Friend moving to Big Island...needs to buy a home

[macuu222]

Friends of ours are moving from Alaska to the Hilo area. They're looking to buy a home. I was curious as to what the going price right now for a 3 bedroom 2 bath home in HPP is. High and low! Any real estate agents out there?

[csgray]

www.hawaiianparadisepark.com has all the HPP listings in one place; the price range right now is from $75,000 for a fixer upper to 500,000+ for a waterfront McMansion. Lots of properties right under $200,000.

Carol

[missydog1]

As you must know, macuu, there are all grades of 3/2, Be sure to explain to your friends how much it costs to transform a lot if the house has been plunked on cinder with no landscaping, like all too many of the spec houses.

[macuu222]

Thanks....I didn't know about all the listings in HPP at one place....

[hawaiideborah]

HIGHLY RECOMMEND this great broker:

Heather Hedenschau
BIG ISLAND BROKERS
15-3039 Pahoa Village Rd
Pahoa, HI 96778
Office: 808-965-8774
Mobile: 808-345-9800

http://www.bigislandbrokers.com/

She is a broker and owner of Big Island Brokers and her office is in Pahoa. She is fantastic. Real connections and pro-active for buyers.

I would stay away from realtors who are not located in Puna. Realtors based in Kona just aren't the same as realtors based in Puna. (Sorta like the folks who choose to live full time in Kona are not the same as the folks who choose to live full time in Puna.)

Heather specializes in PUNA area. She has lived in Puna since 1977 and been a Realtor for 18 years. She lives in HPP and before that lived in Leilani. She is honest and trustworthy with a ton of resources and the best connections for inspectors and loans.

Hope this helps. I wish your friends good luck.
We looked long and hard and found our dream house in HPP hopefully your friends will also. we have now been in our new home one month and love it here.

[PaulW]

If you want more info on any of those MLS numbers on www.hawaiianparadisepark.com
you can look them up at www.hilobrokers.com (fill in MLS top right)

[pslamont]

John Dirgo is also a extremely good choice for realty. He knows the ins and outs on properties. So many have varying rules, CCR's, ecology issues, etc... I would also suggest your friends come here and RENT for 6 months to find out more about the area they choose and compare it to others. An awfully lot of people buy in one spot and then try to sell and move to another. As this is not a realistic option as this time (sales are slower than slow), make the right choice first!


John Dirgo
Aloha Coast Realty
http://www.alohacoastrealty.com
Office Phone
(808) 934-7600
Cell Phone
(808) 987-9243

I want to be the kind of woman that, when my feet
hit the floor each morning, the devil says

"Oh Crap, She's up!"

[KeaauRich]

We always found the Clark Hawaii website (http://www.clarkhawaii.com/) to be the best for real estate searches. Keep hitting the "advanced search options" hot links and you can easily refine your search and get lots of helpful info. They also have links to the TMK info for each listing, which is also helpful.

[missydog1]

I had one questionable experience with Heather. As I recall, she was the seller's agent and she did not present our offer in a timely manner to the seller, because an offer was coming in from her own brokerage. We submitted a great offer but the seller took the other one. I will never know what motivated the seller, but I know that we had to wait because of the other offer.

I have seen this more than once here. The brokerage gets more commission if it represents both buyer and seller, but ethically, all buyers' offers should be presented equally and speedily once the agent has it.

Perhaps Heather has changed. That was several years ago. I still remember her name though. Our agent was quite unhappy with her. I have no doubt she would be an aggressive rep for a buyer though.

I will always recommend Christine Makaweo and Linda Evans of Clark Realty. Their ethics and professionalism are beyond reproach. Especially good when higher end properties are involved, as they are very experienced with properties in the upper price brackets. However, Linda helped my son buy an REO, and she gave him great attention as a first time buyer -- and the REO purchase was tough because the listing agent didn't actually represent the bank that owned the property directly, and it was necessary to ask the bank to make some repairs before close of escorw, which they don't have to do on an REO, but Linda got them to do it.

[csgray]

John Dirgo has the patience of a saint. He is my personal hero for sticking with us through looking at a zillion properties and then buying a repo where the bank's own people were contradicting themselves every step of the way. He really knows his stuff and is a nice guy to be around too.

Carol