Moving to Hilo, Hawaii (Honolulu, Kailua: rental car, apartments, rentals)

[Hkboi5o4]

Hello everyone!

I'm gonna be moving to hilo Hawaii in few weeks from New Orleans, Louisiana. Never been to Hawaii before so a little nervous but also excited

Just a few quick questions before I get there if anyone can help me out. I haven't found a place out there to live yet, I'll be looking to rent an apartment or a house for 2 people. What area would be a pretty safe place to stay but also not priced really high? I was looking to pay around $800-1200 a month for rent.

Also one main thing is I do not have a job lined for me out there. Anybody that lives out there knows somebody or a place that is hiring? I don't mind doing hotels, restaurants, sales, etc

I have experiences working in a restaurant and a leading hotel for years so I would love to work in a hotel again if possible. If anybody can help, that would be great!!

Thank you!!

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

I just have to ask why you are moving to Hilo knowing so little and not having any job prospects?

You should spend some time reading through the many threads on this forum discussing what it's like to live in Hilo and surrounding areas, and what it's like to look for work.

[OpenD]

Yes, I agree completely with Dreaming of Hawaii.

I've found that most people on here are pretty helpful when they know the whole story behind your questions, but it seems like you've either left something out, or you're just really clueless. Sorry.

I mean, how are you going to pay for an $800-1200/mo rent with no job?

To answer one of your questions, most of the good restaurant and hotel jobs are on the other side of the island, in Waikoloa and Kailua-Kona. After the 1960 Tsunami destroyed Hilo's downtown, and with it most of the hotels and restaurants, the center of the tourist business moved west. Today there are a handful of hotels, nothing special, and some nice restaurants, but the town is only 44,000 population so choices are limited.

Another factor is that we're nearing the end of the summer tourist season, which is when many hotels and restaurants lay off staff until the holiday season cranks things up again at the end of the year. So this seems like about the worst possible time of year to just show up, hoping to find a job. Sorry!

[dansf1]

Originally Posted by Hkboi5o4

Hello everyone!

I'm gonna be moving to hilo Hawaii in few weeks from New Orleans, Louisiana. Never been to Hawaii before so a little nervous but also excited

Just a few quick questions before I get there if anyone can help me out. I haven't found a place out there to live yet, I'll be looking to rent an apartment or a house for 2 people. What area would be a pretty safe place to stay but also not priced really high? I was looking to pay around $800-1200 a month for rent.

Also one main thing is I do not have a job lined for me out there. Anybody that lives out there knows somebody or a place that is hiring? I don't mind doing hotels, restaurants, sales, etc

I have experiences working in a restaurant and a leading hotel for years so I would love to work in a hotel again if possible. If anybody can help, that would be great!!

Thank you!!

So you just joined these forums today and you are moving to Hilo in a few weeks? Hmmmmm.....I say either this is a serious fabrication or you need a good dose of common sense. You've done little to no research on jobs, haven't found a place to live and are looking to rent and blink you'll be here in in a few weeks. Based upon your work experience I hope you have a good deal of money set aside for your needs or a cash cow flowing from somewhere or someone.

The reality is you need to visit here a few times and stay for an extended period of time for one of those visits and that still won't give you much of a point of reference. But hey, you could always join the mass of people who make the same mistake you do with palm trees dancing in their heads and end up staying for six months to a year before you pack it in and head back to the mainland. As a point of reference, we spent 5 years coming to the BI and several weeks at a time working through comparative lists before we settled here, jobs intact, realistic expectations set, and challenges over 5 years of visits expected. Best of luck to you and Much Aloha!

[Due]

Originally Posted by dansf1

The reality is you need to visit here a few times and stay for an extended period of time for one of those visits and that still won't give you much of a point of reference. As a point of reference, we spent 5 years coming to the BI and several weeks at a time working through comparative lists before we settled here, jobs intact, realistic expectations set, and challenges over 5 years of visits expected. Best of luck to you and Much Aloha!

Ditto: reads almost like our process.

[bus man]

I'm not a resident of Hawaii, so take what I'll say with a grain of salt. But I've been to the state four times and have visited all six main populated islands. And this is enough experience to tell you that if you are looking for a job in the hospitality industry, Hilo should not be at the top of your list. Even on the Big Island, it falls a distant third to the Kailua-Kona and Waikoloa areas. And this is to say nothing of the much greater opportunities in Honolulu (especially Waikiki), Maui (mainly West Maui, but some in South Maui), and even Kauai.

Don't get me wrong. I love Hilo. In fact, it's my favorite place in all of Hawaii. I even tried (unsuccessfully) to land a job so I could move there. But that doesn't change the fact that its hospitality industry is quite limited.

So I'll echo the other posters. Why are you just up and moving to Hilo, with no job lined up and never even having been there before?

[danna.h]

Where are you going to live in the meantime? What about transportation?

As someone who has been exposed to a lot of hiring and dealing with applicants, those from the "mainland" don't seem to know what they're getting themselves into. When asked why they moved to Hilo, it's because, "I've always wanted to live in paradise," "I like the slower pace," etc…sounds like retirement to me.

It's hard to start from scratch, but that's not to say that it can't be done but it will be difficult.

Please think it through. If your plans can't be changed, best of luck to you.

[hotzcatz]

Well, most areas on the Big Island are "safe" as far as bodily harm is concerned but property theft is rampant in some areas. There are a few sketchy areas, but they aren't very large. In any case, find a one or two week place to stay while you're looking for a job and a place to live near the job. Also be sure to keep enough money to get back to the mainland if necessary.

You really don't want to rent anywhere until you've checked things out in person. Things to watch out for are noisy night time frogs called "coqui" because that's what their call sounds like. There's some traffic issues if you're outside of Hilo trying to get in and out. Some areas have some lava issues, but those are easy to spot. Also watch out for yards with lots of little metal teepees in them, each little teepee will have a rooster tied to it and there's no sleeping near those houses. Well, unless you learn to ignore the roosters.

There's limited public transport on the Big Island, so if you're planning on using public transport, download the different HeleOn bus maps and find a spot near the bus line.

Some areas outside of Hilo are on catchment - which means they catch rainwater to use for household water. Some areas are remote, although what with Hurricane Iselle, most of those areas are not going to be places you'll probably be able to get to until they get the trees cleared off the roadways. Actually, what with Hurricane Iselle, most of the not as expensive rentals may be snapped up already by folks who's houses were damaged beyond repair.

"I don't mind doing hotels, restaurants, sales, etc." shows that you're not really aware of the kinds of work available in Hilo. For a lot of folks, those are the desirable jobs, not the ones you have to put up with. If they are even available. Hotels are limited as are restaurants and they may not pay enough to pay the rent. Many employers don't want to pay more than twenty hours a week so they don't have to pay healthcare so you may need several jobs to support a household. If there is a desirable job, it will usually be offered to a family member or someone they know.

If you can transfer your mainland job to a branch in Hilo that would be good, but there aren't many of the mainland chains in Hilo.

It's an amazing place to live, but most likely it won't be anything like you're expecting.

[smarino]

You're going to find the local food....different. New Orleans has the most incredible food (and music) on the planet, and I got real spoiled by the great service (if you went to the right places). I can still taste the gumbo and bread pudding we had at Acme Seafood. Unfortunately, the jobs you mentioned are not really in Hilo, they're more of a Kona side thing. You CAN find work in Hilo, but it can take a while, and I shuttled rental cars back and forth from one side of the island to the other for a long time before I found something better. Be prepared for people to offer you PT work to avoid paying health benefits in the entry level positions. All I can say is you're going to get one heck of a culture shock, except for the politicians, who are just as lame as back where you're from. Maybe more so. For housing, I always liked the areas close to town on Kinoole St. There are some local areas like the Wainaku area that I would not suggest, although the rents are cheaper. We used to own a condo there, and didn't feel safe walking around at night. Downtown, despite the homeless issue, always felt all right to me, but there's not much in terms of apartments there.

It's interesting that Hilo and New Orleans are two cities that I miss the most, but I am no longer willing to put up with what you have to put up with to live in New Orleans, and I'm not willing to pay what they're asking to live in Hilo. It's a mystery to me how they can charge the sort of rents they do w/ such an economy, or lack thereof. It wasn't always like this. I think maybe a lot of people got priced out of O'ahu and came to the Big Island over the years, and the lack of available housing drove the prices up. Or something.

[davephan]

Your're not moving to Hilo in a few weeks because you are not prepared. Of course you could try moving to Hilo, but if you don't have a lot of money, you will run out of money and you will become just another homeless person there or have to return to the mainland. If you don't have enough money left for the airfare back to the mainland, you will be trapped there, hungry, and eating out of garbage cans. I saw some homeless people in Hilo eating out of garbage cans and collecting cans and bottles for a little spending money.

How do you know you would like living in Hilo without ever visiting? Hawaii is different in person than it is on the Internet or TV from far away. Did you know that the cost of living is 35% higher there compared to New Orleans? The food is 50% higher, housing is 35% higher, and utilities are almost double the cost. Your housing budget sounds very low. Maybe you would have to double that housing budget. It might take you six months to a year to find enough part time no benefits jobs for you to barely survive there. You need a lot of 'seed' money to spend during your first year, if you make it that long.

When you first arrive, you will need to pay for short term housing for several weeks. The short term housing is much more expensive than long term housing. It is very risky to try to rent long term housing from afar. There are too many criminals, scammers, and low-life people that belong in prison, that are eager to steal your money with fake or mis-represented rentals.

Why don't you take a vacation to the Big Island for two or three weeks and check it out? You could check out the housing and employment opportunities there without burning your bridges back in New Orleans. If you can't afford to visit Hawaii, even once, then there's no way that you could afford to move and live there. You might discover that you wouldn't like living in Hawaii. Or, maybe you'd love it and it would give you the encouragement you need to improve your standard of living so you could afford move there sometime in the future.