Where Are There Bargain Condos On Oahu?

Ann and Tracy from California asks:

I’ve seen some very nice condos/apartments on Oahu for sale at what seems to be incredible bargains. Are owners shying away from close-quarters due to COVID?.

This short clip came from our Aloha Friday Hawaii Real Estate Show which goes live every other Friday on our Hawaii Real Estate YouTube channel or our Living in Hawaii Facebook page

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Show Transcript:

for example uh we have a tracy um from
california on central valley i i’ve seen
some very nice condos apartments on oahu
for sale at what seems to be incredible
bargains are owners shying away from
close quarters due to covid that’s one
um maui dave from california are there
ocean view condos for under 300 on maui
if not what kind of condo is available
for 200 to 300 and then on the big
island at best property in the covid
world
we’re considering purchasing vacation
rental condos in kona as an investment
short-term vacation rental to use
personal in the summer as we’re teachers
we’re willing to spend up to 400k and
would like to be oceanfront if not
necessarily ocean view we are concerned
over the impact of covet on these
properties rental potential and having
some very high income owner fees as
carrying costs when not occupied given
these challenges is it best to invest in
a studio a one bedroom or a two bedroom
what do you feel will have the best
return on investment as we recover from
coven so gang there’s a we got a bunch
of kind of condo questions um so why
don’t we kind of do this let’s let’s
talk about the you know people are
asking about the condo market we’ve kind
of touched on it earlier so there’s no
need to repeat uh the things that we’ve
already said uh but
let’s kind of hit this uh scott once you
take this and then we’ll move we’ll go
from scott then we’ll go to heidi and
then we’ll go to dylan and i’ll bring up
the slides back again uh to refresh your
your memory uh but before we do that
daniel hello from from chicago hey dude
northwest side man that’s where i was
that’s where i was born and raised uh
well not ray’s born born i was raised in
hawaii that’s that’s what i tell people
i would remember when i was 21. uh but
born on the northwest side of chicago
anyway scott what’s the deal with the
bar are there any bargain condos on oahu
left scott
i mean i i haven’t seen a ton of
bargains like like i was just saying
about waikiki the prices aren’t down
that much are there values out there can
you find them yes but don’t expect some
bargain basement you know dumpster fire
kind of situation going on here uh
clearly we’ve seen in the marketplace
that there’s enough strength and people
on that condo side in waikiki which is
where those deals are going to be are
able to hold out we’re not seeing a ton
of just absolute dumpster fire sales but
the bargains are there if they’re going
to be that’s it’s going to be waikiki
[Music]
i i know that uh thanks scott and i know
dylan had said a long time ago you know
if there’s an incredible deal there’s
something wrong with it
there there’s something to be suspect
with it uh heidi um um i i i don’t wanna
i don’t wanna give a sneak peek to what
we’re gonna talk about later on our
diamonds and deals but you know what
about this uh this question from dave uh
do our can you get an ocean view condo
for around 300 or if not what’s
available for two to three hundred
well there’s about 10 listings on maui
right now that are between 200 and 300
000 and have an ocean view
about five of these are fee simple which
is full ownership about five of these
are leasehold where you own the condo
you do not own the interest in the land
um so there i mean short answer there’s
very limited inventory but
um yes you can find something and i
would say keep watching because i have
something to share a little bit later in
the show yes we do but we’re not gonna
but you’re gonna have to stay tuned you
have to stay tuned for for for this one
for for for sure yeah um you know heidi
i i just want to point out that i really
appreciate that you actually prepare for
this show and not to say that dylan and
scott don’t i don’t know if dylan scott
but i definitely you prepare you look at
the slides ahead of time and you’ve got
your answers otherwise how would you
know that there’s five uh five
leaseholds and five fee simples from
from two to three hundred god bless you
and i hope dave i know dave if you’re
watching but if you are i hope you
appreciate that uh because i certainly
do um
let’s uh let’s hit the next one dylan
this one this was a long one uh dave
from san diego you know he’s looking at
vacation rentals uh you know kovan he’s
thinking about covert impacts what’s
happening with the market you know what
is it is it best to get a studio a one
bedroom or a 2d two or a two bedroom you
know what what do you feel will have the
best return on investment as we recover
from covid
well this is this one’s kind of a hard
one to answer because you’re asking for
the crystal ball but
you know if we go back to earlier in the
year and even late last year we had a
new vacation rental regulation go into
effect so i was telling everybody hey
vacation rental condos are a great
investment right now because the supply
of vacation rentable properties is going
to get severely constrained because it
was a wild west before anybody could
turn their home or their condo into a
vacation rental so once that regulation
went into effect
clearly having owning a condo that you
that was zoned properly that you could
get a permit for the vacation rent was a
good idea and then covet hit right and
so if you bought a condo in december
last year and we’re thinking you’re
going to make a bunch of money this year
you you were
not realizing that so
going forward i still
believe that that a vacation rentable
condo is a is a good investment from an
income perspective as long as things go
back to normal we just don’t know
exactly how long that’s going to take
and
at this point we’re seeing
visitors return but you know until we
get back to full strength um you know
it’s hard to it’s going to be hard to
project you can look at
rental history from 2019 which is
probably a better
year to project rental history going
forward but if you look at rental
history from 2020 it’s obviously going
to be very bad so from from a return on
investment standpoint you know it’s it’s
not a bad idea to buy a condo we hoa
fees can feel high but they’re not
crazy i mean there’s a lot of places
that have hoa fees around five six
hundred dollars so that’s that’s that’s
very reasonable for the kona market of
course we do have condos that have you
know thousand dollar plus maintenance
fees um but
from a size standpoint that really
depends on what kind of market you’re
looking for obviously the smaller the
condo the less per night you can you can
rent it for um there are a lot of
families that travel so the two bedroom
and one bedrooms rent better because you
can have a pull out couch if you have a
one bedroom where the kids can sleep in
the living room and you sleep in the
bedroom but two bedrooms obviously you
know couples like to travel together
nowadays also um and save costs that way
so two bedrooms are good so i always
think more space is better because you
can you can demand a higher cost per
night and from a
ratio standpoint your your carrying
costs are not going to be as high so the
the increase in in maintenance fees and
taxes
is not proportional to the increase in
the amount of rent that you can charge
but you can almost charge twice as much
rent for
a two-bedroom versus a one-bedroom or a
studio but your carrying costs are not
going to be double so correct
basically there’s like a higher profit
margin if you will in the larger
properties essentially yeah that’s
really good point that’s an excellent
point