Furnished Rentals (fit in, apartments, condos) - Hawaii (HI) - City-Data Forum

mdgilmore · 03-23-2011, 11:57 AM

We're preparing to move in a couple of months and have been searching Craigslist and AHRN for homes and have found SO MANY furnished homes...can someone tell me why there are so many furnished rentals? Is it because these homes belong to people who hope to come back some day, or are they intended to be vacation rentals? We can't take a furnished home because the military will move all of our furniture, but there are a couple who have offered to move some of the furniture out, but it makes me wonder if they are furnished, do we run the chance of getting booted at the end of the first year of our lease because they may intend to use the home for other purposes? I know no one can tell me what is going through another person's mind with respect to their intentions for their home and I also know that no rental is a "for sure" 3-year home, but I'm just wondering if anyone has any insight into the "furnished home" trend out there. I've never seen such a thing and I've lived all over the world. Thanks in advance for any info

hothulamaui · 03-23-2011, 12:04 PM

many homes/condo are used as vacation rentals. go through a property management office and you will surly get one intended for vacation rental. the VRBO you can look up the address on google and sometimes get all kinds of info. good luck

mdgilmore · 03-23-2011, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hothulamaui

many homes/condo are used as vacation rentals. go through a property management office and you will surly get one intended for vacation rental. the VRBO you can look up the address on google and sometimes get all kinds of info. good luck

We're actually moving there and are avoiding ending up in something that has owners who would want to use it as a vacation rental in the future. We had a rental sold out from under us at the end of our year lease here in WA, but the guy didn't tell us until we tried to resign for the next year and he gave us 30 days to move our family of 4 plus 2 dogs out. It was such a terrible and disappointing experience. We loved the house and neighborhood and had intended to be there for 3 years. We don't want to end up in that situation again but can only be certain to be in HI for 3 years so buying isn't an option. Thanks for the info, though - we might be in the market for a vacation rental for a little while if we don't find something within the first 2 weeks - having children in a hotel for much longer than that would be torture, so I've bookmarked VRBO

hothulamaui · 03-23-2011, 12:19 PM

for sure then if you are looking for just a basic furnished non vacation style rental go through a property management place

OpenD · 03-23-2011, 01:05 PM

There are lots of second homes that wind up on the rental market for many reasons, many of them unplanned. Yes, your instincts are right that furnished homes are typically rented short-term.

But there is no guarantee that any rental will be yours for three years unless you sign a three year lease. Over a lifetime of living all over the place... I think my last move was #46... I've had a house and a couple of apartments rented out from under me for different reasons. Once it was to provide a home for relatives immigrating from Poland, once it was for an elderly mom to move into, and once it was to renovate the place so it could be sold for a higher price. You never know. Owner's lives change.

mdand3boys · 03-23-2011, 01:17 PM

With the economy in the toilet, many of those vacation rental owners have had a tough time keeping them rented enough to pay the bills. You can quite easily get a tremendous deal. Use a site like vrbo.com, where the owners pay to have their house listed. It is much safer than going through craigslist - which is full of scammers, trying to rent houses they don't even own!

mdgilmore · 03-23-2011, 01:36 PM

Cool, thanks

I'll give VRBO a shot. We definitely do NOT want furnished - we have so much furniture here that we're getting the guys in my husband's unit to take some of our furniture from us. What excess we can't give away, we're gonna try to sell in a moving sale, so we actually need an unfurnished place which is why I didn't think VRBO would work. We're trying to downsize to what will fit into a 1,300 sf 3 bedroom just to avoid having to get rid of stuff in front of our daughters. I'll look into it. I saw on a thread that someone was able to negotiate to have the owners remove some of their furniture so maybe that would be a way to go. Thanks for the input

This is the first time I've had to move "overseas" with children so it's been a bit more trying but we're very very excited. I just want to do everything I can to make the transition as easy as possible on my little ones. If it were just my hubby and me, we'd just clean, find me a job, pack-out and say sayonara to the cold

. I'm so grateful for this forum!

twixbar · 03-24-2011, 05:53 PM

dont use craigslist, ive heard there is alot of scams with rentals

mdgilmore · 03-24-2011, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by twixbar

dont use craigslist, ive heard there is alot of scams with rentals

Is this in general, or particular to Hawaii? We've had pretty good luck with rentals through Craigslist on the Mainland, but I have heard the "watch out for Craigslist" warnings a lot since starting our search. We have access to AHRN so that's another option. I've been looking up property management companies on Oahu, but Google just doesn't seem to be doing the trick. Does anyone have any recommendations for Property Management Companies? I've been saving the ones I find through Craigslist but I haven't found many. I'm still waiting for the housing office to send us some info but haven't gotten it yet.

whynot? · 03-24-2011, 11:38 PM

While there are many issues on Craigslist that are local, it *is* a magnet for scams everywhere. Aside from that -- because we are so remote -- LOTS of rental (and sale) properties here are furnished. This can be surprising (and not comfortable) for a lot of prospects. But think about it -- whether a primary or second home, there is just something "logical" about NOT trying to ship furniture. It's often a cash-negative prospect. [We came from a part of the mainland that tends to pride itself on "collecting" furniture, not to mention "keeping" generations of pass-along pieces that one accepts responsibility for -- and for which one is held accountable for. Problem!]

Thus you arrive in a culture that fills houses with not only what is available, but what was economical to ship. (Bamboo v. mahogany, for instance.) Koa is prized, but pricey. Wicker v. teak makes more sense when you consider shipping and maintenance. Etc. (Trust me.)

Don't be put off by this. Take a hard look at what you have and its real value. (Aesthetic, sentimental, etc.) It may "make more sense" to store some things on the mainland v. shipping them "free" because the military is paying. What do you need? What makes sense over here? It really is a different place -- more like moving to Japan (or any place in Asia) than moving from WA to AZ (or whatever). What would you take? What do you NEED?

Houses (townhouses, condos, apartments) are scaled down and smaller. The environment is tropical and different from the mainland in almost every way. The first thing you can do to embrace that is to NOT try to replicate your mainland life here. Think of it as an adventure. The fewer things you cling to, the more, the faster you will acclimate.

Just the casual thoughts of a former uptight East-coaster who has been here for a while, but loves and appreciates what's here (v. what's not) every single day.

Best of luck.