Moving to Maui (Honolulu, Kahului, Kihei: apartments, lease, health insurance)

[SeattletoMaui]

My boyfriend and I are moving to Maui and have been doing a lot of research but have stumbled across a few questions...
1. Why is it so rare for studio apartments to have a full stove?
2. What is the average cost of electricity in a one bedroom or studio?
3. Are there enough touristy restaurants in kihie for me (with 6 years experience) to find a good serving job?
4. Is there ANY way to ship your car with things in the trunk...Does anyone at all ship from Seattle other than Matson
5. How far ahead should we buy our one way tickets to fly to hawaii?
6. What is the best way to get to Kihei from Kahului airport (cheeply, with luggage..)
7. What jobs are the easiest to get with a decent pay in Kihei?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We are moving in March and can't wait!

[PacificFlights]

1. Most may be too small to have a full stove, or it may be a Ohana dwelling and I think having a stove would be violate of code.
2. Average for what? The average will be low if you don't use air conditioning and the average will be high if you do. High if you have lots of electrical stuff, lower if you don't. If you come from a place where you pay for electricty, just take the amount you use and compare the rate on Hawaii to see what it would be.
3. There are tourist resturants all over maui since tourisim is the number on industry. Jobs, well thats another story. Once a person with 1 year experince could land a good job at a good resort resturant. Now people with 15 years right on hawaii are unemployed and looking for that same job. Most depends on what others are looking and if they need people. You can go months with no resturant jobs and one day poof, dozens start to appear. But 1 month later, nothing for months again. Or you see one here and one there with 500 people applying.
4. If you are using auto shipping like Pasha or Matson, no they must ship vehicles empty. If your paying Matson or Horizon for a container with the car inside, what's inside is your business. If you pay Pasha to ship your car as cargo, you can stuff whatever you want inside. Auto rates are about half of cargo rates. so is what your shipping worth twice what you would pay to put it in the car or is it cheaper to ship the car as a vehicle and the other stuff in some cargo box?
5. Do you have family or friends on maui who can support you? If not, buy a roundtrip ticket with open return in case things don't work out. You don;t want to be one of the many homeless who ran out of money, couldn't afford rent, still couldn't find a job, and ended up with no money to get back to the mainland. There are no cheap buses to CA from Hawaii and you can't stand on the runway trying to hitch a plane ride. and walking is not an option.
6. One of those rolling carts and feet.
7. You got to be kidding asking that question....................

[xstonedrocker]

hi

heres an answer you need to know

between 2000 to 3000 dollars a month is what you WILL NEED

thats apt say 1100 min ..
phone for 2 say 50 min
tv and cable say 50 min.
elictric say 125 min.
FOOD and it does not grow on trees say 400 to 600 min.
gas is 3.79 today ... say 100 min..
misc say 200 min.

add that up ... be realistic most corners have been cut

come with min say 3000 dollars
you will need first and probably last
you will probably need 300 deposit from maui electric

car ....it will take approx 20 days from west coast to maui if you time it right

otherwise about 150 to 200 dollars a week to rent ..thats kihei local

food will add up ...period a burger and not fast food for 2 is min 20 bucs plus a tip

fast food thats 10 bucs

come in march but bring money ...

if not wait to save it up

maui spits you out faster than a 3 dollar bill

work ...... g o o d l u c k

xstonedrocker

[SeattletoMaui]

Are Jobs really that impossible? We are finding dozens of apartments for $800-$900 on craigslist.

I have serving experience on the Pride of Hawaii....so I'm hoping that will give me the edge.

As far as phones or cable...We have never had cable before and don't mind finding places with public internet.

Everyone on this forum seem to be VERY negative. I have moved 6 times in the last 7 years so I am pretty realistic about moving...I really appreciate the car shipping advice and the help with the stove thing. the size of studios (300sqft!) is definately something I didn't expect.

We have been looking only for apartments that include all utilites that way we know exactly what to expect each month.

Does anyone know anything about Paradise Gardens apartments or Blue Sea Breeze apartments?

[cloudcroft]

Yeah, those 300sf "studios" aren't much different than some two-bed hotel room on the mainland. Condotel studios (your often encountered Hawaiian "studio" and mostly found in the Waikiki area catering to tourists) is so small people who get them must NEVER stay there during the day (only at night to sleep/clean up) and/or get them just so all the utilities are included (such as electric, so they can run the AC 24/7). Otherwise, who'd want to BUY a condotel "studio" shoebox? Or RENT one long-term? Even when you see some ad for a 2 or 3 bedroom house/apartments/condo the rooms are still TINY. Even the "living" room is smaller than a mainland jail's holding cell. Heck, maybe even HI jail cells are tiny! ;-)

So yes, most apartments, condos and homes are tiny over there.

I don't know if it's because builders just want to pack as many condos/homes into a small as possible area for maximum profit (as is often the typical greedy "business model" in many places, mainland and globally), or, if it's an "Asian mentality" going on in HI, meaning culturally being used to small places to live in so they just accept it? I don't know but no other state I know of has across-the-board "Hobbit Housing" as HI does. Certainly, room sizes are not up to American standards or expectations.

It reminds me of that show "House Hunters International" -- lots of condos/homes they look at are small in most all of those foreign countries...seems foreign builders/flippers/rehabbers don't know or don't care what American buyers want: LARGER rooms (amongst other things). Foreign builders SHOULD know if they are trying to SELL to Americans, but those houses not only are smaller, but pretty crappily built/laid out, too, yet you STILL pay $500K and more for that crap. Same in HI...HAWAIIAN builders SHOULD know -- it's America for gosh sakes, not a foreign country -- so I have to assume they just don't care, are too greedy, or both.

If you want LARGE rooms "American mainland size" (as most Americans rightfully consider standard, and in the nicer/safer areas of Oahu) you need BIG BUCKS, close to $1-million for starters (just to look) and beyond that to get your larger "normal sized" rooms...but even then, MAYBE you'll get larger. That's outrageous.

People will tell you here they don't need large interiors because of the weather, so they are outside a lot...but still, IMO that doesn't excuse builders making condos/apartments/homes for munchkins. It isn't Oz and Honolulu isn't the Emerald City.

And for a atate that has such a high cost of living but pays only half the wages (unlike other states on the mainland with high costs of living but also pay high wages), it has no problem putting decent housing out of the reach of many there...even the locals. I don't know how HI gets away with it...should be a crime. No wonder people with lower incomes (actually, "lower incomes" in HI would do fine elsewhere) can't afford anything decent, or live in tents on the beach or in the parks. Or on the streets. Or get a bunch of roomates to afford something bigger/in a better area. Or apply for public hosing (and wait a LONG time for it IF granted). All because housing is way too expensive for what you get AND for their economy (poor wages). A good example of what "the working poor" means.

So yes,...you can look forward to paying lots more but getting a whole lot less. I guess living in "paradise" -- in YOUR case the island of Maui rather than Oahu (but much of the above still applies) -- is supposed to make up for that. You'll have to decide for yourself not only if that's true, but if living there is worth the extra expense to live in a shoebox "studio" -- or several adjacent shoeboxes (i.e., a 1/2/3 bedroom).

[xstonedrocker]

hi

i was not being negative

i was giving you a realistric point of view

but im probably not in your age group

paradise gardens has about 200 units from one to two bedroom

pool ...wash room ..lots of parking

nice apt living

about 900 for one bed about 1050 to 1100 on 2 bed with one year i think lease ...

not to be negative ..... they require first and last deposit ....

maui electric for most paradise gardens will be 2 to 300 deposit

some areas do get free internet ...that i pay for ..

hope that helps in a general way

we are not negative people i think most on here want to help ...

but hawaii is what you are readng ..its no cheap ride


xstonedrocker

[thatsong64]

The only info I can give you:

4. If you're looking to get a restaurant job, forget about shipping your car. It just isn't worth the $$$ it costs to ship. I guess unless it's a brand new car with great gas milage. If not, you're better off taking the risk and buying a car there. Also (you probably won't need this info, I was just surprised to find this out) if you have subs or anything they MUST be bolted to your trunk otherwise it's not considered part of the car and can't be shipped with it.

5. Buy your tickets asap. Why wait? one less thing to remember to do! Get round trip tickets and set the return date for when you'll run out of money - or a little before that maybe! You can use discount travel sites for round trip but can't if you are getting a one way ticket. Seriously, get round trip tickets.

Hope that helped. And also hope I'm not totally wrong about all that! cuz I'm not there yet so that's just what I've come up with from researching.

edit: Good luck! I hope everything goes well for ya!

[thatsong64]

Originally Posted by xstonedrocker

thats apt say 1100 min ... be realistic most corners have been cut


xstonedrocker

You said 1100 for 2br, so that's not minimum or cutting corners...why would a couple need a 2 br or you as a single person either? jw what made you say the price for a 2 br..

You give good advice and I agree with everything else, was just a lil confused by that...

[thatsong64]

Originally Posted by SeattletoMaui

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

To be fair, you shouldn't have said that if you actually only wanted positive comments. just saying...

[Vicious]

Originally Posted by SeattletoMaui

My boyfriend and I are moving to Maui and have been doing a lot of research but have stumbled across a few questions...
1. Why is it so rare for studio apartments to have a full stove?
2. What is the average cost of electricity in a one bedroom or studio?
3. Are there enough touristy restaurants in kihie for me (with 6 years experience) to find a good serving job?
4. Is there ANY way to ship your car with things in the trunk...Does anyone at all ship from Seattle other than Matson
5. How far ahead should we buy our one way tickets to fly to hawaii?
6. What is the best way to get to Kihei from Kahului airport (cheeply, with luggage..)
7. What jobs are the easiest to get with a decent pay in Kihei?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We are moving in March and can't wait!

Probably a lot of negativity on here because those that seek solace on an internet forum... probably aren't that happy to be here.

I'm not "ecstatic" to live here. Yes, I'm content and I enjoy everything that Maui has to offer. But I think if I were struggling financially like many people I know here, I wouldn't think twice about moving to a different financial situation. Luckily, I don't have to worry (too much) about saving every penny to pay for groceries.

I think it's fine to be a starving artist when you are young (or even old), but don't expect any handouts or even a low-paying job when you move here. There are already MANY locals in queue for these jobs, and I can understand their frustration when some haloe comes in to take their job that they need to feed their kids.

And for the love of God, please have some type of health insurance so that you aren't a burden to the State!