 Welcome to Kears to Success, which is live on the Think Tech live streaming network series weekly on Thursday at 11am. We are your hosts. My name is Danelia, D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm about the half of the duo, John, welcome to today's show. The goal of this show is to provide professional and personal development tools and profound insights on how to achieve success in life, career and or business. Vanessa Perez, CEO of S3 Career Consulting, was our guest on our last show in her Words of Wisdom can be accessed on Newman Consulting Services website, NewmanConsultingServices.com or our landing page, Danelia.org. More than 59% of Honolulu renters are spending more than 30% of their household income on rent. According to Pacific Business News' latest published information, Honolulu ranked as the number 11 most expensive city in the nation based on research done by Zompa, a national rent report. One bedroom apartment in Honolulu jumped 2.9% from 2015 to $1,750 while the price of a two bedroom apartment surged from 7.2% to $2,390 from the year ago. Hence our topic today, purchasing or selling real estate successfully. Joining us today to speak to us about how to successfully purchase or sell a home on a guest, Tiffany Staten, realtor and from, forgive me, realtor, associate from Locations LLC, Diamond Head office, and Stefan Kent, lender of Honolulu home loans. Mahalo for joining us today. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. Appreciate it. All right. So buying and selling homes, that's a lot of money that we're going to have. Of course. So it just throws me off here. We get excited talking to your family. Okay. So if you would briefly share with our viewers what prompted you to become a realtor and also Stefan, what prompted you to become a loan officer? Well, interestingly enough, my parents are from North Carolina and they were sharecroppers in the South. That's not that long ago. My mom's only 65 years old. And after the Vietnam War, for my uncles and for my family members that actually use those VA benefits, it prompted them to own real estate and through life it changed the game where we were able to maybe travel more or go to good schools and just have more stability and stay in the same neighborhood. So it's that passion, especially with our veterans that I'd love to share with them on how they can start building wealth for themselves now. That's the absolute best benefit. Right. Beautiful will. Humanitarian. I love it. Yeah. You're going to see that's a common thread for a lot of folks in these industries. We've seen how real estate can really empower people. Myself, you know, I come from an immigrant family and my father, when he was finally able to buy a home, put me in front of this house and said, you know, seven years old, eight years old and said, should we buy this? And over the course of time, I've now seen not only how our family has changed and grown and been able to accomplish because we own real estate, you know, it's really empowering. It's something that you want to kind of give back. And the thing is, I'm a veteran myself, 27 years retired Air Force, and it's a wonderful thing to be a homeowner, you know, and I came from humble beginnings as well, as well as to New York, so we can relate to that. Yeah, all right. So what are the pros and cons of buying or selling property in Hawaii? Do you like to first talk about the lending side? So everybody knows that property in Hawaii is not cheap. Yes. Oh, yes. And so, you know, the lending side becomes that much more important because of the price points are higher and you're trying to fill in a gap. And that's really where kind of my job is, is to help you get there, get to your sort of goal, get to that price point. And so that's probably the, if we're talking about cons, the hardest part is the higher price point. The pro is the fact that, you know, property does appreciate, you know, versus renting where all of a sudden that money's not going anywhere, except for some, to pay somebody else's mortgage. You're actually in some ways benefiting yourself and to think you talk about this a little bit better. But at the end of the day, it really comes down to, with a home, you're going to see that money back. It's going to appreciate, you know, someday you could rent it out. And I would say the, you know, the con is finding out where to get the best information because we have such a unique market. We only have about 90 zip codes, about 400 neighborhoods, Ota Oahu alone. So from block to block, if someone were to say, I need to do my research first, well, they'd be researching a very long time and their first most and most important step would still be starting a plan with someone like Stefan and figuring out what they can afford first. And then we figure out what's the best neighborhood for you. What does it look like? Where to go to school zone and so forth. Yeah. People have a lot of fear about making that jump into purchasing real estate. I remember the first house we bought, you know, there was a little bit of trepidation there, a little bit of fear, but we just believed that it was the right thing to do. And we just felt we're going to go for it. And we've been doing that ever since. So we've had, we've bought several real estate properties and it's made a big difference towards retirement. I'll tell you that. And we have the highest appreciation rate of real estate anywhere in the country. We have the highest concentration, about 6.33 percent since 1975. Meanwhile, say Washington, D.C. is one of the only markets that beats us out at 7 percent. But then somewhere like California, they also have 6 percent appreciation. But California is very large. So it doesn't truly tell the story. So again, if you're setting up that plan for retirement, this is definitely the way to go as a real estate. There's also like the, you know, if you look at historically, it's also the volatility is another part of it, right? What did the market look like in 2008 versus, you know, versus other parts of this country? In some ways, because we have such a limited amount of land prices, you know, were or insulated from, you know, the greater market effects while some places in the country really suffered. And that's one of the other pros of having this. And one of the key things that we have here today is behavior is taught. You know, everybody wants things, but they really don't know how to do it. And you guys are on the cutting edge. You're going to share with them how to. And that, when you think about buying a home, that's one of the most important things or the most costly things that you can do in your life. You know, your health is the only thing you need to work on, but you need to have somewhere to stay. And we look at that too. So why should a person buy versus rent? I know you touched on that earlier, but can, you know, I like to get your take from both of you. I think from a very simple standpoint, it's just math. It's very simple. $2,000 a month turns into 2,400 a year, might as well round it off to 2,500. And in four years, that's 100 grand. And a lot of the homes that people are living in even aren't worth that every, you know, 10 years. So it's just math for one. And that's one more time. It's just math. Oh, I love that. So what about, you know, somebody's saying, well, I can't come up with that down payment. So how would they deal with that? There's some excellent programs out there, particularly for first-time buyers. So there are 0% down programs. You get it. The VA, as you know, it also has a rural development USDA loan as well, where large parts of this island, you can do 0% down. On the conventional side, even if you're in town, you can do it as low as 3% with a conventional loan program. 3%, let's say, for a modest condo, we're talking about $10,000, $12,000. That's pretty achievable. Or even you can get a gift from a family member. There are other ways of making that happen. But it's not, you know, some people think that, oh, it's 20%. I've got to get to 20%. And all of a sudden, that number becomes so looming. One of the things that we teach on this program is, you know, we, as human beings, keep coming up with blocks. We want something, but we put up a block. And one of the reasons we do the show is, yes, you'll come up with a block, but let's work around that block. Find other ways. You know, contact individuals like yourself. Find out what you can do. Don't just say, well, I've got to come up with 20% down. So there's no way I can afford this. Well, if you're paying rent, you can afford to buy. That's it. And there's never going to be a perfect time to buy. That's right. Ever. So that's true. What we're here to do is help coach you. It's just like anything else. If you'd like to be a pro athlete, if you'd like to be disciplined in learning another language, because this is essentially another language as well, it's going to take different habits. And we're going to coach you on how to get there. But the first and most important step would be sitting with myself and Stefan and developing a plan that is specific to you and your family, because everyone's situation is different. But when they sit down and they say, well, how much was your interest rate? What happened when you bought? What happened when you bought? And all that can be very confusing. So sitting down specifically and looking at your situation. And the thing that you spoke of earlier is math. There's a misconception when we speak to each other, when we talk, the verbal understanding. But there is no misconception when you look at numbers. Two and two is going to be four. If you're in Germany or China or here in Hawaii. So when you said math, that's a key. When people sit down and they crush the numbers, so to speak, that really gives them a Nissan light. They have an epiphany. They say, wow, I can. I can do it if you just decide to do it. As you said, and you're here to coach them. So what are some of the items someone should think about when purchasing or selling a property? First things first, to the money. The first thing that you do is you talk to a lender. And a lot of people, there's certain level of trepidation with, all of a sudden, their entire lives are going to be exposed. It's not nearly that way. At the end of the day, you need to know where you are so that you can know your starting point to get to your goal. Oftentimes, I get into a meeting with folks. And they've been afraid to talk about any of these issues for so long. And they could have been in a home already a year ago when reality is, let's get you on your path. Even if you're not ready now, how do you know? If you haven't actually talked to a professional so that we can then get you where you need to be. And what are some of the things that determines the property that you want to purchase on? How you should purchase it and why? I mean, what should a person look at when they look at buying or selling? Let's do buying first. What are some of the things they should look at when they think about purchasing a property? I would say primary drivers here in Hawaii, especially because we have such a turnover in population, ask yourself, how long are you gonna be here? And really commit to it. Have a plan. The next thing is, especially if you have small humans, you're gonna wanna try and figure out a school system that works for you. Figure out what you're comfortable with as far as a commute. Some folks is very attractive to go to some of these rural USDA areas, but then their lifestyle really doesn't afford them to spend two hours in traffic. So you might get a little bit less moving, stay closer to town, but you have to really have those conversations with your family about what you're comfortable with and what you're actually going to do because you wanna ultimately be happy in the home. I think what's difficult here, especially in Hawaii is, again, we talk about how much can you get. The reality is, yeah, the reality is, it's not that much. Say, for instance, a one-bedroom here, as long as it has a window and a closet, could be 425 square feet. Well, that's just the reality of our market, but you have to start there first and say you have that plan, I'm gonna be here four years and another four years will upgrade. For most people, it takes two or three moves before they get to that single family home and they'll need help with lending first to figure that out. So we're going to take a short break. This is Keys to Success on Think Tech Livestreaming Network series. We're talking with Tiffany Stadden, Realtor Associate from Locations LLC, Diamond Head Office, and Stefan Kant Lander from Honolulu Home Loans. My name is Danelia D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the other half of the duo, John Newman. We'll be back in a minute, so please stay tuned for more Keys to Success. Hi, this is Jane Sugimura. I'm the co-host for Kondo Insider and we're on Think Tech Hawaii every Thursday at three o'clock and we're here to talk about condominium living and issues that affect condominium residents and owners and I hope you'll join us every week on Thursday. Aloha. Aloha. I am Reg Baker and I am the host of Business in Hawaii with Reg Baker. We broadcast live every Thursday from two to 2.30 in the Think Tech studios in downtown Honolulu. We highlight successful stories about businesses and individuals and learn their secrets to success. I hope you can join us on our next show on Thursday at two o'clock. Until then, aloha. Back, this is Keys to Success on the Think Tech live streaming network series. We encourage you to call our hotline at 415-871-2474 to join our conversation or tweet us at Think Tech HI if you have any questions or comments. We've been talking with Tiffany Staten, Realtor Associate from Locations LLC, Diamond Head Office and Stefan Kant Lender from selling real estate, sorry, Lender from Honolulu Home Loans about purchasing or selling real estate successfully. My name is Danilia D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm another half of the duo with John Newman. Welcome back to the show. So, Tiffany, Stefan, welcome back as well. Thank you. Thank you for that. We have somewhat of a signature question that we ask all of our guests, but in this opportunity, we'll just tweak it a wee bit. What we'd like to know is, share with us your three top keys to purchasing or selling a property, if you will. And I'd like to get the take from the both of you. Okay, I think. Three lending and three real estate. I think the first one is first, actually have a set goal and know what you truly wanna do. She talked about earlier about being very clear on what you're looking for. I think if you need to start there, it's actually what do I want at the end of the day. And then the second one is talk to a lender. You need, the lender is going to give, empower you and facilitate the entire transaction. And the financial component is so important that if you don't know where you are, how are you going to get to that home purchase? That's great. Get an awesome agent. Yeah, that's right. Get somebody, because... Don't be shy, go ahead, that's how we're here. Well, 70 Ks of batches. Well, at any given moment, there's about 150,000 realtors in Hawaii. We have the highest per capita of any population of realtors. Part of it is because of the price point. So if you talk to anyone national average, the average person knows about 10 realtors. Here in Hawaii, we know about 18. So you got to go through uncle, auntie, everyone, and say, oh, they've had their license for how many years. But only about 9% of realtors do more than nine transactions per year. And at locations, just generally speaking, as far as our company, the average new agent will do eight transactions. And I'm not here to say that at this amazing realtor. I have amazing mentors. And same thing with Steppen. He has amazing mentors at Honolulu Home Loans. So getting the right team to help you first and foremost, I would say is definitely one of the most important keys. That is critical. Absolutely. Well, share with some others, if you would. Or is that the only one that too? Well, that encompasses everything. Well, like he said, they're going to help facilitate the sale. So someone you like, someone you trust, but also someone who's a professional. Someone who's willing to say, you know what, that's a new area. I'm not quite sure of how those transactions work with that type of sale, but such and such agent does. And I'm going to sit down and have lunch with them and learn that process. Because there's so many, again, with these different neighborhoods, the homes are so different and needed that level of expertise. Well, you know, the thing is, I could just speak from our personal experience. One of the things John and I always did was that we, when we decided that we were, we just always decided we were going to purchase real estate. We decided that we were going to do very little renting, you know, if we could, because we started early and even though it was very, very challenging because of money back in the younger days, we just decided we were going to take that leap and buy something. And then next thing you know, you're kind of growing out of that. You buy another place. You buy another place and you keep your places and you're renting them and then pretty soon you're able to retire off, off the rentals, you know, because those places get paid off and everything. So, you know, we strong, when we look at millennials today, they're waiting longer and longer to really do things like investing and having children and everything. But we can only encourage you to start early because even though you think you can't afford it, you actually can find a way if you meet with somebody and you sit down and do that. So the latest trend in Honolulu living is right sizing. More couples are selling their larger homes in favour of condos in downtown Honolulu. So what are the pros and cons of this? It's, they don't have to fix roofs. They don't have to cut grass. A lot of that is a lifestyle choice. They want to be closer to shopping centres and they want to, you know, they don't want to maintain a home for whatever reasons, whether it's easier to move, you know, it's not as easy to move around or they're just tired of it, you know. It's also, there's a lot of the appreciation that we're seeing right now, you know, those areas are really growing. And so some of that is also a financial place. Wow. So those are the major reasons as a financial concept and then just lifestyle choices. Go into the urban quarter, get away from, you know. Well, you know, John and I had never lived in a condo before and we bought a condo and moved into Honolulu and we've never regretted it. We downsize it. It's amazing how you start realising that you really don't need all that stuff, you know. Just simple living, even in a condo, we laugh because, you know, John will be calling me at one end of the condo and he can't hear me say anything and we still lose each other in the condo. So, you know, it's like, you just, and you don't, you have your weekends to yourself. You don't have to mow grass. You don't have to take care of the yard, you know. All the amenities are there. It's just wonderful, yeah. And you spoke earlier about numbers. I like numbers because they don't lie. And we talked about the pros and cons of buying and selling. You know, why, if you can pay rent, you can buy. You might not be able to buy that penthouse, but you can buy. It's a stepping stone, as you said. Buy what you can afford right now and that will help you because it can't do anything but appreciate, you know. And as it appreciates, you move to something better and you move to something bigger. Are you scaled down, as Anil, you said? We have big house and my weekends was cutting grass and cleaning out gutters, so we changed that. So, what is, what would you think the most valuable lesson that each of you've learned in the journey becoming a realtor and a loan? I think for me, the most valuable lesson is, deep down, everyone wants this. Everyone wants to own. And when I hand the keys out to the family, it's usually the small humans that grab the keys first because they're like, I can finally put holes in the wall. I can finally hang up a poster. I can finally personalize this place and I know that I can play with the same friends and I'm gonna go with the same kids to school. And that's what it's really all about is, you know, even for me growing up, my neighbors, we were so close. My dad and my, we called them Uncle Nick. They were this wonderful family next door and that's what this is really about is giving yourself stability, not just financially, but also just lifestyle, just giving yourself stability. That's a really good point because children need that stability and if you're moving from home to home to home, that can be challenging for them, you know, but when you actually buy and they think this is our home, I mean, that really makes a big difference. So, you know, one of the questions that we really wanted to ask you guys was, when it comes to selling a property, sometimes a person upgrades their property to a point that they can't recoup the money and, you know, they use to upgrade it. And I think this is a critical point because a lot of people don't know how to sell their property and how much money they need to put into it before they go to sell it. So what's the rule of thumb on that? And the mindset that they should have when they go about it. Please contact your lender first and contact your realtor throughout home ownership because things change quarter by quarter, things change year by year. And what I love about locations is, first and foremost, we were locations and research since 1969. So we have these wonderful tools where we're able to go back and see a legacy of what neighborhoods have done by house type and by condo type. So you really don't want to over improve past a certain point. You wanna have enough curb appeal, but you certainly are not going to recoup pretty fixtures and pretty countertop. Yeah, totally. A big part of that is, I always say, I'm not just your loan officer for this transaction, right? Like this is also, I'm here for you after you've closed to help answer any questions and talk about any kind of issues you're dealing with. It's the same thing with an agent. You know, we're here for you and your family in whatever capacity you need us. And if you have questions even further down the line about the tax assessed value or any changes you wanna make to your property, have the conversation. It's free. I mean, we don't charge anything for those conversations. So what I'm hearing you say is that it's not one stop shopping. I mean, when you help a person, you're there for that person throughout. If they decide to sell, they need to contact you. If they decide to upgrade, they need to contact you and you could shepherd them through every stage that they would like to run through. You know, we have some younger friends and they've been renting all of their lives and they were very comfortable just renting, you know, for the rest of their lives. And when we sat down with them and said, look, you have to buy, not only will you have a home for yourself and your children and your child, but not only that, but the tax savings. And I mean, everything associated with buying a piece of real estate. Even if your real estate goes down, it will eventually go up after a few years. So, you know, you can afford it. If you're affording right now, you can afford to buy. They ended up buying. They were so thrilled with the results of buying. They saw the tax savings, all the benefits that they ended up buying across the street and now they've converted across the street to two rentals. So now they actually see that they could retire and have residual income coming in. I mean, it's... But the only thing that they didn't, the light didn't come on until they did exactly what you said from day one. You have to do the math. Once you look at the numbers and they saw how much money they gave away renting because they can only take their suitcases when they left. If they had put that money, the five years that they had rented, they would have bought a home. I mean, bought not just get it, they would have paid the home off. They were paying the solvent amount of rent. And when we talked to them, I mean, the wife really loved the property. I mean, she fell in love with a rental. So her husband couldn't share with her to move because that was her wonderful spot until we sat down and crushed the numbers and that light came on. It takes discipline. It does. You're gonna be very uncomfortable. I can promise you when we're shopping, you're not gonna like that first house. I'm gonna tell you it's gonna be full of termites, mold, your family's gonna talk about you. But I tell you what, in a couple of years, when you're able to upgrade and whether you're single, whether you're married, whatever your familial state is, someone will tell you, oh, wait until this, wait until that. If you're paying rent, you're paying someone else's bills. So you might as well put your money in your own pocket because your rent will stay the same. Oh, well, your rent will go up but your mortgage payment will stay the same. So we're out of time. We'll have to wrap it up. John, would you like to share your quote of the day? Yes, I would. The quote comes from Will Rogers today. It says, even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. Okay, Tiffany and Kent's Words of Wisdom, with regards to Keys to Success, can be found on Newman Consulting Services' webpage, NewmanConsultingServices.com and landing page to nillia.org. Thank you so much, Tiffany and Stefan for joining us today and sharing your insights to the Keys to Success on how to purchase and sell real estate successfully. Keys to Success will return next Thursday at 11 a.m. We ask that you please tune in and ask your family and friends to do so as well. We'd like to thank you all. Aloha.