Letters for Saturday, February 4, 2012

• Who is Stephen Shioi? • Home seller

strategy • A new system wants to

emerge

Who is Stephen Shioi?

In the Letters to the Editor on Feb. 3, Stephen Shioi asks, “Who is Kimo?”

I feel I have the utmost and highest authority of anyone to answer that question.

Mr. Shioi, I am impressed with your witty letter, truly enjoyed your humor and writing style.

I am grateful every day upon awakening and reading The Garden Island newspaper and not seeing my name in the obituary section.

I hope that answers your  question.

Now, I must ask: Who is Stephen Shioi?

James “Kimo” Rosen, Kapa‘a

Home seller strategy

Thanks again to Ron Margolis for his article on real estate in The Garden Island on Friday.

I would like to expand on the theme of a seller’s strategy. In fact, I did this myself some years ago (pre-2008) in Santa Rosa, Calif., which was experiencing a depressed market even then. 

It is important to understand that in any purchase contract, there are escape doors for buyers. They might include dissatisfaction with, say, the building inspection (such as an undisclosed old or leaky roof), foundation defects or perhaps a more severe than expected pest infestation or other downsides. What to do?

My strategy was to hire a certified building inspector and pest inspector prior to even listing the property. There were several items noted in their written reports. I then hired a licensed general contractor, gave him the inspection reports, and instructions to fix them all.

After this work was completed, I hired the same inspectors to perform their duties again, and their reports showed zero defects. 

I also asked my Realtor what was the popular interior color, which was mushroom beige, a color I would not have guessed. Following the Realtor’s guidance, I had most of the interior painted that color. It looked good and was neutral.

A seller should consult with their tax advisor about treatment of these selling expenses.

The house was then listed with a quality Realtor and sold quickly at full price (which was competitive with the market), in large part because the buyer saw that the seller was conscientious and that the buyer would not be later surprised at some defect, thus reducing sharply buyer anxiety.

Although this process required up front costs, it paid off by the quick sale. These days, even where it seems the Kaua‘i market is picking up, such an aggressive approach does not assure the same quick sale, but it should definitely enhance the salability.

Tom Rice, Princeville

A new system wants to emerge

It is assumed by some that the freedom to not work for a living is an entitlement.  Others insist that it is only an earned right. So are we entitled to be taken care of by others through social, religious, government welfare or an inherited endowment, or does working hard to earn enough money to take care of our own needs and wants entitle us to no longer work, such as self-welfare?

Or none of the above?

It is a rarely acknowledged fact that humanity, by virtue of our long history of entrepreneurial  research and development, has “earned” the ability and the “right” to provide the basics for a comfortable standard of living for every human being on planet earth. 

It is also a rarely recognized assumption that the purpose for working hard is to earn enough money so we can quit working, live comfortably, have some fun and hopefully die before going broke — using up our rightfully earned, accumulated surplus.

No creation (energy-system) in the Universe is entitled to be taken care of, either by others or by its own accumulated surplus. The function of a surplus is to enable each particular entity to perform its designed function more effectively and efficiently. After taking care of its own welfare — taking care of its own well-being — it is prepared to fulfill its designed function in the larger setting in which it finds itself. 

After getting its own act together, it is prepared to act together with other similarly prepared creations to become effectively functioning participants in a system larger than itself. Only then is its well-being assured. Its welfare is an added benefit resulting from participation in the formation of the next larger system.

Only human beings assume that they have the right to go on welfare, either to live off of their own accumulated surplus (self-welfare) or to hitchhike on the surplus of others (religious, social, government and/or inheritance welfare).

Our world is clearly in need of creative thinking entrepreneurs who refuse to settle for either of the above. A new system wants to emerge.

Robert P. Merkle, Koloa