Blog 4 How We Found a Home

Devany had a connection through an online group on the Big Island that recommended a realtor to us, Kelly Moran, principal broker of Hilo Brokers, Ltd.  We were staying in Puna on the southeastern coast of Hawaii (the Big Island’s real name, not to be confused with the state name), but agreed to meet Kelly some 75 miles north in a town named Honokaa on the Hamakua Coast which is basically on the northeast side of the island.

Devany had communicated via email with Kelly previously about our tastes, preferences, price range, etc.  Still largely in a vacation mode, we were taking this as something of a lark at this stage and still expecting I would find a position back in the Bay Area.

What surprised me after seeing a few homes was that they were houses that could be anywhere.  No thatched roofs, no pounding surf, but just plain, ordinary dwellings like ones in suburban Illinois perhaps.  Where was the “wow” factor?  Well, we soon found out when Kelly took us to a house in Hilo right on the ocean – naturally, out of our price range.

We met up with Kelly another two times and probably viewed over 25 houses from Puna in the south up to Honokaa in the north.  So we pretty much traversed the entire eastern part of the island during our visit.  Kona is on the other side of the island, and although the resorts and beaches were fantastic, it did not appeal to us, primarily due to the “vog” (a smog-like condition in the air caused by volcanic eruptions from the active Mona Loa volcano – it reminded my wife of growing up in Los Angeles.)