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For trying to help I have been called derogatory names now twice, in my first 48 hours on this website.
whtviper1, I am a Real Estate agent, not a lender. I assume you know the difference, but maybe not. Lenders do loans, I sell houses. When someone says they need a loan I recommend they discuss it with some great lenders, so I do not get involved much in the lender's business, and they do not get involved in mine. So I have no need to know all their rules. I also do not do home inspections, termite inspections, nor do I handle the transfer of the title. There are specialist for all these things, including discussing getting a loan.
If you don't understand the differences, then hold your criticism. Frankly your first comment of living on $0 was not helpful at all.
Your comments are extremely disappointing as a senior member of this website and I am sure you have chased a lot of very helpful people away with your negativity and condescending comments.
whtviper1, you win. I am done with this board. I tried it for 2 days, and got insulted 2 times. I thought maybe I could help some people by responding to their questions, but I am not going to subject myself to being insulted continually for trying to be helpful.
If you originally started on this board to help people out great, but you should give some serious thought to your condescending comments and how they make new users feel.
Just like any city, there is no fixed amount of money where suddenly you can live here. Its all relative. There are people living in $1million homes here that don't feel they're "living well." I recommend defining what a minimum lifestyle is to you, then the $4800 amount will have meaning. Is it living in town in a 500 sq ft concrete box with a heat plate, cooking rice every night, take the bus everywhere, and buying only essentials? Or is it a 3br private home outside of town or near a beach, driveway full of cars, and dining out? A net $5000/month will go quickly, especially if you want a suburb lifestyle here that's typically found on the mainland. And that's if your not in debt, don't have large childcare expenses (private school), don't have expensive hobbies, and eat most meals at home.
Also, don't forget, it can cost $15k to just get here and get settled in a basic apartment.
whtviper1, I am a Real Estate agent, not a lender.
So I have no need to know all their rules. I also do not do home inspections, termite inspections, nor do I handle the transfer of the title. There are specialist for all these things, including discussing getting a loan.
I work with a lot of real estate agents and they all know basic lending rules - they don't steer people to homes they clearly can't afford. They also know the basics on home inspections- termite inspections, appraisals, etc.
I've recommended the OahuRE website several times on this board and very surprised someone who claims to represent that website professes to not even know the most minimum and basic things on home buying.
Yeah, some Realtors consider themselves a jack of all trades, but they really are a master of none.
We do a lot of deals, #1 and #2 in the entire state for the last 3 years. Because of this we are smart enough to know what we specialize in and leave the other things to the experts.
Realtors who try to pre-qualify a client themselves are doing a disservice to that client. They should be talking to a trained expert who can really analyze their complete situation and produce a pre-approval letter when done.
I do know there are some do it all Realtors, but I don't think trying to do it all is the best thing for their clients.
There is a reason Realtors are not lenders and lenders are not Realtors. There are reasons we bring in a separate home inspector, termite inspector, appraiser, lender, escrow officer, etc. There is a lot of work and skills involved in each profession and no one can master them all.
So in the OP's case I would normally simply send a link to our recommend lenders and let them work their magic. However, on this board you can't provide links to great lenders or anyone else for that matter, so I decided to step outside of what I would normally do and try to help anyway. And you certainly ruined the experience for me simply because I tried to be more helpful.
Let me explain a little further. Take a home inspection as an example. Perhaps there is a potential problem with the roof. Now you say Realtors know the basics of home inspections. So what should that Realtor do, comment on the roof problem? Is that the best course of action?
So if they do comment and now you have a comment from a so called expert, only one problem, they have never been on a roof, they have never done any roofing, they probably have never done any plumbing, electrical work, etc. So what the heck gives them the right to make comments like they are an expert.
Our attorney said Realtors who do that many times ending up putting their foot in their mouth. They claim the roof looks good to them from their on the ground analysis. Later on after the sale it leaks. Then they get a letter from the buyer's attorney stating they are responsible to fix it as they claimed, without any expertise, that it looked good to them.
Same with termites, is a Realtor going to claim something looks like it does not have termites or does, or let the guy who has done 20,000 detailed termite inspections speak for you.
So I say the Realtors that say your roof looks good, there are no termites, or the buyer is qualified for such and such a loan even though they never checked on the buyer's credit, debt level, proof of pay, etc., these Realtors are all just asking for trouble and doing a disservice to their clients.
The best service is to know what you specialize in and let the experts handle the things you are not trained on.
I think you are welcome to say I over qualified him and give your reasons why you think he is qualified for less. That is helpful commentary. But there was no reason to insult me. That is not helping the OP. It is not helping new members like myself who just joined. It is just not really helpful to anyone.
As I said, as a new member I am trying to decide if this board is something that will be fun to participate in and fun to help people with their questions. When you get insulted like this it takes the fun out of posting and turns people off.
As a new member I am learning. Next time that question is asked I might suggest working with a skilled lender instead of trying to answer it myself. I would love to give them some recommendations, but can't as links to outside websites are against the rules.
In anything in life people who just start out make mistakes. Whether it is a new sport, a new website, what ever it is, if you are brand new you are bound to make some mistakes.
I am probably done commenting, but if you see a brand new member pop-up again and perhaps does not make what you consider to be the smartest comment, leave your insults behind and just advise the OP as best you can.
-most people do know there's a difference between the lender and the realtor. Despite the difference, in my opinion, if **** happens relating to financing, an ethical realtor shouldn't simply throw up his hands and claim ignorance. The realtor needs to be professional enough to steer the buyer to places within an appropriate price range. If the realtor sends a buyer to a place they can't get a loan for, they're wasting both of their time. If a realtor steers a buyer towards a place they can get a loan for, but truly can't afford, they're not really acting in the best interest of the buyer. Instead, they're acting in their own self interest.
-whtviper1 likely reacted the way he did because people's lives are at stake, and underestimating the realities of moving here can turn someone who is successful living on the mainland, and turn them into someone penniless or even homeless. Can you live with giving bad advice to someone, they acting on it, and end up suffering for it?
-keep in mind WHERE you are. You're on a forum that discusses people moving to hawaii successfully. You are not on realestateforum.com where the goal might be to maximize the realtor commission on sales.
-If you really do represent the oahure site, you should seriously consider my points above, and understand that you are making yourself and the site look bad when you post real estate information that may be exaggerated or incorrect. Like I said earlier, my impression was a used car salesman, and not someone genuinely interested in providing accurate information that would help a person in making a life changing decision to move here or not.
Like I said earlier, my impression was a used car salesman
Whether you are a used or new car salesman - you'll at least be able to know basic finance questions like "do you have any finance offers" they won't just look at you blankly and say - "well, I just sell you the car" they'll actually respond with "yes! 0% for 36 months, 1.9% for 48 months on approved credit" etc.
Well, back to the original question from the OP about living in Hawaii on 4,800 a month with wife and kid - I'd say the answer to that is 'yes - but'. Yes you can, but probably not on Oahu. Or yes you can, but not like folks do on the mainland. It all depends on what sort of lifestyle you're looking for.
Of course, this was posted on the Oahu section of the forum, so that really limits things.
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