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I strongly second Mark. Ron sells real estate and Mark does the rental management. We bought a house in Hawaiin Paradise Park about two years ago, and Mark managed the rental. This was short term rental. The longest renter was about a month. Many were for one or two weeks.Sometimes they get a renter that has a temp job lasting like six months. I would suggest you call him and talk. Depending on the house, he gets like $65/night and up. I heard from these two recently and they said the real estate market was a bit slow, but rentals were booming. After we got into it Mark did a great job of keeping our place rented for $85/night.
quote:
Originally posted by coppercoin40
Try Mark & Ron at :
http://www.hawaiiparadisevacationrentals.com/
We have had excellent success utilizing their services. They can make sure all the needs of home are being cared for and also manage rental listing on VRBO.com as well as their own website.
They have been very responsive to our requests concerning our 6 week stay at Hale Kauka
islandgirl
Jon in Keaau/HPP
Jon in Keaau/HPP
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First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for their advice and thoughts so far. The different view points really help in analysing the rental situation. We've checked a couple of agencies before consulting this forum and got the impression that they don't really focus that hard on protecting property as their primary business. Their rental agreements for property owners state things like they'll visit the property at least once in the first six months! As someone who's been a landlord of at least one property in a risky neighbourhood previously, I'm shocked it would take so long and happen so seldom. I guess it's this sort of thing that forces landlords to have such high rents despite a reported 20% vacancy rate for Puna.
It sounds from what folks are saying that we'd be best off looking at a property that can be set up to be a short term/vacation rental. I guess I better get on to researching that next =)
I suppose it's a terrible idea to buy a house and just let friends stay there when they are on vacation since it would be uninhabited for large parts of the year and likely be vandalized?
Me ka ha`aha`a,
Mike
No, you would want a caretaker at least.
You can't shut a house up here. Air flow is needed to keep it from molding, and, yes, there is vandalism, big business here.
The more successful vaca rentals are going to be near the ocean, that is what the average visitor wants. The Punatic visitor who wants to move here doesn't insist on that, but the nightly rate will be much lower. Don't forget you will have to furnish the whole house to do a vaca rental, including kitchen.
Some people buy the existing contents of rentals that are shutting down for whatever reasons, or foreclosed rental units. New furniture and linens are not cheap here.
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I'd have to disagree with KathyH on one point: You can have a successful vacation rental that isn't near the ocean in Puna. The kind of beaches that most tourists think of when they think of Hawaii really don't exist on this side of the Island, so even Puna homes that are near the water won't be attractive to the "average" visitor who's looking for a place to plop down in the sand with a mai tai... But lots of tourists spend all or part of their vacation on the Puna side specifically so that they can explore the Volcano park, snorkel the tide pools, visit Hilo, see the botanic gardens, etc. As long as you are clear in your advertising that you are not near the water, you'll find that you can still have a steady stream of happy guests occupying your property.
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You may be near the water, just not near a "beach".....on a side note, people here grow coffee at many elevations. It was the primary crop in the early 1900s. My friend grows wonderful, productive coffee 3 blocks from the ocean in Hawaiian Paradise Park. Good luck!
quote:
Originally posted by KeaauRich
I'd have to disagree with KathyH on one point: You can have a successful vacation rental that isn't near the ocean in Puna. The kind of beaches that most tourists think of when they think of Hawaii really don't exist on this side of the Island, so even Puna homes that are near the water won't be attractive to the "average" visitor who's looking for a place to plop down in the sand with a mai tai... But lots of tourists spend all or part of their vacation on the Puna side specifically so that they can explore the Volcano park, snorkel the tide pools, visit Hilo, see the botanic gardens, etc. As long as you are clear in your advertising that you are not near the water, you'll find that you can still have a steady stream of happy guests occupying your property.
We probably don't disagree that much, KeaauRich.
I didn't mean to imply a rental can't be successful inland in Lower Puna. I think I said it can be, or meant to. Having a stream of happy occupants sure is a success in my book. I actually had a rental away from the water and all that where our occupancy was really good.
I should have said more successful in terms of rates you can get.
I have read hundreds of queries on rentals as part of volunteering for Tripadvisor, and queries from the type of visitors who mostly use TA are quite consistent. Either they want to stay in the Volcano area, or they want Hilo/north of Hilo, or they want Puna Makai.
Those who look at Puna Makai (often first timers to Puna) look mostly at HPP and Kapoho and they do want oceanfront or near it. They do understand that they can't swim right at HPP, but a number of the ocean front rentals have pools and hot tubs and they get the Mai Tai moments sitting at the edge of the world there ...
The desire for sand is easily gotten past for people who come here, but a prime ocean VIEW always has high value.
I'm talking here about people who expect to drop $200--$350 per night for a couple. It's real hard to interest this group in mid-HPP or other inland spots.
There are certain rentals that get buzz for their fabulous views and oceanfront ambience, and we hear very little about all the other rentals. We hear very few trip reports from people who stayed in the other ones. That doesn't mean the more affordable rentals are unsuccessful or undesirable.
I well know how beautiful it can be inland; it's just a little hard for the first time mainstream visitor to grasp. There will always be first timers who look at price and think, that's really cute and I'm going to be out and about most of the time. I catered to that market myself, and I really liked the guests we got at our alternative rental very much. They were super cool people.
So I am far from dissing all the non oceanfront. But because I don't really get a sense of the demand for that, I guess I'm not sure how much market demand there is for NEW vacation rentals that don't have some special feature, what marks a new rental out as the place to try rather than the ones that already have word of mouth, reviews, referrals.
btw, it isn't just oceanfront that people ask for -- they also love waterfalls, swimming holes such as is found at Reed's Island and north of Hilo, and they love the cute rain forest look they find in Volcano.
The default suggestion on Tripadvisor for people wanting to visit VNP is to stay in or very near to Volcano Village -- not from me but from the majority of west side residents and repeat visitors -- so there's the big competition, and the prices are great up there as well.
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With a vacation rental, you have to have an attraction: something that sets you apart. It may be a hotpond, it may be the rental rate, it may be a pool, a hot tub and a view, it may be extraordinary architecture -- you have to have a hook. That hook may be the owner who is able to make a plantation house with a view of ironwoods seem like Fantasia.
My first night in Puna was spent in Orchidland in a place that cost $50 per night. The host, a now-less active Punawebber, showed aloha from the very moment I arrived on island, offering an escort from the airport to my accommodations. I loved my first night in Puna, which was only surpassed by the second night. I guess I fell in love.
And that's why I am here. Can you feel it?
But ya gotta have a hook. My home was successful as a vacation rental. I like to think that is in part because I genuinely enjoyed sharing it with others. But more realistically, it was probably because I gave a lot of value for a price that was below market for those amenities. I managed it very successfully off island. This was very stressful, but possible because, as the law provides, I had an on-island contact (there is a myth that more is required than that). That on island contact was rarely necessary because I was highly responsive to the needs of my guests. I treated them as if they were guests in my home...which they were. I was fortunate in that I experienced no major catastrophes, and my crew was very responsive. My crew was responsive because I treated them with aloha. They did not catch every detail, as an obsessive-compulsive owner would, but they did do what I asked. I am grateful to them.
It was my guests, though, that were my eyes and ears on the property. My approach was them was to be the obsequious waiter for my guests. I learned it as an actual waiter in New Orleans: Be there when they need you; disappear when they don't --don't hover, and for god's sakes don't ask them if they are still "working" on something -- you don't "work" on a meal, you savor it. So I tried to he hyper-responsive when they needed me, and to disappear (while remaining nearby and at-the-ready) when they didn't. Again, learned it at Arnaud's and Restaurant Jonathan (R.I.P) in New Orleans. I like to think my small home is lovely, but I also like to think that it was marketing and being at the right price-point that made a difference.
Before I turned my home into a vacation rental, I consulted with some owners of multiple vacation homes that were very successful. Their tips were as follows: 1) Undercut the market when you are fist getting established, 2) Advertise your home in Hilo because no one knows where in the hell Puna is and 3) Demand a relatively high deposit and 4) Get a good crew.
I did all those things. I should charge for that information, but because they didn't, I won't either.
And, as the French say, me voila!
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Our place is on 23rd off of Kaloli in HPP. It is a three bedroom bath and a half built in 1996. It was the lot that sold us. It was already really nicely landscaped. Ron, of Mark and Ron mentioned above, sold it to us. Mark was there all the way and said it would be rentable. The good features...the beautiful one acre lot; the fact that it's about 15 minutes from Hilo; it's also in a good location to get to other attractions like Volcano Nat/ Park, the tide pools for snorkling, the hot ponds etc. When we first started the rental it took few months before we started making more than the about $800 house payment was. Then it took off nicley, and we started profiting about $600 over the house payment. Mark always does credit checks on renters. The renters pay 100% of the cleaning fees. Mark has a very good and close by cleaning crew and handyman to do any small repairs needed. Examples..replaced sliding door screen, light pull cord chain on overhead fan, change water catchment filters, etc. All were very reasonable. The months before we finally moved here this last September were booked for just about every day of each month.
I think short term renting works well. Way better than having your house sit empty. Our great neighbors were great too. On one side they bran a landscape company. They took care of lawn mowing and weed spraying for us and also kept an eye on the place.
I'm a worry wart and stressed over owning the place and renting it from the mainland. I shouldn't have worried. The key was Mark Cox's very thorough property management. Very hard working gent.
Jon in Keaau/HPP
Jon in Keaau/HPP
Nice landscaping, nice price and good management are all "hooks" such as what Kelena mentioned.
I used to link Kelena's rental regularly on Tripadvisor, because it had the hooks of near ocean, in area of well known rentals, pool, hot tub, dolphin statuary [  ] and priced well below the competitors along Paradise Ala Kai. Plus I knew the owner was caring of his guests, wasn't just some random VRBO listing.
Now Kelena has been so inconsiderate as to move into his vacation rental. [:p]
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I've had only one VRBO experience and the property was OK but the management company was sleazy. The cleaning fee was too high (considering that the carpet was filthy- if I'm paying a huge cleaning fee I expect to see things looking new). They also waited until "the last possible day under Hawaii law" (their words) to refund the security deposit. If there isn't any damage- simply refund the money as soon as the determination is made. Don't hold onto the funds as long as you think you're legally entitled to earn interest on it. I would never stay there again just because of the sleaze factor.
(experience was not in Puna)
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