Small house hunting (Nanawale Estates, Pahoa: renters, appliances, houses)

[JoDan]

Hi guys! Haven't been on in awhile.

Some of you may recall I spent last Jan and Feb on the Big Island. We've done this several times and have accumulated close to a year on the Big Island and would like to increase the time we spend there every year.

We're now trying to find a small place that would allow us to spend 3 - 5 months every year. Will have to keep the price under 150K. Our experience knows this really limits us, but there are places out there that fall in this category. Most of our experience has been in the Kau District and know quite a bit about what's out there that meets our requirement. We're a little bit familiar with the Puna District and would like to know a more about Nanawale Estates or other areas in the district that would have places in my budget range. There may be other places on the BI that fall within our range.

Would appreciate hearing form Puna residents and anyone who may have knowledge about this district or other areas that would fall within our budget.

[leilaniguy]

A quick look at Clark Realty's website shows 127 houses in Puna under $150K, in nearly every subdivision including Leilani, Seaview, HPP, Orchidland, even a few right in Pahoa village which would be very convenient (walk to everything). Of course some are fixers, but others are decent.

[terracore]

You need to consider how you plan to protect this investment the 7-9 months you aren't here. Puna is not an unsafe place to visit and live, but vacant properties are targeted and gutted by thieves looking for an easy one. They even take appliances, cabinets, and copper wiring. This isn't a gated community. We were out-of-state owners for awhile and took some pretty substantial steps to protect our investment and they worked for about 9 months. When we did get broken into we were actually living here on a different property and they broke into a nearly completely empty 40' shipping container, and made off with a case of bottled water and a $15 machete. But they did destroy a $150 lock and security system to get in. If we hadn't moved our more expensive stuff to our home it would have been gone.

[TreeZoo]

Why not rent it out as a vacation rental while you are not there?

[hotzcatz]

Vacation rentals, any rentals for that matter, require (by law) someone on island to tend to them. If it is a vacation rental, there's more hands on work. As a standard rental, there's less work once it's set up since the tenants aren't changing every few days. With a standard rental, though, you then have trouble vacationing there several months during the year. I don't suppose you could find a house that had a small guest house as well? Then the bigger one could be rented and the renters could watch over the guest house that you'd stay at each year?

[HonaunauLove]

Koa Realty has an easy to use property search engine. I'm not affiliated with them in any way. I just use it.

[Arktikos]

You just want a small house lot or space to grow stuff? Nanawale would be the former, I believe.
Remember that the higher you go in Puna, the cooler and wetter it gets.
A place on a decent road, visible from this road and uninhabited, will be robbed blind in no time, sorry to say.