New Construction Properties – Ward Village
Waiea
Anaha Tower
Ae`o Tower
Ke Kilohana
Gateway Cylinder Tower
Read word for word from our episode with Bill Pisetsky below:
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 premiere 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 you can reach us 799-9596 or check us out on the web at teamlally.com.
Attilio: Well hey everybody this is Attilio. I was at the Orangetheory, right in the middle of the 200 meter row on the rowing machine. A lady comes at me, taps me on the shoulder. I’m trying to break a record here, I’m sweating all over the place. She started asking me a bunch of tax and legal questions. I say “Those are great questions, but I highly recommend you seek the appropriate licensed professional” and then I said “But mom, what other questions do you have?” So if you hear anything on the show that sounds like legal advice, hey! Run that past an attorney. And if it sounds like tax advice, hey, go see your neighborhood Spiderman or CPA.
Attilio: So speaking of attorneys-
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: We do have an event coming up on January 23rd-
Attilio: Whoa whoa whoa, wait. Hold on. Hold on.
Attilio: But the estate attorneys!
Attilio: What about quotes? Where’s our quotes? Where’s our pearls of wisdom? Tell me now.
Attilio: Oh I’m going to get into those quotes. I just want to talk about, you know since you brought up the attorneys-
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: Since we had Myran and Vlad on last week. I just wanted to remind our listeners January 23rd from five until six we have an estate planning seminar coming up and you can go check it out. More information on our website.
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: Under the event section. So teamlally.com, go select under the events or teamlally.com/estate.
Attilio: Here’s two reasons why you probably want to come to this event: If you own any kind of assets, even if you’ve got a yoyo collection-
Attilio: Mhm. Something of value.
Attilio: We’ve got pets, and you don’t know what’s going to happen with the pets after you pass on, or maybe you’re on life support and you want a healthcare directive, all those things that we don’t want to think about, but if we ever step off a curb, we get hit by a bus, you do want to have some kind of plan in place. Rest easy. Come get some free information from these two attorneys about estate planning because if you don’t set yourself up with a trust, all your assets and how it gets-
Attilio: Distributed.
Attilio: Distributed to your heirs is going to be settled in probate.
Attilio: Yes.
Attilio: And there’s two reasons why you want to avoid probate, and again I’m not an attorney, I’m not providing legal advice but I know-
Attilio: You’re just repeating what they told us. You’re a good listener.
Attilio: I’m just repeating what they said. #1, it’s more expensive. #2, everything’s made public.
Attilio: That’s right.
Attilio: So-
Attilio: So come to the seminar, and hear what Myran and Vlad have to say.
Attilio: Alright.
Attilio: Alright so my quote is from unknown.
Attilio: Unknown.
Attilio: Unknown.
Attilio: He’s a very popular person that has a lot of quotes, and he’s written some books too.
Attilio: Yes. So this one – what unknown said – was “Everything that you will ever need to accomplish, any goal that you will ever set, is sitting and waiting patiently inside of you.”
Attilio: Mhm. And you’re going to go with two more? Or just the one?
Attilio: Just the one.
Attilio: Okay.
Attilio: Because we have two callers waiting to come on and talk about their words of wisdom.
Attilio: By the way these quotes are brought to you by Duke Kimhan of Hawaii Pacific Property Management. Let’s go ahead and bring Duke on. Hey Duke are you there?!
Duke: I am.
Attilio: Alright.
Attilio: So this Duke Kimhan of Hawaii Pacific Property Management here with our property management tip of the week.
Attilio: Yeah! Give it to us.
Duke: Alright, whoa, jeez, alright.
All laugh.
Duke: I’m used to hearing Attilio’s voice-
Attilio: I know.
Attilio laughs.
Duke: Property management is kind of complex. So the tip of the week is make sure that you’re going to get a property manager that’s going to work in your best interest.
Attilio: Mhm.
Duke: And not theirs.
Attilio: Mmm.
Duke: So with our two goals that we work from, it’s pretty simple. Basically it’s to protect your home first, and put money in your account second, because that is your biggest investment. So as an investment, we hope that makes you money.
Attilio: So Duke when you say like “Make sure to hire a property management that’s looking out for your interests and not theirs,” what would be an example of a property manager looking out for their own best interest and not the client’s and their property?
Attilio: Yeah.
Duke: The realtors that do buy/sell real estate, and do property management on the side, have a split interest between theirs and yours because there’s a property as it needs tending to, that will go on sale, or is closing escrow, that’s probably going to be a time priority for that property manager.
Attilio: Yeah income wise.
Duke: Our priorities are strictly property management because we’re a real estate company that specializes in property management. We don’t do buy/sell real estate. So we don’t have any other distractions except to manage your property and that is making sure that we put the best tenant in there at all times, do all the background checks up front and really do cost effective analysis when it comes to repairs.
Attilio: And then you guys have a whole entire team concept, right?
Attilio: Mhm.
Attilio: So you have property managers that focus on certain areas of the island, and then you have-
Attilio: Administrative support.
Attilio: Team members that have their focused efforts. Could you just touch on that a little bit too and why that’s different?
Duke: Some companies manage by a computer.
Attilio: Mhm.
Duke: Meaning if you call in, they’re going to look on the computer what property you’re at, and that’s not the property manager that did your intake and all your paperwork that you trusted your average $750,000 house to.
Attilio: Yes.
Duke: You know with us, the person that took your intake and did your property management will come out to your house and see it from point A to point B and to make sure that they’re the ones that do the four and six month walkthroughs to make sure that your property is being cared for and we have a four and six month walkthrough standard form that we set up. If there’s any damage that needs to be done, the tenant is told in the addendum that if they don’t fix the damage within 10 days then we can terminate their lease.
Attilio: Okay.
Attilio: So you guys are more consistent. It’s like the same person stays with the property and really understands from start to finish.
Duke: Yep. Right. Most of our property managers reside in the areas that they manage.
Attilio: Mhm.
Duke: Which makes this a lot easier if there’s an emergency call, or some neighbors call in to say “Hey there’s 500 cars parked in my neighborhood and there’s a giant party going on, and you know, it just looks like there’s something suspicious going on.” So we do drive bys occasionally to.
Attilio: Yeah and a lot of your guys’s reference and background checks are what helps avoid getting those types of tenants to begin with right?
Duke: Yep. We try to make sure that we get at least the last landlord involved, and just say, “Hey how were those peoples as tenants? Did they pay their rent on time? Did they keep the home nice? Was there any damage?” and rarely do we get a landlord that says, “Yeah they were not paying their rent on time,” or it’s very suspicious when they say, “I can’t comment on that at this time.”
Attilio: Yeah. Alright well let’s wrap it up with your rent guarantee. What’s that about?
Duke: Well we guarantee your rent and it’s just something that I think, if somebody’s going to do a good job for you, especially for a $750,000 investment, they should guarantee their work.
Attilio: Yes.
Duke: So we are – I think – the only company that guarantees that if we don’t rent your home in 30 days or less we’ll pay that amount of rent.
Attilio: Alright.
Attilio: Wow! That’s amazing.
Duke: Yep.
Attilio: You know and we say it every week. Either you guys are crazy or you’re good. Call ‘em, you’ll probably find out they’re crazy good.
Attilio: Yes.
Duke laughs.
Attilio: Alright thanks so much Duke.
Duke: Thank you! Alright.
Attilio: Thanks Duke.
Duke: See you soon, bye bye.
Attilio: Alright for those of you out there who want to talk to that nice guy, call Duke about your property management challenges.
Attilio: Or questions.
Attilio: What’s a good number for them Attilio?
Attilio: You can give them a call at 445-9223.
Attilio: One more time.
Attilio: That’s 445-9223.
Attilio: What if I’m an introvert? I don’t want to talk to anybody. I just want to go on the internet.
Attilio: You can go to hipacificpm.com.
Attilio: Alright the pencil broke. They got a new pencil. Hipacificpm.com.
Attilio: Alright so we also have Anthony Provenzano on the line to talk to talk about this upcoming CCIM event. February 3rd.
Attilio: Yeah 2017 forecast. So Anthony are you there?
Anthony: Hello.
Attilio: So tell us you’re no longer president-elect, you are the pres.
Attilio: You are the guy.
Attilio: You’re the man. You’re the big kahuna. So what are you the president of?
Anthony: CCIM Hawaii.
Attilio: Okay what’s that acronym stand for?
Anthony: It stands for Certified Commercial Investment Member.
Attilio: Mhm. Alright. So Attilio was talking about it, we’ve got an event coming up. What’s the date and what can people expect to – Why would people want to attend this vent?
Anthony: So it’s our annual forecast for 2017 and people in their prospective fields will come out and speak about what they think 2017 will be like for real estate.
Attilio: Okay.
Attilio: So what kind of speakers are going to be at the event?
Anthony: Well of course we have you guys speaking on the residential.
Attilio: Sure.
Attilio: Mhm.
Attilio: Yep.
Anthony: We’re really excited to have you guys. We have office, retail, industrial, investment, Paul Brewbaker on the economic forecast and then Howard Dicus is our moderator.
Attilio: Yeah, and I think from what you mentioned in the past, literally anybody – the who’s who in the real estate industry for the state of Hawaii is usually going to be in that room so great networking opportunities, and great opportunity to figure out “Hey! What’s going to happen in 2017 regarding real estate?”
Attilio: Mhm. Just be informed.
Anthony: Absolutely.
Attilio: Yeah.
Anthony: Absolutely.
Attilio: Okay. How can they RSVP for this event? Can they show up at the door also?
Anthony: Yeah you can go to CCIMHawaii.org for the 2017 Forecast and if you want to just sign up and decide that day, come on down. We’ll be at the Hawaii Convention Center. Registration starts at 8 AM and breakfast and program starts at 9.
Attilio: Alright.
Attilio: Okay awesome. Thanks Anthony.
Attilio: Thanks Anthony.
Anthony: Look forward to hearing you guys.
Attilio: Yes.
Attilio: Okay.
Attilio: Yes. Us too. So make sure to sign up for the CCIM if you want to know what’s what in 2017 and I think we’re going to go for a quick-
Attilio: Well hold on before we take a break I want to talk to people about recruiting.
Attilio: Okay.
Attilio: Are we always looking for new team members?
Attilio: We are.
Attilio: Yeah so if you guys are-
Attilio: We’re specifically looking for some support team members, though.
Attilio: Support team members.
Attilio: ‘Cause you know-
Attilio: You know let’s be even more specific. We’re looking for an operations manager.
Attilio: Yeah. We get sales people that apply pretty much every day.
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: But we need someone special for this particular role.
Attilio: How special?
Attilio: I think like needle in a haystack special.
Attilio: Well here’s going to be one of the- I just got it the other day. It’s top ten interview questions from human resources or entrepreneurs hiring superstars and here’s one of the questions: If you’re in a situation where you’re juggling a bunch of balls and having to keep a whole bunch and things going at the same time, how do you do that? Because that is Team Lally.
Attilio laughs.
Attilio: We go 100 miles per hour. Our operation person needs to be able to do everything and anything. If you’re not licensed we’re going to pay for you to get licensed, but pretty much if you are-
Attilio: No day will ever be the same. Every day’s a different set of fun … challenges or problems.
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: There’s just all sorts of fun that happens in our office.
Attilio: And speaking of fun, not only do we work hard but we play hard.
Attilio: Yes.
Attilio: So if you’re somebody that’s looking for a challenge, you want to come on board with an exciting team, just to give you an example of our growth, last year, the year before we did 132 transactions. What did we close out 2016 with?
Attilio: 171 and $83,000,000.
Attilio: So just to give you an idea: the average realtor in Hawaii, half of the realtors sell 0 homes. I’ll repeat that, goose egg, nada, nothing. 6,000 licensees, 3,000 of them are going to do 0. Bupkis. And the other half are going to sell about a handful of homes. How many did we sell last year?
Attilio: 171.
Attilio: That is redonkulous.
Attilio: And I’m going to put this out there: Our goal for 2017 is to help 300 families.
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: We’re going to help 300 families in 2017.
Attilio: So help us go help these 300 families.
Attilio: Yes.
Attilio: Go to jointeamlally.com. Start the interview process and we’ll tell you right now, that it’s a three step process. If you don’t complete all three steps you’re going to hear crickets chirping. Because that’s the first step.
Attilio: We’re not going to follow up with you.
Attilio: We’re not going to follow up with you. Okay.
Attilio: Okay so if it’s you or someone you know, send them out to jointeamlally.com.
Attilio: Don’t call us. Don’t walk into the office.
Attilio: Follow the instructions.
Attilio: Follow the instructions, go to the website.
Attilio laughs.
Attilio: Alright we’re going to take a short break but stay with us, we’re going to have a very special in studio guest that’s going to be sharing with us some-
Attilio: We’re going to talk about some luxury highrises in the Kaka’ako area
Attilio: Yes so stay with us.
[Commercial break]
Announcer: The Team Lally Real Estate Show continues.
Attilio: 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 Attilio.
Attilio: And I’m Attilio.
Attilio: And if you have any questions just give us a call at 799-9596 or check us out online at teamlally.com.
Attilio: Alright so we want to welcome to the show today, is Bill Pisetsky and our guest today is the senior vice president of sales and marketing at Howard Hughes Corporation in Hawaii. He was also VP of sales and marketing for companies such as – what is this?
Attilio and Attilio: Landsea.
Attilio: Van Daele Development and Shea Homes.
Attilio: He’s responsible for all sales and marketing related activities including market research, product development, advertising, public relations, model homes, sales, gallery, merchandising, sales training, and customer satisfaction for Ward Village.
Attilio: Okay. So here’s today to talk about Ward Village, a 60 acre master plan community overlooking the Pacific Ocean on Oahu. The plan calls for local and special dining including Nobu’s and Merrimen’s and up to 22 remarkable design residential towers with up to 5,000 new homes. Holy cow this is a big project.
Attilio: Mhm. Welcome!
Attilio: And so welcome to the show.
Attilio: Welcome Bill and thank you for joining us.
Bill: Aloha and thank you so much for the invitation.
Attilio: Yeah!
Attilio: Yes. So I guess we’re more like local style and we like to find out a little bit more about our guests and how did you get to Hawaii?
Bill: That’s a great question actually. I’ll try to make it as brief as possible because I had no interest, no desire whatsoever to move to Hawaii. I had the perfect live. I mean my wife and I had a beautiful home in Newport Beach in California, if you’re familiar with Newport Beach.
Attilio: Mhm.
Attilio: Nice!
Bill: It’s pretty nice. I had a great job six minutes from home but this opportunity came along and you know for me to make this kind of a move it really needed to be something special and Ward Village is incredibly special. There’s nothing else like it anywhere.
Attilio: So Bill have you been with the project since the beginning? Like you were always the marketing person or has this been more of a recent-
Bill: I’ve been here ten months.
Attilio and Attilio: Ten months.
Bill: Yes.
Attilio: Okay. So welcome!
Bill: It’s thrilling to be here.
Attilio: That’s exciting.
Bill: You know it’s paradise to paradise. This is a very, very, very special place. I’m having a great time, happy to be here.
Attilio: So are you all empty nesters, just you and the wife?
Bill: We are empty nesters. We’ve got two sons. I’ve got a 34 year old in New York, I’ve got a 38 year old in Arizona and I’ve got three grandchildren, and I’ve got Barbara who I’ve been married to for 42 years.
Attilio: Oh wow.
Attilio: Congratulations!
Bill: Yeah I’m a lucky guy.
Attilio: Have you had any visitors yet since you’ve relocated?
Bill: It’s a hotel!
Attilio: Okay!
All laugh.
Bill: And it’s great. It really is great.
Attilio: That’s awesome.
Bill: Yeah.
Attilio: So you’re saying to all your friends and relatives that “We’ll leave the light on.”
Bill: Yes.
Attilio and Attilio laugh.
Bill: They’re telling us, we don’t have much choice.
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: Okay so Bill could you tell us a little bit more about the project and really what differentiates Ward Village from other projects that are-
Bill: Sure, happy to.
Attilio: Yeah.
Bill: And again that’s, honestly, getting back to your earlier question that was the really biggest motivating factor of me coming here.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: Because Ward Village, it’s incredibly special and I’m on the sales side. It sounds like sales talk and all that but the facts are facts.
Attilio: Yep.
Bill: There’s nothing else like it anywhere. Nothing else like it in Oahu, nothing else like it in Hawaii, nothing else like it anywhere near here.
Attilio and Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: As you said it’s a 60 acre master planned community and when you do market research you know that, you know, the urban lifestyle is a growing popular, popular lifestyle across the country and that’s what we’re doing here. We’re creating an environment that just doesn’t exist anywhere else. We’ve got five residential towers in different stages now. Ultimately we’ll probably have about twenty, but it’s a master plan. It’s not just residential. You mentioned Nobu’s, we’ve got Nobu’s coming. We’ve got the flagship Whole Foods store coming.
Attilio: Mhm!
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: Which is an incredibly popular store. We’ve got Merriman’s, we’ve got theaters. You know we’ve got everything that will be at your fingertips in walking distance, the Pacific Ocean steps away. But what’s really important is that, for instance, on the retail side, the stores that we have – so much of what we have is really Hawaii. You know you mentioned that and it’s something that’s really has become very special and important to me since I’ve been here, is how important the local culture is. ‘Cause I was clueless. I didn’t know that.
Attilio: Sure.
Bill: But I’ve really embraced it here and more important than I’ve embraced it, the company has embraced it and it just opened South Shore Market. All of the retailers – with the exception of Coffee Bean on the corner – all the retailers there are local retailers. So you know as much as we want to do to improve the environment, we do not ever want to lose what’s so special here.
Attilio: Well you wanna preserve the culture.
Bill: Exactly.
Attilio: Yeah.
Bill: You said it better than I did, thank you.
Attilio laughs.
Attilio: Yeah well hey you know – and Chen’s going to help you out there, she’s going to get you a spam musubi.
Attilio and Bill laugh.
Attilio: As part of your local indoctrination. I think you guys have that boxed water. I think you should offer people spam musubi when they come.
Bill: I’ve gotta be honest with you about that, I’ve not yet tried spam. I’ve done a lot of new things, I can say kalanianaole.
Attilio laughs.
Attilio: There you go.
Bill: But I have not yet tried spam so we’ll see.
Attilio: Alright.
Attilio: So Bill could you talk with us a little bit about the concept of the walkability factor of Ward Village? You know that’s been real important in the planning.
Bill: Right well what do we have other than our loved ones? What do we have that’s more precious to us than time?
Attilio: Probably our health.
Bill: Right.
Attilio: Mhm. Health.
Bill: Your health, you know. So there’s probably a few things but time, time is so precious and if you can live and work and play without really having to get in your car. How wonderful is that? How valuable is that? It’s you know-
Attilio: It’s like that Mastercard commercial. It’s priceless.
Bill: It is priceless.
Attilio: Yeah I think what’s neat about what you guys are doing because I think we gotta be top 10 for traffic in the nation.”
Bill: Mhm.
Attilio: And quality of life, I mean as residential realtors we see it all the time. A big motivator for Hawaii people who are selling in one area and moving to another area which is to get closer to their workplaces because they don’t want to be sitting in traffic 3 hours a day.
Attilio: For like two hours a day.
Attilio: Right? An hour and a half each way. Right?
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: If you have a choice of sitting on the freeway and sitting in that traffic, that miserable traffic, that you’re talking about versus being home with your wife, your husband, your loved ones, your kids, your parents, take your pick.
Attilio: Yeah ‘cause we all got the same 24 hours in the day and it’s how we choose to use it and where you live – live, work, and play – can play a key role in that.
Attilio: So Bill which buildings have been completed and which ones are available now for offers or for purchase?
Attilio: For purchases.
Bill: Sure. So Waiea is our first tower that we just completed about a month and a half ago. We have our first move ins there.
Attilio: Wow.
Bill: We’ve got about a hundred families living there.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: If you haven’t seen it, I really encourage you, your listeners – It’s an amazing building and I’d hate to be this redundant but there’s nothing else like it. It’s stunning. I actually changed the headline in our ad. It now says “Vision is becoming a stunning reality,” because it just is. When you see it from the Tony Craig art structure at the front of the building that greets you, throughout the amenity deck, the quality that’s on the amenity deck, the views from the amenity deck, it’s stunning. There’s nothing else like it. So that’s complete, it’s almost sold out, we’re about 96% sold out. We have a few homes available there. So that’s-
Attilio: And then what are the price ranges of what’s left?
Bill: Of what’s available there? They range from just under $5,000,000 to – we’ve got two that are sort of special for lack of a better word. We’ve got two penthouses. One on the 35th floor, one on the 36th floor. One is about 8,000 square feet, the other one is 10,000 square feet.
Attilio: Mhm.
Attilio: Wow.
Bill: But you know to just tell you about square footage does a disservice to these properties because they absolutely incredibly in that they each have their own private pool.
Attilio: Oh!
Bill: Their own private pool house.
Attilio: Wow!
Bill: And you know it’s one thing to be at a pool at ground level like most single family homes.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: It’s an entirely other thing to feel, to physically feel, the difference when you’re standing 35, 36 stories high and looking at the expansive view clear across the pacific ocean and the air just tastes better up there.
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio laughs.
Bill: No matter what I say to you, no matter what picture I show you, until you experience it, you just don’t really get the true value, but that’s at the top end. Most of what we have at Waiea is really from about $5- to $10-, $12,000,000.
Attilio: Okay.
Attilio: Yeah. You know I like your guys’ showroom because the annoying part – we’ve been to the showroom, and in parts of them you guys have these active screens on the walls that show you the view from different times of the day. I thought that was really neat.
Bill: Yes. Yeah.
Attilio: And you can take a look at the kitchen, and you can press the button and have it in different color palettes.
Bill: Mhm!
Attilio: So very interactive, very innovative showroom that you guys have down there. Well you know, so all of the things that you’re mentioning, and I’ve seen it in the presentation, the aesthetics, the architecture, now do you feel that we’re coming on par with places like New York and San Francisco and all these places that a lot of these wealthy people like to have a residence in? This is a project on level with that.
Bill: That’s a fascinating question, only because folks that I work with daily have often heard me say that I view Ward Village a lot like Central Park in New York.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: And you just happen to mention Central Park and the reason is, if you’re familiar with Central Park, when you’re in Central Park you have so much of so many different things, from exhibits, to statues, to y’know monuments, and of course the landscaping is, y’know-
Attilio: Amazing.
Bill: -incredibly outstanding. Yeah, just amazing.
Attilio: Yeah.
Bill: The reason why I say it reminds me of Central Park is because you’ve got all these different things but it all comes together seamlessly and beautiful.
Attilio and Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: Plus when you’re in Central Park you have no idea that just right outside the park is the hustling, bustling Fifth Avenue, 60th Street and all the crazy things y’know-
Attilio: Yeah.
Bill: So that’s what Ward Village is. You’ve got everything in Ward Village right there at your fingertips. Each tower is designed differently but they each complement each other, and then right outside Ward Village you’ve got the Pacific Ocean, you’ve got Waikiki, you’ve got everything else. So it’s a fascinating question that you ask because I think there a lot of similarities on par. You know this is brand new, this is state of the art.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: And the architects that we use are world renowned architects so at the risk of being a little boastful I’d say if it’s not on par it’s maybe a little better.
Attilio: Hey they always say no one’s going to toot your horn better than yourself. And we’ve been to the project, you’re not – boastful would be like saying that you’re exaggerating. You’re not exaggerating. We’ve seen the product. It’s amazing!
Bill: Yeah thanks. These are facts.
Attilio: Yeah and when you go down there, and if people think about it, I always – it blew my mind how the prices are so high in places like San Francisco and New York because we would be there at like at this time of the year and I don’t know, maybe I’m biased because I’m a local boy born and raised but the weather.
Bill and Attilio laugh.
Attilio: It’s brutal.
Attilio: In Hawaii it’s, y’know, just having the same weather all year long allows you to – y’know we’re never going to have those people that are like “I’m going to sell this to because I want to move to a warmer climate.” No. This is it.
Bill: This is paradise.
Attilio laughs.
Bill: Trust me, from the new the guy is paradise.
Attilio: Alright so we’re going to take a quick break. I know we’ve got more questions.
Attilio: We’re going to take a short break but when we come back we do have some more questions for Bill.
Bill: Thank you.
Attilio: Alright so stay with us.
[Commercial break]
Announcer: It’s the Team Lally Real Estate Show. Here’s Adrienne and Attilio.
Attilio: 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 Attilio.
Attilio: And I’m Attilio.
Attilio: And if you have any questions just give us a call at 799-9596 or you can check us out at teamlally.com.
Attilio: Alright so we still have our guest in here. Bill Pisetsky, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Howard Hughes corporation here in Hawaii and we’re talking about the –
Attilio: Ward Village!
Attilio: Ward Village. A Very unique project.
Attilio: Mhm.
Attilio: That just – I can’t even imagine what the economic multiplier effect of your guys’ involvement, that’s having – it’s probably just branching out all over Oahu even though it’s in the Kakaako downtown Honolulu area, but speaking about your guys’s touch and influence in our community, um-
Attilio: Well we had some other towers. We only touch on the one tower that’s –
Attilio: Let’s talk about the other towers.
Attilio: – people are already moving in.
Bill: Let’s talk about the towers.
Bill laughs.
Attilio: Yeah. Let’s talk about the extra towers because we’ve said that there’s four-
Bill: Right, five actually.
Attilio: Five! That are already up and-
Bill: Different stages.
Attilio: Different stages.
Attilio: Yep.
Bill: So our first move ins I mentioned. We talked about Waiea.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: Our next move in will be probably August or so of ‘17 and that’s called Anaha-
Attilio: Okay. Mhm.
Bill: And just like Waiea it’s stunning.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: We are almost sold out of that as well and price points there are, you know, in the $2-$10,000 range roughly. They vary a little bit but about that price range.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: We often hear – in fact y’know you mentioned this earlier – we’re the luxury home builder.
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: And we need to talk about that a little bit.
Attilio: Sure.
Attilio: Okay!
Bill: Because we’re here to build, and we are building, properties for people that need and want homes here in Hawaii.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: So we really have a very wide spectrum of product. Ae’o is just now starting construction-
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: And we’re already 55% sold out there and our homes in there start in the $700,000s.
Attilio: Okay.
Attilio: Oh wow!
Bill: So it’s certainly a much more-
Attilio: Affordable.
Bill: Affordable than the others.
Attilio: It’s more like the change in Bill Gates’s ashtray in his car.
Attilio and Bill laugh.
Bill: Well but to that point, we’ve had some incredible success with a tower called Ke Kilohana.
Attilio and Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: Granted 75 of those homes were for reserved housing, and we sold those out – We actually could have sold them out in a day, but we didn’t. We purposely slowed the process down because we wanted to make sure we take care of our customers properly.
Attilio: Nice.
Bill: So we didn’t rush it through, but we sold that out instantly. There are some market rate homes available there today that are in the $6, $7, $800,000 price range. We’re in the process of getting approval – finalizing our approval – from the HCDA for A’ali’i. That’s coming up and that’ll be designed to be at a price point between Ke Kilohana and Ae’o. So is it luxury? Absolutely. There’s luxury at every level.
Attilio and Attilio: Mhm.
Attilio: Yes.
Bill: But there’s a very broad, broad range of product, and you know – our mission is to make sure we’re building housing for people here and that’s what we’re doing.
Attilio: Mhm.
Attilio: What I’m taking from you guys, or what I’m hearing as a realtor is you guys aren’t just slapping one tower up and then you’re out of here. You’re investing in a whole neighborhood. 60 acres! That’s a pretty huge area in the Honolulu area.
Bill: That’s such a strong, valid point for whether you’re a consumer, an investor, or a broker. You know, again, it gets back to the fact that we’re unique. We’re not a one tower builder. It’s not a one-and-done. This is a long term commitment so you know we’re here for the long term. We’ve got to do it right.
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: Now how does that work? Like you mentioned investors on the units that are a little bit more affordable, are you requiring that they be owner/occupant or are you allowing investors to come in to purchase those.
Bill: You know we follow the local guidelines.
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: The local requirements same as everyone else does.
Attilio: Yeah they’re probably-
Attilio: Oh yep.
Attilio: Owner occupied and probably going to do an equity share if they decide to move.
Attilio: Mhm.
Attilio: But that’s good because you’re talking about the wide spectrum of potential buyers. You know just anecdotally, and I don’t want to hold you to any specific statistics, but are these buyers coming – are they, a lot of buyers, here and residents of the state of Hawaii, are they international-
Attilio: Are they somewhere-
Attilio: From mainland US?
Bill: All of the above.
Attilio: Okay.
Bill: More than 50% of our buyers surprisingly, because of our price points-
Attilio and Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: At least that’s the feedback that I’ve been giving, but more than 50% of our buyers are local.
Attilio: Oh wow.
Attilio: Oh.
Bill: And we get a number of them from the mainland, from southern California, northern Cal, New York. We get some from the Asian countries, we’ve got buyers from Japan, we’ve got buyers from China, Korea, we have buyers from Canada, we have buyers from New Zealand, but more than half of are local.
Attilio: Alright so you guys don’t have like a residential United Nations.
Attilio laughs.
Bill: It really is and we’ve got young singles, to mature couples where the kids are grown and out of the house, and everything in between.
Attilio: Yeah. Mhm. Alright.
Attilio: Okay so let’s talk about, we hit on the towers, so let’s talk about what you guys do for your brokers.
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: The agents that are out there selling your homes.
Bill: Yeah.
Attilio: Yes.
Bill: Well you know we really have two customers if you will. We’ve got our home buyers and we’ve got our brokers and they’re both our best friends and we treat them as such. Between 85%-89% of our sales come from the local broker community so we want to make sure we are doing everything we possibly can to be best friends with the brokers.
Attilio: Yeah.
Bill: We just – as I hope you know – for the month of November and December had a broker bonus commission program going on.
Attilio laugh.
Bill: That ended December 31st. We now have a new program that’s just a gift giving program to brokers.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: It’s not a contest, it’s just for every sale in addition to the commission there is gifts that are surprise gifts.
Attilio: Mmm.
Bill: For instance, you know I you have a really nice car, you sell one of our homes, we’re going to send a car detailer to your office-
Attilio: Oh wow!
Bill: We’re going to have your car washed and detailed right in front of your office.
Attilio: Nice!
Bill: You know we may send lunch to your entire office team in your honor. So we’re going to do a lot of unique things that no one else is doing. We’ve really – well we need the brokers and we want them to think of us first and we’ll do everything we can to make that happen.
Attilio: So not only an experience for the clients but an experience for the agents bringing these clients.
Attilio: You’re giving them the VIP treatments.
Bill: We really do and on that note, you know, when I say best friend I mean it very sincerely. We want to make sure that everyone walking in our showroom, whether they have an interest or not, we treat them as if they are our best friends. You know our mantra to the sales team is “Stop selling.”
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: We want you to treat this customer like they’re your best friend. Guide them, counsel them, help them along, do whatever we can do to help them. If what they really need is not what we have, we’ll send them down the road to where they know they’re better served. But if they’re with us, we want to make sure and we’ve got many specific things in place to make sure that the level of service that they’re getting far exceeds their expectations.
Attilio: And you know that’s an important thing to say because it prompted a memory. You know I was at a regional meeting with a bunch of realtors and we have them all across the island, so it was a good representation of – and I’m not going to mention who but a certain builder, went through the whole presentation, and right at the end someone asked “Are you going to have a cooperating fee?” And they said no!
Attilio laughs.
Bill: Oof.
Attilio: And the room went dead silent!
Bill and Attilio laugh.
Bill: Understood!
Attilio: I mean it was just, after that you could have heard a pin drop and someone started getting a rope- No I’m just kidding.
Attilio laughs.
Attilio: It’s just, you know, at the end of the day, we always appreciate the builders that – no matter how high the demand is for your product – that you’re still incorporating and stretching that handout to the cooperating brokerages.
Bill: Right. It’s so important and you know I get the opportunity in front of a lot of broker groups. I did it just yesterday.
Attilio and Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: And, you know, the message is very clear: Tell us what you want.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: Tell me what you want and if we can make it happen we’ll make it happen.
Attilio: Yeah. Okay.
Attilio: So Bill can you touch on what are these things that you do for the buyers to make them your best friend too?
Attilio: Yeah.
Bill: Well that’s an interesting segue, when I say “Tell us what you want,” for Waiea and Anaha, we’re just about sold out.
Attilio: OH wow.
Bill: So as any business sometimes you have closeout specials. We have those and our sales are very brisk. So we’re getting great responses to that. You know the typical thing in real estate, as you know, is make an offer.
Attilio: Yes.
Attilio: Mhm!
Bill: Let me be really, really clear. We’re not giving anything away.
Attilio: No.
Bill: You know we’re not giving anything away but anything that is reasonable, the same message to the broker community and the homebuyers, if it’s a sincere, legitimate, real buyer, that wants to buy a home, and it’s anywhere near a reasonable offer, bring it and we’ll make it happen.
Attilio: Yeah.
Bill: It’s all about win/win.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: We want our buyers happy, we want our brokers happy, we want Howard Hughes happy. If we can get to that point we’ll make it happen.
Attilio: I think that’s the key difference between a salesperson – a sales person’s win/lose, they just want to get the product sold, doesn’t matter what happens down the road – and a true professional is a win/win. So I like the fact that you brought that up because that’s one of the key foundations of our real estate team and Keller Williams, is it’s actually a part of our mission statement. Win/win or no deal.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: Yeah. I love it, life’s too short to think otherwise.
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: Okay so I guess before we wrap things up I want to talk a little bit about some of the things that you guys do within the community and how you give back.
Bill: Mhm.
Attilio: We were talking about – there’s a foundation.
Bill: Yeah, you know giving back to the community is a constant focus of ours. We do many things. There is a Howard Hughes Ward Village foundation.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: Where over the years millions of dollars goes back to a variety of charitable groups here.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: On a day to day basis if you haven’t been to the gallery, you really need to stop by because there’s always something going on. We have right, it’s January, we’ve got an ice rink out there that’s open to the public
Attilio: Oh wow.
Attilio: Oh.
Bill: Again these are things that no one else does.
Attilio: Do you know how long the ice rink’s going to be there for?
Bill: ‘til the 16th.
Attilio: Okay so you better hurry up. Get your skating in because it’s going to come down soon.
Bill: Right? And I mean you just have to see it. So we’ve got the ice rink, we have yoga nights, we’ve got movie nights, we’ve got all sorts of things and this is not restricted to our homebuyers.
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: This is a community.
Bill: This is open to the public, open to the community, just come on by, take advantage of it, it’s fun, meet your neighbors. It’s just a great outdoor experience.
Attilio: So if you want a list of all the events just go to “cheapday.com.”
All laugh.
Bill: Or go to wardvillage.com.
Attilio: So it’s all listed on wardvillage.com under the events section?
Bill: Yes. Yes.
Attilio: Can we find out the calendar and-
Bill: Everything’s on there. I really encourage you to go to wardvillage.com.
Attilio: Yeah.
Bill: Even for the brokers, as I mentioned, we have a special broker portal. FAQS, how everything works, whatever they could possibly want, collateral that they need from us, it’s all there. So go to the website.
Attilio: So you make it real easy.
Bill: Yeah.
Attilio: Alright.
Attilio: I like it.
Attilio: Well is there anything about the project or yourself or any kind of experiences that you’ve had that we haven’t had a chance to talk about that you’d like to mention before we wrap it up?
Bill: Wow.
Bill and Attilio laugh.
Attilio: How about anything funny? Any funny experiences? What’s something new that you’ve learned about our culture since you’ve been here?
Bill: You know that’s a great question. The warmth.
Attilio: Mhm.
Bill: The authenticity, the sincerity, everybody is so nice.
Attilio: Yeah.
Bill: It’s a slow pace.
Attilio laughs.
Bill: It’s a lot slower than what I’m used to but I’m adjusting to that and I’m loving it.
Attilio: Yeah.
Bill: But I have to tell you everybody is just so nice.
Attilio: Yeah. Yeah. Alright.
Bill: Well we’re happy to have you here in our beautiful state.
Bill: Happy to be here.
Attilio: Welcome to the islands.
Attilio: Yes.
Bill: Mahalo.
Attilio: And thank you for being on our show. We really appreciate it.
Attilio: Alright so you guys have an awesome, great interactive website. Again it’s wardvillage.com, go and check it out. I guess – you know one of the things that you just spelled on the show, any kind of misconceptions that people have. It’s not just about luxury. It’s a wide spectrum of price points and types of people.
Attilio: Something for everyone.
Attilio: Something for everyone. Half of the people from our local people right in the islands. Obviously the consumers have given you their stamp of approval because of the rate that you’ve sold out so you must be giving the consumers what they want.
Bill: We’ve sold over 1,140 homes so far.
Attilio and Attilio: Oh wow!
Bill: And you know like we said earlier, these are facts. There are reasons why our sales are so strong.
Attilio: Alright.
Attilio: Alright well thank you Bill. Thanks again.
Attilio: Wanna take a break or bring in Janyce?
Attilio: We’re gonna bring Janyce on with her design tip of the week. Janyce from Dream House Drafting.
Attilio: Janyce are you there?
Janyce: Yes I am. Good morning.
Attilio: Good morning.
Attilio: Alright what’s your tip of the week?
Janyce: Well I have a two part tip of the week that is based on some current requests that have been coming and that are things that we see over and over again. So the first part of the tip is that you should confirm your requirements or lack thereof before ever allowing any construction to start.
Attilio: That’s a great tip.
Attilio laughs.
Janyce: And the second one is verify any license status on your own. You can do pretty much the same checks that is done by the building department when they review the contractor’s statement page of the building permit application and you can actually do that online and see the exact same stuff they see because if it doesn’t add up to what it needs to, they will not issue a building permit. So you can check and make sure that the person standing before you with a business card and a contractor’s license number, that that name actually matches with the contractor of record in the city’s file. You can see whether the license is current or whether it’s expired. You can also see if there are any problems with it and if you can tell their insurance is current because even if the license is up to date, if the insurance doesn’t show as current – which is a problem for contractors because sometimes communication between the building department and the different insurance companies lags, and so on many occasions one goes to the building department with a contractor’s statement signed and filled out, and the contractor’s insurance doesn’t check out. When they are in true insured, but communication is behind. So those are things that a homeowner can check for themselves before anything gets going so that you don’t have a surprise come the day you’re trying to issue your permit, or if you’ve been told that no permit’s required, and you’ve allowed somebody to do construction to sign out as some of clients have, that A.) License on the business card has nothing to do with the person who came to your home, and that you really did need a building permit when you were told that you did not.
Attilio: Or they can just call Janyce instead of going through all of this.
Attilio laughs.
Attilio: Yeah.
Attilio: They can just call Janyce at Dream House Drafting, and save all the hassle.
Janyce: Well actually to be honest with you we are very busy these days and we’re happy to help but at this particular point and time I think what I would be doing is training people how to find this information on their own, especially since they would have that business card in their hand, and I wouldn’t as opposed to actually having the time look up all of that for them. But I can definitely share with them what the website is, what they should see, and not see.
Attilio: Okay.
Attilio: Alright.
Attilio: So on your website do you have any kind of information or checklist that they can go through so that they can-
Janyce: That’s something we can ad.
Attilio: Okay.
Janyce: I mean we’re always open to suggestions and maintaining a website takes a lot of creative interest and that’s something I can definitely add there. I think we might have something similar to that on the permit check website, but yeah thanks for that suggestion. We’ll make sure to get that up there.
Attilio and Attilio: Alright thanks Janyce.
Janyce: Okay thanks, take care.
Attilio: Enjoy the rest of your day.
Attilio and Attilio: Okay.
Attilio: So you can reach Janyce at what number Attilio?
Janyce: You can give her a call at 206-7107.
Attilio: And what’s the website?
Attilio: You can go to dreamhousedrafting.com.
Attilio: Alright so who we got – We got people coming in and they’re going to be talking about-
Attilio: Well one more time, I know we talked about it in the beginning of the show-
Attilio: Which is?
Attilio and Attilio: The estate planning.
Attilio: Seminar that is coming up.
Attilio: Okay.
Attilio: On January 23rd from 5 until 6. We have Myran and Vlad, two estate planning attorneys, that – they were actually our guests last week and they’re going to be doing this awesome seminar for all of our-
Attilio: Yeah it’s going to be about estate planning, setting up your trust, helping you when you pass on to avoid probate and have your wishes and directions be handled in a private manner.
Attilio: Mhm.
Attilio: Exactly the way that you want and when you go on to glory there, so if you own a home or any kind of assets or personal items that you want to make sure go to the right people you can even- If there’s like a naughty nephew you can even disinherit someone.
Attilio: Well you can learn all about this at their free seminar, taking place January 23rd from 5 until 6. You can RSVP on our website at teamlally.com and you just go under the events section, or you can go to teamlally.com/estate.
Attilio: It’ll take you straight there and RSVP.
Attilio: Yep.
Attilio: It is limited seating so do RSVP. We won’t – We’ll probably be so full I don’t know if we’ll be able to take somebody that just shows up. You know what just show up. I’ll be outside the doors and I’ll kick you in the okole and push you inside and get you squeezed in over there. Don’t call the fire marshall. Alrighty back to – I was wanting to talk about recruiting.
Attilio: Okay and then we’ll end the show because we’ve got about 45 seconds and then-
Attilio: Oh you know what nevermind we can start rolling towards the end of the show but you know, hey if you’re a superstar and you’re looking to join a team or be a part of Keller Williams Honolulu and have us help you be successful and get through that, what we call the “death valley.”
Attilio: Mhm.
Attilio: It’s when an agent gets their license until their first transaction, we call that “death valley.”
Attilio: Yes.
Attilio: 80%, 90% of realtors don’t make it. We want to be out there with the dinghy and the lifeboat and the life ring and help you make it through that. So go to teamlally.com for more details.
Attilio: Yes and then also we have career night oo.
Attilio: Career night? Always check out the website. It’s every other month.
Attilio: That’s right. Alright well thank you for listening and thank you to our sponsors.
Attilio: Bradley Mariama of All State Insurance.
Attilio: Jodie Tonga and Derrick Tonga of Pacific Rim Mortgage.
Attilio: Nathan Baker with Pillar to Post Home Inspections.
Attilio: Ben and Tony Mamuad of AAA Roofers Hawaii.
Attilio: Janyce Myrland with Dream House Drafting.
Attilio: John Speed of Kilauea Pest Control.
Attilio: Duke Kimhan with Hawaii Pacific Property Management.
Attilio: John Menard of Kama’aina Plumbing.
Attilio: If you want to get a hold of any of our sponsors just go to teamlally.com.
Attilio: We also want to give a big thank you to Leiah or producer here in studio.
Attilio: Chee-ooh!
Attilio: Make sure to tune in next week we’ll have one of our awesome guests talking about something that’ll change your life-
Attilio: Forever! This is the Team Lally Real Estate Show. Home of the guaranteed
All: SOLD PROGRAM!
Attilio: If we can’t sell your home at the agreed upon price and our time frame we’ll have it bought for cash.
All: THANKS AND ALOHA!