Negotiating Paradise is not easy!

The days on island were ending soon, and a our list was shrinking because properties were going already under contract fast, with rumours of multiple offers. The market was definitely waking up now so we felt it was time to make a move.

The property which we dubbed the Mango house because of its orange color, is the best one available for offer without competition. A 3br rancher, 20 minutes south of Kona downtown in southern Captain Cook. The house wasn’t much, but there were several building sites with fantastic views on the 5 acres of cleared lava rock behind the home on the Mauna (mountain) side. The offer was submitted and we waited for the seller to reply.

While waiting another property came onto our radar and we rushed to see it and make an offer against competition.

The property was in Holualoa, which is the coffee farm belt just south of Kona and at around 1500ft elevation. This was a half acre, so definitely not a coffee farm, but with three single wall, cedar structures this property offered real possibilities and the location was near perfect. We dubbed it the Doctors house because a couple of the rooms had medical-like fixtures, even a sterilizer. It was being sold as a foreclosure and we were one of three offers.

Meanwhile we remained in negotiations on the Mango house as these were going slowly and our confidence level on the Doctors house was not very high, for good reason it turned out.

In the midst of all of this, a small coffee farm came onto market in a great location. So we jumped on it like a fly on a cow pie and made offer fast, only to get beat out by two others! Felt a little sorry for putting our Realtor through such shenanigans.

Negotiations for both the Doctors and Mango house went on for over a week after we returned to the mainland. By the end we were at the list price on the Doctors house, but our offer was not the one accepted.

Two down and only the Mango house remained. We made a last offer and waited.

Then it appeared, actually reappeared would be more accurate. This property on the Eastern side just north of Hilo, in Kaiwiki. This was on our radar from the start, but was priced too high. The price was dropped just in time to place it within range.

Comparing the Kaiwiki property to the Mango house was easy, though it’s much smaller at just over an acre, there are two houses, each offering many possibilities. Here we go, one more time…offer was made, and to our delight there was no competition.

We received a final counter offer from the Mango house while waiting reply from Kaiwiki offer, but chose to wait.

To our delight the counter offer came from Kaiwiki and was not too far from our decided top price. One last counter offer meeting the sellers halfway in our difference and agreement was made!

So after almost a month of the emotional rollercoaster of making how many offers?We are under contract! We are under contract? OMG, yes Paradise is found…we hope.