Address question

[Carey]

Based on the list of 16-2048, none get home mail delivery....
If you are not sure of the subdivision, & if the street doesn't match up to this list.... you can pretty much look at your lot... Hawaiian Acres has mostly 3 acre; Orchidland mostly 2 acres; Eden Roc 1 acre & Ainaloa has smaller lots

Where to get your mail.... Ainaloa subdivision mailboxes are handled by Pahoa Post Office, Orchidland by Keaau Post Office... the other subdivisions do not have subdivision boxes so you need to go to the Post Office for mail (be aware that there is a waiting list for all mailboxes, it can be up to a year or more for some of the subdivision boxes...

Feel free to email if you have any ???? or need any info... We moved here 3 years ago so I could finish my degree (not only moved sight unseen, but started at a university sight unseen) so we kinda understand the leaping stuff....

[EightFingers]

Took many trips to the BI, before we bought our land. Lot of driving and a lot of disappointments before we bought "our piece of paradise". Then there's always the "Oh look at this! We should have waited and bought this one!".
We have 30 acres and I'm STILL looking!

[maggieblanchett]

How exactly does general delivery work?? I would like to know this. It seems there's a waiting list for a PO Box.

Thanks.

--maggie

http://www.maggieblanchett.com

[Carey]

There are many here that have gotten "General Delivery" for years...
How it works:
Have your mail shipped (& forwarded) to:
"(your name)
General Delivery
Town, ST Zip"
You pick up your mail at the post office counter (so can be a drag on busy days... but the flip side is you get to meet a lot of people in line & you get to know the mail people at the counter ;~)

The nice thing is you can have your mail forwarded to the post office, and you can also forward from the "General Delivery" to a PO Box, address, whatever....

[missydog1]

hmm, I have looked at sooo many houses on the MLS site, even living here on the island, and decided that had to be the one ... and then after pestering my agent to show it to me NOW, the place was very flawed.

Home inspection is a very limited bit of information. It's essential, I think, because it should expose the possibly hidden problems with the structure and systems. It tells you NOTHING about the aesthetics, the paint, the neighbors, whether the house catches the trades, the type of landscaping challenges you may face, the services, the schools, the traffic ... It doesn't even go into a whole range of problems like drainage, toxic mold, radon, lava hazard, seismic hazard, or anything in the walls you can't see.

Most of all, it doesn't assess the spirit of the place, the energy.
This is not like somewhere in a housing tract where there's a lot of uniformity and you just need to know if you're unit is structurally sound.

I really do hope you are happy, sweetwater.
My reaction is for the people who are following this example.

By all means, come to the island. Drive the subdivisions. Drive them at night. Try to stick a shovel in you "soil" if you want to garden. Check your tolerance for barking dogs and all night roosters. Consider security issues. Check the slope of your land for drainage. Check the house for cross-ventilation. Check to see if right of ways or easements affect the property, and how that might impact you. Check the costs to get utilities.

C-51, due diligence period, DO IT!

I once made an offer on a house sight unseen, but we got on a plane and immediately canceled the escrow when we saw it. The photos didn't represent it well AT ALL. We even canceled the home inspection so as to save the money to inspect a better house.

So far I have canceled seven escrows in C-51, and there was one I should have but I couldn't stand to do it to my agent. BAD reason to stay in escrow. Now I do not like to cancel an escrow, but in each case I discovered information that alerted me to major problems.

I've bought six houses, five of them in Hawai'i, and I STILL don't think I ever found the right house. [] But then, all my house-hunting was during a period of very tight inventory where a buyer had to move fast. I think I could do better in this market, but unfortunately I wasn't patient enough and bought a house last year.

This is the first house I've had here where I like my neighbor. I had some very bad luck by not reading the signs, and in one case I got the neighbors from HELL. (Not locals, either)
So I would NOT buy a house in Hawai'i again without looking closely at the neighbors.

[Carey]

Unfortunately, no matter what, there is no perfect answer....
Inspections cannot know what is in the walls... even if work is done with building permits, there is no no way of knowing if everything was done correctly, there is no way of knowing what is in the walls...
Neighbors can move, new neighbors can come in.... buying a home is always in flux...
I do not think that you can avoid all things by looking at a lot, a house, a neighborhood..... What is under the grass??? unless you are willing (and the owner is willing to let you) dig up the lot, you will not know...
Does your neighborhood have different traffic patterns at different times of the year or month.... There is never a fool proof way to live your life... things can change, priorities can change, homes can look one way & be another... what matters is how you handle it...

[missydog1]

well, when I look at a house I look at the context to see if it's a property that CAN handle the kinds of flux you mention. I learned the hard way what to look for.

Looking helps. I shudder to think of a few situations I avoided by diligently checking it out.
There are no guarantees of perfection, but there are some situations that guarantee problems if you don't catch them. The meth lab next door, the land of a thousand rooster A-frames next door, and so forth.