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Many years ago, I thought Dana Point, CA was the place I wanted to spend the rest of my life (I was 22 at the time... LOL).
Things changed, time past.
I was brought to the Big Island in 1990 literally kicking and screaming with a promise from my then hubby to move to SLO-town in 3 yrs. ( I had lived on Maui in 1984-85).
When I get fed up with some of the stuff here (but mostly its neighborhood drama from white folks), or the Bldg Dept (LOL) - I ask my now-hubby where we could move to. His pragmatic take on it is - anywhere it doesn't snow, or if its raining its over 65 deg (which eliminates Waimea!) [  ]. We have thought of Mexico as we have lots of ex-pats friends that moved there. But then there is that drug cartel thing. And friends (lots) that moved to Thailand and Indonesia but there is the travel $$$$'s and distance and our family is aging.
I kinda figure its like choosing a life partner - do you love 80% and can deal with the 20% you dont exactly like? For each of us those are different things.
I am also lucky that I do not look white. Until I open my mouth, I could be anyone's Auntie. I have also never been a real Type-A.
Personally, I am glad some people do not love it here. It keeps our population from jumping 25% or more every year, or even every 10 yrs!
It didnt work out for Brad and some others, that doesnt mean that all the reasons every one has mentioned that they love do not exist. It is not the job of posters on Punaweb when voicing their opinions to tell you all the things YOU might not like. That is what research is about, and getting info from lots of different sources and spending time here BEFORE you buy, if you are the cautious type. It's a good thing for those who aren't as enamored as some of us to share their opinion.
I have a hanai son who lives in SF. He likes the pace, and the amount of things to do. He lived here a long time. He bought land here a few years ago. He said he will probably not move back here till he has to come back when we are old and need him to be here full time. (He is hoping for at least 25 more years!! [ ] ). He is white as white can be, but he did not run into the racism issues others have - maybe he is a little like Steve Martin in "the Jerk" - "...born a .. [Hawaiian] child".... every one just likes him no matter where he is at. Doors here kept opening for him - but people like him - doors open where ever he is at.
Anyway, hope this finds you happy and at peace with where you are at.
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Well, we moved to Hawaii after many, many trips there, after quite a few years. Actually, we married there on the beach at sunset. It was so important to us and we loved it so!
And for the record Paul, Owyhee is the poorly pronounced version of the nationalities of the poor guys who vanished from a mining group here in the Pacific NW and were likey killed by the locals way back when. They were from Hawaii. The Owyhee here is part of the Oregon High Desert and is actually quite renowned. It shares space with Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and California. Paul, you really should at least try.
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i for one am looking forward to Puna and all its good and bad. peace
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It used to be that realtors earned a big chunk of their sale by informing peeps of such things (says my dad). Everyone knows how much the house is selling for, how much and when it sold for in the past, etc. All of "that" kind of data can be easily found online thanks to the wonderful world wide web. And you can get a boatload of pics thanks to the helpful and handsome Harry Pritikin.
So, what would my realtor do to earn their money? Cruise the neighborhood their specializing in selling during the day AND during the night. Stay a night or two; preferrably on what might be a holiday (3rd - 5th of the month) kind of friday night and TELL ME WHAT THE HOOD IS REALLY LIKE!
Tell me about the kind of people who live here, what is it really like; even street to street can be different. My parents live in a very affluent neighborhood in Sacramento and I can assure you, street to street can be VERY different.
Yes, it's all the realtors fault!
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quote:
Originally posted by mailesomaha...
....Yes, it's all the realtors fault!....
I hope this was said in jest. Because it is like anything - good ones and bad ones. Lucky I guess I know more good ones than bad ones, but the bad ones dont usually last long.
All of the realtors I refer to people work really hard to be very informed. I am currently working with David DeWeese of Aloha Coast to buy a house for my mom. He was informed when we asked questions, he pointed out issues to my mom that my husband who builds asked about. No trying to hide them. And when it came to question that he didnt have the information for, he said he would check it out and get back to us today.
Now my Dad, on the other hand, hated everything about living in Hawaii, and most especially Oceanic Cable.
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"Please save your money and find your place in the 48"
Alaska begs to differ... 49!
According to the 2010 census, there are 710,231 people in Alaska, with nearly 1/2 living in Anchorage.
At first I thought it was coincidence, then strange, that so many people in Hawaii are from Alaska, especially retirement folks. Then when I got older, it didn't seem strange at all. In the 48, people retire someplace warm like Arizona or Florida. Alaskans go to Hawaii. Well, at least some of them do.
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quote:
Originally posted by linS
We bought our house and discovered Punaweb later.No regrets so far except may be being too excited and somehow contributing to our friend's mistake.
I read this thread and thought it may help some people
While I don't completely agree with BradW his post can be helpful.
http://punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2360&whichpage=9
"Puna on the Big Island is an ugly place. Hawaiian Beaches and surrounding areas the most so. PunaWeb is a dis-service to those who sell their all elsewhere and move over, starry eyed, as we did, and spend much of their life's savings and all of their dreams, to live and be happy in unparadise. It ain't there. You'll move back.
We tried, then tried some more. "Kill Haole Day" in public schools, "Born Here Not Flown Here" on t-shirts eveywhere we looked, "Go home haole" yelled at us from the Post Office to the beach. The finger. Our neighbors were pigs with everything from major family abuse against each other to big-time meth factories. And if the local police were aware of obvious illegal activity, they could not care less.
How many folks become dis-inchanted and move back to the Mainland? The answer is most. Why is that? Please save your money and find your place in the 48. Let the BI sink, without you, into the ocean where it belongs."
I accidentally posted this on the linked post instead of here. This is what I meant:
I think what most people are forgetting is that you can substitute virtually any place name into this story and it could be just as true. I found a great home in NE Portland- 4 bedroom, huge lot, park nearby, etc for a bargain price. It wasn't until after I moved in that I learned I was literally living next door to a crack house. During my pre-rental visits must have been the only time his pit bulls weren't barking at full volume 24 hours a day.
It was unusual NOT to hear multiple gunshots of attempted or actual homicides every night. My house was cased every single day. I had to buy a huge rottweiler to discourage people from looking into my windows and through the mail slot in the front door. There was a high speed car chase that ended right in front of my house and the suspect ran into my back yard, chased by cops with their guns drawn. My ex wife (was wife then) was sleeping in the bedroom the cops were using the corner of the house as "cover". I had to wake her up and try to explain she needed to leave the room quietly and get down on the floor. Anything we left outside was immediately stolen. We even had our garbage stolen. We had to remove the hand-tightening thing from the outside water spigot to keep people from stealing our hose and sprinkler when we were watering the lawn (it wasn't worth stealing if you had to get all wet apparently).
That was just one place I lived. In one neighborhood I visited in Washington DC it was even worse. A lot worse. At the KFC you had to order through bullet proof glass. Your chicken was dispensed from a bullet proof turn stile. You had to go through a metal detector to get into the Safeway grocery store. One time we couldn't get to the store because there were 30-40 young men fighting in the parking lot, using broken beer bottles as weapons. The next day we tried to rent a Ryder truck (to get the hell out of that neighborhood) and we were stopped by the police due to an armed man with a hostage situation. Every window had bars on them. Every front door was reinforced with bars. Every business closed at dusk. You never, ever went outside alone at night. My friend was punched and robbed in the middle of the day with witnesses all around.
What were you saying is wrong with Puna?
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Sorry terracore, not my intent to offend. My focus is perhaps too narrow. We actually looked at Alaska as a place to retire to not from, along with Mexico, Argentina, etc, and the warm states in the southern US. Settled on St George ,Utah, a very cool place, and played golf and hunted quail 'till it was time to step up, and Hawaii became as affordable as the nicer places down there, and the animal quarantine requirements were relaxed for our three four-footed children (we took that as a sign).
Again, Hawaii is not for me, and, quite frankly there are others who would move from there today if they were not upside down in their homes.
Starry eyed, that was us. Even after all the time we spent there on holiday. You can't know a living place from vacation, and we found that out.
My intent is not to offend anyone, and more power to any who are happy there and want to stay. I am as happy for you as I hope you are for me out here in the sagebrush. I guess by comparison, some would call my new surroundings dull.
Intent: Readers, if you are contemplating this life change, please slow down and think this thru very carefully - it's a big change, and the moves are very expensive. I wouldn't consider it without putting my other 49 (thanks terracore) life on temporary but recoverable hold.
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to be honest the way to go ive found out is to keep my alaskan home (i can leave for months and it will still be safe)leave in late Oct. or early Nov. rent in Puna and then head back to Alaska in March or April just in time for sprig activities and breakup(rivers unthawing). its very hard to beat an interior Alaskan summer. peace
IF my home were not upside down, I would move to ... southern Ireland or some place with better weather in Europe. It has to be near the sea though.
I have to say that being "stuck" in Hawai'i is a whole lot better than being stuck in, say, Yuma. [  ]
I looked into moving to the Cook Islands, but it's almost impossible to get status for permanent residency, whereas I have EU citizenship. (If the EU lasts, of course.)
I no longer want to be in the middle of the countryside. I want to be where I can walk to the market and stuff like that. And I only want a cottage garden, not an acreage. Too much upkeep.
Ah, dreams ...
I'm sorry that Puna didn't work out for you, Brad, really sorry. I totally understand the presence of the dark side. I personally love my community at this point, but each community has had its challenges -- including the ultra-haole community that was not local enough and felt like Arizona.
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