Island Living: Big Island vs Maui

[hotzcatz]

Originally Posted by CasualEntrepreneur

[SNIP]

Questions runnin' through my mind :

1. As a landlord is it easier to long-term rent to someone on the BI? I'd imagine rents are significantly lower than Maui.

2. Are vacation rentals more desirable (easier to rent out) in Maui?

3. Does a smaller selection of restaurants / stores on the BI impact you at all?

4. Are the ("poor") hospitals about equal?

5. BI has more coastline. Does this mean more marinas to store a boat? Maui seems like it only had 1 or 2.

6. and is it common to "boat" over to Maui?


I'm sure there's tons of stuff I missed...

(Note: numbers on the questions added by me)

1. Either island should be about the same for long term rentals, there's a demand for them on either island. As long as they're priced to match the other rentals nearby, they should rent out well. You do have to have an on island property manager, though.

2. It depends on the location and the property, but because of the requirement for an on-island property manager, long term rentals might be better. Hard for determine without specific details, though.

3. Nope, not really. We've learned to choose from what's available and not angst over what isn't. The internet has made getting things much easier from the mainland than it was before the internet. Shipping is still a problem, though.

4. Nope, the best hospital is still the one in Waimea. The Kaiser clinics have been taken over by Queen's so presumably more specialists will be available to Kaiser members without having to take a plane trip to Oahu.

5. Nope, probably less marinas since the coastline is more rugged. There is more land space, though, if you have a boat on a trailer.

6. Nope, and the reason is the Alenuihaha Channel. Pure open ocean winds, weather and current condensed down into the channel between Maui and Hawaii islands makes for treacherous waters.

Boating is better on Maui since there's the big protected waters between Maui, Molokai and Lanai to sail around in along with the several harbors on Maui, the one on Lanai and the two on Molokai. At least, for small private (less than 60') boats. When you get much larger than that, then you'll be restricted as to which harbors you can use.