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I am moving to Hawaii in about a year and I will be working in Wahiawa. My husband will most likely be working in Honolulu. We'd like to live as close to a beach as possible, but I do not want a horrific commute. Although I have heard any commute in Oahu will be terrible.
We are thinking it would be best for us to live closer to his job and I will make a longer commute, since it should be a reverse commute. I will also be working shorter hours than him so I do not being on the road longer if that means he will be home sooner after he gets off work.
Our goals are 1) Not more than 45 minutes on the road for either of us. 2) To live in an area that we can rent our apartment/condo as a vacation rental if we move again.
What do you think? Is this a good idea? Or should we not live as close to the beach and somewhere between the two locations.
Also, what is the safety like in Honolulu and Waikiki.
I am moving to Hawaii in about a year and I will be working in Wahiawa. My husband will most likely be working in Honolulu. We'd like to live as close to a beach as possible, but I do not want a horrific commute. Although I have heard any commute in Oahu will be terrible.
We are thinking it would be best for us to live closer to his job and I will make a longer commute, since it should be a reverse commute. I will also be working shorter hours than him so I do not being on the road longer if that means he will be home sooner after he gets off work.
Our goals are 1) Not more than 45 minutes on the road for either of us. 2) To live in an area that we can rent our apartment/condo as a vacation rental if we move again.
Also, what is the safety like in Honolulu and Waikiki.
The easiest one is safety - its safe.
Biggest thing I would recommend is seeing if you could get a different job - the commute in/out of Wahiawa is going to get progressively worse over time as more housing developments come online.
With that said, close to the beach (Waikiki or Kailua) will have roughly the same commute time of 40 minutes (morning) if accident free - expect the evening commute to be about the same to Kailua and allocate more time to get to Waikiki, probably at least 10-15 minutes - you will be very hard pressed to get back to Waikiki in an evening commute under 45 minutes reliably. Any accident will probably be much worse. Kailua probably has a more predictable commute as you can take H3 which only has a backup if there is a major accident.
If you can skip the "close to the beach" I'd grab one of the new condos coming online in Kakaako - you'll shave a bit off of the commute for both of you.
Lastly - don't count on having a "vacation rental" if you move. There are no new permits being issued so if you did it - it would be illegal. Slowly but surely they are cracking down on that.
The process to legally rent a house/condo to a long-term tenant is not too difficult. However, if you want to operate a home/condo as a vacation rental it is a different story if you are going to do it legally.
It is actually not easy at all to operate a Vacation rental legally on Oahu. The reason is because to operate a legal Vacation rental property on Oahu the property must be zoned for Hotel/Vacation rental or you must receive a special permit. There are almost no Condo buildings or homes zoned to allow Vacation rental outside of Waikiki. A few special exceptions is all.
So, if you are serious about wanting to run a Vacation rental, and serious about wanting to do so legally on Oahu, I would suggest you narrow your search to Waikiki and only to those specific Condo building that are currently zoned to allow Vacation Rental.
A couple buildings come to mind: The Ilikai. Waikiki Banyan, Island Colony. there are a number of other ones, but they are all going to be rather small and rather expensive ... especially for the size.
Lot's of other issues surrounding legal Vacation rentals as well. For example, your property tax will be around 4x higher than it would be as a long-term residence rental.
You would have a lot more options available if you simply decided to go with a traditional long-term rental when you leave Hawaii.
I am moving out next summer, and will be in the same situation as you (one working in Wahhiawa, one downtown). Check out this thread I started a couple months ago:
The process to legally rent a house/condo to a long-term tenant is not too difficult. However, if you want to operate a home/condo as a vacation rental it is a different story if you are going to do it legally.
It is actually not easy at all to operate a Vacation rental legally on Oahu. The reason is because to operate a legal Vacation rental property on Oahu the property must be zoned for Hotel/Vacation rental or you must receive a special permit. There are almost no Condo buildings or homes zoned to allow Vacation rental outside of Waikiki. A few special exceptions is all.
So, if you are serious about wanting to run a Vacation rental, and serious about wanting to do so legally on Oahu, I would suggest you narrow your search to Waikiki and only to those specific Condo building that are currently zoned to allow Vacation Rental.
A couple buildings come to mind: The Ilikai. Waikiki Banyan, Island Colony. there are a number of other ones, but they are all going to be rather small and rather expensive ... especially for the size.
Lot's of other issues surrounding legal Vacation rentals as well. For example, your property tax will be around 4x higher than it would be as a long-term residence rental.
You would have a lot more options available if you simply decided to go with a traditional long-term rental when you leave Hawaii.
Greater than 90% of vacation rentals on Oahu are, by definition, illegal. Any lease on a property not zoned "hotel/resort" needs to be at least 30 days in duration or the property is being used illegally. The city/state hasn't really been cracking down because the hotel industry has been setting records (when times are good, few complain). So far it's been lots of threats but very little action. Once the records fall the hotel industry will put pressure on city/state to crack down on these illegal rentals and all those enjoying high rental rates by converting their homes to "mini hotels" will be SOL.
OP, if you are looking to buy a vacation rental note that they are disproportionately expensive (per SF) and generally have very high maintenance fees (per SF). You will also have very limited finance/mortgage options if the unit has hotel operations (i.e. front desk) on site. Owner occupancy rates are always below 50% for these properties so no chance on govt subsidized loan products. Assume 30-35% cash down as a minimum and interest rates about 1 - 1.5% over typical owner occ 30-year rates. You will need very good credit and very low DTI. Another consideration is that some condos in Waikiki are zoned hotel/resort but operate as a residential condo (so short term rentals are not allowed). Some AOAOs will even disallow 30 day rentals (despite it being legal by the city) and will require 6-month minimum leases. In this scenario, the AOAO bylaws will dictate permissible use and supersede zoning. Many AOAOs forbid short term rentals to allow better financing options on their units and a property that is not overrun by transients. Make sure you fully understand the AOAOs bylaws for the specific building you are interested in.
Mililani will be a better place to live than Wahiawa. But still have a commute to downtown?
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