Some people commute. I am a migrant Real Estate worker. Commuting is for amateurs! I schedule my appointments around Oahu based mostly on what time the schools get out, what time the Pearl Harbor workers get out, what time the Govt. workers get out, what time everybody else gets out and in what direction they drive.
That’s enough of a challenge; beyond that it is the other drivers who should not be on the road given their ADHD to actually driving. Put on that mascara, you in the white Lexus! Keep that slobbering lap dog between you and the steering wheel, you blue Honda you! Hey Mister Garbage truck! How about a tarp over all that stuff flying out the back into my windshield! Minivan Mom! Stop backing up into me, hello? Use a rear view mirror much? Oh yea, to put on your makeup…And you! Cell Phone Guy! Quit taking both hands off the steering wheel to gesticulate while you’re talking!
Have no fear; my days of fuming and plotting revenge on the H1 parking lot are over, thanks to a great new site: Zapatag! At Zapatag you can post the bad drivers plate number and boneheaded moves for all to see! And not just for us Hawaii folks; any state is fair game. Well, maybe that’s not revenge in the purest sense, but we Zapataggers know who you are! And now so does the rest of the Internet!
The comments are great, sarcasm is the preferred flavor of the day, and it’s really entertaining reading the posts! For example, HeatherLynn80 posts an Oregon Plate: “ Dear stupid boys, I understand that you feel the need to show off in your super cool ford fusion with the sweet ass Raiders sticker on the back, but please; riding my ass, flashing your ligh…” *sigh* I’ll never know the rest of her thought process. NctrnlBst zapatags a Hawaii plate; “Illegally parked! Stay within the lines… The Lines are our friends!” And I LOVE kilinahe ‘s comment “I know ‘right of way’ is a difficult concept for someone driving a condo on wheels, but there’s a reason why we were all stopped at the crosswalk. Wait your damn turn.”
Of course, the challenge is to Zapatag while driving and retain concentration on the traffic around us, but we Zapataggers are great multi-taskers. Or like me, a delayed zapatagger, I’ll voice record it into my G1 and do it later. Unless I forget…
So relax,commute chill, keep an eye on how you are driving. Somebody might just Zapatag you!
Join me on Saturday, May 16th for an fun and informative Brown Bag Lunch seminar” The Care and Feeding of your Commercial Lease-How not to get Bitten!” I’ll be at the Hawaii Womens Business Center in Chinatown giving you an overview of leasing terms, the process and what to look for in your Office, Retail or Industrial Space. See you there!
Over on the Commercial leasing side office vacancy continues to rise Downtown to around 10%. Any time you have a vacancy rate close to 10% and up you have a tenants market. And the tenants are certainly calling the shots these days! Depending on the building, I’m seeing free rent, build out allowances and all sorts of goodies tenants were not able to get since the mid 1990s.
Honolulu view of Diamond Head
Retail is very soft; there are a lot of vacancies. Small strip malls across the state have an average vacancy rate of 9 %. Retailers are continuing to struggle with losses and many are going out of business entirely. Some are just walking away from their leases and letting the chips fall where they may, particularly in the big malls that charge high overhead.
Even some of the Big Dogs are biting the bullet: Niketown in Waikiki is selling its flagship building and Chicago-based General Growth Properties just recently filed Chapter 11.
In Hawaii, General Growth owns Ala Moana Center, the largest open-air shopping mall in the world, and Ward Centers. These are two of the largest shopping centers in the state. And if you stroll around either one of them, you’ll see quite a few empty stores…
Industrial is always a winner here because we don’t have much land to sprawl out on, and really tight zoning keeps growth to a minimum. So we are getting roughly $.85- $1.50 per square foot. Some a little lower, some a little higher depending on the property and the use.
I’ll be having an upcoming brown-bag lunch seminar in May for commercial tenants: “The Care and Feeding of your Commercial Lease- How not to get Bitten!” More on that as the date gets firmed up, or email me for more info!
I’m seeing a definite shift in market activity here on Oahu. At least we are getting faster responses from sellers on offers we put in representing the buyers.
The sellers are realizing that the market is still sluggish and if they don’t want to hang on to their property for several months (while inventory is high and better priced properties are selling)…they need to jump on it.
With so much inventory on the market the sellers don’t have the luxury of overpricing their properties.
The Easter Bunny at Halewa Farmers Market!
March numbers are in and we still have a lot of single family homes and condos on the market, 1,901 and 2,582 respectively for a total of 4,483 units. That is a total of 15.5 months of inventory if no new homes come on the market, and last month another 489 SF and 709 condos joined the party. Only 188 homes and 248 condos sold. Homes are sitting on the market for less time than the first two months of ’09 which reflects pricing more appropriate to market demand as opposed to being overpriced.
Sales are up over the first two months of the year. This indicates to me that buyers who have been sitting on the fence to see how low the market will go have realized that if they can qualify and are ready to buy, THEY need to jump on it.
What buyers REALLY need to jump on right now is the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit of $8,000. Buyers must not have owned a home for the past three years to qualify as a “first time buyer” and they are entitled to an $8,000 ( or 10% of the homes value, whichever is less) refund on their 2008 or 2009 taxes. To qualify, the purchase must be made between January1, 2009 and November 30, 2009. Some people think it’s December 31 but that is incorrect. If you want more information about this great opportunity, contact me and I’ll be happy to help.
If you want to know what exactly is going on in your neighborhood give me a call, I can give you a “Market Snapshot” specific to your area.
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