Type: Single Family - District: Wailea/Makena

MLS: 329591 Price: $1,094,000 Fee Simple Neighborhood: Wailea Kai Beds: 4 Baths: 3.00 Living Area: 2,178 SF Land Area: 10,053 SF View: Garden View Water Front: Across Street from Ocean TMK Records Road Map

READ THIS CAREFULLY: AS of November 1st the house will be rented for one year and the buyer must honor the lease or attempt to buy out the tenant in some creative way. Rent is $3600 per month. THE lowest priced house in Wailea Resort with a pool.. Being sold "AS IS" Please submit "AS IS" addendum with offer. Gated community Steps to beach. Great street appeal. New cedar shake roof in 2004; new carpet in Dec. 2007; split system A/C in liv. rm/kit/fam room area; solar hot water; Open, flowing and spacious floor plan with high beamed ceilings, sky lights, an abundance of windows. Window shades, drapes, reverse osmosis drinking water system, marble floors in entry and kitchen. Newer stove and refrigerator; plumbed for central vacuum with outlets throughout the house; security system but not activated; ceiling exhaust fan to pull out that hot air; full storage in garage attic with pull down retractable staircase; double window seats; three sliding doors to pool area including one from the mastersuite. On cul de sac. POOL, nice deck area; This is a four bedroom three bath home. Look at the comps in Wailea Kai. This is priced to sell.....and it will. Compare to all the Kihei homes asking more than this. THIS IS WAILEA RESORT. House is vacant and can show on a moments notice; THIS IS THE ONE. There are some very stunning architectural effects, arches, high windows, etc. going on, Brick front and stone and stucco sides and rear. Family room, dining room, tinted windows, shaded skylights in living room. The potential is obvious. Ceiling fans throughout. New gutters and downspouts and extensive drainage system on exterior installed.

Appraisal of Real Estate

Why a Real Estate Appraisal?
There are many reasons why you need a real estate appraisal.
Reduce property taxes, probate, estate planning, divorce settlements are some.
The most common one is to obtain a mortgage.
Most lenders are required by federal and state laws and current banking regulations to obtain an appraisal for most loans secured by real estate.
As of Jan. 1, 1993, all appraisals made for mortgage loans from federally insured lenders and other federally related transactions must be made by a licensed or certified appraiser.

What is a Appraisal?
An appraisal is an objective supported opinion of value of an adequately described piece of property made by an appraiser who has sufficient knowledge, training and experience to accurately estimate its value.
In this detailed and time consuming report, appraisers use comparable sales together with information about the property being appraised, its neighborhood and community along with the local and national economy, to support the appraised value.

Look Objectively not Subjectively.
The most important thing you can do when previewing is to look at the house as if empty: four walls, floors and a roof.
Don't let the current owners' furniture and decor influence you.

Important Tip!
If you are buying a house with the owner carrying the paper (loan), it is well worth the cost to hire an appraiser to make sure you don't pay more than it is worth.
For your protection many real estate agents will write in a purchase contract: this contract is contingent upon the property appraising for the sales price.

How is Value Established?
The value of a house is based upon recent sales of the similar neighboring homes in the market as well as rentals and listing data.
Ideally, appraisers want to use sales of properties of the same size, age, room count, condition and with similar amenities and external influences. This rarely happens though, so adjustments have to be made, based on what people will pay extra for.
Examples: extra square footage, bedrooms, fireplace, upgrading, parking facilities, swimming pool, lot size, location and so on. To help get a better picture, this information is entered on a form, a value for differences is established and comparisons are made to the subject property.
A minimum of three verified closed sales with photos are required to establish a value.

Houses Appraise for More When:
- Well maintained inside and out.
- Located in a good school district.
- Additions are done with the proper building permits.
- Additions conform with and fit well into the existing house.
- Properties throughout the neighborhood are well maintained.
- Not over improved or the largest house on the block.
- Style of the house conforms with those in the neighborhood.
- Zoning changes are not expected or there is not a mixed use.

Remember: Location, location, location.
You can change everything about a house except it's location.

What is Poor Location?
- Located on a feeder street.
- Under an airport flight path.
- In or near a gang territory.
- Center of night life activities.
- In a rundown block or neighborhood.
- Next to a school or school yard playground.
- Next to apartments or commercial property.
- In close proximity to a freeway, expressway or railroad.
- Next to a gas station, near a municipal garbage or toxic waste dump.
- Odors from factories, farms and processing plants are routinely noticed.
- The city is affected by the closing of a major employer.

Think about Selling - When You are Buying.
Location is a big factor in a home's appraised value. This is most notably felt at the time you sell or refinance. What seems like a bargain when you buy might turn into a real headache when you try to sell.
Drive around the neighborhood and note any adverse conditions.
You may think you can live with something adverse for the price, but when it's time to sell you might find buyers won't

Important Tip!
Adding onto your house = Always obtain a building permit.
A 600 square foot addition built without a permit is given no value on an appraisal. When it is time to sell or refinance, the frustrations of the building permit process will be worth it.
Always save copies of the final permit sign offs and keep with your house papers.

Buying a House with an Addition?
Verify that it was built with a permit prior to closing the sale.
Don't just accept the sellers word. Get copies of the permits before final sign off.
Should you want to refinance or sell at a later date, and the appraiser cannot verify the addition being permitted, no value should be given.
The result: no new loan or worse . . . no sale.

Tip!
A one bedroom house or condominium doesn't appreciate as well and is harder to sell.

Work with An Agent
An advantage of working with a real estate agent is that they can provide you with sales information of similar properties to better guide you on how much to offer.
Your agent can provide recent sales "comps" for similar homes in the neighborhood.
Finding the list prices is also important. Comparing the list prices with the sale prices tells you exactly what percentage of the list price sellers are getting.

To find out what prices homes are selling for and to get a comprehensive report about the neighborhood, try Zillow which covers most communities across the United States. It's free and fairly accurate.
A local real estate agent typically will be more accurate what a home is likely to sell for in a specfic neighborhood location.

How to Set and Achieve Your Goals in Real Estate

I want to ask you two questions. One, do you have a Will? And two, do you have written goals for the next one, three, five and ten years? If you answered yes to the first question but no to the second, you are planning more for your death than you are while you are here. Think about it. I want to challenge you to start setting some goals, but remember if a goal is not in writing, it is simply a conversation. It must be in writing and it must have a deadline. Here are a few guidelines for setting goals. Oh, by the way... you need a will also.

Goals Must be Specific

I want you to be specific and include details but start rough. When you start rough for example, you want a Mercedes. You do not have to get into the details about what color, what options, that sort of thing, just write it down. Make your list huge, what kind of home do you want, what you want for your family, college education, spend more time, travel, anything you can think of. You can come back later and prioritize them and set them up as to what you want in one month, three months, six months, twelve months, then three, five, ten, twenty, thirty year goals. The more goals you have, the happier you will be, the longer you will live, and the more prosperous you will be.

Goals Must be Believable

Remember this, your goals must be believable, by you, or you will not pay the price. They must be believable, they must be just out of your reach, but you must know you can reach them, if you really strive to do it.

Goals Must be Measurable

You cannot set a goal to be financially independent. There is no way you can measure that. You need to set a goal for the amount of income you want per month, per year, the amount of equity that you want in properties – one, three, five, ten and twenty years. It must be measurable. That way you can break it down to what I call “reduce it to the ridiculous”. If you know you want to earn $100,000 a year, you know that is $8,333 per month. That’s just one deal a month where I live. One of the things I have learned is, successful people set their goals quickly and they make adjustments as they go along. Just like successful people make decisions quickly, they do not vacillate in indecision or what I call sometimes; get mixed up in a funk of negativity.


Goals Must be Congruent

Your goals must also be congruent with your actions. You cannot set a goal to work harder, longer hours AND a goal to spend more time with your family. Those are not congruent. They must be congruent with your actions.

Visualize What You Want

Another good thing that will help you with your goals is to visualize what you want. If you see yourself as already having achieved the goal, you will fake out your mind and your mind sees the goal as already having been achieved. It’s called “fake it till you make it”. I used to do this all of the time. Just take a minute or two each day and think about life as it is with your goals already accomplished. It’s really easy when you get used to it.

Work Your Goals

The next thing you want to do is work your goals, work on the priority that moves you closer to your goals every day.

Number Your Goals

Number your goals in the order of importance. Not only is the goal important but so is the reason. Sure your want a car, but why do you want the car? Sure your want more money, but why do you want money? You want to be able to spend more time with your family, you want to be able to travel, you want to buy a Hummer, and you want to have an ocean front condo or send your children to the best college. Whatever it is, the reason must be there. The reason is more important than the goal itself.

Review, Monitor and Make Adjustments

Another thing you need to do is review, monitor and make adjustments on your goals. You have to be flexible. Some things are not going to happen, you have to face that; but you need to continuously strive to get better every day. If you will work harder on yourself than you do on your job then you will always be growing. Remember that last sentence and write it down as it is worth repeating.

The Goals Must Have a Deadline

As I mentioned first, your goals must have a deadline. A goal without a deadline is just a conversation. When beginning to set your goals, I want you to set your goals in four basic areas:

Financial

You will set goals based on income, equity or net worth and cash flow. All of these are financial goals.

Fitness

This is your health. If you don’t feel good, chances are that you are not working at your maximum capacity. So, I want you to set some fitness goals to stay healthy. Remember “an apple a day”? What if this is right and you are not doing it? Start small though, you don’t try to tackle all of these at once; but you need to be healthy not only for you but for your family as well.

Family

Set family goals. What is an example of a family goal? Maybe you want to take four vacations a year. Maybe you want to visit a new state, three times a year or five times a year. Maybe you want to go see the Grandparents two or three times a year; but maybe not. Anyway, you get the point.

Faith

You need to set some spiritual goals, some faith goals. I am not going to get into a lot of detail about that but that will help you along your way. Remember, if you slip in one area of your goals, you are probably slipping in some other areas. Another thing I want you to think about is the people you associate with. Take a minute and think about this. If you think about your ten closes friends annual salary and divide it by ten, then that is pretty close to what you make. I’m not telling you to get rid of your friends, all I’m saying is whom you associate with, is who you are like, so please keep that in mind. Don’t get rid of your friends, just get some more that are where YOU want to be financially. Most of the people I hang out with now, we all make over $500,000.00 a year. That just blows me away. I never imagined I could make that kind of money…. Well I guess I could, as we are talking about goal setting and visualization aren’t we?

by: Larry Goins

Buyer Beware: Bed Bugs Can Squash Real Estate Deals

An ancient human scourge has returned to cause panic among home and property owners, home buyers and realtors. Bed bugs have invaded every state in the U.S. and reports of infestations have increased exponentially nationwide over the past few years. In a national survey of pest control companies conducted by noted bed bug authority Michael Potter for Pest Management Professional, Potter found, “A whopping 91% of respondents reported their organizations had encountered bed bug infestations in the past two years. Only 37% said they encountered bed bugs more than 5 years ago.”

Until a few years ago, most pest control companies said it was unusual to receive even one or two calls a year about bed bugs. Since 2004, however, bed bug complaints have grown exponentially with pest control companies nationwide now averaging between 10 and 50 calls a week. In major metropolitan areas, some companies are fielding 100 or more bed bug complaints each week. Some experts are predicting that 2008 will be the Year of the Bed Bug. Cindy Mannes, spokesperson for the National Pest Management Association, said bed bugs have become a serious problem in every state, noting, “There are some who call it the pest of the 21st century.”

Bed bugs are an equal opportunity pest. Infestations have occurred across the country in the tony co-ops of the rich and famous, in fashionable condominiums, in luxury apartments and in upscale suburban homes. Contrary to popular belief, bed bugs are not caused by filth or dirt. Like lice and fleas, bed bugs are creatures of convenience. A nuisance insect, they are not known to carry disease, but they can cause considerable discomfort, both mental and physical.

All but eradicated in the U.S. following World War II, the banning of powerful DDT-based pesticides, coupled with increased international travel, has brought about a nationwide resurgence of the annoying insect. Potter, an urban entomologist at the University of Kentucky, calls bed bugs the pre-eminent household pest in the U.S., on a par with cockroaches and rats. “This is one serious issue,” he recently told the New York Times. “This will be the pest of the 21st century – no questions about it.”

If you’re buying a house or looking for a new condo or apartment, take to heart the old adage Buyer Beware. You may be moving into a home that has been invaded by bed bugs. Most states require home sellers to provide buyers with an accurate statement disclosing the property’s condition, including pest infestations. However, there are loopholes that should serve as a red flag to home buyers and their realtors.

Most real estate disclosure statements are fairly broad and do not specifically ask about bed bug infestations. If any pest disclosure is specified, it’s likely to be termites. Because bed bugs haven’t been a problem in the United States for so many decades, few current state or municipal codes address them specifically. In many states, sellers can choose not to fill out the disclosure statement and instead pay a penalty which is credited to the buyer. For sellers with a bed bug problem, a several hundred dollar penalty may seem an acceptable price for making the sale.

Buyers and realtors should be aware that real estate disclosure laws that apply to home sales often don’t apply to co-op and condo owners. Before you buy, check with the local building and health departments to find out what the regulations are in your area. Although some states are now considering adding specific bed bug regulations to their realty laws, at this point common law is generally on the side of the seller. As real estate attorney Edward Sumber of New York told the New York Times, “Under the doctrine of caveat emptor — let the buyer beware — the seller has no affirmative obligation to reveal circumstances about the apartment to the buyer.”

However, disclosure laws in most states require the seller to answer honestly if specifically asked whether his home or apartment has been infected by bed bugs or other pests. Additionally, real estate brokers are usually obligated to reveal a bed bug problem to the buyer if they know about it. Unfortunately, in most states sellers are not required to tell their real estate brokers about bed bug problems. Essentially, that means buyers must rely on the integrity of sellers and landlords anxious to make a sale.

Many buyers shopping for a new home, apartment or condominium are now hiring a pest control company with an expertise in bed bug elimination to inspect the property before they buy. Some realtors are recommending that sellers have their homes inspected for bed bugs before putting them on the market as both a reassurance and inducement to buyers.

What are bed bugs?

Evolved from bird and bat nest parasites, Climex lectaularius, the common bed bug, is a tiny nocturnal insect that hides in dark crevices during the day and feeds on human blood during the night. Their oval bodies are flattened and wingless and a light to reddish-brown in color. Adult bed bugs are 1/4 to 3/8 inch long or about the size of an apple seed. Before feeding, the bed bugs are as flat as paper, becoming dark red and bloated with blood as they feed, much like a tick. As they puncture the skin to feed -- usually for 3 to 10 minutes -- they eject an anesthetic that can cause an allergic reaction and the symptomatic itchy, red welts that bedevil their hosts. However, welts may take a day or two to develop and not all bed bug sufferers react to their bites, which can delay detection.

A female bed bug can produce up to 500 eggs during its average one-year lifespan, laying about 5 eggs per day. Difficult to detect without magnification, the eggs are whitish, pear-shaped and about the size of a pinhead. The female lays her sticky eggs in bedding and carpets or cements them into cracks and crevices near the bed to ensure a food source when the nymphs hatch. Nymphs, which are lighter in color and look like slightly smaller adults, hatch in 4 to 12 days and begin to feed immediately. Bed bugs progress through five nymphal stages, molting after each stage. The whitish carapaces they shed are a telltale sign of bed bug infestation. It takes 5 to 8 weeks for nymphs to reach maturity. Since several generations of bed bugs can be produced in a year, all stages of growth can be found in an infested room.

Bed bugs feed every 3 to 5 days and must feed at least once to develop to the next stage and to reproduce. They often void while feeding, leaving telltale rusty or tarry spots on sheets and in hiding places. Bed bugs can survive for 1 to 7 months without a blood meal and have been known to live in an abandoned house for as long as a year. They give off a distinctive musty, sweet odor often likened to ripe red raspberries or coriander.

Bed bugs will readily travel 10 to 15 feet to feed but have been observed traveling more than 100 feet from their established harborage to feed on a host. Once established, infestations can spread rapidly to adjoining rooms or units through crawl spaces, wall voids and electrical and plumbing conduits. Adept hitchhikers, bed bugs can easily enter your home on clothing, bedding, luggage, used furniture, cardboard boxes, etc. They can be brought home from a hotel stay or by sitting in a car, cab, bus, train or plane recently inhabited by an infested person.

What to look for

Bed bugs may be tiny but they leave telltale traces. Look most closely near beds and in bedrooms where bed bugs feed. Look for these telltale signs of bed bug activity:

A heavily infested room may have a characteristic musty or sweet odor like the scent of fresh red raspberries or coriander; however, the odor may not be obvious.

Look for active, crawling bugs on bed linens, carpet and furniture near the bed.

Look for dark fecal and blood stains on bed linens; carpets and carpet welting; and in the seams, creases, tufts and folds of mattresses and box springs.

You should also look for fecal smears or pea-sized pearly egg deposits behind headboards; along baseboards and door and window casings; around electrical plates; in plaster cracks; and under loose wallpaper, paintings and posters.

Look for whitish nymph molts and old exoskeletons under area rugs, at the edges of carpets, and in under-the-bed storage containers.

Beware of bats in the attic or eaves. Quite often bed bugs feeding on bats in the attic of a house will migrate to the living area in search of an easier food source, humans.

Buyer beware!

Bites, odor and voiding smears are indicators of a bed bug problem. However, these insects often go undetected when symptoms are not obvious. Bed bugs are also easily confused with other nuisance bugs like carpet beetles, bird and rodent mites, shiny spider beetles, parasitic wasps, even lint by the more paranoid, making definitive diagnosis a job for bed bug experts.

Before you buy a new home, ask the owner if there has ever been a bed bug problem. In co-ops, condos, apartments and any multi-unit residence, ask the property owner whether bed bugs have been reported in any unit. Before they buy, many home buyers are now requiring a pest inspection by a bed bug expert in addition to the traditional home inspection. When it’s buyer beware, it makes sense to protect yourself.

by: Douglas Stern

How Do You Invest in a Hot Real Estate Market?

Actually, there are several ways to find real estate deals in a hot market. The answer depends on your investment goals and the level of risk you are willing to take. Personally, I'm conservative in a hot market. I may make less money than others who speculate and buy just because the market is hot. But your goals and risk-tolerance may be different.

Here are some different temperaments of real estate investments and how they approach finding properties:

The Speculator: In a HOT market the speculator is a genius. A speculator can do no wrong, because whatever he pays today there will be somebody willing to pay more tomorrow. And, just like the stock market, when you're hot, you're hot and everybody's a winner.

The downside for the speculator happens when all good things must come to an end. And sometimes when it does, the speculator might be stuck holding the bag. I have no personal objection to people speculating, but I have zero patience or tolerance for whining when the ride is over! It's like Russian Roulette; your odds of winning are 5 in 6 and that's pretty good, isn't it?

On the upside, a lot of money can be made speculating. If you are in and out quickly, your risk is limited to your holdings at any given time. The flip side of this is that markets often give back some of the artificial profits. There is a risk you could find yourself having paid more than a property is worth, and if the markets turn around quickly it is an ugly position to be in.

In a hot market, many investors are willing to pay retail price and then turn around and sell at higher new market values that result from the rush of buyers. Hopefully you can see the danger in the game. If you choose to play, make sure you understand the risks. I used to trade commodities, and that's a game all about managing risks. With the risk comes the reward, and my hat is off to those that win. :)

The Investor: A market that is on fire is a speculator's dream and an investor's nightmare because methods that used to work no longer get the same results. Your marketing efforts will see decreased efficiency and you'll have fewer opportunities to purchase properties at the discounts you are accustomed to. It's frustrating because even though your marketing results are plummeting, the answer is to market more and become better at marketing!

A hot market can deliver a real blow to an investor's self confidence. It makes the investor stop and ask if they are doing something wrong. They're not, but changes need to be made. Since marketing is less effective in a hot market, more time must be spent on marketing to generate sufficient leads. A possibility is to specialize in a field and dominate a niche.

A few possibilities:

• Pre-foreclosures (and yes, it is a dog-eat-dog world)
• Bankruptcies
• Divorce Filings
• Eviction Notices (disgruntled landlords)
• Quit Claim Properties
• Death Notices
• Tax Liens Filed

And, when the market is hot, look for opportunities to buy "subject to" properties that create cash flow. Anytime property cash flows it's hard to go wrong long term!

What do I do in a HOT real estate market? Personally, I've sold many of my properties to realize cash profits. I am now anxiously waiting for the markets to turn. I know when it does, most investors will be running for cover while I'll be one of the few to pick up deals. The entire investing game changes at this point and I'll explain what to do in this type of a market later.

However, don't think I've stopped buying houses. No way! We're still wholesaling houses and most of the time the profits are a little smaller, but we're in and out the same day and making cash money without risk. Nothing wrong with that and there's still plenty of deals out there.

When will the markets turn? The answer is, "Who knows?" and, "Maybe they won't." And, it doesn't really matter if you know how to invest in your current market. But, let me tell you why I believe the markets will change:

1. Markets Cycle - Nothing is immune to the ups and downs of a market and cycling is a natural part of the process. When there is not enough housing, there is a rush to build houses. Then too many houses are built and everyone stops. Then there are not enough and on and on the cycle continues.

2. Interest Rates - As interest rates rise, consumers will be able to afford less and less of a house. This will affect the market demand, prices, and construction of new homes. When the market turns, some smart investors will be looking to buy entire subdivision projects from bankrupt developers. In a hot market many houses are pre-sold, but when this dries up, many developers are in BIG trouble because they were dependant on deposits and profits from pre-solds when construction is completed.

3. The U.S. Economy - I didn't plan on covering this topic, but it is important to at least note. For the last 100 years, the U.S. has been the financial powerhouse of the world and has been able to push its weight around (and during this time the U.S. markets went through many natural cycles). But, this is changing quickly and the new currency of the world is the Euro. This is demonstrated by the Euro's strength and the number of countries scaling back U.S. dollar investments (T-bonds, etc.) and moving into Euros. In short, the U.S. dollar has taken a beating.

Combine this data with a $50 billion per month deficit, and you should see that something is wrong. Put those two together and you might see a bigger picture beyond just a hot market.

In addition to the US Economy a lot of work is finding its way overseas through services such as www.elance.com. It's an entrepreneur's dream come true, because it is a free market economy, but to the American employee it is a brutal wake-up call.

Will the markets turn? Always, and when they do we'll adjust our investing strategies to the market and make great profits.

by: Gerald Romine