Hawaii Property Management Podcast with Duke Kimhan

Here’s some helpful info about our eviction guarantee at HI Pacific. One of the many guarantees that we provide here at Hawaii Pacific Property Management is our eviction guarantee. We do a great job at tenant screening, which gives us confidence in promising this to all of our clients.  We run credit reports, do background checks, and complete rental verification for each potential tenant. It’s very important for us to place a reliable tenant into your property who will protect your investment now and in the future.  If you want to learn more about the eviction guarantee or have any other real estate-related questions, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. To learn more, watch this short video.

Here’s my advice for dealing with G.E. taxes in Hawaii. I don’t consider myself a tax expert, but I have been dealing with general excise taxes, or G.E. taxes, for most of my career. All Realtors are required to pay a 4.5% general excise tax in Hawaii if they’re making income from rentals. It’s a complicated process, so I recommend reaching out to a tax professional to discuss Hawaii’s G.E. taxes. We can provide that service through a CPA for a small fee. If you have any questions about G.E. taxes or anything else related to property management, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Make sure that you have adequate coverage for your property. Today I’ll talk about having proper insurance coverage as a property manager. The coverages for condos and single-family homes are very different. Please talk to your insurance provider about what is adequate coverage for your unit. Take the Marco Polo fire, for example. All the units below the 26th floor were completely flooded, and we couldn’t get into them. Mold grew in all the units, and the insurance coverage had to be checked. We recommend that you consider adding loss-of-rent coverage to your HO6 or single-family home policy. Many owners don’t have that when they’re owner-occupant. Then, when they turn it over to us to use as a rental property, the mortgage will continue if they don’t have rents coming. If you have any questions, give me a call at (808) 445-9223. I look forward to hearing from you.

This is how we handle move-out inspections with our tenants. Today we’re giving you a closer look at how our move-out inspection process works. We start by sending detailed and clear instructions to our tenants to prepare them for the process. Then we schedule a date and time to perform the move-out inspection. At that time, the tenant turns in the keys, and we have 14 days to complete our process and return their security deposit. I go into the property, take lots of pictures, take notes, and document everything. Then I compare my notes to the property condition disclosure form that was filled out when they moved in.  There are more items to worry about when tenants move out than when tenants move in. If there are new damages, that’s considered negligence. It’s the tenants’ responsibility to pay for the damages out of their security deposit. After I take my pictures (roughly 150 for a one-bedroom unit), any items that need to be addressed are repaired before the 14-day time frame expires. If you have any questions about this procedure or anything else, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

April to August is so busy in Honolulu because of the military’s PCS moves. Today we’re going to talk about PCS season. PCS is a military term that stands for permanent change of station. The military has five bases in Honolulu, and from April to August, we experience 15,000 families moving in and out of the area. It’s an extremely busy time for movers, property managers, and Realtors. If you want more details on PCS season, give us a call. We can tell you what the best time to schedule your move is. We look forward to hearing from you.

Issues with your water heater are inevitable, but we can help. When I was growing up, I never worried about our water heater. Now that I’m a property owner, however, it’s become something that I have to worry about. In the old days, water heaters lasted 10 years; since the average life of a home is 60 or 70 years, that means you could go through five or six water heaters in the life of your home unless you switch to a tankless or solar water heater. Those tend to have a little longer shelf life and save you money on your electric bill, but they are more expensive. As the owner of hundreds of rentals, problems with water heaters are inevitable. If you have any questions about your water heater and what the costs are to fix or maintain it, reach out and give us a call. We work with many plumbers who can give you quotes for the services you need, and we’d love to help you.

Today I explain why you should care about proper pest control.   People ask me whether pest control is really necessary and whether it’s a tenant cost. Yes, it’s necessary, and no, it’s not a tenant cost. When we have a tenant that complains about pests like roaches or ants within the first two weeks after moving in, it’s an owner cost. We tell the owner that they have an infestation, and we need to take care of it. Sometimes when a house is professionally cleaned, all the roaches from that house come into a house that doesn’t have pest control. I highly recommend owners get on a pest treatment service. We offer pest control services, just reach out to us for more details. You have to be constantly aware of this. If you have pest control on the outside of your house, it’ll stop things from coming in. Pest control is really important, and it’s a major part of the value that we give our tenants. If you have any questions give us a call or visit www.HiPacificPM.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Here’s how we’re able to offer an eviction guarantee for our clients.   Today I’m discussing our eviction guarantee. People ask us how we can guarantee not to have an eviction, so today I’m answering that question. As far as I know, no one else in Honolulu offers an eviction guarantee.  When owners are comparing us against other property management companies, I tell them to ask if they guarantee or warranty their tenants. Ask if they’ll pay for the legal costs if an eviction is necessary. With all other property management companies, legal costs in the eviction process are at the owner’s expense, so owners and property managers should research that.  “No one else in Honolulu offers an eviction guarantee. ” 90% of the time, you won’t have an eviction, so you don’t need to worry about the costs. However, if you go to eviction court, you won’t be the only one there. Every time I’ve been to eviction court, there have been 10 to 20 cases at the same time, and sometimes the property manager is there, and sometimes they’re not. In all those cases, the owner is paying for going to eviction court and civil court. Now, evictions will be even more difficult with the new 1371 law, which will change the eviction process in Honolulu to accommodate for mediation.  I’m so sure of our vetting process to get a good tenant in your house that if you’re our client and you need someone evicted from your home, I will pay the legal costs. We usually won’t take you on as a client if you need help with the eviction of a tenant first. We let the owner or previous property manager take care of the legal processes first, and then we can take over afterward. If you have questions about our eviction guarantee or anything else, call or email us. We would love to help you.

Mold is a serious problem here in Hawaii.   Mold is a formidable adversary because it’s quiet, airborne, and constantly growing. If people have sensitivities to mold, which some of our tenants do, they might have an allergic reaction or get sick. That’s why whenever there’s a water leak, and the property owner says they don’t want to take care of it right away, I tell them that it needs to be dealt with now. If there’s water where there shouldn’t be, mold isn’t far behind it. That said, mold services in Hawaii are very expensive, and workers need to be specially trained to deal with it since it can be so toxic. If you have a mold problem and need some help taking care of it, I can point you in the right direction. I won’t give you the advice of my vendors if you’re not a part of our company; otherwise, my vendors would become too busy. Feel free to give me a call or send me an email if you need help or have any questions. I’d love to hear from you.

Reach out to us if you have any questions so that we can help you.   Today I want to talk to you about how we can assist you whether you’re a Realtor, homeowner, renter, tenant, or investor. We get a lot of calls and emails asking questions like, “Is this a good house to buy?”  “Will this cover my mortgage?” or “My tenants did X, so what can I do?”  No question is a bad question. I’ve been in real estate since 2001, and there are still things that I come up against that I have to research or call an attorney for. After doing this for 13 years, we are experts in property management. We know all about repairs, collecting rent, vetting tenants, and educating Realtors on the eviction process and other landlord-specific laws. If you have any questions, give us a call at 808-445-9223 or send us an email at Duke@HiPacificPM.com. We would love to help you and answer any questions you may have.

Here are five situations that would make us unable to provide our services.   Though we do all we can to provide our property management services to those who need them, there are some situations where we simply can’t. Today we’ll be talking about the reasons why HI Pacific is unable to manage certain properties. These include: 1. High rent prices: We always ask potential clients how much they would ask for rent, and some of the responses are unrealistically high.  2. Parking problems: If a property doesn’t have parking for tenants, we won’t be able to provide the owner with our management services. “We never like to turn away business, but these are instances where things would just be overly difficult on our end.” 3. Long distance: If the property is too far away from our office, we won’t provide management services. We’ve tried it before, and it’s just too difficult for us to handle the drive to far-away areas. 4. Out-of-date property: If a property hasn’t been updated in the past 50 years, we likely won’t manage it. 5. Lack of air conditioning: It’s hard to rent out a unit that doesn’t have AC, which is why we usually don’t manage these properties. We never like to turn away business, but these are instances where things would just be overly difficult on our end. If you have any questions or would like more information about our property management services, feel free to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

We only do property management at Hawaii Pacific Property Management.   The agent referral fee is an important tool for both buyer and seller agents. Here at Hawaii Pacific Property Management, though, we do not do sales—we only do property management. You can consider us experts on this topic. For example, if you want advice on how much a unit can rent for, or want to know whether one unit is better to buy than another, I would certainly love to consult with your clients about those types of things. There’s no charge for any information we give out. Just give us a call or look me up in the ‘agent’ section of the MLS. “I’d be happy to talk to your clients about the possibility of renting out their properties.” We give the first month’s property management fee to the referring agent, and if your owner decides to sell one day, we offer a 100% client-return-to-agent guarantee in our referral agreement. I’d be happy to talk to your clients about the possibility of renting out their properties. Oftentimes, I have to educate sellers on HARPTA law or 1031 exchanges, so don’t hesitate to use us as a reference to obtain information. As always, if you have questions about this or any topic related to property management, call or email me anytime. I’d love to help you.

Here’s why having a parking space is so crucial here in Hawaii.   In Hawaii, there’s nothing better than having adequate parking. One of the main questions we ask a property owner is whether they have parking with the unit, and if they say no, we won’t agree to manage their property.  If you don’t have parking, where is the property manager going to park when they inspect the unit? Where are people going to park when they come to look at the unit? Where are the service vehicles going to park when something is needed in the unit? Where are tenants going to park? Street parking isn’t a good answer.  “Everyone has a car in Hawaii, and they need to park somewhere.” The only time you can get more parking space is at the time of purchase. If you’re a real estate agent out there trying to get an investment property for a client and the unit doesn’t have any parking, walk away. Tourists stay longer in Hawaii now, the average is three to five days, and most of them rent a car. A two-bed, two-bath townhome with one parking space will go for $200 to $300 less per month than if that same unit had two parking spaces.  Everyone has a car in Hawaii, and they need to park somewhere. Especially in Waikiki, you need a parking space; we can’t ask people to ride scooters the entire time they live here. Parking spaces in some buildings cost $40,000 to $50,000, and it’s difficult to live on an island that doesn’t have enough parking. So the bottom line is to ensure your property has parking to avoid many headaches.  If you have questions about this or any other property management matter, call or email us. We would love to help you.

The eviction moratorium was recently extended; here’s what that means for you.   You may have heard that the eviction moratorium has been extended, and today I’ll be talking about what that means for real estate investors in the Honolulu area.  The moratorium that relates to property management and real estate sales is 127-A-30. It means the property management moratorium section has been updated or extended 30 times. However, other parts of the moratorium have been extended more than this. The eviction moratorium has been extended until August 6, and this will be the last extension given. Many Realtors and property owners have been wondering what this means for tenants if they decide to sell, and the extension states that month-to-month tenants can be given a 45-day notice upon closing the sale. If you have any questions about the moratorium extension or would like more information, feel free to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Here are the two best upgrades a property owner can make in 2021.   If you’re a homeowner looking to spruce up your unit in 2021, what updates offer the best bang for your buck? The average home in Hawaii is usually anywhere from 40 to 60 years old—wow, that’s my age; I need an update!  Jokes aside, you can’t just take your 60-year-old unit and put it on the market for rent. It won’t rent, and if it does, it won’t rent for a lot of money. So where should you invest your time and money? 1. Flooring. Always put some vinyl product down in your house (tile is also an option, but it’s a little more expensive). If your carpet is weathered or your laminate is old, put down some vinyl; it’s not that costly and has a 25-year shelf life.   “You can’t just take your 60-year-old unit and put it on the market for rent. ” 2. Air conditioning. People that come from the mainland cannot take our humidity. Trust me, I know this from experience: I lived on the mainland for a while, and when I moved back home, I simply couldn’t sleep without air conditioning. Here in Hawaii, there’s a roughly 50/50 shot that you’ll find a home equipped with air conditioning. In my experience, the houses without air conditioning rent last. If you have questions about these two updates or would like us to put in contact with some of our talented in-house handymen or trusted contractors, give us a call or send an email. We’re happy to help!