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| Kīlauea from the observation point in Volcano National park |
Deciding to move to Hawaii was not a difficult choice for us. My dad decided he wanted to retire in Hawaii and we'll we thought that sounded like a great idea as well!
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| Yes you're seeing that right there was a moose in my POOL!!! |
We were living on 20 acres in Eastern Washington. My husband is an avid fisherman and hunter. My mother and I also enjoy gardening. So we knew we'd like to have some space. My Dad wanted anywhere without rain. So Ocean View Ranchos was a good fit for us!
We quickly learned that the listings for property in Hawaii are often mislabeled. Many condos are listed as single family homes on acreage for instance. We spent several months looking aimlessly at property without much success. My mom subscribed to several real estate agents websites and they would email her suggestions that were so far off base as to be laughable. Personally I found that using zillow as well as trulia were the best options. But as mentioned the filters are often way way off base! So don't get discouraged! the perfect house is out there just will take a bit more work to find it!
Here's a few tricks if you're looking to buy property on the Big Island. Hawaiian Ocean View Estates consists of reasonably priced one acre lots north side of the belt road (highway 11). Hawaiian Ocean View Ranchos consists of 3 acre lots for a bit more money on the South side of the belt road. Ranchos is a half gated community. The whole of the ocean view community is located farthest from EVERYTHING. It takes around an hour to an hour and a half to drive to Kona and close to two hours to drive to Hilo. We wanted property though so we bought a three acre lot in Ranchos.
If you're willing to pay more though you can certainly do that. Kona has the more expensive property on the island. Hilo is more affordable. Hilo has more rain and greenery Kona has more white sandy beaches. There literally is something for everyone on the Big Island. The higher in elevation you live the more seasons you will have, it does get colder the further up the mountain you go!
Something you are likely to see listed in the house descriptions is what lava zone the house is in! Yikes! sounds scary right? Well it is an active volcano! if you do your research the risk is fairly low that your house will be over run by lava. USGS keeps active tabs on where the lava is most likely to flow. You can see the standard map here. The lower the number means the more likely it is that Lava will flow in that area.
Catchment tanks. Some people wonder what on earth is a catchment tank and why do I care about its size? Well once you've been here about a month you'll know! Catchment tanks catch rainwater from usually your roof in order to provide water to your home. Many areas in Hawaii are not hooked up to any sort of city water. A large catchment is necessary for a family. and unless you are looking on the Hilo side of the island you'll also need a way to fill your tank during the dry times you can buy water its not much only $200 for 6,000 gallons of water. Lasts a family of 6 about a month so that's a decent price. You can also pick up one of these water haulers:
These are a very common sight in the areas further from town. There are communal wells where you can fill these to haul your own water. Of course you'll also need a truck to haul it with most of these caged units hold about 300 gallons of water!
