Joining Team Lally in this episode is Sandro Tassan, the President of Modern Living Hawaii. Sandro tells the story of how he moved to Hawaii 10 years ago from Italy with the help of some friends in the military.
He tells us how he started with a landscaping business, and later on took advantage of his roots and family knowledge to start another business, Modern Living Hawaii. Sandro talks about how unique their product is and how craftsmanship is very important in furniture and design. He also talks about their focus which is to provide high quality, very customizable pieces that are competitively priced.
Also in this episode: Quotes of the day, Tips of the week, special events, this week’s Open houses and Coming soon listings.
Who is Sandro Tassan?
SandroTassanis the President of Modern Living Hawaii. Modern Living was born from the friendship between Sandro Tassan and Stefano Moras, from the Friuli region of Italy, which is world renowned for luxury modern furniture design and craftsmanship.
With strong roots in the Italian furniture industry, they are expanding to bring unparalleled products and design services to Hawaii.
Team Lally Show with Sandro Tassan
President, Modern Living Hawaii
Announcer: It’s time to enter the world of real estate in Oahu with Hawaii’s only true real estate radio show, the Team Lally real estate show. Grab a pen and get ready to take notes! For the next full hour, Hawaii’s premier real estate leader, Adrienne Lally and Attilio Leonardi will bring you the latest in real estate news and real-world strategies on how they can guarantee to sell your home at a price and deadline you agree to! Or they’ll buy it! Now, here are your hosts, Adrienne and Attilio!
Adrienne: Welcome to the Team Lally real estate show home of the guaranteed sold program or we’ll buy it. If you have any questions, just give us a call at 799-9596 or check us out on the web at www.teamlally.com.
Attilio: Well hey everybody, this is Attilio. If you hear anything on the show sounds like tax or legal advice, we’re not giving any of it. So! There’s our disclaimer. Done! Alright, so here’s our life coaching moment. Uh, part of the show. When you hear a great idea, stop.
Adrienne: Stop.
Attilio: Yup.
Adrienne: And what?
Attilio: Drop and roll! Because that means you’re on fire! No, that’s not what that means. When you hear a great idea, so Tony Robbins uh, says it, we are drowning in information but we’re starving for wisdom. And what he means by that is there’s so much information out there, sometimes you, becomes, becomes so overwhelming, you don’t do anything. And that’s not good.
Adrienne: You freeze.
Attilio: And then the other, other, side of the coin of that, just as bad as doing nothing is trying to do everything. So, here’s the, here’s the rules of thumb when implementing new ideas. Remind yourself we cannot do it all. So, by the way, here’s your tip for today, take notes! If you want to get through life a little bit more complicated, a little bit more effective? Take notes! These notes are probably from, when did we do that Mastermind? Uh, over at the uh, ____?
Adrienne: Oh, uh, like a year, a year ago. Yes.
Attilio: So, I’m reading back to you guys notes that I took down in a Mastermind group that I was participating in over a year ago. So, uh, don’t be one of those people that you know, you’re sitting down, you’re taking in all this information and you’re not acting on anything. Take notes, taking notes is one of the ways that allows you an opportunity to go back and review and re-share and by the way, when we share, we learn, when we teach, we learn.
Adrienne: And sharing is caring.
Attilio: No, that’s a Care Bear. So, let’s focus on what we already know. And have and make sure we are utilizing them to the fullest capacity, so before you insert or implement any new ideas or concepts into your life or your business or personal relationships, make sure, are you fully utilizing the concept that’s already exists? So, uh, it’s better to go, we can either go one inch deep and a mile wide, or—
Adrienne: We can go a mile deep, we can go deep.
Attilio: And one inch wide, that’s the difference here, I’m trying not to cough.
Adrienne: Okay, don’t cough.
Attilio: Because I’m pausing. Fill in for me!
Adrienne: Would you like some water?
Attilio: No, I’m good.
Adrienne: Okay.
Attilio: So, first step is, does it support your why, when you take a look at an idea. Well first of all, you just, you’ve got to, the most important thing is uh, when a new idea comes your way is what?
Adrienne: Is to pause.
Attilio: Stop!
Adrienne: To stop! And pause, reflect!
Attilio: Okay. Does it support your why? And then you’ve got to take it through this next process. Is it a good idea? Is it the right one? So, number one is stop, number two, are you fully utilizing everything in your business that you’re already are, before you started implementing new things? And if you are going to bring it into your organization or your situation, make you go deep on it. And, and last two here, only implement one idea at a time. Right?
Adrienne: Otherwise it could—
Attilio: Why?
Adrienne: It’s going to be chaos if you try and add a whole bunch of different things.
Attilio: Either you on an individual level or on a business owner, you’re, you’re this person, you’ve got a whole bunch of half-done projects, which equates to nothing getting completed.
Adrienne: Or chaos.
Attilio: And then last one here, will it distract us from what we really, what we already have? So, if you have already ideas or concepts, things that are working, paying the bills, getting it done, put a fence around it and protect it. Because if you’re jumping around all over the place, you’re never going to get anything done, so you’ve got to focus, especially in today’s day and age, we’ve got the pinging and the buzzing and the phones. Electronics, nobody really takes any time to do any deep thinking or focus on any particular one project. We’re all over the—
Adrienne: All over the place. Yes.
Attilio: So, there’s your life coaching moment for today. Go deep instead of wide. Okay!
Adrienne: Alright, so I think we’ve got a uh, a legal tip of the week from Myron Kamihara from Kamihara Law.
Attilio: Hey Myron, what’ve you got for us today?
Myron: Hey guys! How ____?
Attilio: Yeah, good! Yeah, awesome! What’s your legal tip, what’s that legal tip you’ve got for us?
Myron: Well the legal tip of the day is that, you know, Vlad and I, we’re, we’re always talking on starting a trust, protect your assets from probate, now the assumption is though that the person establishing a trust has to be competent uh, but recently uh, you know, we’ve gotten clients who came to us after a diagnosis letter uh, has been, has been made by a doctor uh, questioning, or not questioning but I should say uh, ___ the person trying to establish the trust as an incompetent person or someone who fails to uh, have the legal capacity to sign any type of contract like a trust. So, the legal tip of the day is that, come to us before uh, any, any diagnosis has been set out by a doctor and should a diagnosis be set out, then the other way to go about it is by establishing what’s called a conservatorship and the conservator can sign on the behalf of the person trying to establish their trust because that conservator has been ordered by the court, as having legal capacity.
Attilio: Now the, so you, but it can be done after the fact, is that what you were saying?
Myron: It can be done after the fact, after the person has been deemed incompetent but obviously before that uh, but if someone who’s authorized by the court as the conservator.
Adrienne: So, Myron, when they deem them incompetent or the doctor gives that diagnosis like what typically is taking place? What situations?
Myron: Uh, well, the most common I’ve seen is dementia. Uh, that’s the common diagnosis uh, and you know, once it’s in your medical record, it’s pretty hard to, to take out or overlook I should say, because should the situation arise where the trust is done uh, after the letter of diagnosis, and uh, the incompetent person happens to sign, then at that point, the trust becomes, or it, it could be contested in court after death, I should say by other beneficiaries or any other heirs __ and in order to, the worst thing that could happen is that you pay for a trust and it’s invalid. And so, if you have to go to probate anyway then you know, why do the trust, right? And so, if someone does consent to ___ pull you back into this probate process and uh, you know, at that point, you can pay for a trust and, and you would have to pay double for probate because uh, that person signing it is incompetent.
Attilio: Alright, so the big takeaway for today before you go mental, put your trust together!
Adrienne: Or at least before you go see the doctor and get the diagnosis.
Attilio: I think, you know, I was going to, I was at the gym the other day, yesterday morning, this guy’s like screaming and yelling while he’s ___ the weights. I think it’s too late for him.
Adrienne: Maybe, maybe not. As long as he hasn’t been diagnosed.
Attilio: Everybody was looking around, going what the heck? Somebody videotaping us, I mean he was like yelling loud. Like somebody was murdering him slowly.
Myron: As long as there’s no letter, you know, he’s not deemed incompetent, so, that’s a perfect point, there’s no letter, you know, then, you know, you could—
Adrienne: He’s good to go!
Myron: Right, right.
Adrienne: Alright, well thank you so much, Myron, for that legal tip of the week. On uh, on a trust.
Myron: Take care, guys!
Adrienne: Alright.
Attilio: Okay, thanks Myron! Alright, next up we’ve got uh—
Adrienne: Whoa, first of all, you can get ahold of Myron if you have more questions at 352-6417. Or find him online at www.kamiharalaw.com.
Attilio: Alright, we’ve got uh, Duke up next. Duke, are you there?
Duke: I am.
Attilio: Alright.
Duke: But you, you didn’t say where you work out and __ but you work out at a place where there is not a lot of uh, sane people there, you work out at Orange Theory, there’s, they’re all mentally—
Attilio: ___ but actually, actually it was at 24-hour fitness.
All: (laughing)
Attilio: In Kapolei! By the mall! You know how like on the shows where they like, they don’t tell you where and then they, they, indescript, no, not me. 24-hour Fitness at the mall, the guy was screaming, and—I’m serious! We were like, my trainer was with me, we were like what the?
Adrienne: What is going on?
Attilio: What is going on over here? Call 911! And you know what? He, he’s a pretty big guy, pretty big guy, he had 2 20-lb dumbbells.
Duke: 10?
Attilio: 20-lb dumbbells and I was like, okay, this guy is messing with, and he was wearing fluorescent green. All the guys at 24-hour Fitness were like I know who that guy is! And then you know what? The one guy was going, that’s me! But anyway, so Duke, what’ve you got for us today?
Duke: So, a lot of times, owners don’t specify with their property managers what they’re okay with as far as uh, satellite dishes, so, there’s a lot of situations where people want DirecTV or they want the NFL package and they’ll say, hey, uh, but they don’t tell the property manager, hey, I’m going to put the satellite dish at my house and they get all excited and they screw the 6-inch lug bolts into the owners’ roof.
Attilio: Uh-oh!
Duke: Yup! And, and I’d say about 25% of the time, they miss the stud. So! After they remove the dish, oh, there’s another thing, they don’t remove the dish when they leave. So, it’s in the contract that the dish has to be removed by the person doing the service but the people don’t get the dish removed because they think ah, the next tenant will get DirecTV, but that’s not always the case, so, owners need to be very specific as to what they’re okay with for satellite dishes.
Attilio: Is it uh, is it anon—is it part of the, the standard lease you guys use or? How does that work?
Duke: No, it’s not addressed in the, uh, the Hawaii Association of Realtors’ standard lease.
Adrienne: Now, well what about Hawaii Pacific Property Management lease?
Duke: We, we state in there that uh, satellite dishes have to be removed and then when they leave, but that doesn’t always happen.
Adrienne: Now if the owner doesn’t want a satellite dish, is that like a special term or is that something that you guys discuss up-front?
Duke: Uh, we, we’re starting to discuss that up-front because having more and more of these issues and having penetration for roof is a big deal. I recommend that you do not get roof penetration satellite dish. Mount it on a pole in the back of your yard, or whatever you can do not to drill 6 lug bolts into your, into your roof.
Attilio: Yeah, especially if it’s not your home and uh.
Adrienne: Yeah it can cause some, some serious roof damage and uh, you actually, you’ve had to give AAA Roofers Hawaii a call, they could fix it right up.
Duke: Yeah. Exactly. Okay.
Attilio: Great tip for today.
Adrienne: Alright, thanks Duke!
Duke: Thank you! Alright, talk to you next week, bu-bye.
Attilio: Alright, Duke is uh, his company has the uh, rent guarantee, if they don’t get your home rented within 30 days at an agreed-upon rent, they’ll pay the rent!
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: That sounds crazy, it sounds ridiculous, it sounds good, but it’s crazy ridiculous good! Give them a call, check them out on Yelp!
Adrienne: Yup, you can give them a call at 445-9223 or find them online at www.hipacificpm.com.
Attilio: Yeah, and one last thing for you guys who had like a bad crazy tenant, you have an eviction guarantee. If they put a tenant based on their criteria in there and they have to evict, they’ll take care of the cost and all the headaches.
Adrienne: They’ll get them right out!
Attilio: Alright.
Adrienne: Next up, we’ve got uh, the Mortgage Genius!
Attilio: Yeah, speaking of stress relief. That’s the opposite of a headache. We have Jodie! Jodie, are you there?
Jodie: I’m here!
Attilio: Alright, what stress relief are you going to give us today? Or education?
Jodie: Well I have a really cool news, uh, so right now, one of the biggest or a, a difficulty to purchasing is our, our loan amount limit. And in Hawaii, so we have, we’re lucky because we have higher limits than, than most place son the mainland, but there, right now, they’re capped at $636,000 for a one-unit property, so previous to this it was $625,000 and then it went up to $636,000. So, in 2018 it’s going to go up to $679,000.
Attilio: Wow!
Adrienne: That’s a big jump!
Jodie: Yeah! It’s a big jump and so, it, what it means is that when you’re, if you’re buying a property, you won’t have any sort of uh, to your interest rate or perhaps have to get a higher interest rate because you’re borrowing more than $679,000, so, that’s really helpful and, and uh, another, another cool thing is that we happen to be in a high cost state which we can all agree to, right? Hawaii being a very costly place—
Adrienne: One of the highest.
Jodie: Yes. So, we also have this other loan type, which is, it’s technically still a conforming loan, but it’s called a high balance conforming and so previously it was $721,000, and they’re actually, Fanny Mae is bumping that up in 2018 to $1 million.
Adrienne: Oh, wow, that is, that’s another big jump!
Jodie: It’s huge and so it does, you know, it basically just showing the shift uh, in the direction of, they are trying to make it easier for people to, to be able to borrow money. Uh, and there, some of the loans, it’s like well, they might be able, you may have been able to qualify but because we can’t go over the $636,000, or because we can’t go over the $721,000, you know, it’s not going to work unless you can come up with more money. And uh, you know, that is a, a difficult piece of the puzzle, it’s going to be your down payment and so, now we’re in this cool stage where, come the next 30 days, we’re going to be able to go up to $679,000 for a one unit and up to $1 million for a one-unit high balance.
Adrienne: Now what about VA? Has that, have those numbers come out yet?
Jodie: Those numbers didn’t come out yet.
Adrienne: Okay, so maybe next week we’ll have—
Jodie: Hopefully next week, we’re going to have that, yes. Yes.
Adrienne: Alright, so that’s uh, some very exciting news for our, our home buyers here in Hawaii that, you know, you can borrow more money and make it easier to, to move up, you know through the, the bigger homes that cost more, so.
Jodie: They do.
Attilio: Well, thanks Jodie, we always know that the most intelligent, the most intelligent people on the planet always start off their home search by calling you guys first. See what they get—
Jodie: Awe, thank you!
Attilio: So, uh, but, and then, you know, the other people, they don’t, they’re all like, you know, they’re deemed incompetent and, and they can’t get a trust.
Adrienne: That’s right.
Attilio: So, that’s how I connect all the vendor messages here.
Adrienne: Good job, good job!
Attilio: And then, and then they, they stop paying their rent and they get evicted.
Adrienne: Yes, and they’ve got to take, and, and they’ve got to take their satellite dish with them and AAA Roofers has to, you know, repair that roof damage.
Attilio: There you go, we hit all 4 vendors.
Adrienne: There you go.
Attilio: Alright, thanks Jodie!
Adrienne: Thank you, Jodie!
Jodie: Have a good day!
Adrienne: Alright, so you can uh, reach Jodie and her team at 488-5510 or check her out online at www.pacrimmtg.com. Now before we take a break I think we’ve got a uh, a message from the Body Language Boss. Coming up.
R.B.: Hi Adrienne, hi Attilio! This is our tip of the week. Now most of the time the tip of the week is actually what your body language should be doing, but there’s another aspect to non-verbal communication and that’s ornaments. That’s basically your outer appearance, the clothes you’re wearing, the style and color of them, your hairstyle, your makeup, your jewelry, glasses versus contacts, tattoos, all of those send messages about who you are, what matters to you, what your priorities are, where you fit into society. So, this week, I want you to be really conscious of what your ornaments are telling people about you. If you meet someone who’s wearing heeled black studded boots and has like a punk rock tattoo or something, that tells you something a lot different than someone who’s wearing a uh, a button-up shirt and a blazer and so, you want to make sure your ornaments are sending the messages that you want them to send. About your personality, about where you fi tin, about what your priorities are.
Attilio: Now I saw this lady at the bus stip. And she was actually wearing Christmas ornaments.
R.B.: And that probably tells you that she loves Christmas! And if that’s what she wants to tell the people around her, then she is spot on! And that is your body language tip of the week!
Adrienne: Alright, so uh, Christmas is coming up! I think, I think uh Atilio is maybe wearing some Christmas ornaments here.
Attilio: And sleeping at the bus stop!
Adrienne: Alright, so I think we’ve got a tip from uh, Janyce. From Dream House Drafting.
Attilio: Hey Janyce, what’ve you got for us this week?
Janyce: Hey, I think it’s worth uh, repeating, so __ couple of times we’re going to repeat the verify tip. Make sure that you verify the facts that people are claiming to be facts, even if they have licenses. We’re finding that there are instances, we’ll run over it again, where work was done by people who are indeed licensed, yet they’re skipping by the permit process and telling the home owners that they’re not going to need one.
Attilio: Yeah. Oh, yeah, you don’t need a license, you don’t need a permit for that, no need! That’s uh, no need, no need—
Janyce: It’s amazing but it goes on quite often! Yeah, no need that ___ that’s for sure, but—
Adrienne: So, so what’s, what is the, so Janyce, what’s the consequence of not getting a permit? What can happen?
Janyce: It’s all, I mean there’s a whole assortment of consequences that are possible depending on your circumstance. There’s the situation where I, uh, I’ll just list some of the ones that my current clients are dealing with. They’ve had a property with an extra cottage on the lot for years that’s always been rented out. They’ve owned it for years and in the changes, the neighbors don’t like the tenants, now all of a sudden, they’ve got a building inspector visiting them, telling them this is an illegal rental. Uh, I have another client who doesn’t have any consequences at present, they’re enclosing a Linai in their high-rise condo. And they’re having me do it with them with a permit, however while visiting their unit, they showed me how they had remodeled their bathroom and I was like, oh, so you already have a set of plans for this unit, a permit was done? No, I was told we don’t need a building permit. Definitely! You need a building permit and in order to do the bathroom remodel, to hopefully uh, be prepared for accommodating their elderly parents, they literally moved one wall of the bathroom a whole foot. And made the bedroom next to it smaller and now there’s nothing wrong with that but their minimum of things that trigger the need for a building permit would be addition, removal, or alteration of any wall. So in his case, if they had just gotten the permit for his uh, Linai enclosure when the building inspector came, they probably would not have been over on that side of the unit unless they might have just checked for some reason, but the bathroom is gorgeous and there’s no way that that bathroom came with that age building, so it would have been really obvious and secondly if that didn’t happen, if he tried to refi, then there’s where you get a problem when you go to sell or you go to refinance.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: And then you have to get the permit after the fact. So.
Janyce: And then you’re trying to get the building permit after the fact and all building permits are required to have the signatures of the licensed professionals who worked on the work or who will be doing the work. If it’s being done legally so that means that a plumber and an electrician needs to take responsibility for that work. Now if they didn’t they can say how it was done, and are happy to meet with the inspectors and bring them in to look at the work, that’s fine. But typically, when time has gone by and the people who did the work never got the building permits, and never intended to, then they do the we-don’t-answer-the-phone routine and then the home owner is stuck having to pay for someone other, few people who would be willing to take on the project, but those people are, didn’t do the work. So, you have to pay them for their license. Using of their license, you have to pay them for their time to get the inspector’s in, that’s called calling for inspection and before they call for inspection, they’re going to be looking to see if there’s anything the inspectors won’t approve of and getting the place, possibly opening up a few things to show the inspectors, so it’s an unnecessary expense.
Attilio: Man, it’s like I did something wrong and you’re describing the spanking in slow motion.
All: (laughing)
Attilio: Okay!
Adrienne: Thanks, Janyce.
Attilio: Thanks, Janyce.
Adrienne: Alright, so make sure you verify you’re getting the proper permits. You can give Janyce a call at 206-7107. Check her out online at www.dreamhousedrafting.com.
Attilio: Hey, we’re about to take a break but stay with us, when we come back, we’ll be talking with Sandro Tssan of Modern Living Hawaii who will tell us where to get high-end Italian furniture and design services so stay with us!
[Music fades to commercials]
Announcer: The Team Lally real estate show continues.
Adrienne: Welcome back and thanks for listening to the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne—
Attilio: And I’m Attilio.
Adrienne: And if you have any questions, you can reach us at 799-9596 or check us out on the web at www.teamlally.com.
Attilio: So, our guest today is the uh, president of Modern Living Hawaii, Sandro Tassan.
Adrienne: Modern Living was born from the friendship between Sandro and Stefano, from the ___ region of Italy, which is world-renowned for luxury modern furniture design and craftsmanship.
Attilio: With strong roots in the Italian furniture industry, they are expanding to bring unparalleled products and design services to Hawaii.
Adrienne: Here today to tell us more about Hawaii’s importer of high-end Italian furniture, please welcome Sandro Tassan.
Sandro: Hi everybody!
Adrienne: Hello!
Attilio: Hey, Sandro, welcome!
Adrienne: So, you want to start with the, with the questions?
Attilio: No, you go, your turn, your turn!
Adrienne: No!
Attilio: Why not?
Adrienne: Because you usually start!
Attilio: Oh, okay, so Sandro, just uh, tell us uh, if you’re not here from Hawaii, how did you get here?
Sandro: Well I got here ten years ago uh, thanks from some military friends. Yeah, and so I moved here, uh, I’m from a city called ___, well known for uh, you know, a good size U.S. airport space and uh, I got a chance to meet some great people and then uh, when it was time for them to move uh, back to the states, they asked me if I wanted to, you know, go and, and try to, try to move uh, to the states and I asked them uh, where do you guys uh, going to be stationed next? And they said Hawaii, so I’m like, you know what? Let’s just give it a try.
Adrienne: So, you uh, journeyed all the way from Italy to Hawaii 10 years ago?
Sandro: Yup, about 10 years ago.
Adrienne: And uh, and then, and then what? What, what happened next?
Attilio: Did uh, did they make you an offer you couldn’t refuse?
All: (laughing)
Sandro: Uh, Hawaii made me an offer. Yeah—
Attilio: That’s from The Godfather, you know, that’s a famous line from The Godfather. From Italy, right?
Sandro: Yeah, it is one of my favorite movies, yup. So, what happened then, uh, I just fell in love with uh, with uh, with the people and uh, and with Hawaii and I’m not lying with the weather too. ___ flip flops, ___ beat that. But also, uh, I just noticed that in America, as hard as you work, and uh, more results you, you see. You know, I think—
Attilio: Great opportunities.
Sandro: Great people and, and they just want to work uh, a product or the work well done and they really, really uh, appreciate it.
Attilio: Yeah, it’s always great, great rewards and opportunities in the, in America for hard work.
Adrienne: Now 10 years ago, you had, you started uh, another business.
Sandro: Correct.
Adrienne: So, tell us a little bit about how you began in your entrepreneurship here in Hawaii.
Sandro: Well I came here without any uh, college uh, only had high school so, I decided uh, you know, I have to pull up my sleeves and work hard, so I decided to start a landscaping business and uh, I was, I had another full-time at the, job at the time but uh, I was just going door-to-door, drop off some fliers here and there and uh, I was getting probably a customer every other month, so it was really slow in the beginning, but uh, I guess then uh, this word of mouth got out and uh, we became very, very busy and uh, and uh, I think you know, quite successful.
Adrienne: So, what, at what point did you quit your other job and know, okay, this, this landscaping business is, you know, is something that I really need to, you know, continue to put full-time efforts into?
Sandro: Right, yeah, we, I, I still run my landscaping business, that’s, that’s my main uh, that’s my main uh, job, but uh, I, I just decided to take the opportunity to use my, to take advantage of my roots back in Italy and my family and friends uh, knowledge uh and just pretty much starting to, to import some uh, some uh, furniture uh, from Italy, when, when I come here, came here, I see that I think there’s a need to different furniture, look for uh, for a great quality, and I’m like, this is, could be actually something that uh, Hawaii and the people of Hawaii need.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: So, you had uh, first-hand experience with building that, you know, the landscaping business so now, you know, moving on to the, the furniture. The furniture industry here.
Sandro: Yea, and what I, so, what I think is uh, and many of the guiding principles and vision I had uh, when I started my landscaping business, which is working closely with the customers, and maintaining that close attention to detail, had pretty much carried over to this new venture, uh, making the work we do in Modern Living uh, Hawaii something that uh, seemed very natural.
Attilio: Yeah, I think too with our high cost of real estate here, people, people aren’t uh, maybe so, uh, apprehensive about spending, spending money on good quality furniture because you know, the average home’s like $700,000-$8000,000. So.
Sandro: That’s true.
Attilio: Putting that investment in the furniture because you, you don’t move into an empty house, you’re going to have nice furniture—
Adrienne: And you want to buy, you want to buy furniture, yeah, to fit the house, not the house to fit your furniture. We see people make that mistake frequently.
Attilio: Too big, the furniture.
Adrienne: Yes, get rid of the furniture, have Sandro help you to you know, bring in the furniture that fits within the house and your style.
Sandro: Right, and, and I come to miss the feeling of uniqueness in the home, as well a constant reminder of artistic expressions that we have uh, you know, that I had back in Italy, so when I began Modern Living Hawaii, I envisioned a small business uh, that made this, this beauty and level of craftsmanship within reach. In the islands.
Attilio: Sure, yeah, because they, they go buy, you know, when they think it’s something made in Italy they’re thinking of like oh, one Ferrari. Uh, you know, high-end things, you know, the, the—
Adrienne: Luxury.
Attilio: The purse and the shoes and the suits and you know, really high-quality things, high-quality—
Adrienne: So, it’s high-quality but like you guys, you’re, you’re bringing them to Hawaii at a, a reasonable cost. Tell us more about that.
Sandro: Yes. Yes, so, so, what uh, what we really, so we are, we are uh, we are working on opening a showroom probably in the next year, uh, but, but in the meantime, uh, our goal is to uh, give our customers some great quality uh, products, a nice piece of furniture at a reasonable price. Most people, when uh, when most of my customers, when I show them uh, the catalogues and what we have they’re actually surprised because they think uh, they would have cost more. To, to, you know, for, it’s from a kitchen to a bedroom, to any piece of uh, of closet and so yeah.
Attilio: I, I’m thinking the ideal listener right now is uh, like an interior designer?
Adrienne: Oooh yes!
Attilio: Because they always like to have new concepts, they don’t want to just go down to the typical furniture stores that we have here because then, you know, there won’t be any, any differentiation in you know, them designing a home it’s like, oh, I saw that down at, you know, whatever, Furniture World. I know there’s no, is there a Furniture World? I was making up a name—
Adrienne: Home World. Home World I think is what—
Attilio: Home World, no but we’re supposed to make up, this is the part where we do makeup.
Adrienne: Yes, let’s just make up a name.
Attilio: Make up a name. Furniture World. They went to, you know, uh, anyway, uh—
Adrienne: So, yeah, interior designers—
Attilio: Bob’s House of Sofas. And uh, and they want to be able to design, interior designers if you’re listening, obviously you want something unique and, and uh—
Adrienne: Or even like developers, they want to, you know, have a nice model home. Right?
Attilio: Or if they’re in a condo high-rise, they want to have some nice furniture in the lobby. Uh, to, to its really, it’s that first impression right, especially if you have a condo high-rise, you want to say that you oh, we have something unique that we actually, you know, they can’t, they can say uh, I imported this furniture. Right, the designers can say that the home, oh yes, we imported this furniture.
Sandro: Right.
Attilio: So, tell us more.
Adrienne: Yeah, well so what is the, what’s the website that our listeners can go to and you know, take a look at some of these pieces that you have to offer?
Sandro: Yeah, the website is www.modernlivinghawaii.com.
Adrienne: Okay.
Sandro: And uh, you have uh, a list of items that we have uh, for sale. A list of times we have available on the island that, and uh, but, but what we focus, we focus on customizing uh, pieces so they can be pretty much unique, uh, yeah, they can be unique for, for, for, for the vision that either a company or uh, or a private homeowner has.
Attilio: So, they can like maybe select the fabric or the fabric color?
Sandro: Yup, they can select texture, fabric, color, the way, you know, the way that, that they, they mesh together and, and all of that, so they really have the possibility to make a, each single piece really the way they want it.
Attilio: Oh, nice!
Adrienne: Now what if there’s someone that’s like not so great at putting it all together. Do you guys offer assistance with—
Sandro: Oh yeah.
Adrienne: Like making sure that things match. And flow.
Sandro: Oh yeah, oh yeah. So, right, so how does it work? Uh, we meet, and I show them uh, what we have, the catalogues, and the pieces in the catalogues are really very, very beautiful and uh, but if they want uh, the door instead of being in the middle, they want them on the sides and they want a shelf in the middle or vice versa, we can accommodate that and, and, and uh, deliver uh, the piece. __ they want it.
Attilio: You have something like uh, like uh, credenza or a TV cabinet or coffee table and it has shelves and cabinetry in it and you can kind of work with them in customizing that?
Sandro: Yeah, size, material, texture, finishes, we can pretty much customize anything from wall unit, book cases, uh, sofas, couches, uh, kitchen cabinets, uh—
Attilio: So, if I want a wall cabinet for my dodge ball collection, you guys would the people to, to have a conversation with!
All: (laughing)
Attilio: I have a quite extensive dodge ball collection, I’ve collected it in—
Adrienne: Apparently so.
Attilio: Many tournaments that I’ve been around the world uh. And uh, so anyway.
Adrienne: So like, so what, what kind of timing are we looking at here, so they, the customer goes online or they meet with you, and then they pick out what they want, the colors, the fabric, the texture, like from the time that they order to the time that it arrives—
Attilio: Arrives in Hawaii.
Adrienne: Like what kind of time-frame are we looking at?
Sandro: Right, so, so when uh, I meet with the customer, and uh, we go through catalogues and, and options, I usually, it’ll take uh, a week to finalize the design. Okay. Uh, then, after the design is approved, we send it to production and the production roughly takes 3-4 weeks, and then we offer 2 different uh, way of shipping. We offer air, it can be here in 5 days, Hawaii, you know, is more expensive and then we offer ocean shipping and that usually takes like 3-5 weeks.
Attilio: Yeah, I think people who are doing something like this and this type of arena or category are patient. Right? Because uh, you know you can, they always, they always, what’s the, there’s the 3 categories of products or customer service. Fast, cheap, and good. And this is what we learned, so here, for you business people, for you sales people, for your entrepreneurs, for your, even for your customers. So, if something is fast and cheap—
Adrienne: Not going to be good.
Attilio: It ain’t going to be good. Now let’s say it’s good and fast.
Adrienne: Not going to be cheap!
Attilio: It’s not going to be cheap. What’s the last combination? Fast and good, cheap and fast, cheap and good? The listener right now is like click. Yeah help us out.
Adrienne: I don’t know, it’s usually written down.
Attilio: We have to write that down!
Adrienne: Yeah.
Attilio: Oh well I think if it’s uh, if it’s, if it’s good, can it be good and cheap? Oh yeah, if it’s good and cheap?
Adrienne: It’s not going to be fast.
Attilio: It’s not going to be fast.
Sandro: That’s true.
Attilio: Because they’re going to get to it when they get to it. So, two of the three. As business owners, we have to, we have to provide two of the three, it’s not realistic to provide all three, and as customers, it’s not realistic to expect all three.
Adrienne: No.
Attilio: So, when we’re on the same page, we’re all, you know, meeting eye-to-eye and we have uh, we have peace and tranquility and unity, all across the world, just from these 3 little concepts.
Adrienne: So, so Sandro, like what do you think that uh, differentiates your, your service, your company most from others in the same arena or is there any other company that’s in that same arena right now?
Sandro: Right, I don’t really think there’s any specific company in the same arena that we are. Uh, what I think when uh, I think that Modern Living Hawaii is unique in the results of me being raised in Italy, and uh, constantly surrounded with some of the world’s finest arts and craftsman and, and, you know, I have uh, come to develop a great passion for quality, craftsmanship and the tradition which surrounds much of our pieces incorporate that. Uh, we also provide an immense amount of client input into the design and fabrication process like we said earlier and uh, every piece of furniture we create has uh, has the potential to be completely unique, based upon your personal style and uh, design vision, so whatever you can imagine, we—
Adrienne: We make it happen.
Sandro: Yeah, we can make it happen, the company we deal with uh, are very strong and reliable uh, company, they’re been in the business uh back in Italy for some of them for more than 50 years. Yeah.
Attilio: Now we had a chance to take a tour of the factory, we ran into Donatello, Michelangelo, oh wait, no, no, no, those are the Ninja Turtles never mind! I’m sorry wrong, wrong show here. But yeah, no, I mean, seriously you’re coming from a country that, you know, has been considered the cradle of civilization and art, you know, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, uh, and everybody and uh, and my favorite places there, my favorite person, the Pope. In the Vatican and, and so, and I, you know what I love about those kind of countries, I hope, I haven’t been there yet, but I know where you can go somewhere in a building can literally be hundreds of years old but still functional.
Sandro: Yeah, my grandma’s house is, my grandma’s house is 200 years old and after the war, world wars and earthquakes, it’s still up.
Attilio: Still going?
Sandro: Still going.
Attilio: Yeah.
Sandro: And still living there, so.
Adrienne: So, when was the last time that you got to, to visit?
Sandro: You know, I was very far and I don’t like to, to fly much. Uh, I’ve been there 3 years ago but now, uh, that I launched this business, I’ve, I’m planning on getting back there at least once a year.
Attilio: Now, we mentioned Stefano in the introduction. Who, who’s Stefano?
Sandro: So, Stefano is uh, is uh, like a brother from another mother. To me. Okay, so uh, we, we, we were in school, high school together and uh, his uh, he worked for this uh, this big company that uh, we buy furniture from, so, another good uh, positive thing I think we have is that I have contacts back home and people that can really trust you know, give them a call, can this guy sew on top, you know, just get back to me within hours.
Attilio: Yeah and the fact that he was a good friend from before, he’s got to want to uh, hold himself to a higher standard when being accountable to you in regards to this, this furniture business.
Sandro: Yup, yup, that’s true and then he, he hopes they can come here more often too, to Hawaii with the excuse to.
Adrienne: Has he made it over here yet?
Sandro: Yeah, he made it over here, uh, with his girlfriend and uh, but now he’s busy, just had a kid, and uh, a baby and, I guess they’re busy taking care of the baby.
Attilio: So, let’s talk about the uh, we have a lot of business owners uh, entrepreneurs, realtors listening to the show. What uh, you, you know, we, this furniture business, what, what was the thing in your mind that said you know what? I’m driving down the road and I’m going to start this furniture business. What sparked the idea?
Sandro: Uh, the idea was sparked uh, I just missed the quality, you know, back uh, back home is, is very popular to go in a house and you see this piece of furniture that is like 300 years old, and, and it was passed by generation to generation. And what you need to do probably is just everyone once in a while just polish it and just put some oil in it or, or, something like that and, and to keep it up you know, and, and that’s uh, that’s pretty much like a family piece.
Attilio: I think you, you see furniture here in Hawaii that’s 100 years old, but it’s in the landfill.
Sandro: Right.
Attilio: Because it just, they’re made inexpensive, well not even that old!
Adrienne: There’s a lot of like, lot of pressboard—
Attilio: Yeah, pressboard—
Sandro: And then I see all these, all these nice houses, uh, even when you know, just randomly I see an open house sign, I just like to just stop and go inside and take a look but I’m like, I’m like, man! Can be so much better.
Attilio: Yes.
Sandro: You know, also all these like nice, high-end condos, the building, I’m like you know what? Our product can be perfect for this kind of uh, condos or houses and properties.
Attilio: I think too, when you have you know, when it’s inexpensive cheap junky furniture, it’s almost a hassle because then the owners are like uh, I’m not moving this stuff, they can have it and the buyers don’t want it. But if it’s this type of furniture, you’re probably increasing the value of your property and it can help with the negotiations and saying that, you know, this furniture will be included because, more and more, especially when people spend in the high-end amounts, they want turn-key, they just want to move in and oh, wow! Nice beautiful furniture—
Adrienne: So like, it’s, it’s, it’s beautiful and, you know, high-quality. Now, tell us a little bit about, you know, like the cost, because this sounds very expensive.
Sandro: Uh, well, the cost, they’re actually on the website, uh, you can find all the costs on the website, but if you need more information, uh, feel free to contact me at info@modernlivinghawaii.com and uh, we can work with you on uh, on uh, what’s your budget, we can, we can make it happen, you know, at the budget, of course has to be realistic, but I don’t think there’s anybody in the island uh, that sells what we sell for the price that we sell.
Attilio: Yeah, totally makes sense.
Adrienne: And the website again?
Sandro: Www.modernlivinghawaii.com.
Attilio: Www.modernlivinghawaii.com. Alright, so, we are, what are we going to do, take a break, are we going to bring Benji on?
Adrienne: Well, let’s uh, Sandro is—
Attilio: Wrap up with Sandro?
Adrienne: Is yeah, is there anything more that you want to uh, tell our listeners before we, we let you go?
Sandro: Uh, well, uh, I want to just thank everybody for listening and uh, if you have any questions, or, feel free to email us, and not job is too small for us and no job is too big for us, uh, we—
Attilio: You give them a free consultation?
Sandro: Yeah, we have free consultation and, and our pieces are very versatile in the way that can be used for commercial spaces, hotels, office spaces who are looking to make their environment a bit more, uh, welcoming.
Attilio: Yeah, I think the uniqueness of what you guys are offering is definitely something that would be very interesting to, to our listeners and hey, you don’t know what you don’t know. Give, give Sandro a call, check it out, do a consultation.
Adrienne: Oh, what’s, what’s the best number for them to, to reach out?
Sandro: The phone number actually is fairly easy. It’s 808-258-8888.
Adrienne: So, 258-8888?
Sandro: Correct.
Adrienne: Or check them out online at www.modernlivinghawaii.com.
Attilio: Alright.
Adrienne: Alright, thank you, Sandro.
Sandro: Thank you everyone!
Adrienne: Alright, so we’ve got uh, we’ve got, we’ve got Benji on the line.
Attilio: Benji, are you on there?
Benji: Yes, yes, can you guys hear me?
Adrienne: Yes, we can.
Attilio: What’ve you got for us today Benji?
Benji: Alright, we have a really exciting open house this Sunday from 2-5 uh, Ocean Point __. A beautiful 3-bedroo uh, 2 1/2 bath. This is on the market, there’s offers on the table but we’re, you know, excited to show it to all the, all the brokers and all the neighbors that’s, all the lookey-loos this weekend, Sunday, 2-5. The best picture of the property besides the nice floorplan is a heated third parking in the back. Which not too many Ocean Point homes have.
Adrienne: So, you don’t have to fight for the, for the street parking. You’ve got your, your third—
Attilio: Well probably for that one parking.
Adrienne: Yeah, well—
Attilio: It’s your mother-in-law, no you can’t—
Adrienne: Fight among yourselves, fight among yourselves.
Benji: Hey guys, and then we’ll see you guys Sunday, 2-5, Veronica and I will be there and uh, here’s Ross, he has a clue on the, uh, here’s Ross right now.
Attilio: Alright. Hey, Ross, what’ve you got for us?
Ross: Hey, so this Saturday, from 11-3, uh, we’ll be at ___ Valley at 3531 ___ Street, uh, over in ___ Valley, 3531 ___ Street. Uh, this is a beautiful home, there’s 2 separate entrances, so good for extended family living or potentially live in one side and rent out the other. There’s also a portable ___ system, granite countertops, custom lighting, stainless steel appliances and custom kitchen cabinets. I look forward to seeing you guys this Saturday from 11-2.
Attilio: Alright.
Ross: Thank you.
Adrienne: Awesome.
Attilio: Thank you, thanks Ross.
Adrienne: Thanks, Ross.
Attilio: Alright, I know we’ve got a couple more open houses.
Adrienne: I know there’s one that’s like uh, I think it’s a shell of a home. It’s a bank, yeah, the bank-owned one so there’s a bank-owned property that’s been uh—
Attilio: This is the golf course one?
Adrienne: Yes, on the golf course, it’s been sitting vacant for, I don’t know, 7 years. Finally—
Attilio: Yeah, so its uh—
Adrienne: Finally, it’s on the market.
Attilio: Uh, the kitchen was stripped out, right?
Adrienne: And, and the bathrooms.
Attilio: And the bathrooms, so—
Adrienne: So, it is a shell. Complete shell.
Attilio: Shell, it’s a blank canvas, ready for your, for your kitchen, counter, cabinets, appliances, your toilets—
Adrienne: Your flooring.
Attilio: Your flooring.
Adrienne: Your landscaping.
Attilio: And you know what the good news is, it’s priced accordingly because if it was priced perfectly then all those things would be in it, if it was more expensive. But here’s an opportunity for somebody to come in here, either owner, builder, contractor, somebody that’s willing to put some sweat equity into it and, and customize this home to the way you want it. It’s golf course, in a really nice community.
Adrienne: Yeah over at uh Eva Gentry, ___. Over on, over on ___ Street. I believe that Angelique and Kimalie are going to be over there at this open house.
Attilio: I’d highly recommend, don’t wait until next weekend, it’ll probably be already in escrow by then. Go this Sunday! To check it out, uh, we’ve got so many inquiries just when it went active.
Adrienne: It’s priced for, $400,000 below the last sale.
Attilio: Well it’s appropriately so.
Adrienne: Appropriately so. Yeah, so, if you have that skill set and you have the cash flow, it may be something for you to check into!
Attilio: Yeah, I wanted to give a quick tip to all our sellers out there to help out, help their realtors out. What is the number one reason why a property sits? As opposed to sell?
Adrienne: Price.
Attilio: It’s price, so here’s, here, I’m going to go and, you know, soften them up. I’m going to do a couple left jab combinations on you sellers out there. In this world, I will tell you one thing. No matter what the market is doing, interest rates, what kind of wackadoodle person we’ve got as president of the United States, no matter what’s going on in our economy, there is never a shortage of reasonable and sane buyers, never a shortage. But there’s always a shortage of reasonable sellers and seems to be sometimes in markets an abundance of crazy wackadoodle sellers. What do you mean by that, Attilio? Well I’m glad you asked! It doesn’t matter what you want to sell your property for, Mr. and Mrs. Seller. It’s what the market will bear. It’s what somebody is willing to pay for it. So, price correctly, well, I’m going to price it high because then they’ll offer me low and then I’ll get what I really want. No.
Adrienne: No, they just won’t even look.
Attilio: They won’t even look.
Adrienne: They’re not going to even bother.
Attilio: They’re not going to even bother because they’ll just go down the street to, to get the similar home, similar home with similar features for a lot better price. It’s that simple.
Adrienne: And then they’re going to use that extra money they saved to buy some really nice furniture from Sandro. With Modern Living Hawaii.
Attilio: So, here’s the trap you fall into. You’re like oh, I’ll just wait, well here’s the buyer psychology. Any kind of homes that’s been on the market for more than 60-90-100 days, it’s usually an indication you’ve got a realtor that’s got little wobbly knees because it’s not, not confident enough to have a straight-up conversation, an authentic genuine honest conversation with their seller and saying, here’s what the interpretation is from the market with your current pricing. We’ve got no offers!
Adrienne: Yup, and then the buyers, the psychology is that—
Attilio: Something must be wrong with the property, it’s been on the market for so long.
Adrienne: Why doesn’t anyone else want this home?
Attilio: So, number one—
Adrienne: I don’t want it.
Attilio: Price it correctly and don’t let it sit. Make these corrections uh, if it gets to the point where it doesn’t make sense for you financially, take it off the market!
Adrienne: Rent it out, call Duke!
Attilio: Stay! Don’t move! Whatever! You know, you, we always get these people. I’m going to die in my home. Well, okay. Make sure you have a comfortable bed—
Adrienne: And make sure you call Myron Kamihara of Kamihara Law because you don’t want to go to probate.
Attilio: Yeah, get your, get your affairs in order.
Adrienne: Yup, get it all in order.
Attilio: Get your affairs in order if you’re going to die in your home. Okay. So, here’s the deal folks. That home will eventually be worth what you’re asking for, if you’re not getting a response right now, but it could be, 3 months from now, 3 years from now, or 6 years from now. But it ain’t now, so price it to sell now.
Adrienne: Alright, well thanks for listening and thank you to our sponsors!
Attilio: Jodie Tanga and Derek Tanga of Pacific Rim Mortgage!
Adrienne: Bradley Maruyama of Allstate Insurance!
Attilio: Nathan Baker of Pillar to Post Home Inspections!
Adrienne: Ben and Tony Mamood of AAA Roofers Hawaii!
Attilio: Janyce Myrland with Dream House Drafting!
Adrienne: John Speed of Kilauea Pest Control!
Attilio: Duke Kimhan with Hawaii Pacific Property Management!
Adrienne: Mike Metts of Kama’aina Plumbing!
Attilio: Thomas Pattison with Pattison Land Surveying!
Adrienne: Myron Kamihara of Kamihara Law!
Attilio: If you want to get ahold of any of our sponsors just go to www.teamlally.com.
Adrienne: We want to give a big thank you to Lea, our producer here in the studio.
Attilio: Chi-hoo!
Adrienne: Make sure to tune in next week, we’ll have an awesome guest talking about something that’ll change your life—
Attilio: Forever! This is the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed—
Adrienne and Attilio: SOLD PROGRAM!
Adrienne: If we can’t sell your home at the agreed-upon price and/or timeframe, we’ll have it bought for cash.
Adrienne and Attilio: THANKS, AND ALOHA!