Big Island Market Secrets & Leadership with Kealii Beck

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Interview Transcription

ADRIENNE: 
Welcome back, and thanks for listening to the Team Lally Real Estate show home on the guaranteed sold program, or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne. I’m still Attilio, and if you have any questions, you can just give us a call at 7999596, or check us out online at Team lally.com

ATTILIO: 
Well, hey everybody. We do have a guest coming on to the show, and I’m gonna read his introduction. Okay, today’s guest is a seasoned real estate professional with a background in architecture, urban design and real estate development, a broker in charge of KW Big Island and the 2025 president of Hawaii Island realtors. He brings extensive industry expertise leadership to the Big Island’s real estate community. Alongside

ADRIENNE: 
with his wife and business partner, Rochelle Beck, he leads the homes and chocolate real estate team, helping clients navigate the market with skill and dedication. His commitment to service extends beyond real estate through active involvement in organizations like the Hilo Palace Theater, U H Hilo Booster Club and Hawaii Island realtors. Please welcome Kealii Beck.

ATTILIO: 
Hi Kealii. Good morning, good morning. So you are FBI from Big Island.

KEALII: 
Families from Big Island. Technically, I was born in Honolulu. Oh, wow,

ATTILIO: 
oh, wow, a Tripler. Oh, we have something in common. That’s where I was born, the pink hotel, but it’s the pink hotel up in the mountains, not the one on the beach in Waikiki. But, well, hey, awesome. Learn something new every day. Adrienne, well,

ADRIENNE: 
we’re super excited to have you on the show just, I mean, you’re just a wealth of knowledge, and I know that you have a brand new role that you just took on, and wanted to talk a little bit about that. First, with,

ATTILIO: 
with, with the board, yeah. So what? Yeah. So well one, why did you decide to go for the role? And then, what is this role? Help us out.

KEALII: 
So my role for 2025, for Hawaii Island Realtors, is as a president. Yeah, it wasn’t so much about me going for the role. It was more that I was asked and I saw the need. I wanted to fill that need. Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
okay, and, and

ADRIENNE: 
then what is the President do? What

ATTILIO: 
do you what is, what are your presidential duties? Yes, my

KEALII: 
simplified duties would be to preside over our board meetings, to manage them, to give direction to the board, to work with our committees, but most of the committees and the board of directors do the heavy

ADRIENNE: 
lifting. Yeah. Okay, cool. And I know that you were over, over here on Oahu for like, a big meeting with all the other boards, what, like, what kind of stuff is on your agenda for 2025 to accomplish? Yeah, for our industry.

KEALII: 
Yeah, for 2025 my focus, and the focus of our board is just to uphold, you know, what is most important us and our mission statement? You know, we want to ensure property rights on the Big Island. Yeah, we want to show our professionalism. But this year, it’s really about focus on leadership that that’s my goal, is to really bring a focus of that develop leadership for future.

ATTILIO: 
Gotcha. And I, you know, I, you always notice too, I see we get the invitations in the emails, but I know there’s, there’s some kind of leadership academy. I. Don’t know that might be an HBR thing, but is there any kind of like sessions or activities that realtors can participate to to help support in your leadership role?

KEALII: 
Yes. So the Hawaii Association of Realtors, our state association, does have the Hawaii Leadership Academy, I believe they’re going to every other year instead of every year, gotcha. And their main focus is to bring leadership to our local associations, to our state associations, and we’re looking to do a similar thing, but just for big on so we can keep local leadership informed. Okay,

ADRIENNE: 
and that’s that sounds like a great initiative, especially since you know that is a big thing for you is the leadership. That’s the big focus. Yeah, yeah, consistent with

KEALII: 
what I’d like to be doing.

ATTILIO: 
Let’s see here, market stats. Can you kind of give us an idea of what’s happening on the give us an idea like, we call it like. We call it a Real Estate Report, but it’s called, we call it like the surf report for real estate or the Big Island, for the Big Island, what’s happening in the Big Island? Give

ADRIENNE:
us some general knowledge on that,

KEALII: 
sure. So I can give you the overall average, but I think before we even start that, it’s important to note that we have many smaller markets within our island, whether it’s East Side west side, but I do have some overall market stats here, yeah. So for example, when we look at the single family homes, the number of new listings is up this year over last year. I think we’re at 302 listings this year over last year, with 267 our listings sold. We are up just a little bit, only 10 units. And then looking at the condos, a lot more condo listings this year compared to last year. 95 versus 78 old units are up from 38 to 38 from 32 Yeah, but the real difference is land. So our land sales, we have a lot more listings and a lot fewer sales. Yeah, land is a little more volatile, and that’s what that story tells.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah. The Kealii,

ADRIENNE: 
are you guys I know over here on Oahu? It’s a big, hot topic and an issue that we’re seeing with all like maintenance fees, doubling, tripling or just rising because of the insurance. Is that hitting your guys condo market on both sides of the island? Or tell us about what you’re experiencing

KEALII: 
with that? Yeah, absolutely. So I’d say 90% of our condo market is on the Kona side. Hilo has some some condos management, but I think that’s why we’re seeing our listings up considerably over last year. Yeah, our sales are up a fair amount over last year because there is a bit of a push to sell condos right now. People are afraid what’s going to happen in the future. So the current owners are like, You know what? Maybe it’s maybe it’s time

ATTILIO: 
to move on. Yeah, well, and, you know, so you got a buyer that’s over, you know, saying I want to buy a condo in corner, you know, I’m tired of life in California. It when I’m in California, it just, it’s just all the fires, and it’s so expensive, and then I can’t get any eggs, so I want to go to corner. They can’t get any eggs. People are leaving California because they can’t get any eggs. So they’re going so by the way, I’m going to recommend that if all housewarming on the Big Island, they get one chicken or one hand. Okay, yeah, I think it’s gonna be a very popular housewarming. Again, egg laying hen. But what would be your advice to somebody seriously that’s looking at a condo with the maintenance fees and all that? What would be your advice to that buyer?

KEALII: 
Let’s, let’s do some homework. I would suggest to the buyer, look at reserves for condos. Look at assessments that have been approved but not levied, or payments due yet fair enough to ask about what the insurance is this year compared to last year, and if you’ve gotten quotes for next year, it’s really just about being prepared and making sure you have the right information to make an informed decision.

ATTILIO: 
I think that’s it. So I what I would translate what Kealii said, you got a nerd out on the details of what’s going on with that condo. Ask more questions, and I will tell you, I’m looking at those condo docs and stuff. They will, they will put you in a coma, so, but you got to dig deep, and you got to go through there, because that’s part of the due diligence. But in a lot of that too, you can kind of just call around to the agents and owners in the building or closing, talk to the association president, talk to the property management company. But really, I like Kealii’s advice, do your research, yes.

ADRIENNE: 
And I think that really ties into the importance of local knowledge, yeah. And can you just, you know, touch on that, like, why is it so important to work with an agent that just understands that local market? Yes,

KEALII: 
sure. So on our side of the island, we can get, like, see the Hilo side versus Kona side? Yeah, someone comes to this side, and a lot of it’s price driven. You know, the east side of the island is, your average home is less than half of what the west side is, yeah. But if they’re coming here, and they’re like, Okay, you know, I really want Kona, but I want to have a farm, and I want all my tropical fruits, you really got to look. Okay, are you going to get enough rainfall there? Yes. Are there a lot of ccnrs on the west side? Are they going to permit that? So it’s really about, you know, matching the property with the client’s goals, because they’re not always a natural fit. So it’s really about educating the client to understand what our island is and what it isn’t and what certain parts of the island are and certain parts aren’t. Yeah, and that’s where the local knowledge comes in. Someone’s either lived there or worked there for a long time. They’ve got that experience. They can lean on years of doing transactions and living in those areas. So being in the community, yeah, yeah, teach that, no. And then you guys

ADRIENNE: 
have all those different lava zones and the different financing depending on which zone you’re in. And yeah, yeah, that can be kind of nerve wracking. Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
the, you know, it’s kind of the difference between cactus and banana banana tree. If you in Kona, awesome. You can have on cactus farm. There’s no water, it’s dry. But if you live in Hilo, you can have the Banana Banana Farm. Because get planting rain all raining all the time. So it’s knowing the difference between the two um lava zones. Talk about that because in Hawaii and on Oahu, we always talking about lava zones. No, we never what is the lava we don’t even know. Is that a ride at the water park? We don’t know what lava zone is on Oahu. What does that mean on the Big Island?

KEALII: 
Yeah. So it’s basically a response to the insurance industry. Yeah. You know, a lot of the purchases here are financed, so the lenders want to know that their collateral, the property, is safe, and if it’s not safe, what’s the risk? Yeah, so the insurance company in the USGS got together and they divided our island into nine zones. So numbers one through nine, the higher the number, the less the risk. So lava zones one and two are the most recent lava flows, and by most recent, yes, what the USPS insurance uses to save highest risk so they charge more for those areas. Gotcha.

ATTILIO: 
So if you buy in lava zone, no worry about landscaping, because it’s going to be redone every couple of years with brand new lava and and you, and you, you better make sure your, your your home, is built on a waterproof lava proof boat, because it’s gonna be moving. So, yeah, no. I mean, do even it? Do? Are there people that live in lava zone one or no?

KEALII: 
Oh, yeah. Really, you have some beach bread community here, where it’s super affordable, if you’re willing to accept that risk. We have some people that put like the new tiny homes, like on the trails and other things. So they’ll park 100 yards from the beach, and that’s their property, and you can give it a properties for less than $20,000

ATTILIO: 
here, Martha, hook up the pole. Hook up the house. We got to get out of here. We’ll come back when the lava cools. That’s those owners I did. That was a recording of an actual tiny home, lava one zone homeowner. We’re gonna do a special on next week’s show, tiny homes on lava zone one on the Big Island. What does that mean? Anyway, it’s coming to the TV reality show. That’d be funny if you, I mean, it makes sense, we laughing, but it makes sense. You’re like, yeah, I got, oh, how you got this beach front probably, how much $1 but I you gotta be, you gotta have your s’mores ready, because you can be doing that real soon, right out your front, front door, and then, and then nine. What does nine mean? Go all the way up to nine.

KEALII: 
Nine would be like the northern part of our island, the oldest geological part of the island. So not, not within the Mauna Loa. Let’s call it framework. You know, geologically tied to Mauna Loa is newer for getting up into the Koha mountains and north that side. Yeah, it’s more stable, so little easier, a little less risk. Yeah.

ATTILIO: 
And then Are there parts of the island where it’s not any of those lava zones? Or every, every part of the Big Island is in a in a one of those zones?

KEALII: 
Yeah, every part of the island is mapped in one of those zones. Okay, so Oahu is

ATTILIO: 
lava zone 10. No is going to be no zone for highly improbable. Well, the whole state of Hawaii was a lava zone because, but all islands were created by volcanic activity. And the thing with the Big Island is you guys have like, a brand new car smell. There’s new land being created all the time,

ADRIENNE: 
and but you don’t. But I think that really ties into the importance of working with a local on the ground agent that understands these different zones and you know, the nuances, yeah, as well as, like, the weather and, and just the different things that you’ve got to consider, yeah, the big islands talk about, talk about catchment.

ATTILIO: 
Is this, like your uncle is running around in the rain, we don’t Buck it, trying to catch water. What is, what is that water catchment thing that you guys do over there?

KEALII: 
Yeah, that’s, that’s the swimming pool you see in all the backyards in our rural areas. Yeah, yeah. Because our infrastructure, including our county municipal water supply, it doesn’t extend into our more rural areas. So it’s really old school. It’s having that tank, and it usually catches water off the roof, drains it into a storage tank, and then it pumps. Back into the house. Yeah, it’s required here for insurance and firefighting purposes. So our county wants to see everything, minimum 10,000 gallon tank, and making sure that if you want to use it for drinking water, you got to filter it. So there’s mechanical filters, and using filters to make a potable

ATTILIO: 
man, that’s a whole thing in itself, let alone the house. Here’s a recording from a local family at the end of the evening, Hey, honey, stop telling tell the kids stop swimming in the catchment tank. This water, this tastes like dirty baby’s. Tell them stop swimming in the catchment tank. Anyway, that’s a real recording from a local family with water catchment

ADRIENNE:
Kealii. Can you share with our listeners, kind of like the price ranges or the median sell price because I know that there’s some differences between Oahu and Big Island, and even, even more so between the different sides of the Big Island, yeah.

KEALII: 
Sure, sure. So in the immediate Hilo area, you can find a single family home for $600,000 price range. If we’re going to the Puna district, you know, half an hour outside of Hilo paradise Park, the prices are a little less, but what you get is very different. You’ll get a larger, newer home in an acre of land. If you’re looking for a less expensive home, you can find a home in the Puna district, a nice three bedroom home for $300,000 Wow.

ATTILIO: 
You know, was love with them too. You know, was interesting. You know, when I started my career in old, 2007 what was going on then?

ADRIENNE: 
There was a lot of foreclosures in short sales, a global

ATTILIO: 
financial meltdown. Greece went bankrupt. I think they still trying to recover. But what I was hyper focused on on Pre Foreclosure people facing foreclosure upside down in their homes. And the number one district for a foreclosures in the state of Hawaii was the Puna district. Yep, it was unfortunate. But

ADRIENNE: 
are you guys seeing any of that kind of activity there on Big Island? Because, yeah, because we’re starting to experience it here

ATTILIO: 
on Oahu. It’s the insurance affecting the maintenance fees, and people are going, huh. And then

ADRIENNE: 
it affects the prices of the condos, yeah. And the prices are dropping, then people are upside down, yeah. So

KEALII: 
insurance driven, part of it that’s limited to the corner side, yeah, where the condos? Most of our condos are, okay. We see a little bit of the foreclosure stuff in Puna and on the east side, but honestly, not much.

ATTILIO: 
Okay, yeah, everybody, they always, Oh, I like, buy one foreclosure. I’m like, Well, I mean, that’s a legal process. You can’t buy that. What you want is a bank owned property. Well, they’re looking for a good deal. Yeah, that’s what the plain English of it is. And if you hire a local agent with local knowledge, they’ll find you a good deal. They’ll find you a good deal like Kealii and Rochelle and

ADRIENNE: 
educate you on the positives and negatives, right? Yeah, and the risks

ATTILIO:
and and then be like and so make sure you taste the water. If get water meant catchment, taste the water before you close the transaction. What else?

ADRIENNE: 
Adrienne, well, let’s, let’s move on to leadership. Because so Kealii is in multiple leadership roles, like, not only with, you know, the association, but also with the Keller Williams Big Island brokerage.

ATTILIO: 
What does that mean for our lay persons, that you’re the principal broker for he’s a broker in charge. I’m sorry, broker in charge, you’re like the Vice President, if, the, if the, if the President gets assassinated, you step in. So what does that mean to be a broker in charge for Keller Williams, Big Island?

KEALII: 
Sure. So my fundamental responsibility is to assist our principal broker. And the form that that takes here in our brokerage is that I’m, the managing broker in our big island Hilo office, so I’m the only broker in this office. I, for the most part, review all the contracts responsible for the training of some of our agents, helping them through difficult situations, and also just helping them prepare to avoid difficult situations. Yeah, and I partner with a team leader who’s my wife, just to make sure that we’re giving the agents the same amount of information in the same way, so that everybody’s working from the same source.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, I’ve been in you guys office in the morning, and then I was over there, I was checking emails, and then Kealii comes in through the front door, and he goes like this, I’m the man. Every morning he does that since he’s been BIC No, no, we just kidding. He

KEALII: 
does not know my chest.

ADRIENNE: 
Comes in with his golf you

ATTILIO: 
guys know Kealii, this is completely, completely the opposite of his personality. Very humble, very, very selfie facing, very knowledgeable, highly intelligent. I will give you the nerd award, because Kealii will nerd out on stuff like Chad Shima, you guys, you’re in good company, because it’s like, if I want to go super deep on something more so than I would like, I call Kealii or Chad Shima, because they know, they know I was I’ve been killing his house. He sleeps with the purchase contract. He gets up and it’s right under his pen. The listing agreement right there.

ADRIENNE: 
Maybe you can give us an example, a quick story, of maybe some of these troubles that you see the agents getting into that you’ve helped them to navigate through or avoid.

ATTILIO: 
Yeah, some of these challenging situations.

KEALII: 
Yeah, so an email I got from one of our clients today, representing the seller, and he sends over an extension. And the extension is, hey, you know, we’re looking for an extra month. We looked at it, but the questions I asked them, does your client want to extend? Are all of the contingencies expired? Are they asking to renew contingencies or extend contingencies? What’s the risk? So it’s really just about helping them understand the entire situation, not just what the other side is asking for, but what does your client want to do, and how do you protect them best? In moving forward, you don’t open a can of worms and expose them to more. So it’s really just about that that kind of educational process and making sure that we understand what our mission is and how to achieve it, yeah,

ADRIENNE:
so helping them to also self discover and learn, so that, you know, like you’re not having to get involved so much with, you know, a potential problem down the road, right? Well, it’s

ATTILIO: 
teaching and learning, right? You know, Kealii is a leader, not a manager. A leader gets them to come to it and learn a manager just what you gotta do, yep, but a kid is a leader, not a manager,

ADRIENNE:
all right. So let’s also talk about, I mean, even more so I think on Big Island, because it’s like, you have less of a population there than on Oahu, yeah, just the importance of relationships, both with agents and, you know, just like personally, just within the community, yeah,

KEALII: 
sure, absolutely. So being from the island, first and foremost, you always have to be aware who you’re talking to and how you’re presenting yourself, how you representing their brokers, but also your family. Good story is never pump your heart in Hilo, yeah, it could be your auntie in front of you, or it could be your wife’s Auntie in front Auntie in front of you, or so it’s really that they

ATTILIO: 
go hang you up by your toes from the nearest mango tree if you pop your home. No, not really, but it’s rude. It is everywhere in Hawaii. Don’t be your

ADRIENNE: 
horn. When Attilio and I were visiting you guys at the office over there, yeah, I was like, everyone that we ran into knew you or Rochelle, yeah, everyone knows everyone over on Hilo,

ATTILIO: 
yeah, everybody know everybody. It’s like cheers. You just

KEALII: 
have to behave that way. You got to know your reputation is everything over here, yeah? Just act like, act like you. Understand that, uh huh. And

ADRIENNE: 
everyone that we ran into all had very kind things to say about the both of you. Yeah, we didn’t have one negative, you know, comment, everyone just loves the two of you guys. Yeah,

ATTILIO: 
they like the chocolate.

KEALII: 
She bribes everybody. She’s

ATTILIO: 
a chocolate dealer. Oh, hey, give me my chocolate. But yeah. And if you guys haven’t been into the the market center there the office in Hilo, you should go check it out. It’s very warm and inviting. If you’re an agent out there and you, you’re in the cold, you’re shivering, you’re not sure what to do in this market, you should go visit Kealii and Rochelle over there, in that, in that market sense, very like all the dream boards are up a lot of there’s a teaching environment. It’s very inviting. You You want to stay there and then, like Rochelle, every night, she’s like, agents, go home already. Get out of here. It’s so inviting. But, yeah, very different. Nice home already. Yeah, nice vibe and and stuff like that. I do want to cover one topic that’s been, it’s been a huge problem here in Hawaii, and that is that people with the name Kealii, they keep dropping the A. It’s not Kelly E, it’s K L E, so I’m running for government right now, and that’s what I’m running on, is my platform for give all Kealiis the correct pronunciation of the a, k l e, okay, yeah, the VO A in every kitchen in America. That’s my goal.

ADRIENNE: 
So we just have a couple minutes left. So if there’s anything that we didn’t touch on, that you wanted to touch on, before we let you go, now’s the time. Now’s

ATTILIO: 
the time.

KEALII:
Sure, I think maybe circling back to leadership, I appreciate the conversations we’ve had about it, and you’ve been very gracious with your comments for me, but in the end, Leadership isn’t a vacuum, it’s I’ve got great leaders around me. I’ve got great leaders that I’ve learned from, and I’ve got great leaders that are supporting me moving forward. So it’s not the key that you show at our board, it’s not the key that you show at our office. Yeah, my partners make so much of this happen for me, and I’m I’m just so happy to learn from them every day, so I appreciate them, and I appreciate you, yeah,

ATTILIO:
and thank you so much for being the true professional and business partner with us today. We really appreciate you and Rochelle efforts there in the Big Island community. We’re very proud to say that you guys are an awesome representation of us, professional realtors. Yes, up there and and happy to say that neither one of you are Uber Lyft or a bartender, that this is what you do full time, all in and nothing wrong with

ADRIENNE: 
the part time. And every once in a while he’s out there on the golf course. Golfing is the avid golfer. We know that too. Yes. All

ATTILIO: 
right, I think I go open up on golf course lava zone one, and they’re going to be lava traps. You heard of sand traps? We’re gonna have lava traps.

KEALII:
Okay, yeah, I’m there. Sign me up.

ATTILIO: 
All right, thanks, Kealii. All right. Thank you. Yeah,

KEALII: 
okay. All

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