Aloha all…E Komo Mai…Welcome to my blog about Living (and Buying) in Paradise!
“Paradise” is the Big Island of Hawaii and by “Buying” I mean purchasing your dream home or land, My name is Trevella and I am a REALTOR® Salesperson with Hilo Brokers, Ltd. 1+808-969-3900 ex. 27 This blog will be primarily devoted to Real Estate on the Big Island of Hawaii, of course we are going to sneak in plenty of talk story about ono grinds, aloha spirit and great beaches as well!

Speaking of Aloha Spirit…Mahalos to Asia of the Kona Seaside Hotel for keeping her aloha spirit in the face of a incredibly hot labor day weekend full of canoe paddlers (Queen Liliuokalani Race!), Harley riders (Great weekend to ride around the island & all the bikers were out in force), excited tourist and tired locals. She was able to find my husband and me a room at the last minute Saturday night so we could stay over in Kailua-Kona when there truly was no room at the inn. (If you think your jobs tough…try hotel reception on a weekend like that! EEEEK!) And the place is nice…it’s no Hilton but it’s cheap, has a pool, is close to the action on Alii Drive and its clean! Also it is one of the few locally owned hotels, Asia gets 6 out of 10 Plumerias on her Aloha Award! www.konaseasidehotel.com 1-800-560-5558

And what a beautiful Labor Day weekend it was to be driving around the Big Island! Light trade winds and lots of sunshine…even in our beloved yet rainy Hilo town.

I was able to look at a nice home in Kamuela Lakeland subdivision (around 45 miles from Kona town) over the weekend with a very nice client, the house is not to pricey at $375,000.00 and it has those nice little touches that a homeowner thinks about…like; access to the underneath of the house has been blocked off so that the neighborhood cats can’t get under your house and party at 3:00 A.M. (People! Please spay and neuter! http://www.hihs.org/ ) And it’s a very well kept home with extra storage. Nice little subdivision, it was my first time there and it seems to be a nice mix of established homes and some brand new construction, the lake (hence the name, Kamuela Lakeland) is just lovely…I wonder if they allow paddle boats? Kamuela is another name for Waimea, there are many Waimea in Hawaii and it can get very confusing for the Post Office, so we have Kamuela for mailing instead.

Sunday in Hilo was gorgeous I was able to help a client out of a jam with delivering their earnest money check (good deed for the day), and the Rotarians had their annual Lobster Fest and Silent Auction (we won a two night stay at the wonderful Volcano Guest House! www.volcanoguesthouse.com) I can’t wait! It’s always refreshing to go up the mountain and hike the Thurston Lava tube, do the devastation trail at Kilauea or just hang out in the lodge and talk story with the park rangers (they know everything!) And don’t forget the Volcano House Restaurant… yummy foods and some of the nicest people! (a few years ago we had a horrible storm on the Big Island and it literally shut one side of the island off from the other, there were quite a few of us that stopped at Volcano house to make phone calls home (no cell reception up there at that time) and ended up taking refuge from the storm for a number of hours, the wonderful staffed kept us supplied with complimentary coffee and pastries until the weather let up enough that we could safely get back on the highway, true saints!). We enjoyed great company (thanks to Diane and Don Morgado, breeders of the prettiest Orchids around!) and some very tasty trimmings for our lobster dinners, all on the banks of beautiful Wailoa Pond in Hilo… Hubby and I went home in a lobstery buttery glow, so ono!

Monday we rounded up the kids and their “Crew” (if you have children you understand when I say “you can never have just one”, some one spends the night or drops by to play or their parent needs them to stay for a hour while they are at a meeting… so it just snowballs.) and we all headed to one of our favorite “beaches”, Hakalau Bay (up Hamakua Coast from Hilo), there isn’t a lot of actual beach but what is there is black sand with lots of seaglass and olivine pebbles, it also has a nice little river with not one but two bridges to jump from as well as concrete pillars with rope ladders, decent surf for mid day in September, good still water swimming holes for the keikis, fantastic hiking and a great view of the Big Blue! We had our little fire on the beach and roasted marshmallows and hotdogs on wild Guava branches while slurping ice cold Lilikoi juice, auwe! You know you’ve had a great day when you stagger home smelling like seaweed with burnt marshmallow in your teeth and sand in your shorts! Lucky we live Hawaii!

Oh yeah, Real Estate…lets see, plenty of inventory at good prices. If you have been watching the rollercoaster ride Hawaii real estate has been experiencing over the past few years you may recall last summer when we had very few properties to go around and it seemed that no matter what price you put on a place it would be snapped up with in days if not sooner! Well that was a sellers market and now we are in a buyers market, looking for a home in Hilo area under $400,000.00? There are 82 listed, last summer it was hard to find 12.
As a buyer that’s great, now you have choices and sellers are doing their best to attract you with good prices and freebies. As a seller it’s still great because there are buyers out there, you just have to price appropriately and be flexible.

FEATURED PROPERTY; This fantastic nearly square 20 acre lot is located in east Hawaii's lovely Kopua Farm lots...please follow the link to learn more (& see pictures to!)... http://www.realestateshows.com/78082

TIP OF THE WEEK; Use a REALTOR®! Listen to what they have to say…after all, you are paying for their opinion and skills, honed from daily exposure to the business and many dollars spent on education. Use them relentlessly as the resource they are, but stay loyal, this is how they put food on the table. http://www.realtor.org/realtororg.nsf/pages/whoisarealtor

ECLECTIC TRIVIA FOR THE WEEK; What/who is Kaikaimalu? HINT; she was born at Oahu’s Sea life park. Tune in next week for the answer.

Mahalo everyone…please don’t be shy about asking questions, sharing recipes (anyone have one for Lilikoi mochi with crunchy peanut butter instead of aszuki bean? A wonderful woman bought them to an open house I hosted on Kai’ei’ei road and I haven’t been able to find her since, I am seriously craving them!), great beach locations, or a story of Aloha Spirit…always love hearing about some aloha, no matter where it is coming from!
Remember; Big Island Hawaii No Ka Oi!