Interesting Land Situations (Hilo, Volcano, Keaau: sales, leases, condos)

[FreedomFound]

Hello!

My wife and I are curious about interesting land use/purchase stories on the Big Island. Is caretaking common? Any insights on long term leases? Are owners of large parcels ever open to selling a few acres?

We're arriving in April to investigate personally.

We've looked pretty exhaustively at land that is currently listed and have noticed many of the patterns mentioned on this forum. We're excited to explore 3+ acre secluded properties north of Highway 11, and for fun we'll check out Ocean View, Fern Forest and anywhere else that looks appealing.

One of the listed properties might be perfect for us, but we started to ask ourselves: Are there any options other than buying fee-simple from an internet listing? Anything a bit unconventional?

In particular, we noticed that there is nothing listed north of Hilo for less than $50,000. Of course, we would love to find our way into say...Hamakua district, if there is a more affordable alternative.

We're a life-loving couple with a little one on the way seeking to build our home in a safe, clean, off-grid location. Gardening and natural building will be a big part of our new life. We're going to rent in Hilo for as long as we need to find what's right for us.

Many Thanks!

[hotzcatz]

Renting in Hilo is a good start, you'll be able to find out all sorts of things once you get feet on the ground.

Some large landowners will have a care taker take care of their property, although those are usually the places that have houses on them. Usually the care takers would be in a much smaller house somewhere on the property. I haven't a clue how you'd go about finding a caretakers situation, though.

Lease land that you buy is usually a fifty year lease and when you lease the land it comes with however many years are left on the original lease. If there's a house on the land, then you have the house until the lease is up. I think you generally have to make monthly lease payments, too, after 'buying' the land/house/lease. Every fifty years when the lease is up, it's renegotiated with the option of not being renewed. Which is why condos/houses on lease land with only a few years left on the lease sell inexpensively.

Owners of large parcels are not able to sell a few acres without a lot of paperwork. Nor can they sell it at parcels smaller than it's zoning. Say it's an eighty acre parcel zoned AG40, that parcel could be subdivided into two parcels both of which were 40 acres. If it is a seventy five acre parcel zoned AG40, it can not be subdivided since one of the parcels would end up less than the zoning allows.

"north of highway 11" doesn't really tell us anything since "highway 11" circles about half the island. Nobody calls highways by numbers, I suppose you mean Mamalahoa Highway? Nor do folks really use 'North' as a direction although sometimes it's used as part of a place name. I'm suspecting you mean Mauka (towards the mountains) above the highway over near Keaau? Which would be in local parlance, the "Hilo-Volcano" highway?

You can be off grid in the middle of town, so no worries about that. More of this island is 'off grid' than is on, more than likely. Photovoltaic solar has pretty much become mainstream. If you want to be 'green' about the whole thing, it's actually better to do a grid-tied PV system since you don't have a battery bank to dispose of every five to eight years. But, if you're doing the rural and remote, you may not have any option except a stand alone system.

For gardening, check CTAHR's website, they have more information about growing things in Hawaii than probably anywhere else, although their site is a bit hard to navigate. Here's the portion of their website where you can order seeds: Agricultural Diagnostic Service Center - Seed Program From there you can get to the homepage and wander around the site, but it can be confusing.

When selecting land for gardening, check to make sure it has soil. A lot of the less expensive lots in Hawaii don't actually have soil, they have plants growing in a layer of leaf litter on top of lava rock. Take a shovel and try to dig a hole on your chosen lot to see what's under there.

Another consideration for growing things is elevation. Fern Forest may be high enough in elevation that bananas may not fruit. Same for coconuts. If you get too low in elevation, then coffee and tea don't grow well, nor protea. So, depending on what you want to grow, you may want to look at the elevation would be best. Then of course, there's always the sunshine and rainfall to consider, but most folks look at those considerations.

And, if you want mainland fruit such as apples and pears, you have to be very concerned with 'chilling hours'. Here's an explanation of chilling hours: https://baylaurelnursery.com/what-are-chill-hours.html Bay Laurel nursery will also mail order trees and plants to Hawaii, so once you're looking into landscaping your parcel, you may want to order some trees from them. The other source for trees (other than retailers such as Paradise Plants who do bring in the low chill trees in the spring) would be Plant It Hawaii. Plant It Hawaii is Hawaii's largest wholesale fruit tree nursery | Plant It Hawaii Twice a year they have general public sales events, otherwise you can get their trees at Garden Exchange, Paradise Plants, etc.

For 'natural' building, the Building Department is using the 2006 IBC so set your natural building methods within that framework. Also, be aware of the conditions in Hawaii and don't just slavishly follow the precepts of mainland styles. Straw bale construction isn't 'green' when all straw bales have to be imported. Also, considering the price of straw bales, nobody does that around here.

If you have a little one on the way, you may want to look into Pauuilo. They are a nice safe family oriented area with a pretty good school even though it's a public school. Sometimes you can pick up a fixer upper at a real reasonable rate there and what's more green than restoring an existing structure? Saves tons of hassle with getting a building permit, too, when the building is already there.

There's also the option of getting land at the semi-annual land tax auction. That is usually sold for about half to two thirds of it's value, but the previous owner has a year to 'redeem' the property so you'd not want to build on it for a year. Those are usually smaller lots off in the Puna subdivisions, so they aren't the best lots available. But they're inexpensive. At the land auction you have to pay cash (or certified check) on the spot. No going to the bank, no using a personal check or credit card. Cash or certified check on the spot or they turn right around and resell the land. It's a big room with everyone sitting in rows of chairs, to bid you stand up and state your bid. Everyone keeps standing until they're done bidding and last person standing gets the lot. It's a very slow auction, they ask and wait to see if there's any more bidders several times. As soon as they say 'sold', one of the auction helpers puts a number sticker on the sleeve of the winner and escorts them over to the payment table to shake the cash out of them right away.

[FreedomFound]

Thanks hotzcatz!