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Old 06-11-2014, 02:33 PM
 
Location: Kūkiʻo, HI & Manhattan Beach, CA
2,624 posts, read 7,242,250 times
Reputation: 2416

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Quote:
Originally Posted by waywardphilosopher View Post
My whole life I've lived in pretty urban areas... definitely nowhere that power, sewers, etc have not been available 24/7. (Also, I have spent significant time in third world countries in which these amenities were not regularly available... and know from those experiences that that is NOT something I want to deal with in my home base setup.)

I'd definitely want power, sewers, mail delivery and "nearby" shopping (i.e. groceries not more than, say, 20 minutes away). I'm a young woman so safety would also be a concern though of course I will have a security system etc.

Could I really buy a fairly large house for 250k? That would be incredible, and very ideal. I agree with you it's better to live off interest than be house poor.
If you pare down your list of "wants" (i.e. "mail delivery" and "sewers") a little, there are about 10 active listings in Puna or Kaʻu on the Big Island that might be suitable, based on a quick search of the Big Island MLS.

Quote:
Originally Posted by waywardphilosopher View Post
What is the culture on the Big Island like?
Although it varies by area, the Big Island "culture" is primarily "tropical island rural" with all that it entails.

Quote:
Originally Posted by waywardphilosopher View Post
Where would be a good place to rent initially? Given my budget, am I limited to the Big Island, or should I consider other ones as well? Is it easy to travel between islands, or expensive / time consuming?
It's probably best to rent a place in Hilo or Kona initially; however, many young folks prefer Oʻahu. Interisland travel isn't difficult, but be prepared to spend between $150 and $400 for a round-trip airfare.

Quote:
Originally Posted by waywardphilosopher View Post
Also, if I wanted to leave for periods of time, is it easy to rent out one's house to vacationers for extra cash? This can be easily done in a place like NYC so I was wondering if the situation in HI is similar since it is such a sought-after vacation spot.
It depends on where the house is located and one's tolerance for "going by the books."

Quote:
Originally Posted by waywardphilosopher View Post
And thanks for that admonition about getting what I wish for re: privacy and solitude. :P I will keep that in mind. Is there something about HI in particular that would exacerbate this, though? I don't see how this would be more of an issue in HI versus any place less densely populated on the mainland.
"Island fever." One can't exactly drive or hop on a bus and travel inexpensively to the "big city" (e.g. Honolulu, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, etc.) when one lives in the "boonies" on the Big Island.
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Old 06-11-2014, 04:09 PM
 
Location: Kūkiʻo, HI & Manhattan Beach, CA
2,624 posts, read 7,242,250 times
Reputation: 2416
Quote:
Originally Posted by OpenD View Post
With a population of 213, I'd personally call Waiohinu a hamlet, except that nobody else seems to use that word in Hawai'i. At least it has a road sign with its name on it.

Keep in mind that the word "town" is very loosely used in Hawai'i, as are "city" and "village." In point of fact, because the smallest unit of government on the Big Island is at the County level, as it is on Maui, Kaui, Molokai, etc. it's probably most accurate to say that the state has only one city (Honolulu) and no towns or villages, only hamlets of various sizes, because there is no town government anywhere. But OK, we'll call Hilo a town, maybe even a city, even though it has no local government, because a population of 44,000 does seem a bit too big for a hamlet. :rolleyes
Iʻd call Waiʻōhinu ("shiny water") a "community," instead of a "hamlet."

Quote:
Originally Posted by OpenD View Post
Yes, the Island of Hawai'i is divided into 9 Districts, which are used for electing representatives to the County Council, and for apportioning County budgets, but apparently not for much else. Rather than being created by town or city government charters, the names and locations of towns for the purposes of mapping were set many years ago by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names many years ago, while the boundaries of towns were established by the Census Bureau as Census Defined Places (CDP) designations, which do not change, in order to facilitate decade-to-decade comparisons.
The 9 current "districts" of the Big Island are based on the the original 6 moku ("divisions," "districts," etc.) that were used by ancient Hawaiians -- Hilo, Puna, Kaʻu, Kona, Kohala, and Hāmākua. The three most densely populated moku were into "North" and "South" districts (i.e. "North Hilo", "South Hilo," "North Kona," "South Kona," "North Kohala," and "South Kohala") by the "County of Hawaiʻi" for administrative purposes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by OpenD View Post
Then to further confuse things, the Post Office has its own designations, which is why you see the town named Waimea, in the South Kohala District of Hawai'i County having Kamuela postal addresses, to avoid confusion with the two other towns named Waimea in the state. Or Holualoa and Keauhou and Kalaoa all having Kailua-Kona postal addresses, which itself was renamed by the Post Office to avoid confusion with the town named Kailua on Oahu. Or Hawaiian Paradise Park (HPP) having Kea'au postal addresses. And there are many more examples of the Post Office addresses for particular areas being different than what people call them.
Actually, there's another reason why the Big Island's "Waimea" is called "Kamuela" -- to honor Samuel "Kamuela" Parker (grandson of the founder of the Parker Ranch) and/or Samuel "Kamuela" Mahuka Spencer (a former postmaster).

Quote:
Originally Posted by OpenD View Post
As to the question "Is it a town?" I see that one of the definitions of "town" in the Urban Dictionary is that a town is: "A place where there lives people, and a church, a postoffice, and a place where beer is sold exists." That seems as good as any, although in Hawai'i people don't seem too stringent about either the church or the post office.
"Villages," ʻtowns" and "cities" are translated into Hawaiian by a single word -- kūlanakauhale ("many groups of houses").
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Old 06-11-2014, 05:36 PM
 
Location: Na'alehu Hawaii/Buena Vista Colorado
5,531 posts, read 12,622,401 times
Reputation: 6192
It is doable to rent out your home as a vacation rental, although I wouldn't call it easy. We rented ours through VRBO.com, which (I think) costs over $300 a year now to advertise on. Also, you need a local manager and housekeeper whom you can trust. We haven't rented ours out since we moved four years ago, so my experiences are a little dated. One thing we did was to look at the other listings in our area to see (1) what people charge, and (2) how full were their bookings. We tried to offer something a little more special to get people's attention. Also, the only way you can parlay a vacation rental into "extra cash" is if your house is paid for. You are still paying the mortgage and utilities, whether someone is in the house or not.

BTW, I find the whole "town", "community", "hamlet", "settlement" discussion amusing. Like OpenD says, another notch on the 1001 Things They Do Differently in Hawaii. Thanks for giving us the Hawaiian word, JonahK.

OP, I suggest that you spend a whole lot of time reading through the many helpful, information-filled threads on this forum. It sounds like you need a lot of help understanding what the various islands have to offer. Rural life in Hawaii is going to be a real shock to you.
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Old 06-12-2014, 12:27 AM
 
Location: Portland
1,620 posts, read 2,292,190 times
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I don't know if there is any truth to this or not, but I've heard if you leave your property unattended anywhere on the Big Island not in a gated community without someone looking after it, it will be stripped of anything valuable.
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Old 06-12-2014, 12:46 AM
 
61 posts, read 93,028 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreaming of Hawaii View Post

OP, I suggest that you spend a whole lot of time reading through the many helpful, information-filled threads on this forum. It sounds like you need a lot of help understanding what the various islands have to offer. Rural life in Hawaii is going to be a real shock to you.
Thank you all! And yes, I will be sure to do plenty of research and rent before buying. I wanted to get an initial idea of whether HI would even be affordable for me (without being some place so rural that it will be too much of a shock). I don't believe I would enjoy not having trash/water/internet.

That said, would there still be any places in the more urban parts of HI where a 2k sf house would be avail for 500k or so? I have done searches on Zillow but I'm not able to really tell how rural/suburban/urban areas are (integration with Google maps / Earth would be useful... are there any real estate sites out there like that?)
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Old 06-12-2014, 02:30 AM
 
Location: Moku Nui, Hawaii
11,048 posts, read 23,945,389 times
Reputation: 10901
About the only true "urban" that exists in the state of Hawaii is Honolulu. And no, you can't find a 2,000 square foot anything for $500K. I'm not even sure if that would find you a really small (300 sq ft) studio apartment. Plus, then you're on Oahu with about a zillion other people who all want to go to the same beaches, restaurants, movies, etc. Not to mention the traffic. But, pop over and visit for a bit, it will all be readily apparent when you visit.

The way trash works on the Big Island is you either hire someone to come take it away for you - there are folks who will do that. Or you can take your trash to a "transfer" station where you toss it down a big trash chute. They have different dumpsters for recycling. It's no big thing, but if you wanted curbside, there are folks who will do it for you for a fee.

Most places that have County water also have internet, that's not so much of a problem anymore. Also with everyone having cell phones, phone lines aren't so much of a problem anymore. If you're on pavement and have County water, more than likely you'll have internet and power. Basically, you want to live in a "town" which would be Hilo, Waimea, Honokaa, Pahoa might have too much "character", I dunno, Keaau is almost sort of a town. Volcano is a village, but a nice one. Kealakehe might be a town? Or would it be a village?

Basically, if it has a post office, school, banks, restaurants, grocery shopping, hardware store, theater, library, entertainment of some type, hospital of some type, gas station, fire station, police station, court house and a park, then it should be a "town", shouldn't it? How many places on the island have all that? Hilo, is there a certain area of Kailua that encompasses all that? Kailua seems pretty spread out, but I guess they do? Pahoa may have all that? Laupahoehoe almost does, but not quite. Honomu? Honokaa does. Waimea does. Waikoloa? Up Kohala way anywhere? Hawi maybe?
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Old 06-12-2014, 02:45 AM
 
61 posts, read 93,028 times
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Thank you for the info, hotzcatz. I'm not someone who needs city amenities like restaurants and entertainment and I loathe crowds. I go months without eating out or going to the movies. I love nature, cooking, reading etc (hence the desire for a fairly large house -- I'd like room for a small yoga studio, crafts area, media room, etc). I am extremely self-contained and self-sufficient. But as a single woman I am also wary of getting myself into a living situation in which there might be a lots of 'hands-on' type physical and mechanical work for necessities; that is why I'm wondering if it's reasonable to think that in my budget I could afford some place that is more suburban than rural.

I have been to Hawaii several times. As an adult I remember only Maui and Kuaui; I liked Kuaui far, far more.
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Old 06-12-2014, 05:09 AM
 
Location: Moku Nui, Hawaii
11,048 posts, read 23,945,389 times
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Big Island might be a good fit, then. It does have amenities, it's not total third world. Hmm, actually, come to think of it, it was a waitress at a Thai restaurant in Hilo who was explaining the specific differences between "third world", "second world" and "first world" specifications to me once. So, Hilo does have education in odd places.

You might like Volcano Village, it's great for yoga, crafts & meditation. Hilo is about a half hour drive down the mountain where you can get most things. It's at an upper elevation so it's cooler than you might expect in Hawaii.

When you are in a "town" type area, then you'll have the basic sort of suburbia with it's own twist. Taking the rubbish to the transfer station isn't any harder than taking it to the curb. If you have a gas stove or water heater, the gas company will come fill up the propane tank if you like. There is no natural gas in Hawaii so we use propane instead. I think our "town" might be similar to "suburbia" sort of. Google earth should give you some ideas of what the various areas look like.

We are sort of in suburbia, although it's actually on the edges of a small town. Pavement (although I think we need more sidewalks), power, county water, land line phone, cell phone, fast internet, we are about four houses too far away from the post office for mail delivery, but the post office is only about four minutes away. Town is about three to four minutes away yet there's loads of open pasture a half block away so we hear more cows than traffic. Daily newspaper delivery, we could get the gas company to deliver gas, but we use the 5 gallon propane bottles instead. The house has solar hot water so we don't need the gas for water heating, just the stove and oven. Oh, gas dryer, too. We could get yard service, but I like gardening so we do that ourselves. Not that there is a whole lot of work on a quarter acre lot. The heaviest bit of work I've done around the place lately has been to harvest a bunch of bananas. That weighed about forty to fifty pounds so it took a bit to get them cut down (the fruiting stalk of a banana plant dies after it fruits so it's generally cut down to harvest the fruit) and then hang the bunch up. I'm not sure why we cut them down just to hang them back up again, but that's what folks generally do.

There are several yoga studios and meditation groups as well as a variety of craft groups around. Lots of farmer's markets to get fresh and local foods to cook as well as some foodie groups, too. Not that you need groups, but having a few folks who share common interests is always good.
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Old 06-12-2014, 12:19 PM
 
Location: Volcano
12,969 posts, read 28,350,584 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by waywardphilosopher View Post
Thank you all! And yes, I will be sure to do plenty of research and rent before buying. I wanted to get an initial idea of whether HI would even be affordable for me (without being some place so rural that it will be too much of a shock). I don't believe I would enjoy not having trash/water/internet.
Internet is easier to get than county water in some parts of the Big Island.

Hotzcatz's comments are right on. You can trust what she says. I think you'd find parts of Hilo suitable, and Kailua-Kona, though Hilo is less expensive in general. Maybe Waimea/Kamuela.

Quote:
That said, would there still be any places in the more urban parts of HI where a 2k sf house would be avail for 500k or so?
Since you're averse to hands-on maintenance, I would seriously consider a smaller house. It's just a fact of life that a larger house requires more work to keep clean and well maintained. Since you are single, 2K sq ft seems excessive. After all, it was quite normal post WWII for a family of 4 to live in a 1,000 sq ft house, and there are many pre-war houses that are smaller than that. And obviously, it will be easier to find a smaller house in your price range. Small house and a big lanai and/or big porch is a sweet combination. Why do your yoga inside when you could do it outside?

After all, the outside is the main reason people want to be in Hawai'i.
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Old 06-19-2014, 02:00 AM
 
Location: Aotearoa
100 posts, read 138,264 times
Reputation: 113
Quote:
Originally Posted by hotzcatz View Post
Half a mil will buy you a nice house on multiple acres. You can buy a nice house for a quarter mil and bank the rest and live off the interest. Saves ever so much bother about looking for employment.
That was a joke, right? All I ever read on this forum are warnings that Hawaii is more expensive than you think, and you will need xx% more in salary than in your hometown to make it here. Assuming the OP is paying cash for her home, leaving her with 250k to bank in your scenario...that would be a cool $2500 a year to live on with current interest rates. I recommend going with the find a job option.
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