Posts Tagged ‘home owner. renter’

How to Make Your Small Hawaii Home Look Bigger

You can’t add square footage to your small Hawaiian home, but there are ways to make a modest dwelling seem much larger. If you are selling your house, you want to give potential buyers the idea that, for a small house, there’s a lot of space.

All About Staging

Proper staging makes a big difference in how quickly your home sells. Staging accentuates the positive and minimizes the negative aspects of any property. Your real estate agent can recommend a professional stager, but many people can perform these tasks themselves.

Any room benefits from as much light as possible. Hawaiian homes are usually light and airy, but you can make your home even lighter and airier – and larger looking – with the right staging and s little in the way of window treatments.

Painting Contrasts

It’s always a good idea to give your interior walls a coat of paint before putting the house on the market. In some rooms, such as the kitchen or bathrooms, create the illusion of a larger space by using a bright white paint contrasting with a darker paint. The resulting depth created by the white and dark contrast makes the space look bigger.

Furniture to Scale

Furniture out of proportion to the room dwarfs it. You probably know someone who put a large bed in a small bedroom, leaving little room to walk around. If that’s the case in your home, replace the bed with a smaller version until you find a buyer. Put the bed as far away from the door as possible to make the room feel larger.

Look around your own home and see if there is any large item making a room look even smaller than it is. For many people, a giant TV in a small space is their favorite choice for entertainment, but it’s wise to replace the screen with a smaller version until your house sells.

Decorating a small space to make it appear larger means making some adjustments. For example, rather than purchase a sofa for the living room, consider buying a love seat. Not only it a love seat less expensive, but its proportions fit a small room. When furniture shopping, look for other proportionate pieces. Another tip: Consider furniture fabrics the same color as your walls. This makes the furniture blend in, giving a sense of a larger space.

The Mirror Effect

The right use of mirrors makes any room look larger. Placing a mirror across from a window reflects light and provides visual depth. Another way to create depth is by choosing a focal point in the room and angling a mirror toward it. A large mirror over the sofa is often effective. For best results, use a large mirror or two rather than a lot of small mirrors.

Contact Us

If you’re looking to buy or sell a home or find a rental property, you need a knowledgeable, experienced realtor familiar with all aspects of the Hawaiian real estate market. Contact Island Realty Group LLC at 808-689-7407 or IslandRealtyGroup@irghi.com.

Filed under: Blog by Freddy
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DIY Landscaping Ideas to Boost the Value of Your Home

Good landscaping makes a huge difference in a home’s appearance, and plays a role in a buyer’s decision to make an offer on a house. Professional landscaping often proves expensive, but there’s no reason a homeowner with a bit of a green thumb can’t employ some effective DIY landscaping ideas.

Trimming and Pruning

Before getting started with landscaping, take a good look at your current situation and see if there are bushes or trees requiring removal. After getting rid of dead or dying plants, trim and prune any overgrown varieties. If you aren’t sure how to trim or prune a particular tree or bush, you can likely find a video with instructions on YouTube.

Choose Native Plants

Whatever your landscape plans, choose native Hawaiian plants to fulfil. Not only are native plants suitable for local soils, but they also provide food and shelter for native wildlife. The right native plants for your property are also easier to maintain than non-native species. Native landscaping favorites include:

• Acacia koa
• Beach vitex
• Hawaiian soapberry
• Hawaiian tree fern
• Heliotropium anomalum (hina hina)
• Hibiscus
• Kou
• Ohi’a
• Pandanus

Make you decision on which plants to include in your landscape not only on aesthetics, but also on the right growing conditions for each species. For example, a shady area near your house won’t support plants requiring full-day sun, but plants enjoying full or partial shade should thrive.

Get Creative with Paving

Landscaping is about more than plants. Paving also plays a major role in landscaping. While you don’t want to spend thousands of dollars for paving when you are planning to sell your home, a few hundred dollars’ worth of pavers in a style you feel appropriate for the setting is a good DIY investment for an afternoon’s worth of work. While it’s fun to get create with paving, don’t overdo it. That’s because when you are selling your home, you want conservative landscaping appealing to every demographic.

The Back Yard

While curb appeal rests primarily on your front yard and the section of your house facing the street, don’t neglect the back yard landscaping. In Hawaii, the back yard so often become a home’s outdoor room that warm, welcoming landscaping is absolutely essential to entice buyers. If you have a pool, add containers full of flowering plants to add color and complement the blue water and green grass. Palms and banana trees in containers give the pool area a cool, relaxing feel.

Again, using native plants in the back yard can aid in creating a natural, low-maintenance landscape. For the DIYer, another advantage of native plants is that you don’t need to install an extensive – and expensive – hardscape with these plants, as you do with plantings requiring strict beds to look their best.

Contact Us

If you’re looking to buy or sell a home or find a rental property, you need a knowledgeable, experienced realtor familiar with all aspects of the Hawaiian real estate market. Contact Island Realty Group LLC at 808-689-7407 or IslandRealtyGroup@irghi.com.

Filed under: Blog by Freddy
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Renting vs. Buying: Pros and Cons of Each

Should you rent a home or are you better off buying? The answer depends on your individual circumstances, preferences and your stage of life. The right answer to the question may prove different when you’re 25 as opposed to a decade later, and your financial status at any given time.

Renting

Pro: In terms of upfront costs, renting is less expensive. While you are responsible for the required security deposit and monthly rental fee, you don’t have to worry about saving up a substantial down payment, as occurs when purchasing property. Pro: If you want flexibility, you can simply move elsewhere at the end of your lease, rather than go through the often time-consuming and stressful process of selling your house.
Pro: Budgeting is simpler, since rent is a fixed amount.
Pro: The landlord takes care of any necessary property repairs, and in most cases, it won’t cost you a dime. There are exceptions, depending on the language of your lease and the nature of the repairs.
Con: The lease spells out restrictions on your use of the rental unit. Failure to abide by them can cost you the tenancy. Those restrictions may include having another person live with you if their name is not on the lease. If you bring a pet into a rental dwelling where animals aren’t allowed, you will probably have to rehome it if your landlord discovers you are breaking the lease.
Con: Rent increases at the end of a lease are often steep.

Buying

Pro: When you rent, that money is gone at the end of every month. When you buy, you build equity in your home with each mortgage payment. At some point, you may have enough equity to borrow against it in the form of a home-equity loan to pay for college, a car or some other pricey necessity. You can also make extra principal payments to own your home outright sooner. When you sell, you do not have to pay taxes on capital gains above a certain amount.
Pro: When you own your home, you aren’t subject to a landlord’s rules on pets, redecorating, remodels or other strictures that are an owner’s prerogative.
Con: You must make repairs yourself or call the appropriate professional when something goes wrong, and it is all on your dime unless there is a warranty on the item in question. Repairs and other house-related expenses can also blow a hole in your budget.
Con: While renters can get away with relatively cheap renter’s insurance to protect their belongings, homeowners must pay for home insurance, property taxes, water and sewer service and possibly flood insurance, depending on the area.

The Wild Card

One wild card in the decision to rent or buy involves the Republican Congress’ tax overhaul. States with high state and local property taxes, as well as high home prices – such as Hawaii – will suffer if property tax and mortgage interest deductions are limited. Buyers will have to factor in extra costs, while landlords will likely pass those additional costs onto renters.

Contact Us

If you’re looking to buy, sell or rent a home, you need a knowledgeable, experienced realtor. Contact Island Realty Group LLC at 808-689-7407 or IslandRealtyGroup@irghi.com.

Filed under: Blog by Freddy
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