If you live on Maui and you have family here, you should NEVER sell your home. 

Once you sell a home you will never be able to Buy back into the housing market at the same price. There are no lateral moves.  Each time you buy and sell your home you are making a ton of real estate agents rich and happy. If you try to get the maximum price for your home, by selling to an off-islander, you have helped to drive the housing market prices higher, and subsequently made it harder for young local families to buy a home.  House flipping and home-profiteering are destroying communities, by making it unaffordable to live there. Click here to watch a video about how “Home flippers are Destroying the US housing Market“.

Real Estate Agents are pushing people to sell their homes. The real estate industry makes money every time a house is sold, so they want to keep people moving, House hunters are seducing homeowners with the lure of high cash values, but little thought to the housing needs and financial well-being of the homeowners. Real estate commissions are high, and agents are incentivized to get the highest prices possible, This is so they get the biggest commissions. But don’t let them talk you into selling your home. Selling your home early in the mortgage can be expensive, most mortgages are designed to benefit the homeowner long term. Here is an article on “6 Reasons You Should Never Sell Your Home or Rental Unit”

Real estate agents benefit by keeping housing prices high and keeping demand high. They are not interested in solving the housing crisis. One estimate is the real estate industry is ripping-off home sellers and overcharging home buyers to the tune of  72 billion dollars a year

There are more than 3 Million licensed real Estate agents trying to get you to sell your home. Many of them use tricks, scams, and cheats to get your money. Read about the top scams real state agents use here.

When you renovate a home to flip it, you raise the home’s value, and that raises the average home price. When several people do this in your neighborhood, the land taxes will increase for everyone. This includes your old retired kupuna neighbors that now have to pay higher taxes on their homes, on a fixed income, or on social security. Many people in Hawaii lose their homes because they cannot afford to pay their property taxes. 

What is Gentrification? Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. Gentrification often increases the economic value of a neighborhood, but the resulting demographic displacement may itself become a major social issue. Gentrification often sees a shift in a neighborhood’s racial or ethnic composition and average household income as housing and businesses become more expensive. (Wikipedia). In Hawaii, this means as more Hawaiians move out of their homes, mainland and foreign investors move in and change the face of the once-local neighborhoods, and these neighborhoods become increasingly unaffordable for local families.

  Edward Snowden's former house in Waipahu, Hawaii

Keeping your Home in the family is the best value your home can have. However, problems can arise when a family home is inherited by several children. Whenever possible the children should work together to hold the home jointly or to make sure that one of the children holds onto the property. Click here to read about Home inheritance in Hawaii.

READ THIS: Why You Should Never Sell a Property