Hotzcatz--
I considered this house:
>>There is a house for sale near us, they put it up for sale about a year ago and they were asking $599,000. The price is now down to $352,000 and still nobody is coming around to look at it. The owners bought it for $320,000 in 2004, I don't know if they will be able to get their money back out of it or not.
The house had some big issues.
1) The flooring was all junk, even according to the agent.
2) Only parking (outside) for one car and no street parking on the one land private road. Needed to bring in heavy equipment to reshape the land to have additional parking.
3) Carport to family room addition unpermitted (and maybe not code).
4) dry rot
so ... there is such a thing as losing money due to letting a property go down hill (in this case there was a family tragedy, but in any case, the property wasn't kept up).
The biggest issue in my mind was that the property is just downwind from the mill if the proposal goes through, and I would not want to live downwind from a power plant/veneer mill.
I think this property would have sold easily if not for the problems. Hamakua is so desirable, but all the nice places are priced above 700,000 -- to me that's still the price of an exceptional home, and it's moot because I can't afford that.
And then the affordable listings there are real fixers, not for everyone.
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quote:
KathH, I think that the fairly recent tax law allowing someone to live in a house 2 out of the last 5 years and have tax-free gains (up to a limit) replaced the tax law that you had to re-invest within a year to avoid capital gains. Some of the real estate people that contribute to this forum can add or correct me, but I think there's no re-invest requirement.
Correct. If you sell your primary residence and if you have lived there at least two years out of the past five you can have $250K (single) or $500K (married) capital gains tax free.
Aloha,
John S. Rabi, ABR,CM,CRB,FHS,PB
http://www.JohnRabi.com
Typically Tropical Properties
Edited by - John S. Rabi on 06/12/2007 09:44:52
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quote:
The reivestment is 18 mos. for those who have lived in their house less than 24 out of the last 60 months (there are a few circumstances that can allow for fractional computation) or who have gains over $250k ($500k for a couple). For those that do not qualify, & sold a house, they do need to reinvest, or pay taxes on the gains.
Sorry Carey, it is not true. There is no reinvestment clause in the sale of the primary residence anymore. If you don't qualify for the tax free capital gains then you have to pay capital gains tax.
Aloha,
John S. Rabi, ABR,CM,CRB,FHS,PB
http://www.JohnRabi.com
Typically Tropical Properties
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quote:
Lucky you Kathy, some folks are so stubborn they refuse to lower their price, and hold out until they get desperate and have to sell. Only thing that is keeping prices up at all, on this island, is that people who have big bucks can afford to wait, and hope they will find a sucker, who does not know the real estate market here,is in a down turn.
a buddy of mine is running into this exact same problem in trying to purchase a home in Paauilo. Asking price is over a million, needs work and I think he said it's been on market for over one year too. My buddy offered $800K, owners turned down his offer?
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Thanks KathyH for the update on why the neighbor's house has not sold for a year. It seems too new of a house to have dry rot, but I think it was built as a spec house originally so perhaps they didn't do as nice of a job as they would have if they would have planned on living in it themselves.
There was a family tragedy? I thought the one with the family tragedy was the family before this one. As far as I know this family moved back to the mainland because he never found a job to match the one he used to have on the mainland. Their tragedy is having to pay two mortgages until this one sells as far as I know, but I probably don't know all the details since I wasn't paying attention.
That veneer mill / power plant is being curiouser and curiouser. For a fellow claiming to be building an industrial site he doesn't seem to be asking for very many building permits. He didn't get a mortgage to buy the property either but is making payments to the previous owner and the number he claims he paid doesn't match the property tax website at all. Very strange. Doesn't seem like he has much financial backing at all, but I'm just guessing. It seems to me that there is some sort of smoke and mirrors going on, but I'm not sure what. Still, I wouldn't want to buy a house in this neighborhood with that sort of possible construction, either.
There is a foreclosure coming up in the next camp down. It is much more of a fixer upper and doesn't have anywhere near as nice a view, but the price should be a lot cheaper. It will still have the same possible veneer mill issues, though. And even if this fellow defaults on the veneer mill, the property is still zoned industrial so there will be some other yahoo causing trouble eventually unless we can get it rezoned after this fellow goes away. Maybe it will be easier to get these sorts of things fixed when property values aren't skyrocketing.
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
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The national news today is a-buzz with the rapid decline in R/E prices, even realtors can't denie the down-cline now. High interest rates and sub-primes have sunk the market now.
Always do what evers next.
quote:
High interest rates and sub-primes have sunk the market now.
well, I wish someone would inform the sellers, because I've made three lower offers on houses I consider to be overpriced (based on living here 5 years and knowing the issues with fixing houses, costs of landscaping, what things have been selling for, etc..) -- and all three stuck to essentially full price. Very discouraging.
Hotzcatz, thanks so much for more news on O'okala. First, you are absolutely correct that the family tragedy i.e. car accident was with the prior owners, not the current guy (got that straightened out).
I talked to Scott who is heading up protectookala, and he said many of the same things you did, but that he still puts the chances at 60/40 (against/for) and it would not be safe to gamble that the mill project will fail. He says the mill project is smoke and mirrors, the backers are in it for the power plant that goes with.
Sadly, I would not want to live with a power plant upwind of me any more than a mill.
It's a shame that the industrial zoning was allowed to remain in place when the sugar mills closed, keeping the door open for heavy industrial uses right smack in the middle of residential. How they can contemplate exposing residents to such uses is beyond me.
Scott also said the promised local "jobs" went from 400 to 100 to 40, and in reality most jobs would be specialized and employees imported from the mainland.
But back to real estate -- for Hamakua towns not facing industrial issues -- prices are unbelievable. People from the mainland spend 800,000 for their retirement gentleman's farm/horse spread, get homesick in two years, and expect to jack the price another hundred thousand for the next fool with money who likes the idea of living there and will not last either. Meanwhile the people who would really love to live there (me! me!) have to look at shacks on tiny little lots.
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We're just trying to keep the riff-raff out.
Enjoy the moving sales. 
Aloha
Richwhiteboy
"I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money."
-Pablo Picasso
“Sometimes the truth hurts. And sometimes it feels real good.”
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Aloha All,
Here is an small and interesting article on the reporting of the housing market bust.
http://www.slate.com/id/2168417/
In my experience Hawaii is always behind the Mainland (mostly California)in economic influences.
Just like the stock market... how low can it go? And for how long?
april
april
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quote:
The national news today is a-buzz with the rapid decline in R/E prices, even realtors can't denie the down-cline now. High interest rates and sub-primes have sunk the market now.
The questionable people, companies and organizations in the real estate industry attribute to the problem too.
According to the DCCA public records several of the 11 people on the Ethics Board/Panel of the Kona Board of Realtors have registered DCCA violations. Actually, one of them has three and the Chairman himself has two, including a $10,000 fine AND a license suspension. To top it off, the Kona Board of Realtors itself is noted on the DCCA web site as "This business is not in good standing!" Even though it's all public records, I don't want to post names, if you want them e-mail me privately.
You just never know who do you do business with and what company/organization they belong to, right?
Aloha,
John S. Rabi, ABR,CM,CRB,FHS,PB
http://www.JohnRabi.com
Typically Tropical Properties
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