Episode 10: Salisbury Adventures Living On Maui
Aloha! Welcome to Living on Maui! On this podcast we explore the latest Salisbury adventure, about living on Maui. Wonder what it's like to live in the middle of the Pacific? It has it's scenery for sure, but it also has its drawbacks. Between turtles and sunsets, from abandoned cars to finding a repairman, this episode is all about the goods and bads about Life on Maui!
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Full Episode Transcription
Welcome to my life as a Landlord, where we untangle all things housing and educate the curious. If
you're looking for some entertainment with some honest, awkward conversations, you've come to the
right show. I'm your host, Dr. Jennifer Salisbury. This is my life as a landlord. Welcome to it, Aloha.
Welcome to my life as a landlord. My name is dr. Jen, and I am recording one of the salisbury
adventures. One of the many Salisbury adventures. This week on our podcast, we're going to be talking
about living on Maui. Living on Maui. Many of you know, especially if you subscribe to the podcast, that
I have five content buckets. We talk about tenancy and landlording issues, all about real estate
development as well as real estate investment. And then I've thrown this last content bucket in there. As
other Salisbury adventures, my husband and I have done a lot of unique things and it's a little
interesting, so I thought I would add that to the podcast. So here we go. I wanted to do a podcast about
living on Maui. 1s Now, I'm going to warn you, spoilers ahead. If you don't want to hear the goods and
the bads about Maui, I highly encourage you to stop the podcast. Now, I've been here a long time. I am
actually recording this on Maui. My family has been on Maui a long time and I do real estate
development, real estate investment, tenancy and landlording. All right. Here on Maui. I do it other
places as well. But living on Maui is a very unique place to be. It's in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It's
really far away from everything. And yeah, if you've been to the big island or you've been to Oahu or
Kauai, you've been to one of the other islands, you may or may not know. All of the islands feel
different. They're all different, which is kind of weird. Maui is different. Maui is not like Oahu. It's a
very unique place. Anyway, as normal, many of you know that I do my three points and then a call to
action. Okay, so here we go. Maui is not what most people think most people see Maui as vacation
land maui. But working on Maui you see the super high costs of rent, food and gas vacationing. If people
come here to vacation, they're trying to have a good time. And of the sites, which are incredible, but that's
quality of time and quality of experience but the costs of trying to earn a living wage trying to make a
living make a life here on Maui is difficult there is lots of abandoned cars there's lots of crime there's 2s
lots of problems here on Maui yeah it's an incredible paradise with a beautiful backdrop ocean,
mountains, flowers, animals but it's not what you think. It's not cabana boys and drinks with umbrellas on
it. At least not every day. We might do that every once in a while, but you never do that every day. But
there is lots to see. There's lots to see here. Ocean views everywhere. You can see other islands, lots of
lots of stars, lots of celebrities. There's lots of amazing people who live here. You see them on Facebook.
Every once in a while, I'll run into somebody who's a celebrity and, you know, someone on Maui. It's
like, okay, yeah, there's Deborah Messing at Starbucks, or, you know, Steven Tyler was at Coconuts
recently. Okay, great. But there's also lots of wildlife to see in the ocean. There's turtles and whales and
fish on land. There's deer and pigs and turkeys and pheasants. And there's lots of hunting nearly anytime
with no bag limits. So those of you who are listening, who are hunters, that is something that is
incredibly unique. There is no natural predators here. In fact, the deer population, the axis deer, has
gotten so out of control because they multiply so well. It doesn't freeze here. There's no bears or cougars
or wolves or anything. They're multiplying, and it's devastating crops and fences and ranches. It's
really been a big problem. So you wanted the goods and the bads. I'll keep going. There's still lots to
see on Maui, lots of point of interest, lots of shopping. You can go up to Haley, Akala Summit, which is
the mountain, the 10,000 foot mountain here on Maui to see a sunrise or a sunset, of course you need
reservations for a sunrise. I have a feeling they're going to end up doing reservations for a sunset very
soon as well because it just gets way too crowded. They won't even let you in the park. Eau Valley, that's
a really incredible valley on the interior of Maui. Hana, Makaw, lahaina, all kinds of bakeries, all kinds
of food. That's one of the neatest parts of Maui is the food. You have fresh fish practically anytime. You
have poke, which is spelled P-O-K-E like poke, but instead of most people equate poke to be tuna, which
it usually is, but it's more like if you hear the word ceviche. Ceviche is a type of food method to process
food and it doesn't necessarily mean the food that you're creating with the ceviche. Same thing with poke.
So you can have salmon poke, you can have octopus poke. 1s It's really interesting. Plus the fruit, there's
fruit going, there's no seasons here, so your clothes don't change. You can grow anything practically
anytime. So the bananas and papayas and guavas and lillakoi, I mean, the fruit results in incredible salad
dressings, incredible ice cream, gelato, shave ice, which is basically a snow cone, but shave ice is
different. Anyway, it's pretty interesting. But the other thing too about living on Maui is there's lots of
history here and until you get here, you don't really know the history of it. Most people are seeing right
now, you're seeing Putin and Russia invading Ukraine and the devastation with Ukraine. Ah, well,
that's about what the US. Did to Hawaii. At the end of the 18 hundreds, they came right in and they took
the queen hostage and said, this is we're taking over Hawaii, and if you don't let us, then we're going to
start killing Hawaiians. And the queen said, no, don't do that, I'll go with you. And they kept her hostage
in Iolani Palace, which is over on Oahu. The only difference between what Putin is doing to Ukraine and
what the US. Did to Hawaii is that it wasn't on social media. Right now you've got Russia and Putin, and
it's on YouTube every day. We watch it every day. I think if it had been more public that the Hawaiian
invasion, you'd have seen it a lot more. 1s But as appalled as everyone is about Putin invading Ukraine,
this isn't the first invasion, and we can even talk about a white man coming into the Native Americans or
the First Nations in Canada. Same thing. You've ousted people and put them on reservations. It's no
different. It happened in Hawaii as well. And so there's lots of history when you talk very sobering about
these events and you wonder why people are mad. I don't wonder why people are mad. I know why
people are mad. But there's a lot of history here. The missionaries came here trying to spread the word of
God. Lots of wailing folks from all over the world came to Hawaii. The first typewriter west of the
Mississippi was here on Maui. The first high school, lahaina Luna High School west of the Mississippi is
actually still going strong. It's still got students in it. Today I talked a little bit about the Pass overthrow
of the Hawaiian kingdom. There is so much history here about the Hawaiians and how self sufficient
they were and how innovative they were, especially with the navigations. I don't want to simplify the
history on Maui, but I'll give you a glimpse. If you have not seen the movie Moana. the navigation and
knowing the stars and knowing how to navigate through the waters. Again, I don't want to simplify it and
I don't want to cheapen it. The Hawaiian traditions are incredible, and I highly encourage if you haven't
seen the movie Moana, at least it will give you some exposure, even on a small part for the culture. But
truly, it's phenomenal. There's many other cultural activities here on Maui, and anytime we can learn a
little bit more about it, I'm absolutely enthralled. It's pretty interesting. Okay, my third point about living
on Maui, so the first one was, it's not what people think. Second thing is there's lots to see, lots to learn.
And the third thing, it's a very isolated place. We're out in the middle of the ocean. We're logistically
challenged. Shipping and transport domestically with the US. With the US. Mainland is regulated under
the Jones Act, and that means that the domestic shipping is basically 1s under high costs. There's one
commercial harbor on Maui. That's Kahalui Harbor. There's one hospital for three islands, and there's a
limit, an inventory of items here on the island, and they all have to be shipped in, which is a little bit
frightening. There's one Costco, one Lowe's, one Home Depot, one target. There's also a very limited
skill and talent pool here. And let me give you an example. If you've got a broken appliance, it may take
a repairman several days to even get here, get to your place or your apartment, and they will very likely
want to be paid in advance for the visit. It's usually $150. They're going to want that $150 for their time
to even come to see you. And then they'll diagnose your broken appliance, whatever it is. Let's say it's a
broken fridge and you need a part. Well, they very likely won't have the part, so that means they need to
order the part. You'll have to pay for the part, and then you'll have to schedule a second visit for them to
come back and fix it if it's under warranty. It's even more complicated because then the warranty
company has to try to get a repairman out. And it is possible I have done this, it just takes a long time
while you have this appliance that's not working, whatever it is. And very likely, if you've got this
appliance that's under warranty, they will just replace the appliance. They won't even bother repairing it,
they'll just try to replace it. So another other thing that's going on here on Maui is there is a battle
between those who want to develop it and those who are protecting the ina or the land. And the big battle
that's going on right now is the affordable housing that people that the locals want built. Affordable
housing, they want workforce housing built, 1s but they don't want development. And unfortunately,
they're the same thing you have to develop in order to build. And it's this recurring fight that goes on and
on. And I have some lovely friends who are in the same battle that don't want development, but
unfortunately, to create housing of any kind, affordable or not, you have to develop. And so 1s it's a very
hot, hot, white hot topic. Um. So that's the goods and the bads living on Maui, there's a lot more you
could go into. I could go into some of the strategies and some of the games that you can play here, and
some of the beautiful things that you want to see. If you want to snorkel with turtles, if you want to go
whale watching, if you want to have a great meal, but you don't want to pay a lot for it. We've been here
a long time, I know how to play the game. But the goods and the bads living, maui is very hard because it
is so isolated and you've got a very limited amount of talent and 1s materials here and it's all got to be
shipped in. And so it's difficult, it's very difficult to do business here, but we continue to battle on. So, my
call to action for you, there's all kinds of travel Facebook groups, there's Maui Facebook groups. If you
want to know more about the goods and the bads of Maui, jump in one of these Facebook groups. They'll
tell you, they'll tell you what's going on straight up. But also, if you've got goods and bads of where you
live, wherever you live, put them in my comments section. I would love to hear where you live. I'd love
to hear some of the myths and legends of where you live, of what people think, but it's not what people
think. I'd love to hear the goods and the bads of wherever you live. So I challenge you to put that in. Start
a conversation about that, love to hear all about it. Next episode is all about Landlords the most important
thing you must do as a landlord. Most important thing you must do as a landlord. Thanks for listening.
This was another Salisbury adventure all about living on Maui. Huiho thank you for joining us this week.
To view the complete show notes and all the links mentioned in today's episode, visit our website at www.
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