5 Things You MUST Know About Wholesaling Real Estate in Hawaii

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Wholesaling Around the World the
Hawaii edition, the Aloha State, one of my most favorite
locations in all of America.
But I have to tell you guys,it's also, quite frankly, the
strangest state to dowholesaling real estate in.
Now.
Hawaii has a population of 1.44million people, ranking it 41st

(00:35):
in the United States as far aspopulation goes, but it is the
fourth smallest state as far asland volume and it comes with a
lot of unique traits.
So I'm going to try to get allthese out in a short time frame.
What I will tell you is that wehave done deals on three

(00:57):
different islands.
Okay, now, this is importantbecause I don't know if these
are the only islands that youcan do deals on, but we were
fairly well known back in 2018,19, 2020, 2021.
We were doing significantvolume.
People knew us.
Our website was ranking overthere.

(01:19):
We were doing a lot of fix andflips.
We even owned rentals overthere and we never really got
opportunities outside of thesethree islands.
So I'm assuming these are theonly places that really
wholesaling exists in.
But we've got the big island,we've got Maui and then we've
got Oahu.
Okay, now what I will tell youis the big island is more like

(01:45):
country.
It's more rural and the pricepoints are much lower than the
rest of Hawaii.
And then you've got Maui, whichis kind of known as a vacation
spot Very, very quiet though.
I actually spent some time onMaui and it's almost eerie how

(02:07):
quiet it is.
A little bit more jungle-esquethan the Big Island.
Price points pretty high to getsignificantly high over there.
Lower volume than the BigIsland and then the highest
volume for us is Oahu.
Obviously that's where Honoluluis, it's where the University
of Hawaii is and we'll talkabout Oahu, but that's where the

(02:30):
vast majority of our deals aredone.
From what I've seen as far aswholesalers go, a lot of people
attempt to wholesale on the bigisland because of the price
points.
There's a little bit morevacant land that's available, so
I see a lot of people trying towholesale out there in the
countryside down near thevolcano and then that vacant

(02:56):
land, but really the spot thatyou're going to make your money
is on Oahu.
Now, before we get into thespecifics about those areas, one
of the things that I want toestablish about wholesaling in
Hawaii is what makes itdifficult is not necessarily a

(03:18):
real estate thing.
It's the fact that if you don'tunderstand the Hawaiian culture
or if you are not based inHawaii or if you don't have a
connection in Hawaii, it'sreally difficult to be accepted
over there.
And I really struggled withthis because I feel like one of
my superpowers is connectingwith individuals, like

(03:40):
understanding what they're goingthrough and then offering a
solution.
By understanding what they'regoing through and then offering
a solution.
And there was times where, justby not living in Hawaii and by
being considered a mainlanderand at times even being called
like a Howley, it was reallytough to acquire deals and try

(04:01):
to get people to want to dobusiness.
Now, at the time when we weredoing business in Hawaii, I
actually had a business partner,elijah, who lived there in Oahu
or on Oahu, and that allowed usto do business, when otherwise
I didn't have that connection.
There was absolutely zeroopportunity for us to even be

(04:27):
able to have a conversationabout buying their house or
hiring them as a contractor oreven doing a wholesale
transaction.
I want you to understand thatthat is a hurdle that you have
to overcome that really doesn'texist, at least in my experience

(04:49):
so far, anywhere else in thecountry.
It's basically its own littleindividual country.
It's just a part of America and, honestly, as Americans we're
not really welcomed very much,especially as mainlanders.
And there's a lot ofconversation about are you
trying to take my land, are youtrying to come over here and

(05:10):
take Hawaii away from us?
And so that is a hurdle thatyou need to expect if you
attempt to try to do business inHawaii.
So just keep that in mindAnytime you see a lead pop up or
you're trying to pull a list ordo cold calling and you want to
explore into Hawaii.
That is a hurdle that you haveto overcome.

(05:32):
Now some of the advantages ofdoing business in Hawaii for one
, the time zone.
That, like business was stillcarrying on in Hawaii at
nighttime here in Texas, becausethere were sides where I could
basically handle my Texasbusiness during the day got to

(05:53):
handle my Hawaii business atnight.
It just kind of allowed us tohave more of an opportunity.
I've always talked aboutleveraging the time zones and
listen, 5 pm over in Hawaii isbasically 10 pm here in Texas,
depending on time zone where weare daylight savings, but

(06:16):
normally 10 pm here in Texas,and so a lot of business could
take place during those laterhours, whereas over in Texas
things start shutting down.
So that's one of the advantages.
The other thing is the pricepoints are so high, especially
on Oahu, that you can make a lotof money on less deals.

(06:37):
Now there are, just by natureit's, like I said, the 41st most
populated state.
There is just a lot lessopportunity in that regard.
Now what I want to do is I wantto bring up my map here and show
you guys, let's talk about theBig Island first and foremost.
First and foremost, probablythe most common places to do

(07:01):
deals are over here.
Listen, what we did here wasthis is an Airbnb, and then this
was a flip that we did, kind oflower price points.
I actually had vacation here asa kid.

(07:22):
Um, the volcano.
Funny enough, this house righthere was on volcano road and the
volcano started erupting afterwe per right after we purchased
it.
Um, I was very worried.
You know, just hey, is thevolcano actually going towards
our property there?
Like I said, a lot of peopleanticipate that they're going to

(07:45):
be able to do business here,but it's going to be lower
volume.
We did do one property here onMaui.
Maui is a little bit weird.
It's a different animal thanOahu.
It's difficult to findcontractors.
It's difficult to find almosteverything on Maui, so just keep

(08:06):
that in mind.
This house is basically in themiddle of a jungle and it was
difficult to find help.
Now let's talk about Oahu, whereI, if you want to get into
doing business in Hawaii, thisis where I believe you should be
doing business.
Now, if you were to fly intoOahu, you're going to land right

(08:28):
here in Honolulu.
Honolulu, pearl Harbor, all ofthis Pearl City.
This is where a lot of thepopulation exists.
This is where a lot of thepopulation exists.
Essentially, if you're here inHonolulu and you want to get
over here, you're going to drivebasically through a mountain,

(08:50):
and it's a completely differentstyle island over here.
We did a lot of business overhere.
This is, to me, the nicest partof oahu.
Okay, I love is the I don'twant to say the wrong term, but
I believe it's like the wet sideum, it's more green over here,

(09:12):
and yet one of the things thatyou have to pay attention to in
hawaii is, uh, the roads likethe.
How how can you get to theproperty itself?
Because there are mountainsright, and so if you're starting
in honolulu, you go here to getover and then if you go up

(09:33):
north, you're basically on thishighway that's just right on the
water and it will circle allthe way around and then it kind
of stops.
You can't get to the west sideof the island going around the
north side.
You basically have to go aroundthe Dole Plantation and come
back down to then get over.

(09:54):
But from Honolulu you can goaround and then this is the more
affordable side of Oahu.
So these were actually the firstflips that we ever did.
We up here.
This is Kapui Street was thesecond one we ever did.

(10:15):
Water Street was the first one.
So this is the first deal thatwe ever did.
We made about $100,000 on thatSymbol flip.
We got one street over KapuiStreet.
Those are the first deals thatwe ever did.
I believe we purchased those atthe time.
This is back in like 2018.
We purchased those for like$200,000 and then flipped them

(10:38):
for like $400,000, right,something like that.
Much more affordable, where,when you're talking about over
here, these are like milliondollar properties, maybe even
multimillion dollar, especiallyin Honolulu.
Here, some of these, you know,we were purchasing in the five,
six $700,000 range, and then theARVs are in the low $1 million

(10:58):
range, where this is where youcan make a lot of money, right,
and then even down here we neverreally did deals because this
is where it gets like ridiculousand this is also touristy a lot
of the resorts and whatnot theprice points can get
astronomical.
And you have to really payattention to this when you're

(11:21):
underwriting a deal in Hawaii,understanding like, is this even
in an area where an investorwould want to come in, because
can they even afford it?
Right, If you're taking out ahard money loan, the holding
costs could be significant onthese properties.
And then also there is a lot ofreally poor construction in the

(11:44):
state of Hawaii.
So if you are anticipating whatthe rehab budget like,
something that would be a$40,000 or $50,000 rehab in the
state of Texas is easily goingto be $100,000 to $150,000 rehab
in Hawaii.
The cost of materials is more,the cost of labor is more, and
then there's also transportationissues.

(12:06):
And then, especially down herein the very condensed area like
Honolulu, like right here onProspect Street, it's really
hard for you guys to tell, butthese two properties that we did
basically ran straight downinto downtown Honolulu.

(12:29):
So this is kind of on like ahill and look at that Where's a
dumpster going to go?
Like, we're flipping this houseright here.
Where does the dumpster go here?
Where does the crew park?
Like, if you're going to have,you know, a couple of drywall

(12:49):
guys, maybe a painter, maybe atile guy, where do they park?
Where does the dumpster go?
How did we get here?
Like all of that adds up inHawaii where in a lot of other
locations it's not as big of adeal, and so it just.
Everything takes more time,everything costs more.

(13:09):
So if you're going to underwritethese deals just really if it's
your first time, you need tolike reach out and maybe even
get bids.
Talk to other in buyers.
I always say like, hey, don'twaste your in buyers time.
They're asking them what theirbuy box is.
But if you're going to explorewholesaling in Hawaii, you need
to talk to them and say like,hey, if it's just a cosmetic

(13:32):
update on a 1,200 square foothouse, how much is that running
you?
And don't be shocked when theysay $100,000.
Because normally you have toworry about things like termites
over there.
You have to worry aboutplumbing issues.
You have to worry about thingslike termites over there.
You have to worry aboutplumbing issues.
You have to worry aboutelectrical issues.
Permits are a big deal overthere as well.

(13:53):
One of the deals that we did onOahu it was a short sale and a
foreclosure with multiple liensand unpermitted work it took us
over a thousand days to close adeal because of the issues that
come along, so it is a verydifficult location.

(14:17):
However, it can be extremelyprofitable and we do get paid
based off the problems that wesolve.
So if you have connections toHawaii, this could be a great
location for you to wholesale,because you can do a lot less
deals but still make the sameamount of money, or you can make
more money just based off theprice points and the location.

(14:40):
And also there's not a ton ofcompetition and the location and
also there's not a ton ofcompetition.
Now, due to the lack ofcompetition, there's also a ton
of lack of knowledge aboutwholesaling in Hawaii.
A lot of the end buyers don'tnecessarily know what
wholesaling is and the titlecompanies don't necessarily know

(15:00):
what wholesaling is.
So sometimes maybe they won'tdo an assignment of contract and
you'll have to do a doubleclose or coach them through what
an assignment of contract is.
The other thing that comesalong in Hawaii is there's no
regulations on wholesaling, sothat's always a big concern.
So there are a lot of pros anda lot of cons to Hawaii.

(15:24):
I think the one that you need topay attention to the most
prioritize the fact that do youhave a connection and do you
have knowledge.
This isn't like an area where,hey, I went and got a deal on a
contract in Kansas, I'm going togo hire investor boots to do
recon and then I'm going to useinvestor lift to do dispositions
.
It's a lot harder there.
It's not as welcoming, which ishilarious because, honestly,

(15:49):
when you're there in Hawaii, theHawaiian people are some of the
most welcoming and nice peopleI've ever met in my life.
But when it comes to doingbusiness and buying the real
estate, it just doesn'ttranslate.
They're very protective overthat.
Last thing I'll say aboutHawaii is there are certain
parts of the state where thereal estate is actually

(16:11):
protected and if you are not anative Hawaiian, you cannot buy
it.
Now, I rarely ran into that,but if you are doing deals, you
do need to pay attention to thatas well.
What else?
Listen, there's a lot ofnuances to Hawaii.
Ultimately, if you do not havethat connection and you don't

(16:33):
understand what you're gettingyourself into, you should
probably not attempt towholesale in Hawaii.
That's the bottom line.
So for that, it's one of myfavorite places that I've ever
done business in.
It's really awesome to say I'veowned as much real estate as I
did in the state of Hawaii.

(16:54):
But today, in 2025, I don'treally have a lot of aspirations
to do more deals there becausewe've kind of moved away from
that back to our hedgehogconcept.
Yeah, it's virtual wholesaling,but I also know the issues that
come along in the state ofhawaii.
So for those of you that havedone deals in the state of
hawaii, let me know in thecomments how I did, explaining

(17:15):
it.
I hope I did good.
There are a lot of nuances to astate of hawaii.
Next week we'll get back to themainland and we'll talk about a
more normal location to dowholesaling.
Appreciate you guys, make sureyou show me some love, like the
video, and we'll see you guystomorrow.

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5 Things You MUST Know About Wholesaling Real Estate in Hawaii

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