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The U.S. Government did a great thing for homeowners back in 1997.  The Taxpayer Relief Act allowed a homeowner to exclude up to $250,000 of gain on a residential sale.  Married homeowners filing jointly could exclude up to $500,000 of gain.

Tax-free profit - that's hard to beat.  Many of us were able to use the exclusion and sell a property, then upgrade to a better home.  With our economy going the way it is (not so good), Congress is making some changes that will affect the home sale exclusion.

As the law is currently written, a homeowner must reside in the residence for two out of the last five years.  Meeting this test allows the homeowner to take the full exclusion.  The gain exclusion can be used once every two years.This means a homeowner could…

Genshiro Kawamoto is a man some Kahala residents would rather forget.  The 76 year-old man currently owns 22 homes in Kahala, with 20 of them on prestigious Kahala Avenue.  The gripe from Kahala residents is that Mr. Kawamoto is letting his homes fall apart.

A little history about Mr. Kawamoto

Remember the Japanese bubble?  It started about 20 years ago here in Hawaii.  Affluent Japanese businessmen started buying up luxury homes in Kahala and other areas.  There were instances where homeowners heard a knock on the door, answered and were offered large sums of money for their homes.  The offers were lucrative and the owners often sold.

Mr. Kawamoto was one of those Hawaii investors.  By 1998 Mr. Kawamoto owned over 100 homes in the better neighborhoods…

For those of you working hard out there, these numbers maybe interesting.  Non-realtors often think of our job as "a cruise" and how we're so overpaid. 

I'll admit I've had harder jobs - I graduated from the University of Hawaii majoring in accounting.  Passed the CPA exam and worked in two CPA firms.  Then I moved on to be the controller of a property development company for eight years.  Tired and stressed from that, I worked as controller at a trucking company for four years.  That job was equally stressful.  From there, I decided to work as a real estate agent.

Getting back to Hawaii's real estate numbers

Here's how Oahu's real estate agents have fared over a 12 month period, from September 2007 to September 2008.

- 46% of Oahu's realtors made no…

Oahu's home prices took their biggest hit of 2008 in September.  Prior to this, we had been happy to say that the U.S. housing market's slide had a minimal effect on Hawaii.  Last month, median prices of homes and condos on Oahu fell about 10% compared with prices one year earlier.  Sales volume (the number of properties sold) was down 16% for single family homes and 26% for condos and townhomes.

The median price of a home on Oahu was $590,000 - home prices have not been below that figure since April, 2005.  Median condo prices were $296,000, a level not seen since April, 2006.

Oahu median home and condo prices by neighborhood

What does this mean for prospective homebuyers on Oahu?

- Get your downpayment ready and talk to your mortgage lender! …

Have you had computer problems lately?  In the past few years my computers caught a few mean viruses.  Despite using top of the line antivirus software (Norton and Symantec for example), my computers got infected badly. 

In 2006 and 2007 I reformatted my desktop computer's hard drive twice to eradicate viruses.  In 2007 I was on vacation and my laptop computer picked up a virus over a wi-fi network.  After that, all it would do is startup, reboot and continue rebooting.  I took the computer to a specialist.  He managed to copy the data onto a portable hard drive but could not remove the virus.  I did the reformat routine again.

As far as computer viruses go, things have been okay with my Windows Vista computer up until a few weeks ago.  I think I know…

Earlier this month I wrote about a customer's shocking bill from Hawaiian Electric.  He and I did some brainstorming about conserving electricity and monitoring our usage.  He started checking his electric meter everyday and flipped switches off in his breaker box when he and the family were away from home.  Note: he did keep the refrigerator on.

As of this writing he has not received his latest bill.  However, he continues to monitor his electric meter and his kilowatt usage is down from 30kw per day last month to 20kw per day this month.

Meanwhile, I received my electric bill and noticed an interesting trend.

The good news: Last month our kilowatt usage per day was the lowest ever, since we moved into our house a year ago.

The bad news: The…

I wrote about some loan problems a homebuyer and I were having in a recent blog entitled Beware of Quicken Loans.  It turns out that somebody at Quicken Loans read my blog!

A marketing representative named Clayton Closson e-mailed me and apologized for the problem.  He asked for details of the transaction in order to follow up.  I provided enough info for him to figure things out through his organization's channels.  I was careful not to divulge too much info, just in case he was not really a Quicken Loans employee.

Clayton was for real.  Within a couple of days, the loan officer called my customer back and said the loan was going through.  In the meantime, the buyer had been scrambling to work with another lender and get a loan as fast as possible.  The…

This house is on Lincoln Avenue in Kaimuki.  It went on the market for $525,000 on September 19th, 2008.  If you've watched Honolulu home prices for awhile, you know that a house for sale in this neighborhood in the $500's is a rarity.  The price was reduced to $505,000 on December 12, 2008 and $495,000 on January 16, 2009 and reduced again to $475,000 on March 12, 2009.

Does it need work?  Yes.  However, the house seems to be fundamentally in good shape.  Some aspects I like are that it has copper plumbing and updated electrical wiring.  It might be feasible for a buyer to move in and fix 'em up while living here. Paint, flooring, updating lighting and fixtures.  

Fix this house up and…