Carol Moore is the owner of Estate Liquidators Hawaii. She also owns Ad Agency Moore Ideas Inc. She has over 22 years in the advertising and marketing arena.
Phone: 808-258-5431
Team Lally Show with Carol Yamada Moore
Estate Liquidators 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. And uh, you know, this is the part where, where I do that, you know, the, we’re not giving any legal advice, we’re not, you, okay, if we were giving legal advice, who should they run that by?
Adrienne: They should run that by uh, Myron Kamihara of Kamihara Law. And you can call him at 352-6417 for that legal advice.
Attilio: And we’re not providing any, any uh, tax advice either, if it sounds like it, it’s all purely anecdotal. So, okay. That’s our liability statement, if we get, that’s for liability for all you lawyers out there in the world uh, boom! We’re covered, right? Not really—
Adrienne: What about Mom?
Attilio: Yeah. Anyway. This is what I want to talk about toady. No, I don’t want to talk about that. This is what I want to talk about. So, uh, I want to talk about work places real quick, as a story, you know, I want to give you guys the learning, something that you can take away at the top of the hour, at the beginning of the show, make you want to tune in every time. So, the question is, and this is the question here that’ll help you determine, are the people in your lives, the people in your workplace, are they givers or takers? So, here’s the deal. Here’s the question: what percentage of the people in the workplace will steal at least $10 a month from their employer? Adrienne, what was your answer earlier?
Adrienne: Uh, I said maybe, maybe half?
Attilio: Maybe half. Okay, so, Adrienne’s answer was 50%. Now, what that percentage is, is not important. Who cares! And this is coming from, and I want to share this, who this information’s coming from, that I’m sharing with you. It’s from uh, this is from an Adam Grant, he’s a behavior psychologist. He’s been, Warden, so Warden is the School of Business, one of the top in the nation, top-rated professor for 5 straight years. Uh, he has a TED talk with over 8 million views on it and the topic is “Givers and Takers and Original Thinkers.” So, if you want to determine, obviously, you know yourself, or maybe, even what you know of yourself maybe a perception of whether you’re a giver or a taker, more importantly is how are you perceived by the people around you? So, here’s the question for you, when they ask if you’re looking to work with somebody, or if, just, maybe even being in a personal relationship, ask them what percentage in the workplace of, in the average workplace, will people steal $10 a month from their employer. If, and this is what he says, the data, the data says this about your answer: the answer you receive, whatever it is, is, is not important. Here’s what the data says. It shows that the higher your estimate, that there are thieves, the higher—so, if you say like 80%, 90% of the people in the workplace steal $10 a month from their employer, there is a high probability that you! Are the thief. You are a thief. So, anyway, just wanted to share that with you. Now everybody’s going to be like oh! Man, I’ve got to go home, I’ve got to go to my workplace and ask them, hey! I just have a quick question for you. Anyways, so that’s a great interview question. What percentage of the people in your workplace, in the average workplace, steals $10 a month from an employer? If they say 80% or higher, the data says that they are most likely someone that steals.
Adrienne: So, I guess we’re going to be adding that to our list of interview questions. That’s what you’re saying. Alright, so, speaking of the pearls of wisdom, we have some quotes courtesy of Hawaii Pacific Property Management.
Attilio: Yeah, what’ve you got?
Adrienne: Alright, so the first one is uh, by Charles Swindoll. “Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it.”
Attilio: Yes.
Adrienne: So, I think that kind of goes in line with our 90% mind-set.
Attilio: And more importantly, not reacting, but responding. There’s a difference.
Adrienne: Yes. What is the difference?
Attilio: Well, reacting is getting emotionally upset, pissed off. Responding is taking in what, what’s happening to you right then and coming back with a more calm response to being solution-oriented and optimistic about, about the situation.
Adrienne: I think it’s like maybe like emotional versus non-emotional.
Attilio: It’s okay to be emotional!
Adrienne: Or like have like an emotional reaction that may not be logical.
Attilio: I’m so happy that you’re seriously pissed off at me, with me today! And I’m looking forward to the opportunity to figure out how to resolve this!
Adrienne: Alright, so, the next quote is from Author Anon.
Attilio: Anon.
Adrienne: Anon.
Attilio: He’s uh, Phillipino philosopher, he lives in ___, his name is Anon.
Adrienne: It’s a her.
Attilio: Her name is Anon.
Adrienne: Yes. “You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one.” You’ve got to just, you’ve got to move forward.
Attilio: Tony Robbins says this—
Adrienne: Stop living in the past.
Attilio: Depressed people focus on the past. Happy people focus on the present and if you’re a business person, you’re bouncing back and forth between the present and the future because you’re, you’re planning. You’re a planner.
Adrienne: Alright, then the last one is from Robert Luis Stevenson. “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.”
Attilio: By the seeds you plant. Good stuff.
Adrienne: Alright, so, speaking of good stuff, we’ve got Duke on the line.
Attilio: Thank you for these quotes!
Adrienne: Yes!
Attilio: From Duke.
Adrienne: And to talk about his—
Duke: Oh, I’ve got the best quote.
Attilio: What’s your quote?
Duke: Are you guys ready?
Attilio: Yeah, we’re ready.
Adrienne: Yes.
Duke: Here’s a new one. This one stuck with me for about seven days now, every day I woke up I thought about it. It says, “Work on your dreams every day or someone will hire you to work on theirs.”
Attilio: Oooh!
Adrienne: Oooh!
Duke: Wow! (laughing)
Adrienne: “Work on your dreams every day.” It’s so simple.
Attilio: And, you know what?
Duke: Or someone will, yeah.
Attilio: Or someone will hire you to help them work on theirs and you know what’s cool? If you’re a great, great business partner, employer, you, you, you are focused on working on the people that work for you on their dreams.
Adrienne: Exactly.
Duke: Yes.
Attilio: And that’s what we know—
Duke: That’s the way to be successful.
Attilio: Yup, and I know Duke does that. He’s got some happy people over at his place.
Duke: You know we, we, we stick with one focus, actually two focuses and that is to put money in the bank for our owners, and to protect their properties. So, in the absence of owner presence, we are the representative for the owners on the island. And that’s a heavy responsibility, uh, which we actually take very seriously and we do that with certain guarantees. We give you a rent guarantee, an eviction guarantee, and a communication guarantee. That’s all in writing, yup.
Attilio: Flesh those out for us, really quickly.
Duke: So, the, the eviction guarantee states that if we put the tenants in your unit and we have to evict them, there’s no charges to the owner, we will shoulder those costs. Communication guarantee states that we will answer our phones or get back to you as soon as possible, probably within 2-3 hours. Um, if we’re with clients, then we’ll call you right back right after. And the last one is the rent guarantee. We’ll state up front that we will uh, agree upon a rental price that if, we will go no lower than if we advertise it for 30 days uh, and we don’t’ get a tenant in there, we’ll pay that amount of money.
Attilio: Wow!
Adrienne: That’s amazing.
Duke: Well we, we stick by that, every day.
Adrienne: And that’s, and that’s why your clients love you and you guys have such great reviews on, on Yelp!
Duke: Yup! And you know, we, we tell the people that if they’re happy and satisfied, that, and they want to show us their appreciation, because a lot of people say hey! How can we write you a letter of recommendation? I say hey! You can go on the Yelp and, and enter your thoughts on there. Um, you know, it’s just a different set right now, of people that we’re dealing with because in the old days, people would write you a letter of recommendation but now that just isn’t the case. Because we have online reviews.
Adrienne: Well, well let’s, let’s talk a little bit about those reviews because I know that there’s some, some negative ones there and uh, I think generally speaking, those negative ones are really like, from the tenants. That are uh, you know, disgruntled.
Duke: I think, in today’s society, the tenant is so empowered with the internet that you know, when they don’t adhere to something that they’re supposed to, like paying rent on time or keeping their place clean or maintained, and we get on them for that, there’s an instant reaction is to go ahead and write a review.
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: Yeah.
Duke: So, you know, in the case where people’s credit scores don’t get to where they think they are, a lot of them don’t even know that they have a credit score uh, problem and they have a collection on there for $15. Or things like that, we let them know that. So, we don’t ever hide anything from the tenants, we let them know right up front and within the 24-hour period if they are uh, accepted or not and if they’re not, then why they’re being uh, not accepted.
Attilio: Alright.
Adrienne: Well I think you guys do a great job with dealing with you know, both your owners and your tenants, whether, you know, they’re happy or disgruntled tenants. You do a great job.
Duke: Well we, we try to do what’s right and every day that, that’s always a challenge. Uh, (laughing) because we’re trying to protect eth owners and that’s the job.
Adrienne: Yes, and the property. So, you guys do a great job with that. Thank you, Duke!
Attilio: Thanks, Duke!
Duke: Thank you! Alright, talk to you next week, bu-bye.
Adrienne: Alright, so that was uh, Duke Kimhan of Hawaii Pacific Property Management.
Attilio: You know how he protects the owners’ property? He stands in the driveway with a machine gun.
Adrienne: (laughing) No, he doesn’t.
Attilio: Yes! Because they have a zombie apocalypse guarantee.
Adrienne: No, they don’t.
Attilio: If there is a zombie apocalypse, they’ll be in your driveway with a machine gun. No?
Adrienne: No.
Attilio: Oh, okay.
Adrienne: No. They’ve got all sorts of other guarantees.
Attilio: Okay.
Adrienne: But not that zombie apocalypse guarantee. (laughing)
Attilio: Guarantee. Okay.
Adrienne: But check them out online, www.hawaiipacificpm.com or give them a call at 445-9223.
Attilio: Who’ve we got up next?
Adrienne: We’ve got Vlad up next. With his legal tip of the week!
Attilio: Hey, Vlad!
Adrienne: Vlad, are you there?
Vlad: Hey, guys!
Attilio: What’ve you got for us?
Vlad: How are you guys doing?
Attilio: Good, always great.
Adrienne: Awesome.
Attilio: What’ve you got for us?
Vlad: Okay. Okay, uh, uh, as you always know, Myron and I always say protect, protect, plan to protect before probate and then uh, last week’s tip was uh, protect by making sure that uh, you have adequate insurance. So, uh, last week you had mentioned somebody to check with on uh—
Attilio: Insurance.
Vlad: Car insurance. Who was that again?
Adrienne: That was uh, Bradley Maruyama of Allstate and he does all of our insurance, he’s, he’s excellent.
Vlad: Okay, great, alright, uh, I want to follow up with uh, I guess an add-on to my tip from last week, um, in addition to making sure that you have adequate car insurance as well as home owners’ insurance, maybe you could consider uh, an umbrella policy.
Adrienne: Oh, yes!
Vlad: Uh, an umbrella policy is a policy that would protect you uh, basically it’ll, it’s an umbrella over uh, your property, business, what have you, uh, what probably uh, I would probably recommend to call Bradley to find out more about an umbrella policy to see if it fits. Uh, people who, as well of course, their budgets because its uh, you know, the higher the insurance, quite often, the more, the more you pay, so there is uh, that consideration. So, the tip of the week is uh, look into umbrella insurance if you do have uh, multiple assets, multiple properties that you need to protect.
Adrienne: Yes, that, that is, that’s a great tip. So, I guess if your car insurance isn’t adequate then the umbrella policy—
Vlad: Would cover you, yes.
Adrienne: Would kick in. So, yeah, definitely Bradley and his team can uh, assist in analyzing how much insurance that you need to have to be, uh, to safely protect your assets. And then uh, you and Myron can help to put everything in a trust and an estate plan to make sure that you know, everything’s in order.
Attilio: Yes.
Vlad: Absolutely!
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: Okay.
Adrienne: Alright, thanks!
Attilio: Thanks, Vlad!
Adrienne: Thank you, Vlad.
Vlad: Thanks! Okay, have a good weekend, bu-bye!
Attilio: Yeah, and again, to go off of that, what Adrienne just said, they’re excellent, uh, experts in probate and estate planning. I have so many people that’ve passed on uh, and not had that plan in place and it’s really put the, the surviving relatives, spouses, friends, in a really tough situation so, don’t wait until it’s too late!
Adrienne: But you can give them a call at 352-6417 or check them out online at www.kamiharalaw.com. And then you can also call our friend, Bradley Maruyama for the insurance questions at 591-8016.
Attilio: Hey folks, listen. We do a lot of business; we have a lot of clients. They trust us to make sure that we’re pointing them in the right direction so if anybody, if you’re looking for anybody that you need services for, regardless of what the situation is, two things here: number one, go to www.teamlally.com, go to our “Preferred Vendor” drop-down menu, and you’ll see them. Number two, maybe you have somebody that you work with that you’ve had an awesome experience with. We’d love to put them through the interview process to see if they’re worthy to uh, be preferred to—
Adrienne: To be on our list.
Attilio: To be on our list and work with our clients.
Adrienne: Yes. Okay, so speaking of awesome people, we’ve got uh, we’ve got Casey on from Pacific Rim Mortgage.
Attilio: Hello, Casey!
Adrienne: To share with us a mortgage tip of the week. Hello!
Casey: Hi guys!
Attilio: What’ve you got for us?
Casey: Um, so this is going to be with conventional loans, with contingent liability. So, in the past, what, in order, so, let’s say, Attilio, you had signed a loan for a car for one of your kids because they didn’t have credit yet. So, you signed the loan for it, it’s under your name only, but your kid pays for it every single month. In the past, you could not exclude those items, even though you could prove that you’re not the one paying for it. Now, with the change that happened about a month ago, it, even if it’s the loan is only under your name, and you can prove that your child pays for it, for 12 months, a 12-month history, then we are allowed to exclude that liability, so, if, you know, you weren’t able to qualify in the past for, the income ratio reasons and you happened to be in a situation similar to the one I explained, then, you know give it a shot, to try to get pre-approved again, because now we can exclude it.
Adrienne: That’s, that’s great news!
Attilio: What’s the form of the proof? Do you have to like, from the checking account or something?
Adrienne: Get it from the bank statements, banking.
Attilio: Bank statements for—
Casey: Correct. Bank statements or cancelled checks and you have to have a 12-month most-recent history and payments need to be on-time so you can’t have any late payments, uh, but as long as payments are made on-time and you can prove it, you’re all set!
Adrienne: So, Casey, does this only apply to like, if you’re a parent or a child or anyone that you’re cosigned with?
Casey: Anyone that you’re cosigned with, so even if you did it with a friend, you know, we’ve come across certain cases like that of, of a friend needed some help so they signed an auto loan for them, so that works as well.
Attilio: So, if I get—
Adrienne: As long as you can prove it, that they actually are making the payments, then—
Attilio: So, if I can get Adrienne, talk Adrienne into getting me a Tesla through the, as a company vehicle and she makes the payments, I’m not, that doesn’t count for my debt?
Adrienne: (laughing) It, it won’t count on your credit.
Attilio: Okay, good! Okay, I’m going to work on that.
Casey: (laughing) Go ahead, good luck!
Adrienne: Thanks, Casey.
Casey: You’re welcome guys, have a great day.
Adrienne: You too. Okay.
Attilio: Alright, how can we reach them if we’ve got more on these mortgage questions?
Adrienne: Alright, yes, so, you can give them a call at 488-5510 or check them out online at www.pacrimmtg.com.
Attilio: Alright, we’re going to take a break?
Adrienne: Yes. We’re going to take a quick break but before we go, I want to just chat real quick about the event that’s taking place next week.
Attilio: Well, get to it.
Adrienne: Next Friday.
Attilio: Get to it.
Adrienne: We have a Mastermind that we hold on the last Friday of every month and, in, not in our Kapolei office—
Attilio: Kapolei business center.
Adrienne: Yes. And you can go to www.teamlally.com/kw to learn more about it or to sign up for your spot, so, um, this month we have Mr. William.
Attilio: And he’s going to be talking about the power to influence.
Adrienne: And confidence.
Attilio: To, yeah, and the ability, uh, using your voice to do that. Whether talking one-on-one or in a group environment, wouldn’t you want to have more of the skills and strategies to be more influential when you’re talking with someone?
Adrienne: Yes!
Attilio: Well, you get to go learn that for free.
Adrienne: Yes!
Attilio: And folks, listen up! You don’t necessarily need to be in the real estate industry or be a realtor, if you’re in the area and you want to RSVP for this thing, we’re all about coming from contribution and educating and sharing and learning.
Adrienne: Yeah, so, you can be a realtor, business person, or you just want to have better communication skills.
Attilio: This is the—
Adrienne: Come join us.
Attilio: As the uh, Care Bear said, “Sharing is caring.”
Adrienne: That’s right.
Attilio: Was that the blue one or the pink one? The Care Bear?
Adrienne: I like, the, the pink one.
Attilio: The pink one. “Sharing is caring.”
Adrienne: Alright, so check it out at www.teamlally.com/kw.
Attilio: If you want to learn how to become a more powerful speaker! Alright, you ready to take a break?
Adrienne: We’re ready for a break, but stay with us, when we come back, we’ve got a very special guest joining us in studio.
Attilio: In studio!
[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 just give us a call at 799-9596 or check us out on the web at www.teamlally.com.
Attilio: Well, hey everybody, our guest today is the owner of ad agency Moore Ideas Incorporated. She has over 22 years in the advertising and marketing arena.
Adrienne: She has now put all of her skills to form Estate Liquidators Hawaii, which offers services for the community in the area of appraisals, buying, selling, auctioneering, estate sales, art sales, consignments, and benefit auctions.
Attilio: Please welcome our guest today, the owner of Estate Liquidators Hawaii, Carol Moore!
Adrienne: Welcome, Carol!
Attilio: Welcome!
Carol: Hi, Attilio and Adrienne, thanks for having me!
Attilio: No, no relations to Joe, right? From the news?
Carol: (laughing) None.
Adrienne: (laughing) Well, um, well Carol, you know, you have this, this, this interesting business and such a, a diverse background. Could you tell us, you know, how did, how did you get started in this estate liquidating?
Carol: It actually evolved really interestingly from the advertising agency. So, I helped to market auctions for I think over a decade, and slowly getting to realize the different items that are there, get to know the prices, I mean, I became fascinated. You know, we started off marketing and we started off building the auction catalogues, and then I said, you know, how can we take this a little further, so, we introduce an estate liquidation business.
Attilio: Take a step back though. Tell us about yourself. Are you from Hawaii, uh, from somewhere else?
Carol: Oh, born and raised here, attended ___ High School.
Attilio: Oh, wow, nice! ___!
Carol: ___! And uh, lived in ___ Oahu.
Attilio: What did you, what did you do right after high school? Did you go to college; did you stay here?
Carol: I did attend the local college here and I stayed here, I traveled for a little bit, but for my whole life, I want to say 23 years I’ve always been an entrepreneur, so the advertising agency and now the moving company and Estate Liquidators Hawaii. They’ve kept me here.
Attilio: Okay.
Adrienne: So, with the, okay so with the advertising agency you said you were advertising and promoting these auctions. Like what kind of auctions were they, were they estate auctions? Or home auctions? Cars? What kind of?
Carol: Honestly they ran the whole gamut, from business liquidations all the way to estate liquidations. We handled the big ___ Auction back in ___, that was a really big one. And uh, you know, smaller business liquidation, so everything from A to Z, which gives you a great range of dealing with either antiques or uh, business materials and then peoples’ items in their homes, so a wide range.
Adrienne: What would you say was like the most unique or interesting auction that you—
Carol: Definitely uh, the ___ Auction that ___ in ___. I would say maybe almost 2 years ago. Just the amount of publicity and the amount of people that came. I mean it, it essentially was what an auction should be like. I mean you have people there bidding up, energy was good, and they, they did really, really well.
Attilio: And what’s the, but tell us more about that auction. What was uh, so it was personal contents of a home?
Carol: All of his collections. I think we had a 20-foot brass lion, we had huge uh, marble statues, and these things were very ornate, things we would never find here, things from Italy, things from around the world, collections. Huge pieces of furniture, uh, paintings, mermaid statues, and these were not little statues, everything in average is about 5-8-10 feet tall.
Adrienne: So, like real-life size and larger?
Carol: Absolutely. And a huge garden of uh, gigantic cement pagodas, which you don’t see any more but a lot of the Japanese homes collect them, especially if you’re into architecture, so it was a fascinating auction.
Attilio: Now what were they, just like, it was, was he a hoarder, just at a higher level?
All: (laughing)
Carol: I think he just enjoyed buying beautiful things, that’s why we call them treasures.
Adrienne: So, so what was the most expensive item that you sold at that auction?
Carol: I, I want to say it was the huge lion, that was more than life-size. I don’t even know how the movers moved it but I would like to say it was the huge lion. I think it must have went for about $10,000!
Adrienne: Oh, wow!
Attilio: Is it bigger than the one that’s in front of the Honolulu Museum of Art? No. (laughing)
Adrienne: (laughing)
Carol: (laughing) It might be! It was huge!
Attilio: So, and then the type of people that were coming to these auctions, I mean, were these, was this all stuff that got divvied up all locally or? I, I don’t’ even know if you would know that, did stuff go to the mainland?
Carol: No, we do know that and almost 90% were all local buyers, but the wide walk of life. I mean you’re talking neighbors to people that lived out on the Westside to also people that were collectors themselves. And uh, you know, art aficionados so, it went the whole wide range from Auntie and Uncle all the way up to the serious collectors.
Attilio: So, let’s, let’s uh, let’s talk about the people out there that are listening and they’re saying hey, you know what? I have that, I’m in that situation and I want to do that. And there are things that, you know, if, when, and, liquidating or doing an estate sale like that, there are things that people like about and things that they don’t like about it. Uh, let’s, dispel some of the myths. What are the things, what are the things that people say, “Oh, well I don’t want to do that,” um, because people are going to be, you know, I’m not going to get the value that I, that I want out of my belongings?
Carol: We recommend estate liquidation or estate sales per se, on property if there are enough items to actually conduct an estate sale. Mainly because of the marketing cost. You know, to attract the, the bodies there and for our team to actually go ahead and produce the estate sale, which is somewhat cataloguing the items, putting them in some type of organizational structure, as well as coming up with pricing for these, it takes a lot of time and effort, so we really do that, I would say, not very often throughout the year because unless you have a huge estate where we can almost determine the rough value you’ll get, you know, if it’s a few thousand or less, we pose that to the customer and ask them is it worth it for you to proceed with an estate ale at this point? If not, there are other options.
Adrienne: So, like with the marketing of the estate sale, how much do you typically spend and what kind of like lead time do you need in order to get the appropriate amount of people out there?
Carol: Ideally the lead time is about 2-3 weeks if not more. Just to be able to, you know, satisfactorily handle our SEO marketing and get it out in our different emails blasts and reach different people that we know are collectors that might be interested in specific items, so, ideally 3 weeks and the marketing fee usually ranges between $500 to a few thousand depending on the type of estate we’re dealing with.
Attilio: Now, what kind of questions or what should the consumers be looking for because I don’t know how many times, I mean, somebody’s having a garage sale and they call it—air quotes—”estate sale.” What, you know, and so everybody kind of throws that term around and obviously with, you know, doing that ___ estate sale, that’s an estate sale! Because you’ve got, you know, huge brass lions and statues and everything else. What should the consumer be looking for? Do you tell them that this is not, you know, Mrs., Mrs. ___ down the street doing a garage sale?
Carol: I think one of the most important things is to bring in professionals like our team, or like myself, to kind of come in and do a, a free assessment. So, we do walk in and, and let you know kind of this is what your value might be based off if we do an estate sale here. These are pieces maybe of value or may not be. And we have to be very careful with how we word them, because everything we deal with are treasures to our customers. Um, so, that’s what I would recommend. We don’t really do garage sales but we can give you a good idea of which way to proceed.
Attilio: So, if we see, if we see your guys’ signage, what’s it going to say on it? Like what’s the name of the company again?
Carol: Estate Liquidators Hawaii.
Attilio: And if it says that, then you know it’s a legitimate estate sale and not, not uh, Joe Blow’s garage sale. Go ahead, Adrienne.
Adrienne: So, you guys do free assessments?
Carol: We do. We’ll come out to your home.
Adrienne: Okay.
Attilio: What’s a, what’s a good number?
Carol: 258-5431.
Attilio: Say that number for us one more time.
Carol: 258-5431.
Adrienne: Now, could they also go on to your website and request the uh, the assessment or the—
Carol: Absolutely, there’s a “Contact Us” on our website, which is www.elhawaii.com.
Attilio: Now do you guys have a fixed location where some of the overflow inventory might be at?
Carol: We do, and it’s probably one of the, the most exciting parts of what we do. We have two retail showrooms located in ___. So, it’s 1126 ___, we’re in the ground floor. Conveniently located next to the restaurant and the border realtor building. And uh, we, that’s where our overflow goes, that’s where our consignment part of our company begins.
Adrienne: Now, you’re coming up with a, there’s like an online auction that you’re doing with this consignment. Could you tell us a little bit about that?
Carol: Sure! I mean, people come to us to help them basically liquidate their items. We pride ourselves on liquidation. With that comes, we have to do our best to be able to market their items, so, we are developing an online auction site now. We have our two retail showrooms and we do email blasts as well as our social marketing. To get the word out.
Attilio: Your online auction, though, are you guys using that, is it going through the eBay format or this is your own format?
Carol: No, it’s a, it’ s a special format uh, with www.estatesales.org. So, we’re trying that out to see how that works because we feel going with a corporate company like www.estatesales.org gives us a little more brand development while we’re still building that auction site. Rather than just going out cold on our own.
Adrienne: So, the one that’s going on now, if our listeners wanted to participate, they would go to www.estatesales.org?
Carol: Yes.
Adrienne: And then search for Estate Liquidators—
Carol: Hawaii.
Adrienne: Hawaii. And all of the items that are available are going to populate?
Carol: Absolutely. Or they can go to our website. We’ll have a link there too for the auction.
Adrienne: Okay. I think you guys are doing like the wood bowls, right? How, how many of, how many bowls do you have up for, for auction?
Carol: It’s actually a variety of Hawaiian wood products, so, anywhere from bowls to furniture to framing uh, to accessories, so a whole bunch of different things. We try to gather different categories every month to kind of promote and uh, it’s something unique out there.
Adrienne: So, this month it is the Hawaiian wood?
Carol: Yes.
Attilio: So, I think one of the key things that you guys realized too was that, and you mentioned it earlier, was, uh, that, they should, the consumer should not automatically assume that all the stuff piled in grandma’s house for the last 40 years is, makes sense to do an estate sale. That’s why it’s important for them to call you, so that you can go over there and give them an assessment because uh, will you, will you, if it’s, if it’s, if it’s, how do you guys determine, I mean, would you do like hey, you know what? We’re just going to take all this stuff away from you, and I know there’s a range, right, it’s either you’re paying us to take the stuff away or we’re going to take it away, but we’re going to give you like, you know, like a, like a bulk price. How do you, how do you make that determination? Are there, you know, I know you, and, and talk about this, you mentioned that there’s a lot of things that people think are valuable that are not, that are just coming out of your ears over at your shop that you don’t take in anymore?
Adrienne: (laughing)
Carol: (laughing) Absolutely. You know, it’s interesting, is we’ll, we’re going to be able to share with the customer or clients what the market is bearing at this time. So, what is actually moving, what is not moving, what the sale price is and, and that’s you know, the name of our company is liquidation, so we’re here to liquidate their items, not to hold it as a retail store, and I think—
Attilio: You’re not a museum!
All: (laughing)
Carol: Thank you! (laughing)
Attilio: That’s Bishop, uh, that’s Bishop Museum. Not the Moore Museum. So, you’re there to liquidate things and, and, I know, it’s a fine line and you mentioned it before because people have personal attachments to them and I think, why wasn’t Grandma’s doily, why didn’t it go for $100? And, as opposed to nothing or, you know, you have to just donate it. And uh, but, regardless of the spectrum of what’s going to happen with the stuff, you guys have the ability to help them no matter what, what the end use is if they’re willing to either pay or ask for your help?
Carol: Yes. Most times yes. And some of the things that are very common that have no value right now, we’re going to tell you that up front. So, and we’re going to help you be able to weed through the things that we can liquidate and sell and hopefully you’ll make some money on it!
Attilio: Yeah!
Adrienne: So, so, what are those things that are not really valuable?
Attilio: You know, I want to, I wanted to ask you, what’s trending now? What’s hot? What is everybody looking for? Harley Davidson motorcycles? What re they looking for?
Carol: You know, it’s always, always a need is Hawaiiana, and I guess it’s because our culture and you don’t find any more of that being produced. You know, the __ woods by the uh, you know, the old wood sculptors and, and some of the fascinating ___ necklaces that are really hard to find. So, those are really prized, when uh, part of our job is to educate our customers and when they really learn more about our pieces, they, they want it more, they see the value that this is something that’s never going to be done again. It’s very unique in all its aspects. And I think, with antiques especially, that’s what you’re buying. You’re buying that uniqueness of that piece that you can’t walk down the street to a big box retailer and buy it at.
Attilio: Now, and, and I, I have a personal interest in it because my parents from back in the day, over the ___ Sugar Mill, we had a shop called the Antique Bottle Shop and so from a little kid, and my dad was the president of the Hawaiian Antique Bottle Club, so we’ve always been around that and I grew up with all of that and so it’s always fascinating to me because there’s so much history and things to learn about uh, you know, as far as the, the, so, when somebody comes to your shop, like for us it was just antique bottle, it was all Hawaiiana but it was antique bottles. And maybe we had some things just outside, outside of that range like maybe tooth, toothpaste, uh, jars and stuff like that and maybe, maybe, maybe some of the old Chinese Tiger Whiskeys but it was all antique bottles. If I were to, if you were to come down to your shop, what would we see? Like, just give us a, a smattering of what we would see at your shop right now.
Carol: Interestingly enough you’ll see a lot of bottles.
Attilio: Oh, really?
Carol: We have a collection and we’re just selling the collection I think for about $75 for about 8 bottles. So, you know, the old ones that I would imagine that you found, when you were looking back when you were a youngster, uh, everything from Chinese artifacts to Balinese pieces, to beautiful shark and uh, ___ wood dagger uh, knives, uh, different, very, very different uh, items. We have a lot of American furniture right now as well and several large paintings by uh, Weiland and ___, so kind of a whole variety of things from different cultures. And that’s part of the beauty of what I think I get to do is be able to go and find and select the treasures so when you come into our store, you’re not just looking at Chinese culture items, you know, you’re going to see things from Bali and from Tahiti and from India, all over. So, it’s quite a treasure hunt when you get there.
Attilio: How about a #1 Spiderman? Comic book.
Adrienne: (laughing)
Attilio: Or how about, how about the, by any chance do you guys have Elvis’ cape? That he threw into the audience when he did his performance at ___ Blazedale Center?
Carol: I’ll find it for you!
Attilio: I know I was reading some book and the guy that got that I think, that thing must be worth a lot of money today, whoever has that! But anyway.
Adrienne: So, I think we’re going to take a real quick break.
Attilio: But we’ve got more questions.
Adrienne: Stay with us, uh, we’re speaking with Carol Moore of Estate Liquidators Hawaii. And uh, she’s going to tell us more about her company and the estate—
Attilio: And how she can help you!
Adrienne: Yes! So, stay with us!
[Music fades to commercials]
Announcer: It’s the Team Lally real estate show. Here’s Adrienne and Attilio!
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: If you have any questions, just give us a call at 799-9596 or on the web at www.teamlally.com.
Attilio: Hey, real quick before we bring our guest back, we just want to give you guys a friendly reminder, again, last Friday of the month! This month we’re doing a Mastermind at our Kapolei business center in Kapolei, in the James Campbell building and here’s going to be our speaker. He is a uh, local uh, founder of the Vocal Masters Forum and owner of the Performing Arts Academy uh, Mr. William is uh, is a, he’s going to be talking to you about being a great speaker and how it’s important about being successful as a real estate agent or anybody looking to do more business. And basically, he’s going to give you tips that you’ll need to be confident and take your public speaking to the next level. That’s what he’s going to be doing!
Adrienne: You know, and he was also a member of uh, Crush and Society 7 so he’s, he’s uh, got an—
Attilio: Back in the day, you’ve probably seen him perform!
Adrienne: (laughing) Alright, so, back to Carol and Estate Liquidators Hawaii. So, I think during the break we were talking about you know, in the real estate world, in the real estate transaction, what do we do when we come across a home with a lot of stuff?
Attilio: Yeah so, let’s talk about—
Adrienne: Like how can you guys help?
Attilio: Let’s talk about trash-outs and first of all, let’s define it. A trash-out means basically that, pretty much everything inside the home doesn’t really have any value and so, when you come to that situation, uh, Carol, what, what, how do you, like how do you guys give an estimate of how much it’s going to cost and, and what exactly happens to all of those items?
Carol: Well, it’s interesting in those situations because a lot of times I think we talked on break, it’s about the perception. So, once there is a meeting of the minds that mostly everything has to be disposed of, then we do go ahead, we have partnerships with refuse bin companies. We do bring in a team of approximately 5 staff members and we’ll spend a few days there um, and then we’ll give them estimates before we start anything, so they can get a good idea of what it may be, whether it’s a 2-bedroom, 3-bedroom, you know, 2 house, uh, or 1 house.
Adrienne: That, so you guys have partnerships too with the like the local non-profits and charities as well?
Carol: Absolutely. That’s something we really pride ourselves on, I mean it’s sad to see that there is a lot of accumulation in homes right now, and we really hate to see it go to waste. So, we work with everyone from the Veteran’s Society down to the local thrift stores and we do a really good job I think of figuring out into smaller areas that need the goods. Rather than just the bigger ones, all the time.
Attilio: And then, and then, as opposed to all going to the landfill?
Carol: Correct.
Adrienne: So, like if, so, if anyone’s listening that is really in need, can uh, like, would they be able to reach out to you and say hey, you know, we’re really looking for these kinds of items for our, you know, for our non-profits?
Carol: Absolutely.
Attilio: To get on your list!
Carol: Get on our list. We’re going to actually be adding that really soon to our website. So, they can, or if not, just contact me.
Attilio: Gotcha.
Adrienne: Okay, so the website is www.elhawaii.com. And you can always reach Carol at 258-5431.
Attilio: What’s the most interesting thing that you’ve come across? That you uh, in, in the years that you’ve been doing this?
Carol: You know, we also do appraisals, so I’m a personal property appraiser and one of the most interesting things that we’ve done in I’d say in the last 6 months is we appraised an original ___ by Mary Pritchard. Which was I think done in about the 1940s and it was about 6-7 feet tall. We did 2 of them and I think the owner, upon, when we gave her the appraisal documents, I think she may have been trying to donate it to the Bishop Museum. So, it was just really cool to see a piece like that, to appreciate the history and part of the appraisal business really isn’t going on Google and eBay, that’s a no-no in our profession but it is learning about the history to be able to determine value and learning about the manufacture of the product and how it’s made and really the owners and the history behind it.
Attilio: What are, what are some other reasons why people get appraisals?
Carol: Mainly for uh, legal purposes. And I want to say insurance documentation. They want to insure something that may be of high value and the insurance companies accept our documents. Also for uh, estate sales, I mean, I’m sorry, estate documentation. Say someone passed and they want to know the value of an asset. So, we’ll be able to go into a home and look at pieces or look at entire home contents and be able to develop an appraisal for them.
Adrienne: So, we’ll have to connect you up with Bradley Maruyama, of Allstate. I’m sure he’ll love to give out your name as a recommendation for those appraisals.
Carol: Yes!
Attilio: Yeah! For people that are filing claims and saying—no I had uh, I had a uh, you know I had uh, I had a uh, baseball card in there for, from the New York Yankees! It was worth $100,000, I tell you! It was in my nightstand when the house burned down. No, you’ve got have an appraisal and proof!
Adrienne: Now, now before we uh, we finish up here with Carol, I wanted to know what are the things that like people think are valuable but really aren’t?
Carol: You know, it, there is a lot of it right now, especially because we live in Hawaii. Chinese dishes. So, jokingly enough, keep them for your family, don’t bring them in. There’s unfortunately a lot of lead too, in some of these and we have the lead tester in our store, so, you know, with lead, you’re really at the collector value at that point. You can’t use them, it’s, it’s really no value.
Attilio: You’re not going to be eating off of them, that’s not recommended, for sure!
Adrienne: Exactly, dangerous!
Carol: Dangerous! But we get a lot of those, I mean hundreds, every week, request to take them and unfortunately we cannot. And glassware.
Adrienne: Yes, glassware and Chinese dishes. Those are the 2 like, no value!
Attilio: Right now, somebody’s like—
Adrienne: Just sentimental.
Carol: Sentimental.
Attilio: Some kid right now: oh, I was at Grandma’s house, I thought we had lots of money in this stuff! That’s okay, you’ve just got to love on Grandma, that’s what she’s there for. She still can bake for you. But not on those plates.
Adrienne: Alright, Carol, so before we let you go, is there anything that we should have covered or should’ve asked you that we didn’t? That you ‘d like to share with our listeners?
Carol: Uh, well please contact us if you need appraisals. We also take in your items for consignment, but we’ll probably uh, ask you to send us photos first and we do take a small percentage and then of course, liquidations so we can help you if you want us to come into your home, be able to pack up things, donate, dispose of, and uh, liquidate. And we also can help you with moving now as well.
Attilio: Yeah, you know, I—
Adrienne: That’s right!
Attilio: Friendly reminder to our listeners, too. If you’re having them come over to determine the value of something and let’s say its valued at $1,000, correct me if I’m wrong, you’re not giving them $1,000, because you’re a business that has to have some profit.
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: I, I think that’s the key thing that, you know, I see them on there, when they’re on Pawn Stars on the show, they’re like, well you just said it’s $4,000, well give me $1,000 and the guy on the other side of the counter says yeah, but we’ve got to sell it and we’ve got overhead, and, and so we have to be profitable.
Adrienne: Cost, the cost of sales, right?
Attilio: Because you guys are not a non-profit, right? So, anyway, and you can provide help but there’s nothing wrong in making money uh, because you know, that’s, even if, even all non-profits get donations from profits, for-profit businesses.
Carol: Yes.
Attilio: That’s how they get their money!
Carol: Yes.
Attilio: Okay.
Adrienne: Alright, well thank you, Carol, for joining us today.
Carol: Thank you!
Attilio: Again, what’s that number for Carol?
Adrienne: So, you can reach Carol at 258-5431 or—
Attilio: And the website?
Adrienne: Check her out online at www.elhawaii.com.
Attilio: Alright.
Adrienne: Alright, so we’ve got Angelique on the line.
Attilio: Hi, Angelique!
Adrienne: To share with us, something!
Attilio: What’ve you got for us, what’ve you got for us, Angelique?
Angelique: Aloha, Adrienne and Attilio! Yes, this is Angelique. I will be sitting a grand open house. This is a beautiful home out in ___, the beautiful north shore on Oahu. And it’s a beautiful 3-bedroom, 2-1/2-bath, over 1200 square feet, ocean views, a definite must-see. Come check me out, Sunday from 2-5 p.m.!
Attilio: Now, I know it’s a, I’ve seen the pictures, it’s across from the community park, so the good news is that, no ones’ ever going to build and block your view!
Adrienne: Yes!
Angelique: That’s correct! And I do want to mention that the home is being sold fully furnished, so great, lots of opportunities uh, and I’m hoping to see a lot of people come through. For an open house.
Adrienne: And I would say if you don’t need the furniture, you could call Carol!
Attilio: And she’ll liquidate it!
Adrienne: And she’ll liquidate the furniture for you so, either way, it’s a win!
Angelique: It’s a win-win.
Adrienne: Yes, that’s right. Thanks, Angelique!
Attilio: Thanks, Angelique!
Angelique: Thank you, have a great day!
Adrienne: You, too!
Angelique: Bye!
Adrienne: Okay, so now we have, we’ve got Abby on the line.
Attilio: Hey, Abby, are you there, Abby?
Abby: I’m here guys! Hello, hello everybody!
Attilio: What’ve you got for us?
Abby: So, I have an open house, not a grand open house but might as well be because this is a gorgeous home and it’s going to sell really fast, so, come down and see me. I’m going to be at 91-1080 ___ Street. It’s in Ocean Point. This is a newer house, built in 2007, 4-bedromom, 3-bath, gorgeous, gorgeous! Nothing to do, all you have to do is bring your stuff and uh, and enjoy the home!
Attilio: Yes! Bring, bring Abby some, bring her a box of ___!
Abby: (laughing) Please! And a Coke!
Adrienne: She, she’s got to feed the baby!
Attilio: She’s got to, she’s got a bun in the oven so bring her some ___. They look like buns, too!
Abby: Yes! It’s a big bun! So, I’ll see you guys, thank you!
Adrienne: Thanks, Abby!
Attilio: Thanks, Abby!
Abby: Okay, bye.
Adrienne: So, if uh, any of our listeners want to learn more about our open houses, or our coming-soon inventory, you can give a call at 234-4421, that’s our buyer hotline.
Attilio: Now, if you’re uh, looking to sell your home here in the state of Hawaii, uh, we have the ability to handle you on any island, anywhere on Oahu. Uh, we have the support an all of that and the track record so, and a great huge marketing budget. Because again, the number one reason you’re hiring an agent is to expose your property to as many people as possible. We’re good at that! So, speaking of that—
Adrienne: We’ve got uh, Michael.
Attilio: Michael!
Adrienne: On the line.
Attilio: Yeah, Michael, what’ve you got for us, Michael?
Michael: Hey guys! I have a, you have so many great buyer tips for all of our listeners out there. So, definitely, first off, definitely make sure that you meet up with a great realtor. So, that you, you know the homebuying process. And most definitely, once you get that done, get yourself together with a lender to figure out just how much, uh, you’re comfortable paying for the home that you’re going to buy. Because the worst thing that could ever happen is you look at homes without being represented. You fall in love with a home and guess what guys? You can even pay for it!
Attilio: You can’t afford it! I know! And then it’s the, then it’s the sad emoticon.
Adrienne: And we’ve got some great recommendations for agents and lenders that you can meet with.
Attilio: Yeah, they can call our buyer hotline. What’s the number?
Adrienne: Yes. 234-4421 or, or not or, and you can uh, give uh, Jody Tonga and her team a call at 488-5510. And they’ll help you to get uh, pre-approved.
Attilio: Thanks, Michael!
Michael: Thanks, guys! Have a great day!
Adrienne: Thank you, you too!
Attilio: So, again! Folks uh, listen up! All those resources are available, preferred vendors, people that can help you with liquidating, uh, people that can help you, uh, find a home, people that can help you sell a home. All those great resources are available at our website. Check it out, it’s, it’s, by the way, our website? It’s open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Adrienne: And it’s uh, www.teamlally.com. The other thing is that we’re also always looking for talent.
Attilio: You know, I wanted to speak to that because I had listened to a TED talk and it said, this is what we’re looking for. We’re not necessarily looking for someone that either has a license or real estate experience. This is what we’re looking for: it’s the things that we can’t give you that you need to have coming to the table. You’ve got to have, you’ve got to be hungry and you’ve got to be teachable. And you just have to have a great attitude. We will provide the rest because we’ve got an $80K guarantee. Adrienne, what’s that? $80K?! Guarantee?!
Adrienne: That’s right. So, basically, if you don’t make $80,000 in that first year, we’ll write you a check for the difference.
Attilio: That’s how confident we are in our ability to train winners.
Adrienne: Alright, so speaking of winners—
Attilio: We’ve got Brooks!
Adrienne: We’ve got Brooks on the line to talk about some uh, coming soon listings!
Attilio: Hey, Brooks! Brooks, what’ve you got for us?
Brooks: I have a seller’s tip.
Adrienne: Oh, a seller’s tip. Okay.
Brooks: And that is the, you know, when you think about the buyers, Mr. and Mrs. Seller out there, the last thing a new homeowner wants is another to-do list, so, get your home in move-in ready condition before it hits the market so the buyer can start fresh! Easily! So, that means making all repairs and replacements that you’d demand if you were buying your house. And if you have to walk single-file up the walkway then trim the bushes or if the garage door is dented, have that fixed or replaced. If you go into a room and say, hmmm . . . I wonder if this carpet is dirty enough to replace, you have your answer.
Attilio: Yes!
Adrienne: Now, Brooks, do you like, do you give these kind of tips to our, our sellers as the home prep?
Brooks: Absolutely, yes!
Attilio: I think Brooks, you even, you even make it easier for them if they call us and come in and do a consultation. You go over to the home and say, hey! We’ve sold over 1,000 homes and this is what we know buyers are looking for and this is what you should do and you help them prioritize. Right?
Brooks: I, I make solid recommendations. Exactly, so they don’t spend needless money and they have a re—great return on their investment for the, what equity they put in, in preparing their home for market.
Attilio: Alright, thanks, Brooks!
Adrienne: Thanks, Brooks!
Brooks: Thank you guys, bu-bye!
Attilio: Bu-bye!
Adrienne: Alright, well thank you for listening ant thank you to our sponsors!
Attilio: Jody Tonga and Derek Tonga of Pacific Rim Mortgage!
Adrienne: Bradley Mariame of Allstate Insurance!
Attilio: Nathan Baker, Pillar to Post Home Inspections!
Adrienne: Ben and Tony Mamoon of Triple A Roofers Hawaii!
Attilio: Janice Myrland with Dream House Drafting!
Adrienne: John Speed of Kilauea Pest Control!
Attilio: Duke Kimhan with Hawaii Pacific Property Management!
Adrienne: Mike Metts of ___ Plumbing!
Attilio: Thomas Patterson with Patterson 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 also want to give a big thank you to Lea, our producer here in the studio!
Attilio: And our guest, Carol! 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 your timeframe, we’ll have it bought for cash.
Adrienne and Attilio: THANKS, AND ALOHA!