Trulia and CNNMoney Announce Real Estate Partnership to Provide Access to Millions of Listings, Local Stats, Trends, Ratings Reviews With Top Real Estate Journalism

Partnership Includes MONEY’s Much-Anticipated “Best Places to Live” List

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwire - July 7, 2010) -  Trulia and CNNMoney today announced a partnership making Trulia the exclusive provider of real estate listings to CNNMoney, which will bring Trulia’s award winning real estate search experience to CNNMoney, one of the web’s top destinations for in-depth real estate reporting and breaking financial news.
The CNNMoney/Trulia co-branded web site allows users to easily search for properties for sale and refine their search results based on criteria like open houses, neighborhood, price, property type, new listings alongside CNNMoney’s in-depth real estate coverage.
In addition to the enhanced search experience, Trulia will be the exclusive provider of real estate data for MONEY’s “Best Places to Live” list. CNNMoney will incorporate Trulia’s local data, stats and trends into its deep editorial content to help users understand exactly what is happening in these locations.
“CNNMoney is the place to go on the web for breaking financial and real estate stories, news and trends. We are excited to bring our user experience and millions of listings to this audience,” said Pete Flint, co-founder and CEO of Trulia. “Our goal is to provide as many consumers as possible with access to listings and relevant data to help them make the biggest financial decision of their lives.”
“Through our partnership with Trulia, we will offer readers an in-depth and comprehensive real estate picture. Real estate has been and will continue to be one of the biggest topics in the coming years,” said Chris Peacock, Executive Editor and Vice President of CNNMoney. “We are excited to kick off this co-branded site with our annual Best Places to Live feature.”
To visit CNNMoney’s real estate section, go to http://money.cnn.com/real_estate/
About Trulia, Inc.
Trulia.com is the most comprehensive real estate site focused on empowering you with smarter tools to help you find the right home. Whether you are an active buyer, seller, renter, or real estate enthusiast, Trulia gives you all the information you care about from rich property data to a personalized search experience. We are focused on helping you find the home that truly meets your needs, and delivers on what’s most important for you. Ultimately, we built a smartreal estate search experience bringing together local information, community insights, market data and national listings all in one place, all for you.
About CNNMoney.com
CNNMoney.com is the world’s leading business website. The site is the online home of FORTUNE, MONEY, and FSB: FORTUNE Small Business magazine, and serves as CNN.com’s exclusive business site. The site attracts more than 10 million unique visitors per month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. CNNMoney.com is a division of Time Warner Inc., the world’s largest media company, and is available online or through internet enabled mobile devices atwww.CNNMoney.com.

HONOLULU - The Hilo Hawaiian Hotel on the Big Island has been purchased by a group of local investors for $17.3 million.

The purchase was announced in a Friday news release by the hotel’s general manager, Daryle Kitamori.

He said the new ownership is composed of Castle Resort & Hotels, RAM Corp. and attorney Rick Fried.

Castle has managed the hotel for over 20 years and will continue to do so under a multiyear agreement.

The group bought the hotel from CarVal Investors.

Home sales were down in May which is bad news and good news.  

Good news for potential home buyers.  

Once you make an offer, however, there are a number of things to consider.  

You have finally found the home of your dreams and you decide to make an offer on that house. 

“When you make an offer, you have to keep in mind that everything’s negotiable.  So you need to consider the top price that you’re willing to pay for the home and also make sure that everything is in writing,” said Erin Palmer, CPB Homeloan consultant. 

That’s important and it’s important to include in that contract any concerns you might have. 

“Once you’re offer is accepted, the contract becomes binding.  So, it’s important to note or write up the contract with any necessary contingencies,” said Palmer. 

There could be many small things included in such a contract, but there are much larger concerns that demand your attention and should be included in such a contract. 

“Some common contingencies are subject to approved financing, subject to the sale of a home, subject to a satisfactory home inspection,” said Palmer. 

Most home buyers are willing to pay what the property is worth and what the property is worth is especially important to potential lenders. 

“So lenders will require an appraisal to confirm that the value of the property is, corresponds to the purchase price that you’re paying,” said Palmer. 

There are just a couple of more steps before you are ready to take over ownership of your new home. 

“The escrow company will run what’s called a preliminary title report.  That will ensure that the property has clear title on it.  Also in many cases, especially for single family homes, a survey will need to be done to ensure that the property is within the boundaries of the property line,” said Palmer.

Taxpayers, include “concerned citizen” in your prayers tonight. He just added $1,529,506.94 to Maui County’s strained treasury.

Every week, the county Real Property Tax Division updates its Internet posting of the 25 biggest delinquent taxpayers. According to Tax Division administrator Scott Teruya, the list doesn’t change often. But it did last week, and an anonymous resident called The Maui News to wonder if Kaheawa Wind Power LLC, which held the top spot, was “out of money.”

No, but the company didn’t know it was behind on its taxes until a reporter called.

Kent Smith, president of Makana Nui Associates, which is a partner with First Wind in the farm, said telephone calls and e-mails were flying among company officials Wednesday and Thursday to figure out what happened.

Here, according to Smith and Teruya, is how the tax bill got overlooked for three years:

Kaheawa pays all expenses through a state lease, but when the farm went into operation in 2007, the state didn’t send the lease and permit papers to the county.

“We knew there was a wind farm there,” said Teruya, but there was no paperwork to process.

Kaheawa wasn’t getting bills, so it wasn’t aware it was delinquent.

Earlier this year, a county tax staffer looked into it more closely, decided taxes were due and sent a bill to the last-known address of the listed owner, UPC Wind in Newton, Mass.

However, between 2007 and now, UPC’s interest was renamed First Wind and the offices were moved to Boston.

The bill eventually was returned as undeliverable.

“The state and the county never assessed us and never forwarded any bills,” said Smith. “They didn’t find any way of contacting the local wind company.”

But Teruya said: “It’s not our place to go find anyone.”

It took about a day for Kaheawa to reconstruct what had happened, and Smith called Teruya on Thursday to assure him that First Wind’s chief financial officer, Michael Alvarez, was preparing to wire the money by Tuesday.

“One hundred percent,” said Smith by telephone Thursday from a golfing holiday in California.

It could be the harbinger of a big flow of tax revenue for the county. Kaheawa has 20 turbines, and the turbines account for much of the assessed value.

Kaheawa wants to expand by 14 units; Sempra is working on a wind farm of similar size in Ulupalakua; and Castle & Cooke and First Wind are projecting hundreds of turbines on Lanai and/or Molokai.

As of Thursday, Kaheawa still held first place in the list of top 25 delinquents, but Teruya was not concerned. “It seems like their intent is to pay. . . .

“It’s good that people are looking at the list,” he said.

Unemployment benefits ended for an estimated 6,000 Hawaii workers last month.

Hawaii foreclosure rate just shy of top 10

HONOLULU - The foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc. reports Hawaii had the 12th highest foreclosure rate in the first half of 2010.

The islands had 6,482 filings, meaning one in every 79 households received a foreclosure notice.

By county, Honolulu had the most filings, 342, but the lowest rate at one filing for every 986 households. Kauai had one filing per 505 households with a total of 59; Maui had one filing per 245 households with a total of 270; and the Big Island had one filing per 242 households with a total of 329.

RealtyTrac said Thursday that nationwide nearly 528,000 homes were taken over by lenders in the first six months of the year, a rate that is on track to eclipse the more than 900,000 homes repossessed in 2009.

Maui News

(Maui News ; Karen Leach; RAM website)

WAILUKU - Wells Fargo Bank, trustee of the mortgage lending trust group that foreclosed on the Makena Resort last year, fended off two additional bidders Tuesday and prevailed - with a $95 million bid - to purchase the 1,800-acre property and the Makena Beach & Golf Resort.

The action occurred in 2nd Circuit Judge Shackley Raffetto’s courtroom, with the judge confirming the sale during the completion of a foreclosure auction that started on the Wailuku courthouse steps in May. Raffetto agreed to reopen bidding to allow two additional bidders to participate.

Miles Furutani, who was the receiver in the foreclosure, said now that the ownership is settled, “a lot of good things are going to happen in the near future.”

The ownership of the property will move from court receivership to a “new owner designated by the bidder,” according to a news release from the lender group. The new owner was not identified.

Furutani said the new owners will be able to command investment capital to expand the resort, which opened as the Maui Prince Hotel in 1986.

Former owners Morgan Stanley and local partners Everett Dowling and Trinity Investments had big plans for Makena before the national real estate market cratered. They paid about $570 million in 2007 to acquire the resort, hotel and golf courses from Seibu Group, which had its own financial problems in Japan. Then they invested at least another $100 million in plans and projects before their investment group failed to keep up the payments on a $192.5 million first mortgage last year.

Among the plans then was to replace the 310-room Maui Prince Hotel. During the receivership, the hotel has been managed by Benchmark as the Makena Beach & Golf Resort.

In May, at a brief auction on the courthouse steps, Wells Fargo, acting as agent for the creditors, bid $55 million, using its credits as tender. Only one other bidder, who did not identify himself, made a bid. By that time, the junior lenders had already been wiped out.

In Hawaii, foreclosure auctions have to be submitted to the court for confirmation. If the property is desirable, that is usually where the real action occurs, and that is what happened Tuesday.

The purchase includes the resort’s golf courses and county authorizations for up to 1,100 residences. The authorizations come along with obligations to build up to 400 units of affordable housing and many other conditions.

During the foreclosure period, which lasted about 10 months, the creditors authorized considerable expenditures to keep the hotel operating and to expand the resort. A Makena Ranch guided horseback ride was one, as well as reopening a restaurant and other improvements.

Furutani said the employees had been magnificent during the period of uncertainty. “The employee family has been the biggest asset,” he said.

Willie Kennison, Maui director of the International Warehouse and Longshore Union, which represents the employees, said the auction sale was a step in the right direction.

“We feel very positive about this outcome,” he said. “We have talked to representatives of new ownership, and we know they are really committed to Makena and to Maui. That is good news for employees and good news for our island guests.”

Furutani said the resort’s hotel occupancy is double what it was a year ago.

“The resort is in better condition, and morale is high since we were able to rehire most of the employees who had been let go when the prior owner went into default on its debts,” he said.

He acknowledged that the economy is still down but predicted that the infusion of capital to remake the resort will “also be for the benefit of Maui County.”

* Harry Eagar can be reached at heagar@mauinews.com.

HONOLULU (AP) - A non-Native Hawaiian student has been admitted to attend Kamehameha Schools this fall.

The schools’ board of trustees and chief executive officer made the announcement in a letter posted on the website of the institution dedicated to educating Hawaiian children.

The unidentified student was among some 45 students invited from a wait list for admission to grades 10 through 12, the letter said.

Kamehameha has a century-old Native Hawaiian-preference admissions policy.

‘’Non-Hawaiian applicants who meet our admissions criteria can be admitted if vacancies exist after the preference is applied,'’ the officials said. ‘’We will continue to offer admissions preference to Hawaiians because it is the most direct way to fulfill our mission of improving the capability and well-being of Hawaiians through education.'’

The student follows in the footsteps of Kalani Rosell, a non-Native Hawaiian who graduated from Kamehameha’s Maui campus in 2007. He was admitted in 2002 after a list of Native Hawaiian students had been exhausted.

In 2003, another non-Native Hawaiian student was allowed to attend 7th grade on the school’s Kapalama campus following a lawsuit.

Kamehameha also has a campus on the Big Island. The campus that the newest non-Native student will attend wasn’t named.

Kamehameha Schools was established in 1883 by the will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop to educate Hawaiian children. The largest private landowner in Hawaii, the trust has said that as of November, the value of its investments totaled about $7.7 billion.

Roy Benham, a past president of the Kamehameha Schools Alumni Association, said Friday that the school probably didn’t have a choice under its admissions policy but to accept the non-Native Hawaiian student.

‘’I think they did the right thing and they didn’t deny admission to any Hawaiian applicants,'’ he said

Who says housing on Maui is unaffordable? Just snatch this gem before it gets away! A steal at $150,000:

“Tucked in to a valley bottom with no utilities, this place takes you back to nature. The little shed on the property is tiny with a sleeping platform and it keeps you dry. Included is a new 5,000-gallon catchment water tank. This property is extremely private and is surrounded by old taro patches and fronts Honopou Stream.”

That’s creative marketing. Another way to describe the property might be:

“Quarter-acre lot, mostly under water. No electricity, half a bath. Closet-size (128 square feet) shack. Only $50,000 down.”

It is picturesque. A slide show can be found at the Maui Board of Realtors Multiple Listing Service at www.ramaui.com. This listing - not the lowest in price, by the way - is MLS 343234.

A real estate market in distress produces some odd opportunities for the venturesome and flush. Take MLS 342595, which is in Kihei. It’s a five-bedroom, 4-bath, modern home, a bargain at $319,900, considering that the county assessed valuation is $633,500.

However, the sales description is firm: “This bank-owned home is being sold AS IS, SIGHT UNSEEN, without Disclosures and Cash Only.”

It further advises: “Seller may not be able to convey possession at the time of closing.

. . . Consult an attorney regarding your responsibilities as a landlord and research eviction laws in Hawaii.”

MLS listings have always hinted at domestic dramas in the past, and they have become more interesting as disclosure standards have expanded over the years. What disappointment lies behind MLS 339328?

“This property is being sold with a 20 percent completed home. . . . The seller is not finishing the house currently under construction. . . . In the event the buyer chooses to finish the 20 percent complete existing house, it is a two-story large home with four bedrooms, four full bathrooms, two half-baths, with a very large family room and tall, tall ceilings! The house has . . . four-car detached garage.”

Then there is MLS 333331, a ” two-bedroom, two-bath plantation style home, 2750 square feet, built in 2004,” only $65 million. It comes with an extensive yard, called Hana Ranch.

The most expensive offering this week that does not include 1,200 cows is a 1-acre beachfront place at Kaanapali, MLS 332824.

The description, which seems aimed at agents rather than buyers, says: “With over 11,000 square feet of living space, this magnificent beachfront home has stunning ocean and sunset views. The outstanding craftsmanship is visible throughout the two master suites, six guest suites, media room, library, office and separate caretaker’s quarters. The warm sandy beach and azure Pacific are the backyard of this Kaanapali Estate. All of your client’s needs for health and well-being will be met with the oceanfront pool, Jacuzzi, yoga pavilion and exercise room. This extraordinary masterpiece property is the reason your clients have chosen to live on Maui.”

Asking price: $23.8 million.