Hawaii Moving & Storage (Hilo, Hawaiian Paradise Park: city hall, to rent, HOA)

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

Originally Posted by mijax

Thanks for all the responses everyone. Especially staying positive. I know its not going to be an easy move... but on so many "moving to Hawaii" responses I've read its nothing but doom & gloom & don't come!

Just remember that things are very different here. Please don't interpret our responses to you or anyone else as "doom and gloom". We are being realistic about what it's like to live in Hawaii. For example, if someone tells you that it may be difficult to find a short-term (four to six month) rental, that's not being negative; it's being truthful. Also, a lot of posters here have very unrealistic expectations and when we say "don't come", it's because we can tell by their post that they are doomed for failure.

[Palanakonu]

Originally Posted by Dreaming of Hawaii

Also, a lot of posters here have very unrealistic expectations and when we say "don't come", it's because we can tell by their post that they are doomed for failure.

Yup!
They usually start with "I just got back from a two week vacation and fell in love, now I am going to move to paradise and get high on the beach all day!!!!111eleventy!"
Visiting a place with a pocket full of cash and stars in your eyes is much different than paying rent, fighting rush hour traffic, and facing reality.

mijax:
As for getting a truck when you get here.... if I were in you shoes (and I rarely wear shoes) I'd unload one of your vehicles and get the truck NOW, then ship it. A good truck and something that gets great gas mileage will do you much better than any other two vehicle combination. Especially if the truck is lifted and on 33's (or higher). In all seriousness, a 2 year old 4WD pickup goes for more here than when the same make/model was new on a showroom floor on the mainland.

Can't help you with the whole property management thing, never used one. I was in a hotel for less than 10 days before landing my first long term rental on craigslist.
I've heard that the property management companies can be a PITA though, wanting everything but a stool sample, and making you fill out application after application (with separate fees of course) before allowing you to even see the place. Personally I always felt that stuff was a legal scam.

I've said it before: coming here with eyes/mind open and a good attitude will work out better than coming here with a bankroll and unrealistic expectations. Paradise is what you make when you get here, it's not just the destination.

[mijax]

Thanks Palankonu for the insight, I'll seriously look into swapping out a car for a truck.


Also, I'm just trying to cover as many bases as I can... Hopefully I'll have similar luck as you when looking for a rental. Right now I'm taking notes on as many sources as possible.


And yes, we're keeping eyes and mind wide open. The decision to move wasn't hatched after a wonderful vacation. Well,, ok maybe it was. But that was 7 years ago when we made the decision and we've been planning slowly ever since.. primarily with prepping financially.


So, with that in mind, and all the helpful advice, we're looking forward to this next journey.


Thanks

[67Cam]

@Mijax - keep posting about your experiences if you can. I'm also in Sac and the plan was to move over sooner rather than later (I work from home), however I got involved with someone and the plan has changed a bit. She is totally on board and excited to live on the Big Island, however her job isn't portable. So our new plan is now BI in 10 years when she can retire. By then we'll have the house paid off and be even more financially secure. So for now we'll make trips out there as much as we can and I continue to read and learn as much as I can, living vicariously through others experiences.

Good luck!

[hotzcatz]

Craig's List is one of the major resources for rentals as well as used vehicles, too, come to think of it.

Don't rent without putting eyes on the place first. It may be a 'perfect' rental placed directly next to a rooster farm which wouldn't show up in the online pictures.

The rubbish in the car isn't as bad as it sounds. Most rubbish is in plastic bags and it goes frequently, it's not like it's old rubbish. The transfer stations are all around the place, so every other day or so, we drive past and toss the rubbish in. We have a garden, though, so most wet stuff is put into the compost and doesn't have to make stink in the car.

We have a big van instead of a pickup. More secure and dry in the rain but get what works for you.

To know which car to get, check Craig's List and see what's selling around here. If you see a lot of a particular brand of truck, then you'll know there's mechanics and parts for it around here. Also, if given a choice between a dark colored vehicle and a light colored one, choose the light colored one so it won't be as hot inside when it's parked in the sun. We see ten white cars to every black one.

[mijax]

Hi 67Cam,
Hope you make it over. 10 years is a while, but plenty of time to plan. We started our plan 7 years ago and excited to finally put things in motion. I'm sure that no matter how much planning we do, we'll still have a 1000 questions, so you'll see me here asking for advice.


Hi hotzcatz,


Thanks for the insight. I've been spending a lot of time on Craigslist looking at rentals, but agree with your advice of seeing the place in person before we commit. We'll do a VRBO place for the first 2/3 weeks upon arrival and use that time to get settled with a rental.


I also didn't know about the trash situation. Good to know. Living in Sac we just put the can on the curb. So this will be something to work out, but sounds like a minor issue in the scheme of things.


Thanks again for the advice!! Very much appreciated!

[hotzcatz]

Part of the reason many folks find moving to Hawaii, especially the non-Oahu islands, are that a lot of the 'standard' things they expect to find everywhere just aren't here.

Take many of the large 'subdivisions' on this island (Hawaii Island). The roads aren't paved, there's no sidewalks, there's no mail delivery, there's no pizza delivery, there's no water service, there's pretty much electric service to most houses nowadays - but not all, there's no sewer connections, there's no trash pickup (as mentioned earlier), there's not always internet service, there's not always cell phone service.

Most of the subdivisions don't have anything nearby but more houses. You want a head of lettuce? Unless you grew one in your garden, it's get in the car and go get one. It may only be twenty to thirty minutes to the store, but twenty to thirty minutes each way and each and every time you want to go to the store gets very tiring after awhile. Very little public transportation, very few safe places to ride a bicycle, what roads there are don't have bike lanes.

There aren't even that many roads, that's another problem. Yesterday we drove out past Pahoa to Leilani Estates. Between Hilo and Pahoa the traffic was stopped for about twenty minutes due to three cars in wreck. One person at least left in an ambulance. On the way back, we saw another wreck of three cars, although that one didn't look like anyone got hurt. This was on a sunny afternoon, no real reason for folks to get into wrecks. Texting? Tail gating? Texting while tail gating? Who knows, but in many areas there's only the one road which goes through and when folks get into a wreck, well, then the other cars have to sit and wait.

Several years ago, Pele almost ate the Keaau-Pahoa highway. The detour for that was about an sixty mile detour, wasn't it? Cars had to go to Chain of Craters road up through Volcano National Park and then down to Hilo from Volcano side.

So living here is different than vacationing here and there's a lot of infrastructure which just doesn't exist here.

[Palanakonu]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

So living here is different than vacationing here and there's a lot of infrastructure which just doesn't exist here.

I believe this may be a major contributing factor to the reason why most of the residents here love it here so much.
With the absence of all these things that mainlanders usually take for granted, the people that do move here and make it here are a hardier bunch. And with all their differences, have a few important things in common which helps to make all the strangeness between them mingle well.

[glassnumbers]

Originally Posted by Palanakonu

Yup!
They usually start with "I just got back from a two week vacation and fell in love, now I am going to move to paradise and get high on the beach all day!!!!111eleventy!"
Visiting a place with a pocket full of cash and stars in your eyes is much different than paying rent, fighting rush hour traffic, and facing reality.

mijax:
As for getting a truck when you get here.... if I were in you shoes (and I rarely wear shoes) I'd unload one of your vehicles and get the truck NOW, then ship it. A good truck and something that gets great gas mileage will do you much better than any other two vehicle combination. Especially if the truck is lifted and on 33's (or higher). In all seriousness, a 2 year old 4WD pickup goes for more here than when the same make/model was new on a showroom floor on the mainland.

Can't help you with the whole property management thing, never used one. I was in a hotel for less than 10 days before landing my first long term rental on craigslist.
I've heard that the property management companies can be a PITA though, wanting everything but a stool sample, and making you fill out application after application (with separate fees of course) before allowing you to even see the place. Personally I always felt that stuff was a legal scam.

I've said it before: coming here with eyes/mind open and a good attitude will work out better than coming here with a bankroll and unrealistic expectations. Paradise is what you make when you get here, it's not just the destination.

I'm sensing a mixed message, here.

"I've said it before: coming here with eyes/mind open and a good attitude"

Yup!
They usually start with "I just got back from a two week vacation and fell in love, now I am going to move to paradise and get high on the beach all day!!!!111eleventy!"

^ That seems like a good attitude. That seems very positive and upbeat. Didn't you say that a good attitude is important? So I'm confused.

[Arktikos]

Originally Posted by glassnumbers

I'm sensing a mixed message, here.

"I've said it before: coming here with eyes/mind open and a good attitude"

Yup!
They usually start with "I just got back from a two week vacation and fell in love, now I am going to move to paradise and get high on the beach all day!!!!111eleventy!"

^ That seems like a good attitude. That seems very positive and upbeat. Didn't you say that a good attitude is important? So I'm confused.

It seems like a very unrealistic attitude for the average person transitioning to Hawaii, which is what he/she is warning against.

For mijax,trucks aren't necessarily for everyone on da Big Island. I'd wait and see if you really feel the need.

And I agree about shipping a minimum amount of "personal effects", although if you have accumulated a lot of valuable stuff there may not be great alternatives. Giving it away or selling for pennies on the dollar would be tough to swallow.