Looking at Pahoa (Honolulu, Hilo, Kurtistown: apartment, renters, insurance)

[whtviper1]

I have a few rentals - one of which I allow pets and charge extra in rent - I do so as the house will need new carpets and some work before I sell it - so I'm willing to take the risk/reward. On the nicer properties, no way.

As far as cats - obviously a cat the pee's on the carpet ruins that carpet and the liner under it. The bigger issue with cats as they tend to want to sit on the windowsill - and the act of climbing up there will damage the wood around the window - it costs a lot of money to fix those small scratches from the nails. Cat's like to climb - run around - and climbing and running cats inadvertenly cause damage.

[hotzcatz]

There are some products that will remove all cat pee scent from the carpet, although I'm not sure what they'd do for the color on the carpet. A friend used to have a 55 gallon drum of the stuff for when folks would pee in the stairwells and corners of their condo building and parking lot. Dunno what it was called, though. The industrial cleaning suppliers may know what the stuff is.

However, when there's so many folks looking for rentals, why bother dealing with pets?

[whtviper1]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

However, when there's so many folks looking for rentals, why bother dealing with pets?

For the extra rent which can be substantial often a 10% or much more premium at least here on Oahu.

[Fredesch]

You cannot get animal urine out of wood floors. Once it penetrates it is there forever. We had to replace one floor of hardware flooring as the refinisher said they could not get the animal urine out.

[Kenny48]

Boy, I went to this thread hoping to learn something about Pahoa. What I got, was how un-pet friendly most of you are. I can understand an owner not renting to someone with a pet though. If it's your own home though, I don't see where anyone else has any say in the matter.
I was hoping to find out what kind of area Pahoa is. Is it safe? Gay friendly? Pet friendly? Is it a druggie area? What is it like? Those are most of my questions, but I could probably still come up with a few more. I have only lived on Oahu and have also been to Kauai which I love, but could not possibly afford. I know very little about the Big Island. My friend here Kalani, says Pahoa is a nice area, but then He like myself has not been there in over twenty years. What may have been nice then, could be a drug infested crime ridden area by now. We are two older gay men, ( not a couple ) who would like to move back to Hawaii to spend our later years. We both however, have limited incomes. Which is why I was considering Pahoa. Since I have a dog, I wouldn't really be interested in a rental. I have seen some fairly nice smaller houses listed in the area. Also, what about land rental fees. I know years ago, most homes did not come with the land. The land was leased separately. None of these listings state "fee simple" or not.

I think this is what the original poster was questioning as well. Without having been there, just an idea of what the area is like. I know it's near the lava fields, but little else. Would be nice if someone could tell us more.

Oh yes, what about building codes. There seem to be a lot of small places available. But what is actually permitted, and not?

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Not a whole bunch of us on the forum live in the Puna area (where Pahoa is located) but hopefully those like LeilaniGuy will chime in. There are lots of various subdivisions in the Puna area with a variety of housing.

You could do a forum search for "Pahoa". I just did and there are a bunch of different threads about the area. A lot of threads do get sidetracked by people throwing in their opinions about various things, such as dogs, vegetation, lava, etc.

If the listing doesn't say "leasehold", then it is probably "fee simple". The fee simple listings are the majority these days.

Regarding the building codes. Yes you will find some unpermitted places, but I advice you against buying one. The County Building Department has building codes that apply to all structures, and they are beginning to crack down on the unpermitted ones. So you may get stuck with trying to bring someone else's shoddy construction up to today's code.

Pahoa is still a small, hippie town, but it also is seeing new development. New Long's Drug opened up last year.

Are you planning to work? In Hilo? The commute to Hilo can get really backed up during rush hour.

[Travlin'grl]

Have you looked at punaweb.org?

[mdand3boys]

Originally Posted by Kenny48

...I was hoping to find out what kind of area Pahoa is. Is it safe? Gay friendly? Pet friendly? Is it a druggie area? What is it like?...

Loads of mainland/transplant hippie-types that seem to come and go, lots of drug use (of all kinds) still relatively safe if you don't do anything stupid and stay away from drugged-up hippie-types and drugged-up locals. Very few jobs that pay more than $10 an hour. Every other vehicle has a dog sitting on the driver's lap...

Lots of mainland transplants that think they can buy a cheap piece of land and live in a tent while they "attempt" to build their dream 12x12 shack by themselves for 3+ years...(although they wouldn't do that in their own neighborhood back on the mainland). I guess, being realistic, Puna District has a lot of misfits that believe the laws don't apply to them.

[hotzcatz]

Pahoa is a small town in the Puna district. There's basically one highway between it and Hilo where most of the services and employment are. Pahoa has grown quite a bit in the past few decades. There is now a small shopping area just outside of the old downtown area. Long's Drugs just built a new location across from the small shopping area. The old downtown area is several blocks of small businesses, traditionally, "funky" would be a good descriptive term for many of them. There is still a lot of character (and characters) left in Pahoa.

Puna is a large district, mostly the "soil" is rocky lava with some areas where leaf litter has filled in between the rocks enough to grow things. You can dig a hole in the lava and plant specimen plants, it isn't a good area for dirt type farming or expecting to be able to dig a hole in the yard where ever you want. There are a lot of skinny ohia trees growing up through the cracks in the lava, albizia trees grow in the leaf litter on top of the lava. Albizia are considered a trash tree and a hazard since they drop limbs and fall over a lot. They also grow incredibly quickly. There are also grasses, shrubs and ferns growing in the rocky soil so it looks nice and green. Farmers in Pahoa usually grow things like guavas or papaya (individual plants in holes) or orchids, antheriums or other plants in greenhouses.

Most of Puna is fairly flat sloping land. Not the same sort of ocean views you can expect along the Hamakua coast or some areas of Hilo. Mostly in Puna you're looking at the skinny trees growing in the cracks in the lava and the grasses and brush since you can't see over them to get ocean views. It's a lower elevation so it stays warmer than Volcano, Glenwood, Mountainview, Fern Forest or places higher in elevation. High rainfall, but lots of sunshine, too. There aren't many (or is it any?) white sand beaches in Puna, but there are some places to access the ocean. Not a lot of public places, though. Lots of low sea cliffs. The much higher sea cliffs are in the Hamakua district. There are some geothermally heated hot ponds in Puna. Goes along with the geothermal power plant.

There isn't a lot of infrastructure in Puna. One main highway goes between Hilo and Pahoa. Past Pahoa the volcano ate the road into the back of Volcanoes National Park so it's a dead end. Probably about ten to twenty miles to the dead end, though. The old village part of Pahoa was lively when the only road went through the middle of town. Small narrow road with shops on either side. A bypass was built around Pahoa (this was the eighties, I think it was) and then Pahoa town got cleaned up a LOT. They had to clean up and spruce up the shops since folks weren't automatically shunted past them on their way home. It still has a lot of hippie type folks living there. In the eighties, that was about all who were living there. Now there's a lot more "regular" folks living there. I think there's a pretty big gay community there, someone else might have better information about that, though.

Socially, Puna and Pahoa are not exactly the highest on the social or economic scale. A large portion of the population is imports from the mainland and other places. However, as in most areas in Hawaii, it's not homogenized so there are all sorts of folks living directly next to all sorts of folks. Thefts and burglary are quite common in the area although violence isn't overly common. It used to be unheard of, but we can't claim that anymore.

[whtviper1]

That is such a good description Hotzcatz - I had to present a topic at a new hire orientation recently - and one of the new employees was a flight attendant. She mentioned she moved from Pahoa and previously lived on the mainland - she was a mental health counselor in the area. She just hated it - but she was a single person in her early 40's so that might be it. As she put it, she rarely saw the sun - and she was just bored - there wasn't a lot to do - perhaps if she was married or living together with someone it would have been more tolerable.