11 Things to Investigate Before Buying Vacant Land on Maui (Part 3 of 3)

Welcome to the third and final part of 11 things to investigate before buying vacant land on Maui. I hope you read Parts 1 and 2. If not, you can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Part 1 discussed Location, Zoning, Condominium Property Regimes, and Zoning, and part 2 discussed Views, Topography, Weather, and Utilities. You also learned that I bought my Maui in lot in 2000, it is a 3.5-acre ag lot, I am not a fan of CPRed lots for my personal ownership, my lot is part of an HOA, I have served on its board, my wife is not a fan of living in air conditioning all day and my subdivision does not have mail delivery. This blog will discuss the final three topics of Size, Lifestyle, and Price. By the way, has anyone figured out in which subdivision my lot is located?

9. Size

In Part 1, we discussed that lot size can impact the allowable size of your accessory dwelling. There are so many other implications of lot size that you need to consider. When it comes to prince, the general rule is the bigger, the more expensive, assuming everything else is equal (more about this later). I am sure you have a vision for what you want to do with your lot. Is the lot the right side to accommodate your vision? You will need to maintain your lot or hire someone to maintain it. The implications here are time and money. If you maintain the lot yourself, the bigger the lot the more time it will take. If you hire someone, the bigger the lot the more money it will require. I am not arguing for you to buy a small lot; I already told you I own 3.5 acres. Bigger lots have advantages, like privacy. Like everything, there are trade-offs. I would say for most of my clients, they try to get the biggest lot that they can afford. Wrapped up into that cost includes: initial purchase, initial landscaping and on-going maintenance, plus the whole building cost thing.

10. Lifestyle

Your desired lifestyle when you are here on Maui will have a major impact on where you want to look for your land. Regardless of whether this home will be your full-time permanent residence or a part-time vacation home, you need to think about what you want your experience to be in our home.

If this is your permanent residence, do you want to minimize your commute to work? Be near to family (or far from family)? Close to your leisure activities? Have quick access to medical facilities? And/or live near Costco and Home Depot/Lowes, because you are like me that can’t complete a home improvement project in under three trips to either Home Depot or Lowes or both? If this is a part-time vacation home, do you want to be in a resort area so you can take advantage of the restaurants, activities and golf courses or would you rather be away from the crowds of the resort areas? Are you a world-class windsurfer or kite-boarder where you want to be on the windward side of the island? Each of you has a different vision of your Maui life, you just need to ensure your new property supports your vision. I will share an interesting thing I discovered after moving into my subdivision. We are too remote for pizza delivery. Even if I had known this, I would still have picked my location. On the other hand, if pizza delivery is high on your priority list, then we shouldn’t be neighbors.

11. Price

I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, but at some point, we have to talk about money. I put it off as long as I could and we since we are at the end of the list, I couldn’t put it off any longer. Remember when I said that there is huge diversity on Maui? That includes price. No big surprise here — different areas of the island are just more expensive than others. Lots in Makena are more expensive than lots in Haiku. Lots in the heart of Wailuku are more expensive than lots only 9 miles away on the Kahikilli Highway out towards Kahakuloa. All of my clients that have been looking for land want to build on it too. Remember, every dollar you spend on land is one less dollar you can spend on building. Be realistic about how much you can spend on land, so you have the necessary funds to build the house you envision.

Want to Know More?

This brings us to the end of the 11 things to investigate before buying vacant land on Maui. Hopefully this three-part blog has helpful, given you some good food for thought and allowed you to clarify in your own mind how to proceed with your Maui land search.

Please contact me for more information and to begin your own Maui land search. Watch for future blogs where we will dive deeper into owning vacant land and explore actual listings.