On Top of the Aloha Beat BLOG

The company i currently work for, Century 21 ALL Islands, is part of a 14 brokerage corporation that transacted almost a billion dollars of business last year. That makes ALL Islands one of the top companies in the state of Hawaii and in the California region. In the late fall of last year, the owners, Jim Wright and Cheryl Dillon, brought in Larry  Kendall who was one of the architects of the Ninja Selling system, a great set of tools and methodologies for practicing successful real estate. Each of our offices has been implementing the "Ninja" style as part of our work and goals for 2008.

If you have an opportunity to take the Ninja Selling CRS course, i highly recommend it! Ninja Selling is an inspiring, thought provoking and common sense approach to real estate and I found several key techniques to integrate into our business plan and assist in expanding our business.  

C21 has started publishing a Ninja Newsletter. Many of you may know that I publish a monthly e-newsletter entitled "On Top of the Aloha Beat"

which covers many aspects of kauai real estate along with items of interest about our island: from county issues, to bringing your pets, to environmental issues and fun stuff, each month I write to both friends, customers and prospects.

For those more interested in a state perspective, i.e., all the Hawaiian islands, i am providing a link to the All Islands Ninja Newsletter.

Tell me what you think. Do you like it? What do you like about it?  Thanks in advance for any comments & Feedback.

ALL Islands Ninja Newsletter 

Well I headed off to the big city of Oahu today for a day of recognition, and way too much food. We started at the Century 21 Awards Banquet at the Honolulu Country Club. I, along with three agents from my Kapaa office, were awarded the honor of Centurion, which means we earned at least 209,000 in AGC (adjusted gross commission) last year. That is NOT what we made for the year, it's the gross amount before expenses and others costs.

I received something resembling an oscar. SEE BELOW

This is me and my Broker In Charge, Dixie Daniel

Our All ISlands Princeville office walked away with tons of awards including top office in the state for Century 21, top sales person, and a couple of Grand Centurions. That is big bucks! Our PRinceville office sells more Princeville real estate than all the other offices on Kauai combined. We have something like 90% of marketshare in Princeville or that's what we had last year.

Our Kapaa office where I am based also received a Centurion award for our office. We are tops in Kapaa real estate and the dominant real estate company on Kauai's east side. 

I also got to meet and take a picture with Randy Prothero and Sally Cheeseman both AR mavens and with Century 21 Liberty Homes Hawaii. Our particular franchise, CENTURY 21 ALL Islands, sold almost $1 Billion worth of real estate in the state of Hawaii last year, making us top dog in the CENTURY 21 eco-system. After the awards banquet, the ALL Islanders headed off to Dave & Busters for some more fellowship and good times.

I hope to be in Honolulu every year to get one of these awards and network with the top producers in the state who work with our company 

Well, I had thought we were finished three weeks ago when the county council signed Bill 2204 limiting Transient vacation rentals on our Garden Island. As i have blogged before, many emotional protesters have claimed that vacation rentals, particularly in north shore communities, are responsibile for destroying our local communites and raising the prices of Kauai real estate. I heard that our Mayor, Brian Baptiste, would be signed this bill into law on March 1st.

Well, yesterday, the  County Council reconsidered and approved the legislation for its third time in three weeks. The final vote on the compromise bill was 5-1, with some lawmakers voicing reservations, councilman Tim Bynum dissenting and councilman Ron Kouchi’s absence excused. Apparen tly some of the council members fear the county will be fraught with suits and legal encounters once the bill is finalized.

You can read Nathan Eagle's detailed commentary about the ongoing concerns and political nuances in today's  Garden Island Newspaper .

The key point for this final discussion centered around vacation rentals on ag land. Most of the rural properties around kilauea, hanalei, haena, kapaa, wailua, kalaheo, and most towns on our island are zoned agricultural or ag. This perhaps final version of the bill inserted some language stating there would be no grandfathering of existing vacation rentals on ag land unless the owner had obtained a non conforming use. State law prohibits operating a vacation rental on ag land and that brings up a whole other can of worms in terms of legitimate uses of ag land according to the real nature of the zoning.

Apparently the planning department is going to be responsible for enforcement of this law when it passes and unless they get some more budget for new employees, i really don't know how the enforcement is going to be handled. 

The issue certainly continues to have a lot of folks up in arms. 

My good friend Ken Stokes is taking a big step and offering to run for the board of Directors for KIUC. That's the "people-owned" electric company on Kauai, a county that has some of the highest electricity costs in America. Ken is a Stanford grad and longtime proponent of greening Kauai. You sometimes see me link to Ken's sustainability of Hawaii blog 

Here's Ken's latest press release:

Kauaian Institute director Ken Stokes today announced plans to run for a seat on the Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative board of directors.
The green economist and sustainability advocate said his goal is three-fold: to push for 100% renewable energy as soon as possible as cheaply as possible.

“With Kauai’s abundance of green energy resources, we have an opportunity to switch away from fossil fuels while dramatically reducing our energy costs,” he said.

Stokes applauded the forward-thinking 15-year strategic plan released in December. However, he was critical of the board’s passive approach to achieve energy independence.

He pointed to the continuing reliance on “purchase power agreements” from energy generation created by others, and noted that no new proposals have been forthcoming in recent months.

“KIUC must be prepared to develop its own energy generation”, said Stokes

Since November, the board has followed an informal policy to speak with one voice to media, through either the chair or the president.

Votes are typically unanimous, and heated or discordant discussion of action items is rare at the public meetings.

Sullivan added that meaningful change will require the cooperation of residents, who need to be more involved if they are going to accept the energy-related challenges ahead.

“We the people need to really recognize just how serious our energy situation is and really embrace it,” he said. “It’s not as simple as putting up (photovoltaics) and wind panels.”

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Ken is also a statistician and his statistical analysis of demographics and trends is used by many in the state of Hawaii including Kamehameha Schools to whom Ken consults. See what i mean by looking at Ken's latest post on KIUC emissions .

I think it will take forward thinking, environmentally sensitive people like Ken to make our island and state more conscious of the importance of sustainability in our lifetime.

Here's a picture of Ken Stokes on his "green" electric bike which he uses to travel around the island and do his part in reducing toxic emissions from fossile burning fuels.

Listen to Lou dubuque Utter on his newest Villas of Kamalii listing

Check out this listing at the Villas of Kamalii. VOK is one of Princeville's finest gated, condominium complexes. With only 57 units, this complex is quiet, private and affords dramatic views of the Hanalei mountains. Let me know if you ever need information on any of the 153 condominium, and fractional condo offerings available on Kauai's North Shore.

The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 is a $168 billion plan intended to jumpstart the sliding U.S. economy. While a lot of media attention has been focused on the $600-$1,200 rebate checks that millions of taxpayers will begin receiving this spring, the new bill is also designed to help certain "high-cost regions" of the struggling housing market by:

Temporarily increasing the "conforming loan limit" from $417,000 to as high as $729,750 in specified areas; and
Temporarily increasing the size of loans the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) can insure from $362,000 to as high as $729,750 in specified areas.

If you're looking to purchase or refinance a home in a "high-cost region," this is great news. These temporary increases could help you avoid the higher interest rates associated with "non-conforming," or jumbo, loans. Although these new limits only apply until the end of 2008, the legislation does not exclude the refinancing of any past mortgages into these new "conforming loans." That means, if you qualify, you can take advantage of the new limits no matter how many years have passed since you obtained your mortgage.

Given the prices of Kauai real estate, this new act will certainly help out sales in the midrange of our market, say from $750,000 to around $1.2 Million. A high-cost region is typically determined by the median value of its homes. The median value is the specific price that is halfway between the least expensive and most expensive home sold in an area over a given period of time. Do not confuse this with the average home price. The median home price is the price at which half of all buyers bought more expensive homes and half of all buyers bought less expensive homes.

Kauai` homes are currently at a median price in the lower $600,000 range and that will qualify our island for this new program. FHA  lending is starting to take up the space in the market previously occupied by the sub-prime loans. So with FHA, you often can put very little down. Now, with the increase on FHA amounts, that will assist a lot of first time home buyers in getting a new home.

With all the Fed is doing to catalyze more real estate business, this year looks to be a good time for buyer's  in our island market.

Gristmill published a "guest essay" last fall from controversial Environmentalist's Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger.

Ted and Michael are founding members of American Environics. American Environics is a research and strategy firm that uses cutting edge social values , psychological and cognitive science research to inform social change strategies. In the essay Ted and Michael explain that there are five reasons why setting a price on carbon dioxide, either through a cap and trade approach or an outright tax, cannot reduce greenhouse gas emissions anywhere close to what is needed.

This kind of cognitive thinking is more of what we need to create a paradigm shift in the awareness needed to really get going on "Greening our World".