Want the most practical Oahu home? 3BR Townhome in Mililani Mauka

Naturally, a neighborhood like Kaka'ako gets a lot of hype. The towers, the proximity to Whole Foods, the walkability, being in urban Honolulu, being close to the beach, all of the high luxury. But if you want to talk about the most practical and livable purchase, I would put a three-bedroom, two-bath townhome in Mililani Mauka up against anything considered practical any day. And today we're going to show you our new listing, but we're also going to talk about the types of buyers that would buy this type of townhouse, from first-timers to VA buyers. And we're going to talk about a little strategy there with VA buyers as well. By the way, I'm Myla Gibson, BAMN Realtor on O'ahu, along with my partner Koa Cassidy, Yasu behind the camera. If you've got any questions or comments for us, please feel free to leave them in the comment section. Or if you'd like to work with us, get in touch with us at info at dwellhawaii.com. Welcome to our new street number 209. This is a three-bedroom, two-bath ground floor townhome. Now ground floor townhomes are always going to be in high demand because they appeal to a wide variety of buyers, which we'll talk about, but want to talk quickly about this unit. So much like this home recently that we sold in Mililani, we had them go ahead and do this home renovation program where they didn't have to spend any money out of pocket. Everything was paid back at the ending through their proceeds. We did the same thing here. This place wasn't bad. I mean, how bad can a townhouse get? But there was some, I call it old lady wallpaper in the kitchen. It was bordering the top here. My clients actually bought it that way and they didn't really mind it, but they were like, oh, we'll take it down eventually. But I didn't realize that taking wallpaper down is kind of a big deal. Like you've got to do patching. And so anyway, we had our contractor come in here, take that down, put a fresh coat of paint everywhere, patch up some areas that needed some attention. The baseboards were those plasticky baseboards. And so I instructed them to change those out and put in really good baseboards. We gave this a really good deep cleaning, had some pressure washing done outside on the patio as well as to the fence. And we've talked about this. The five things that your money is best spent on for renovation are things like flooring, paint, bathrooms, if you can, re-glazing tubs and showers, changing toilets and fixtures, if you have the funds and the tolerance to do so, and pressure washing. So thankfully our clients were able to make use of this program. They spent about $10,000 to freshen this place up. But as a result, we were able to price it at $600,000. Whereas before, had we done nothing, we would have priced it at $580,000. So now we're going appeal to a wide variety of buyers. We're not going to have those buyers that walk away because they're like, all right, I just stretched to make the down payment. I'm paying over 6% interest rate in interest. You know, and I'm going to have to come in and renovate. No, thank you. You know, and a lot of times units that are in average condition, we'll see them sitting for 30 days or more. The last sale here at this development went in nine days, the same type of unit in the similar type of condition. Something unique about this one, we've got split AC, which our clients put in. That's huge. Cause usually in places like this, you can only do the wall units, especially if you have a second floor unit, you often can't do split AC, but this was a really great upgrade. And we've already had a few showing since coming on the market just yesterday. And people are commenting on what a big deal that is. We also have a washer and dryer, which most townhouses do. Usually it's your, um, one bedroom condos, some of your older condos in Salt Lake, that you're going to find community laundry, but townhouses are usually going to have a washer and dryer inside. And then of course you've got a small yard outside, which is about 150 square feet. This unit is like 800 ish square feet. Let's get into the first type of buyer that would buy a place like this. Obviously it's going to be a first time home buyer. Now, first time home buyers, usually I don't see them buy three bedrooms. A lot of times, just because three bedrooms aren't all always that available. They're usually at a higher price. So a two bedroom like this in this neighborhood of Mililani Mauka might be North of 400,000. This one is 600,000 because it's got the three bedrooms, but still such a great deal. Maintenance fee here is a total of 619, but that includes your association fee to the Mililani Town Association, which comes out to like 55 a month. So you've got a maintenance fee that's still in the 500s, which is also very good compared to everything else across the Island and in this neighborhood. This was built in the 90s. Mililani Mauka is pretty much a newer neighborhood. A lot of the other places have been built in the 2000s, but 90s is still relatively new compared to our Island where a lot of stuff was built in the 60s and 70s. Now, speaking of first time home buyers, 600,000 is a pretty good entry point price wise. The unit itself is simple. This is something more importantly for a first time home buyer that if you look long term, you know, usually first time home buyers aren't looking to stay in something for the rest of their life. I will often advise them to find something that you will love, that you can afford and that you can sustain for like seven to 10 years. This type of unit will serve that for sure. It'll be really easy to sell on the back end just because again, it appeals to a wide variety of buyers. It should appreciate, my clients bought this in 2019 in the fours. So of course we saw that crazy appreciation in the last five years through COVID and with the low interest rates back then. So appreciation is a little bit more modest now, but 600,000, I would anticipate that it'll continue to go up the three bedroom nature of it. And then also speaking for first time home buyers, I would just want to make mention again of the loan programs that are available here in Hawaii. Hale Kama'aina is one we've been talking about quite a bit. That one offers rates in the fours and fives. There is an income restriction there, but if you're interested in that program, please get in touch with us about it. Of course, there's other programs for public workers, firefighters, police officers, people in healthcare. You've also got some down payment assistance programs through the Hawaii Home Ownership Center. And if you're more curious about first time home buying, we did an entire video on the subject. Check that video out. One last note with regards to first time home buyers. If you look at rents in Mililani Mauka, a unit like this rents for around $3,000 to $3,500 per month, maybe even goes to like $2,800 depending on the condition or if it's on the second floor. And then single family homes will rent for $3,500 and up to $5,000 for three bedrooms. So when you look at the rents and you look at buying, it starts to make a lot of sense to be a buyer in Mililani as opposed to a renter. Okay, let's move on to the second type of buyer and that's your right sizer or your downsizer. A lot of people who have big single family homes aren't necessarily ready to move into a condo. They still want to be able to open the door to the outside rather than open the door to a hallway. Now we are talking to a lot of buyers right now that are looking at right sizing into Ward Village. And these are the people that are thinking about the lifestyle of Ward Village and who enjoy like the walkability and the community. This type of right sizing is a little bit different. It's quieter. There is a community here. There's seven different recreation centers in Mililani total with classes, you know, like aquasides, because of course, there's lots of swimming pools here and lots of walking paths, which we're going to go check some out right after this. But, you know, I find again, downsizers aren't quite, they're not always ready to completely be minimal. So a place like this would serve them well. Having the extra bedrooms allows for the grandkids to still come over and spend the night. You've got a storage space right here. And again, having this outside area, you know, a lot of our right sizers are used to having plants or tending to a yard. So they'd be able to do that out here. You can also do some dining out here. This is great for a small dog, of course, as well. But yeah, let's go ahead and take a look at the park right behind us. Behind us is the Mililani Ravine Park. And I would say that the parks and the walking paths are one of the things that make Mililani truly special. I remember when I showed this place to my clients, and I remember talking about these mature trees and being on this walking path where you have this park behind us. And we're going to walk down there a little bit more. But gosh, now that I'm back here, like checking it out again, I'm like, this was such a great buy. And I can see why the last unit sold in nine days and why we've gotten so much activity in just a day after listing. It's pretty unique. Okay, let's talk about the next type of buyer that likes a townhouse. That, of course, would be the pet lover. I know I just mentioned it when we were in the little yard. But being a pet lover myself, I have lived in a high-rise condo with my pets. And that was fine. You know, there's certain condos that are pet friendly, especially some of the newer ones. They're much more lenient on the weights. I think they're going up to like 50 and 60 pounds, whereas traditionally it was like 25-35 pounds per pet. Townhomes are usually a bit more flexible on the weight and the number of pets that you're allowed to have. Well, it's usually two, but I would say like if you have two dogs and a cat, maybe you can get away with it because you don't walk a cat. But I didn't tell you that. I really shouldn't be saying that, but whatever. But I think there's something to be said for taking your dog outside and having to get in an elevator and having to walk down a hallway or having a small yard where you can just let them out. And even if you live on the second floor, just being able to come downstairs and put them on a patch of grass is so nice. And I will say this too, in Kaka'ako, they have promoted that neighborhood as being pet friendly. And everybody who lives there kind of has a dog. Well, now they're starting to limit where your dog can actually go. So the Victoria Ward Park, dogs can't go in there anymore. And I'm not going to say whether it's good or bad, because I agree that if you have an area where a lot of dogs are doing their business, it's tough to let your kids run around. So I see that side of it. But at the same time in Kaka'ako, it's a lot of concrete. So there's not really even any patches of grass for the dogs to go. So this is much more ideal for a pet lover, if I would say so myself. That leads us into the next type of buyer, and that's a low-maintenance buyer. And I think low-maintenance can go two different ways. Some people might think that somebody buying a luxury condo is a high-maintenance person because they like all of the amenities, the pool, the jacuzzi, the gym, the meeting rooms, the wine cellar, which they have at a place like Victoria Place. Some might see that as high-maintenance, but others will see that as low-maintenance compared to the home they just came from, where they had a huge yard and had to tend to a roof and paint. A townhouse really sits perfectly in between or actually sits perfectly with the low-maintenance buyer. Because really, even if you have a small enclosed yard, it's not one that requires a mower. Maybe you're using a little weed whacker, maybe not. Maybe you're, you're just like, I don't know, pulling weeds. I didn't see a whole lot of grass in the yard that we have up there. And of course, you don't have to tend to exterior paint here. You don't have to tend to a roof. Might feel like a little bit more maintenance than a condo where you can truly just lock and leave. You know, in a condo you've got staff, so if you go on vacation, you can just like, whatever, just go. No one's coming to your floor without a fob. Whereas at a townhouse, especially if you live on the ground floor, you do need to lock your doors generally. But as far as low, when I say low-maintenance, I think I should actually use the word, I used the word practical earlier. I would also maybe say efficient. If you're like an efficient buyer, an efficient person when it comes to just your, your living needs, you don't need all the amenities, the pool, the meeting room, the gym. I mean, here there's no gym on this property. Even the rec centers here in Mililani, they've got pools and they've got meeting rooms and they've got like classes, like taekwondo and like aerobics classes, but none of them have gyms. So here you would still have a gym membership. 24-hour fitness is right down the road here in Mililani. And then your next one's going to be Planet Fitness, which is all the way in Aiea. There's a few CrossFit gyms here in Mililani as well. Also in Waipio, which is near Koa Ridge, but I think you get my drift. Like, I don't know, some, I feel like owning a townhouse, especially for like a first-time buyer, a downsizer, even an investor, which we'll talk about in a little bit. To me, a townhouse is going to be the more practical low-maintenance choice. The next type of buyer for this type of townhome would be your investor buyers. So earlier I talked about the rent here in Mililani for a place like this averages around $3,000 per month. More than the price of the rent, I would say the type of renter you get for this kind of place is going to be one that wants to be here for a while, that's going to pay you your rent on time. You would be marketing to a lot of military families. That's what we see often in this neighborhood with the proximity to Schofield, you know, as well as to the Hickam Joint Base. There's a little bit of traffic in and out, but usually I find that our military service members, or even those who like work at Pearl Harbor, start early enough in the morning and end early enough in the day that they're beating the bad part of traffic. So you're going to have just a really good, consistent renter here. And what I'm also finding is that we have people we're talking to who want to buy places for family members or for their parents. So we've got a couple now that they're looking at kind of downsizing their home. They're not quite there yet, I think they're younger than me, but I just think I see them thinking to the future, you know, knowing like this house might overtake us at some point. Like our kids are in high school, they're going to be heading off to college, let's get ahead of the eight ball rather than behind it. And they've got their parents living with them right now, so they're looking at buying their parents a place up here in Malka, just because the neighborhood's so peaceful and calm. And so we showed them this, and this is kind of at the top of their list right now. So yeah, I see kids doing it for their parents. I also am talking to people who need to do a 1031 exchange, who are also considering places that they'll move into eventually. So it's not just buying a place for the cash flow, but it's one that's like, hey, okay, we'll 1031 exchange this property into that, we'll hold it for two years and rent it out. And then maybe after that two years, when we've been able to defer the taxable gain, we'll move into it ourselves and then it becomes a place for us to downsize into. So yeah, that's the next kind of buyer. After that is of course your VA buyer. I mentioned the military bases and Mililani is just a great place for VA buyers. Just the layout of it being a master plan community, a bit more suburbia. It's a neighborhood that our VA buyers are often used to, especially if they're coming here from the mainland. The schools in Mililani are known to be incredibly good. It's a place where kids can ride bikes, great for trick or treating their sidewalks. It's known for safety. It's got great proximity to the North shore as well. There's quite a few townhouses in the entire neighborhood of Mililani, not so many three bedrooms in Mililani Mauka necessarily. Oh, going back to the investor buyer. One point I want to make is as an investor, if they buy a three bedroom, they also know that that's probably going to be a family or it's going to be two working adults, maybe one who needs an office. So again, you've just got a stable renter there. Okay. Going back again to the VA buyer. The one strategy that I really want to point out for this unit in particular, our clients were VA buyers. Their loan balance currently is around $400,000. They bought it in 2019 and refinanced in 2020. I believe their interest rate at the time is 2.375, which is crazy. Their mortgage payment sits right around $2,000. So this is appealing to a lot of buyers who are interested and want to do a VA assumption as they should want to do a VA assumption. The hangup oftentimes with a place like this is the gap between they owe 400,000. We're selling it for, or we're marketing it for 600,000. The buyer needs to have 200,000 to make up that gap. Again, it's really important to understand that a VA assumption is not you assuming the entire place. You're assuming the payment. You're assuming the interest rate, but you also have to consider that this place has appreciated since the buyer bought it. I also want to drop this little nugget in somebody's lap out there, especially for our local service members who have parents here. I'm thinking specifically about one of my clients. He's got three kids that all went into the military. They're all from this island, born and raised, parents both born and raised. I know that the parents own a couple of properties that are free and clear of their mortgages. I know that these parents, they're really good in this way that they're like, we're not going to help our kids out because no one helped us out. I called him yesterday and I was like, hey, I really think you should reconsider helping your child because there's a 2.375 interest rate on this unit. The mortgage payment is only like 2000 a month. If you can help them with that $200,000 gap, you are really setting your kids up for success. I'm speaking to the parent right now out there who thinks that they might want to help their child or they don't know how or the child is like, I got nobody to help me out. If you're somebody who served in the military and you have family or you have the means for getting the cash to assist you to get into a place like this, that is probably the absolute best strategy you could use as a first-time home buyer. I wish I had it. I don't. Every now and then, a non-veteran can assume a VA mortgage, but that's only if the veteran will allow you to take on their mortgage and they would give up their VA entitlement so they would never get to use their VA loan again. That rarely happens, but every now and then it does. I would, again, just say that as far as a VA assumable mortgage is concerned, you should expect that it is a veteran who wants to hang on to their entitlement. Anyway, thanks so much for joining us on this video. Again, if there is anything Kola or I can do for you, especially if you're interested in working with us, either by helping you sell a place or buy a place, please get in touch with us at info at dwellhawaii.com.