Living on Kailua’s Kainui Drive (Duck Lane)

Duck Lane Offers Great Life for Ducks – and Buyers Like it Too

If you have been a Kailua resident for a few years, you probably are familiar with Duck Lane (Kainui Drive). It stretches between Oneawa and North Kalaheo and it’s famous for its duck population. Residents and travelers alike are quite tolerant of these guys and normally observe the 25 mph speed limit and allow them easy access across the road to their own personal waterway.

Located adjacent to the canal going from the Kawainui Marsh to the Pacific Ocean, it is a great place to be a duck. First of all, many of the local residents routinely share their food with the ducks and for the more entrepreneurial ducks, there is an abundance of normal duck food to choose from. After a hearty breakfast, it’s cruising down the canal or snoozing in any number of the great bushes adjacent to the canal. All in all, a great duck life.

What About the People on Duck Lane?

Well, if you think the ducks have it good, just look at why buyers have found this to be an awesome street on which to own property. I personally owned a great 6 bedroom/3 bath home on the street for a number of years and can attest to some of the great advantages of living on Duck Lane (more about my home later). Situated just a few short blocks from Kailua Beach, it offers great beach access at a significantly lower price than the “Beachside Kailua” properties.

Beachside is defined as those homes on the ocean side of Kalaheo Avenue, which I’ll talk about in a separate article. Again, a short walk down Duck Lane will put you on one of the best beaches in the world, and still undiscovered by our tourist industry (mostly). However, instead of paying the $1.5M to $2.5M cost of a “beach side” home, you are able to move into Duck Lane for a relatively better price of $900,000’s to $1.2M.

Those of you lucky enough to purchase on the canal side of Duck Lane will also be able to kayak directly to Kailua Beach, or even bring your power boat (of a reasonable size) from the ocean to your backdoor. The lots are generally very spacious in the 10,000 sq. ft. range and the homes tend to be somewhat bigger, and seem to be well maintained.

My Experience with Selling Property on Kainui Drive

If you had contacted me sooner I would have been able to sell you my property on the canal for the great price of $1,250,000. It was an investment property, and when I decided to sell, it did need some preventive maintenance and a little more loving care. Understanding that first impressions are everything in this market, I proceeded to paint, clean, mow the grass, etc. in order to get the home ready for market.

The general consensus of my Realtor friends was that I would be doing well to price in the $1,140,000 to the proverbial $1,199,000 range. However, being a professional stager, and really understanding the value that a fully staged home can bring, I fully furnished the 4,000 sq. ft. home, and I do mean down to the spaghetti sauce and pasta on the counter waiting to be prepared for dinner.

Statistically, professionally staged homes sell for 5% to 8% more than competing homes; mine proved the point as it sold for $1,250,000. While, unfortunately, I did not make a great deal of money on the home (as I too got caught at the top of the market when I bought), I did not lose anything, totally as a result of Professional Staging.

Wanting to Sell Your Home?

If you are considering selling your home on Duck Lane, or anywhere else on the planet for that matter, or if your home was on the market and did not move, please call me for a FREE consultation on how I will Professionally Stage your home for FREE, and it will sell faster and for more money.

If you are considering selling, PLEASE, let me be at least the second Realtor you interview. I assure you, between staging your home and our massive internet marketing presence (Hawaii Life is the MOST TRAFFICKED real estate website in the State with over 120,000 hits monthly and over 2,000 buyer requests for more information), I will bring more value to your home than anyone else.