Living Small in Honolulu | Hawaii Tiny Homes

Today we're doing a tiny video. Now from the looks of it, we're in Kaka'ako, you might think that we're doing another condo video. We kind of are, but we are in search of the tiniest homes we can possibly find. Remember HGTV when they had a show called Tiny Homes? It might still be out, I don't know. But I feel like it created this whole like romantic idea of living in a small space. So today I went on the hunt for the smallest available listings. We're going to take you to a studio at A'ali'i listed for $575,000. And then we're going to take you to a tiny house near UH Mānoa listed at $575,000. And stick around all the way to the end because we're going to show you the best deal on O'ahu for under $200,000. Now if you're new here, I'm Myla Gibson-Bandman with Dwell Hawai'i along with my partner Koa Cassidy with Yasu behind the camera. We're real estate agents here on O'ahu. If there's anything we can do to help you, get in touch with us through the links in the description box. Leave us a comment, we would love to interact with you. Either this is going to be very interesting to people today or it's going to piss some people off. But you know, we'd love to hear from you. But if you're serious about buying or selling here on O'ahu, get in touch with us by emailing us at info at dwell hawaii.com. We're going to start with a unit at A'ali'i. A'ali'i is made up of about 750 units. This building opened in 2019. Now just a little bit on this. I was living in Kaka'ako at the time. Imagine that we're pre-COVID. Life was very different back then. The rail was supposed to come through here. So this building was going to fit perfectly into the life of what was. I was so mad about this building coming up. I used to sit out at my pool at Pacifica Honolulu and look across and I was like, that building is so ugly. Like why are they making it like that? But now that all the other buildings are up around it, I actually have come to really love this building. The amenities are pretty incredible. And okay, I own a Honda Element. It's a 2008. I will not get rid of it. My husband especially will not get rid of it. It's just too functional. But we used to get made fun of. Remember when we'd call the Honda Element like an ugly like caboodle type of car? And then they stopped making them and now the Honda Element is like super cool. Like if you put it next to a BMW X5, you're like, oh that X5 is nice. And oh man, I love that Honda Element. I know that's how I feel about it. But you know, the seats come down or they can fold up and you can open everything up and you can go camping in it. You can throw dogs in it. You can put surfboards in it. You can rinse it off with a hose if you want to. That's kind of how I feel about this building now. I look at it and I'm like, it's so cool. I'm going to talk more about it when we get inside the unit, but yeah, let's go on inside and look at it. Welcome to unit 3209 at A'ali'i. This is listed by our friend Lex Ferguson with Real Broker. He's also got a YouTube channel called Life on O'ahu. He's awesome. Thanks Lex. Okay. This is a studio at A'ali'i. This is about 364 square feet and we've got a 45 square foot lanai out here. This is pretty much it. Although there is more and we're going to dive into some of the nooks and crannies in here as we talk about A'ali'i and this project. So when this project was created, it was back before COVID and it was when minimalism was all the rage and the whole thing with this building was that Kaka'ako was this live, work, play neighborhood. The rail was going to come through here and so being able to just like shower and shave in a unit like this was like all you would ever need. Furniture packages were sold straight from the developer that fit this unit perfectly. Should we take the Murphy bed down? Should we try it? Okay. So this is an example of a furniture package. Oh here we go. So that you could put your pillows flat down. I'm nervous. I guess we can put this here. Oh there like that. Look at that. That's great. Oh my gosh. Oh here there's a handle. Oh my gosh. Look at that. Awesome. I mean it does. I don't think I would ever make my bed honestly. I mean would you? No. We'd be out all the time. I think so. But look. So you got your reading light there. Lay here. Watch television. Your linens are in this closet here and we've got another space over here for your linens. I mean I think it's nice when you have people over. You do? Or like you can just put your bed away. Oh yeah. Definitely. Definitely. But it's kind of like a hotel room you know. But more than a hotel room. You've got your closet here for cleaning. Clothing. You would have to be really really minimal. And you know what? That's the thing. I feel like a lot of people think they're minimal or legitimately are minimal. I mean maybe perfect bachelor pad. Student. But again going back to life before COVID. Oh this is a dishwasher. That is perfect. It's amazing how you can just fit so much in such a small space. And this sink I love. I actually think that's a very good generous sink for this space. I lived in 725 square feet at Pacifica Honolulu. I actually watched this building come up. And I don't feel like my kitchen was this nice and this functional. Bosch appliances. You know regular full-size stove. Yeah this was the full-on furniture package. All this stuff came. And there's a laundry room. But here's the refrigerator. It's great. And you know it's not like a dorm fridge and freezer. I'm actually very impressed with what they were able to do with this space. Water heater there. And then your full washer and dryer here. So the thing is a lot of units in Waikiki don't have in-unit laundry and might be bigger square footage than this. But here you get everything you need. And then like the bathroom is very nicely appointed. You even have this linen cabinet. Which again my 725 square foot condo didn't have any of this. So I think it's pretty cool. Did I say the price? Listed at $575,000. It is along the luxury lines of everything else that's here that Howard Hughes has created. So although it's like $575,000 just for that. You know you are paying for the neighborhood. You're paying for the finishes. This building is one of my favorite buildings. Your maintenance fee is about $536 per month. That includes all the regular stuff. Water, sewer, probably cable and internet, your insurance. But this building itself gives you a lot. You've got pools. You've got meeting spaces. You've also just got the neighborhood of Kaka'ako and being able to walk around to all of the different vibrant restaurants and shops. And being very close to Ala Moana Beach Park. And really you wouldn't need a car. You wouldn't need a whole lot if this is the lifestyle you're looking for. If you want something that's a little bit more lock and leave, just because you're coming into town for meetings or you know if you work remote, again a great place to shower and shave. But more than that I think. I think that there is an enjoyable life to be had here. Now we're at 2963 D Kuali Road. This is listed by our friend Bonnie Cohen with Compass. And this is truly a tiny house. You've actually got a living space upstairs and then a small living space downstairs. I haven't been inside yet so you're going to be seeing it for the first time right along with me. But we are touting this as a tiny house. And it's nice because it's right near UH Mānoa. Let's go inside. Okay we're starting with the downstairs space. This is 363 square feet. It's listed as other. So when I was looking for tiny houses I was looking for anything like under 800 square feet in Honolulu. And I only saw the 400 something square feet upstairs. So we've got this area down here. Actually it's perfect because it's like right in line with the tiny house idea. Because I do feel like I need to duck. You live very tall. I do don't I? It's like elf when he goes in the little the little house. Super cute. I mean somebody could live here and should live here. Maybe a couple of UH students. I can't believe you would be miserable hunchback of Notre Dame. But yeah cool. Overall this community is kind of neat. Like there's all these little houses on this lot. And some of them have carports. This one does not. This property is listed at 575,000. Which is the same price as the studio we just saw on the east. So I thought that was really interesting. But we should go upstairs now. All right now we're in the upstairs. And this is about 463 square feet or something like that. We actually have high ceilings up here which is kind of nice. It's reminiscent of an old 1940s house which this is. You got this like very cute functional little kitchen. And it's a full one bedroom house. Look how cute. A little angle here in the bathroom. The Bourbon Baton siding. The ceilings are interesting. You've got this is totally functional. It's really interesting. I could live here and I mean that. I know my husband would be like let's buy it. He loves the idea of living simple. All right tiny house in Honolulu. The only one of its kind on the market right now. Next we're gonna go to oh finally we're gonna go to the best deal for under 200,000 in Honolulu in a neighborhood called Salt Lake. Which we've featured before. Probably the most convenient neighborhood on Oahu. Finally we're seeing our last unit of the video. We're in the neighborhood called Salt Lake. We have filmed here before. We did a house I think when we did our 1.2 million dollar homes. This is probably the most convenient neighborhood on the island. There's several ways to get in and out. It's located in Honolulu but it's right by the airport. Traffic wise you're pretty much never in it when you live here. Anybody who grew up in this neighborhood has a hard time leaving or living anywhere else because it is so convenient. Salt Lake itself is a little bit of a concrete jungle. Buildings here are older. This one one of the best deals on the island in our opinion. Great rent. If you give us an opportunity to show you all the specs we will. Spoiler alert it is leasehold. Leasehold gets a bad rap but not all leaseholds are bad and not everybody should own a leasehold. But without further ado let's go take a look at the Welcome to unit 1307. This is listed by Raymond Kang, fellow agent at Coldwell Banker Realty and this is five regents. Pretty good building as far as like if you're looking for an investment property and you want to be able to cash flow this would rent for maybe $1,500 might be more. I'll let Koaw correct me. I know he has sold several of these and at the same time if you're just wanting to live simple this is as simple as it gets. Nice bathroom though. That's a really nice renovation and again it's just kind of got everything that you need. You've got a hot plate so no stove, oven, microwave, refrigerator. Perfect size and you know a great place if you just need your clothes and need a place to sleep and be comfortable. Uncle Walter down there was saying there's no drama in this building. Now this unit is listed for $185,000. It is 300 square feet so again about the size of a hotel room. Your maintenance fee here is $580 but you have a lease rent of $48 which is incredibly low for a lease rent and the lease is long. It goes all the way to $2078 so with that you would be able to get a 30-year mortgage if you wanted to do that. You do have a covered parking stall assigned and then there's amenities here too. There was a tennis court, there's a pool. So yeah I think overall just a really good value and I'll say it again I could live here. All right if you made it this far out of the three units you saw today would you buy A'ali'i? Would you do the one the tiny house or would you do the leasehold studio? Comment below let us know which one you liked the most and again if there's anything we can do for you with regards to real estate here on the island of O'ahu get in touch with us through the links in the description box or email us at info at 12hawaii.com. Thanks for watching.