Neighborhoods – Honolulu

In any city, you’ll find less-than-desirable rentals, and Honolulu is no exception.

Ala Moana Tower is a former apartment building that was recently converted into 105 fee-simple condominiums listed for less than $365,000.

It helps to think of open houses as learning experiences, not shopping expeditions, where you’ll zero in on the type of house you want and which neighborhood you want to live in. Here, some additional guidelines for making the most of an open house.

A lot of factors—home values, location, inventory, etc.—contribute to whether or not a home sells. But staging a house prior to putting it on the market can lead to faster closing times and more money.

Several luxury condominiums in The Pinnacle Honolulu will be open this weekend, a boon for anyone thinking of buying in the luxe building. The Pinnacle, which was built in 2008, is an in-demand address largely because of its downtown location and unique design. There are 36 floors with no more than two private residences per floor for a maximum of 50 residences. With the exception of the expansive two, two-story penthouses, units range between 1,545 square feet for a half floor to just over 3,000 square feet for an entire floor. Another unique feature is the biometrically keyed elevators that open directly into private foyers in each half-floor residence.

This column has afforded me an all-access pass to some of Oahu’s most rarefied homes, a privilege I thoroughly enjoy and am happy to share with you. And while I’m glad to pass on the backstories of homes across the island, I’m even more pleased when you, the readers, have the chance to see it for yourselves. Which is why all of you with even the slightest interest in local architecture need to reserve a private tour of the Liljestrand House, which is considered to be one of Vladimir Ossipoff’s finest residential designs.

Given that we have just five more days until Thanksgiving, it’s fitting that this weekend has a plentiful bounty of open houses.

Traditional Japanese homes are fairly common in Hawaii, though with 3,441 square feet of livable space, this authentic Japanese estate in Hawaii Loa Ridge is done on a much grander scale than most.

Hale O Manu I Palekaiko, or House of Bird of Paradise, stands out among its Kahala neighbors.

Architectural gems like this don’t often come on the market. In fact, this is the first time since it was built in 1929 that the George D. Oakley house in lower Manoa has been listed for sale. The residence, which was designed by architect Miles H. Gray, an engineer with the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps., is considered one of the state’s best remaining examples of houses built in the English cottage style, and is listed on both the National and State Registers of Historic Places.

I love a good ghost story, and, here on Oahu, there are plenty of tales of spooks and ghosts and things that go bump in the night. And there are definitely haunted-house (and haunted-building) stories galore.