About Bryn Kaufman

Principal Broker and Creator of OahuRE.com

Prices Do Not Always Go Up

This chart shows two things well.

One is prices do not go up every year. After the sharp increase that peaked around 1991, you can see we went to 2003 before prices hit that 1991 price again, so over 10 years of prices not increasing.

Two is the current up trend is a lot steeper than it was back in 1991.

It will be interesting to see what happens next.

Short Term Rental Disclosure Required By Law

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR HOME SELLERS AND BUYERS

Ordinance 22-6, effective March 28, 2022. 
A seller of residential real property must provide the buyer a Short-term rental (STR) disclosure form stating whether or not the property may be legally used as an STR.  If the seller discloses that the property being sold may not be legally used as an STR, the form need only be given to the buyer. 

More details are at https://www.honolulu.gov/dppstr.

Mortgage Rates Go Over 6%

According to Mortgage News Daily, today’s rate hit 6.28%. I know that sounds high but check out the 18.53% rate in October of 1981.

Hopefully, inflation will start to go down without the radical increase in the interest rates that we saw in the 70s and early 80s.

Keep in mind we are more sensitive to rate increases now than back then as you can see from the chart below our rate has been very low for a long time, which drove the prices of homes high.

Cold Calling Lawsuit Against Realtors

A class-action lawsuit is going forward against Coldwell Banker because of cold calling Realtors bothering sellers at home.

As a Realtor, I think this is a good thing.

I don’t like to be bothered by cold sales calls, and I think most people feel the same, so the idea that some Realtors ignore the do not call list and use automated dialers to call up to 300 people per hour never sat well with me.

Personally, I think Brokers should have banned this practice a long time ago, and maybe this lawsuit will help them make some needed changes.

The problem is it actually works, so even though they bother so many people they would actually find new clients, which is why they keep doing it.

Oahu Monthly Mortgage Payments rise 68.6%

The monthly mortgage payment for the median-priced home on Oahu rose 68.6% since January 2021.

This is due to the price of homes increasing significantly along with a higher interest rate on loans.

The Fed says inflation is up 4.7% in 2021. I guess the cost of a mortgage payment is not included in their numbers.

$2,400,000 Home, Offering $1 in Commission

For the first time ever we closed today on a $2,400,000 Kailua home that was offering only $1, yes ONE DOLLAR commission.

The MLS does not allow a seller to negotiate the commission down, but they do allow the seller to pay Realtors more commission (isn’t that nice of them LOL), so putting in $1 essentially made the commission negotiable, and a deal was reached that everyone was happy with.

So now if your Realtor tells you commission is not negotiable you can let them know it can be negotiated up, just not down, and it is possible to sell a home offering $1 commission, which essentially sends a message that commission is negotiable.