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Old 07-09-2012, 12:34 PM
 
2 posts, read 12,059 times
Reputation: 13

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Hello,
I was wondering if anyone could guide me and give me some honest experienced feedback on some questions I have towards moving to Maui.

Quick background about my husband and myself. We are a middle aged couple who are wanting to escape the rat race hear in Laguna/Newport Beach CA. We both fell in love with the "Aloha Spirit" and slower pace of life. My husband works from a laptop and cell phone, so he can basically live anywhere that offers high speed internet. As for myself I'm a preschool teacher, so I would need to find a job once we relocate. We have no kids, however we do have 2 dogs! We are looking at relocating by this December and no later. We want to rent first! We currently live in a gated community and our home is 1956sqf. Our monthly utilities average $500. Our monthly fuel, groceries, and entertainment average $1400.

My questions I have are the following:
1. Our monthly income averages about $7000 a month, would this be suffiect to live a comfortable lifestyle in Maui?
2. From our monthly income we have a budget of $2500 a month to put towards rent. However this doesn't include utilities, what do utilities average in Maui per month for a 1500-2000sqf house?
3. I have been seeing some properties for rent on Zillow and Craigslist that mention solar power for utilities, does anyone have experience with this and if so does it really save you money on your utilities?
4. Currently I have been running searches for homes for rent in Paia, Pukalani, and Makawao do these cities have safe desirable neighborhoods? Or can you recommend any others?
5. I have been researching the cost of relocating my car and valuables on overseas containers, can anyone recommend a good company they used?

I appreciate any feedback and help, thanks for taking the time! Hope to hear from anyone soon!
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Old 07-09-2012, 01:17 PM
 
Location: Volcano
12,969 posts, read 28,447,082 times
Reputation: 10760
Aloha,

Welcome to the forum.

The archives here are a wonderful resource, where you can find a lot of information quickly using the Search function.

A couple of things that popped out...

If you want to move in December you'll need to pull up the info on Hawai'i's pet quarantine and get started fairly soon on the procedures, which take at least 120 days to complete.

Here are a few threads on that:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/oahu/...ving-back.html

https://www.city-data.com/forum/hawai...uarantine.html

https://www.city-data.com/forum/hawai...cats-dogs.html


Second, there are three shipping companies that transport cars to Hawai'i... Matson, Pasha, and Horizon. The tariff from California is currently about $1,075 from all three.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/big-i...go-hawaii.html

https://www.city-data.com/forum/big-i...ig-island.html


Household goods can be palletized, or shipped in a container. You can get quotes on that from Matson or Horizon. Other companies are just brokers. I think the #1 tip you will get on that subject here is to get rid of as much as possible, and ship as little as possible. Typical Hawaiian houses are smaller than typical mainland houses.

Anyway, I hope that gets you started. And the Advanced Search function will allow you to zero in on whatever topic you like.

Good luck!
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Old 07-09-2012, 10:08 PM
 
Location: Maui County, HI
4,131 posts, read 7,445,907 times
Reputation: 3391
Paia is a small town with a lot of hippies and druggies. It doesn't have neighborhoods, it is a neighborhood. But Sprecklesville is down the road, and it's nice enough for Willie Nelson.

Makawao and Pukalani I think are generally safe except maybe the more backwoods parts.

It rains a lot in all those places.

Last edited by winkosmosis; 07-09-2012 at 10:16 PM..
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Old 07-09-2012, 10:24 PM
 
2 posts, read 12,059 times
Reputation: 13
Thank you both for help and feedback!
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Old 07-10-2012, 08:22 AM
 
18,391 posts, read 19,027,378 times
Reputation: 15702
most of maui is safe. you could also try Kihei. I think you can do ok on the monthly money you mentioned. best of luck
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Old 07-13-2012, 09:03 PM
 
67 posts, read 126,645 times
Reputation: 33
My opinion? Decide what type of weather & lifestyle you want - South is dryer & sunnier but with more tourists than say, Makawao. Living up in Kula is definitely different than Lahaina. Maui offers so many different types of beauty - you just need to decide what works best for you. Aloha!
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Old 08-17-2012, 05:11 PM
 
25 posts, read 53,750 times
Reputation: 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by christina1111 View Post
Hello,
I was wondering if anyone could guide me and give me some honest experienced feedback on some questions I have towards moving to Maui.

Quick background about my husband and myself. We are a middle aged couple who are wanting to escape the rat race hear in Laguna/Newport Beach CA. We both fell in love with the "Aloha Spirit" and slower pace of life. My husband works from a laptop and cell phone, so he can basically live anywhere that offers high speed internet. As for myself I'm a preschool teacher, so I would need to find a job once we relocate. We have no kids, however we do have 2 dogs! We are looking at relocating by this December and no later. We want to rent first! We currently live in a gated community and our home is 1956sqf. Our monthly utilities average $500. Our monthly fuel, groceries, and entertainment average $1400.

My questions I have are the following:
1. Our monthly income averages about $7000 a month, would this be suffiect to live a comfortable lifestyle in Maui?
2. From our monthly income we have a budget of $2500 a month to put towards rent. However this doesn't include utilities, what do utilities average in Maui per month for a 1500-2000sqf house?
3. I have been seeing some properties for rent on Zillow and Craigslist that mention solar power for utilities, does anyone have experience with this and if so does it really save you money on your utilities?
4. Currently I have been running searches for homes for rent in Paia, Pukalani, and Makawao do these cities have safe desirable neighborhoods? Or can you recommend any others?
5. I have been researching the cost of relocating my car and valuables on overseas containers, can anyone recommend a good company they used?

I appreciate any feedback and help, thanks for taking the time! Hope to hear from anyone soon!
Either grid tied or independent solar system can save you money depending on your usage and size of system. Keep in mind that MECO (for grid tied) will credit your account for the amount of power you use, they don't buy back the surplus, though your credit will last 12 months. Paia is a neat town with the indispensable and venerated Mana Foods, but it's a little junky housing wise. You ought to look in Haiku along with Makawao, Olinda and Pukalani. All those areas have everything from small ohanas to multi-million dollar homes. Kula is wonderful and warmer temps can be found in the lower elevations. Also realize that Haiku is super rainy much of the year. Makawao less so, but still a good 60 inches a year, though gets wetter the higher you go up into Olinda. Pukalani, while only a couple of miles from Makawao, is significantly drier, about 30 inches. Kula is similar to Pukalani only with cooler temperatures due to higher elevations.

I have used both Matson and Pasha for the car and prefer Pasha because your car will not be exposed to the open sea.
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Old 08-22-2012, 10:54 PM
 
Location: Maui County, HI
4,131 posts, read 7,445,907 times
Reputation: 3391
BTW with $7000 or even just the husband's $5000 if you don't get a job, you can live as well as you could ever want to on Maui.
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Old 09-14-2012, 08:00 AM
 
14 posts, read 24,612 times
Reputation: 22
Smile moving to maui

Hi Christina,
We are moving in 2014! Try calling Pam at destination maui. They are a property management for maui and can find you what you are looking for. She is very nice and will help you choose your neighborhood.
Kahana ridge is pretty nice.
You only have electricty bill as they don't have gas.
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