the most sense to you?

Here are the options that I see:

1. Find out what your tenants want and what you can do to give your tenants a better incentive to move out on their own accord. I'm not sure where your house is, but the rental market on Oahu is pretty competitive, unless one's willing to move far out. It's particularly tougher for the next couple of months because it's major PCS (moving season) for the military population on the island, so your tenants may very likely have a hard time finding an alternative option at this time. Have you thought about offering cash for keys? If so, you'd have to find that sweet spot where your cash offer will just be enough to motivate your tenants to leave
2. Hire an attorney and start the eviction process if you really do want to list your place as "vacant, furnished, and pristine" and you don't see the tenants accepting a cash-for-keys offer. There is a risk that this route may take a very long time (with no rents received) and you'll receive the property in a condition in which you will have to invest time/energy/money to fix it to prime selling condition
3. Sell your property as-is. The spread between selling your place as-is versus in prime condition may be large, but how much is your time/energy in dealing with the situation worth?

Best of luck!

Do you have an on-island agent (Hawaii law if you're off island: http://cca.hawaii.gov/rico/files/2014/03/MARCH-201...)? 

If this is your personal friend who's on the island and you think that there is suspicious drug-related activity, then be careful of asking your friend to enter a possibly dangerous situation (low possibility, but not zero). If you do have a professional manager as your agent (and if not, I'd consider it if your suspicions are correct), then I would ask him/her to handle the situation.

Everyone's given great advice re: the late rent already. Just a suggestion for future rents: have you considered electronic payments? We've had great experiences with that, and our tenants like the convenience/flexibility. We either give them deposit slips that they can take to the bank and make deposits with or depending on what banks they're with, they can do an electronic transfer. Almost all choose the latter option.

I used a VA loan for our first home purchase last year, and it worked out well so far. The advantages include 0% down (super useful in expensive markets like Hawaii) and very good rates (I shopped around for 30y fixed rates for VA loans v conventional and found a difference). However, there is a funding fee that you have to take into account when shopping around for mortgages. You do have the option of rolling the fee into your loan.

Our agent had experience with regards to knowing which properties were going to pass or fail the VA home inspection, so that saved us time/energy in only looking at the ones that would qualify for VA. You don't want to put in an offer and go through the process, only to find out that you can't use your VA loan on it, so I recommend going with a buyer's agent experienced in this. Also to note, if you have USAA, you can check out the USAA MoversAdvantage program in which you may qualify for cash back on your purchase if you use one of their referred agents (I do not have personal experience with this program, but several of my friends have and had positive experiences).

I think that using a VA loan to obtain a mult-unit is an amazing opportunity to start building a successful RE portfolio (with the diversification of rental income, risk spread, and PM education IMO), IF you have your financials straight as others have noted (need to have your contingency plans!). I wish that we found a multi-unit last year, but those were not available in our market/situation last year. Best wishes to you in maximizing this opportunity!

@Jay H. Jumping on the wagon! +1 for the sauce please!

@Elizabeth Colegrove , would you be able to share your CPA's contact? I'm military based in Hawaii and have been looking for a CPA who has experience with military and RE. Thank you!

@Royce Talbo : Welcome to BP! We're also located in Oahu and bought our first property here this year. Like you, we were introduced to RE by family investments first. 

@Andrey Y. We'd be interested in a meet/greet for those on the island.