::Leader Board:: Ahnko Honu Takes The Lead Chapter 21!

Pueo said:

There is a San Jose branch of Xceed Financial Credit Union. I can give you some names of the RE folks. They will help you.

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Pueo said:

It is official. Going to Kimo's house Saturday morning.


SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

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PereBourik said:

I know, but teaching that to the folks who think their leaving is a problem is where it gets sticky.

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gyosh said:

You must define "paycheck to paycheck."

Your stories remind me of newbie teachers. I saw one girl I worked with eating the free crackers from the staff cafeteria for lunch towards the end of the month. I invited her and another new teacher to dinner and ordered enough food for them to take home and get the through the rest of the week. I was new too and would have been struggling had I not been bartending and making more money than teaching.

Glad things are looking up for you SOON!!

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salukulady said:

Such awesome things happening in Damon's life right meow. Congratulations!

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gyosh said:

I know a lot of people but I don't want to bother them with questions I can probably find answers for. Right now I'm more interested in narrowing down where to look for real estate on Oahu. Right now I'm looking at school performance. Good schools tend to raise property value. Also checking out bus lines, access to grocery shopping, hospitals etc. When we get there in July we'll be primarily driving all over to check out the neighborhoods to get a sense of where we want to end up. And attending the festival again

I kind of want to retire to Kauai but it won't have enough restaurants/food scene for Mika.

We're both pretty meh about Maui.

Big Island is kind of the same as Kauai only more spread out.

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Here is my take on living on Oahu...
Growing up, Maui was my island home.
We had been to Kauai, really pretty, nothing to do.
Molokai, same, even less to do...
Time spent on Oahu was usually in transit to Maui or because we needed to get something unavailable on Maui or we needed a "city" fix.
I am speaking about the time period from 1978 - 1988 basically...

Even after I met Nanilei and started coming to Hawaii on my own (without parents) we tended to go to Maui, as Oahu was "too crowded" in our opinion. We also went to Kauai because we loved it there and our uncle had a place there.
We finally went to Big Island a couple of times and really loved it there too!

(sorry post is rambling)

So when I got laid off from WaMu and started looking for work in Hawaii, almost as a lark, I quickly realized that the only place I would be able to get a corporate job was Oahu. Which meant if we moved to Hawaii it would be Oahu.
Neither of us were really thrilled with that idea.
Then Nanilei's grandma moved to KoOlina. We started going to Oahu for vacation, spent some time at gram's, spent some time on North Shore at our brother-in-law's place, and then started to discover that not all of Oahu is Waikiki / Honolulu.
What's more, when we went back to Maui, it was starting to get over-developed, and pardon my racism but WAY too many haoles hahahhaha.

We actually put several hundred miles on rental cars driving around Oahu just scoping out neighborhoods, way before we even got the job offer.
When I got the offer, we were able to find a place, and actually knew the neighborhood.

It took about two years of living here, but now we actually love Oahu. We can go to town and hear music and have good food.
We can go North to the jungle and the beach.
We can go to Kaneohe / Waimanalo.
We still have Target and Costco.
If we could have it any way we wanted though, I bet we would wind up on the Big Island. Our dream is to have a home and a little land and I think that is only possible on the Big Island for us. I just wish I could find work there.

Just the other night we were driving home from dinner and the freeway was EMPTY. Four lanes on each side, and I only counted sixteen cars total on the drive home.

I was saying, try driving to LA for dinner, and driving past LAX at 10:00pm and not even seeing another car on the 405... That's why I started counting.

Yes, we love the slower pace, yet the fact there there is still something going on, someplace, every day if you choose to seek it out.

Can't wait until we are neighbors!

sukie said:

Well, I don't see the point of beating someone up without anger.
TMI, I know, but...I was hit a bit as a child. I watched my brother being beaten too many times. I abhor hitting. It makes me "itchy". I don't like to feel "itchy". I don't even like "wraslin".

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salukulady said:

Such awesome things happening in Damon's life right meow. Congratulations!

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gyosh said:

I know a lot of people but I don't want to bother them with questions I can probably find answers for. Right now I'm more interested in narrowing down where to look for real estate on Oahu. Right now I'm looking at school performance. Good schools tend to raise property value. Also checking out bus lines, access to grocery shopping, hospitals etc. When we get there in July we'll be primarily driving all over to check out the neighborhoods to get a sense of where we want to end up. And attending the festival again

I kind of want to retire to Kauai but it won't have enough restaurants/food scene for Mika.

We're both pretty meh about Maui.

Big Island is kind of the same as Kauai only more spread out.

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gyosh said:

And I don't know why, but somehow that meow makes it a little better!

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hoosierhiver said:

I always thought my credit would be great because I had never been in debt or taken a loan and never had a credit card, boy was I stupid.

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salukulady said:

Ha ha ha ha! That's cougar speak!

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misterpk said:

I think I recall you mentioning in a previous post you're looking forward to the tax write off. I'm pretty sure you can only write the taxes off on your primary residence. If you rent out the place in Hawaii, I'm pretty sure you have to pay taxes on the profits, if you rent over the mortgage. I think the only thing you can write off on investment properties is depreciation (including repairs) and perhaps your trips over there since you can "inspect" the property...

The golden rule for an investment property is don't buy it unless it's cash flow positive (you can rent it for more than your mortgage). It can be $1 positive, but you don't want to start having to put money into it every month, unless you truly believe it's a hot area and that you'll be able to recover your costs quickly... or you want to retire there and you want someone to help offset the cost.

For me, the only island I could live on is Oahu. The traffic is the main reason why I wouldn't want to live there.

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Pueo said:

I thought that was rowr!

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gyosh said:

Mika's parents are our dependants and we claim them as such. We intend to move them there as their primary residence and keep their apartment in SF for when they want to "vacation" here.

I'll double check, but I think we can get the tax credits that way.

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gyosh said:

Mika's parents are our dependants and we claim them as such. We intend to move them there as their primary residence and keep their apartment in SF for when they want to "vacation" here.

I'll double check, but I think we can get the tax credits that way.

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salukulady said:

Can you tan until they arrive and then toss on a cover up?

I showed Mike your house for sale video. He's showing it to the guys at work. Everyone wants to know if your pond is stocked.

Sukie, when I was there I had no idea the pond was your property. I thought it was a park.

That's amazing.

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Pueo said:

It is official. Going to Kimo's house Saturday morning.


SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

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