‘First-time’ success story - desperate times call for not so desperate measures

 

Part 1 of 2 series

 

HONOLULU ADVERTISER , June 26 2005

BY LISA SCONTRAS

Custom Publishing Group

 

Faced with the realization there is no end in sight to the real estate boom and escalating prices, many twenty something, first-time homebuyers are giving up and moving to the Mainland.

 

New homeowners in Salt Lake, Matthew and Rhoda Cohen considered that option. “We talked about moving to the Mainland, but we really wanted to make Hawaii our home,” said Rhoda. “We just decided we had to make it work — we had no choice.”

 

But for this young couple and their 2-year old son Elijah, it was on the specific advice of two people that they attribute their success in buying their first home and being happy about it two months after their escrow closed. The first bit of advice was from family. “My brother, who is a Realtor on Maui, convinced us that anything under a 10-percent interest rate on a loan is good and to get the 30-year fixed rate (rather than an adjustable-rate mortgage),” said Matthew.

 

And perhaps the best advice the Cohens got was from Marshall Mower, their Prudential Locations Realtor. Mower had an idea that he thought might give the Cohens an edge over other buyers.

 

“He suggested making an offer sight unseen,” recalls Matthew. The tenant-occupied unit was very difficult to show. .

 

“Our Realtor told us not to worry because we’d have time — once the offer was accepted — to inspect the property and back out if we didn’t like it.” It was a brilliant way to get around bidding wars and multiple offers. The Cohen’s contract may have been the only one on this property because folks just weren’t able to see it.

 

“A lot of people thought we were crazy to do it that way,” said Rhoda. “But now we’re sure it was worth it.”

 

Another first-time homebuyer success story comes from Kenji Imai, who is married with two children. Kenji had made an offer on a property with zero money down that was rejected and learned that sellers like to see a buyer’s ability to come up with some cash if necessary.

 

“In March, I made a second offer. This time I made sure that the seller knew I was ready to put some money down if the appraisal went short of the list price,” he said. “The offer was accepted.”

 

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O’AHU HOUSING TRENDS

 

Shown in thousands of dollars, this chart illustrates sales by price range during the first quarter of 2005.