27 Years of Hawaii Living Across the Hawaiian Islands (Time to Share it All with Our Followers)

It all began with a phone call that chilly Canadian evening in September of 1997. I was living with my parents at the time just 18 years old and in the hopes of landing a full tennis scholarship somewhere warm. While most of my friends had already signed with other colleges, I continued to hold out with only one rule - the place where I am going to go to school for the next four years had to have palm trees. I came very close to going to play in Tennessee something told me that there would be a much better opportunity if I just held out.

One late afternoon the phone rang. I picked it up and it was the head coach of the men's tennis team at University of Hawaii - Hilo. He said he had received my video of me practicing in Bradenton, Florida at the Nick Bolletieri Tennis Academy (Now IMG Academy) and asked if I would be interested in coming to play for this team. After 15 to 20 minutes of iron out the details I was convinced it was a go. They brought me in for the January season of 1998 and that is how I entered Hawaii for the very first time. After an incredible stint of 4 amazing years of college tennis and obtaining a BBA in Business Administration I was ready to go and make a mark.

In my last year of college I took on an internship with a local tennis booster who also owned a real estate company called Hilo Brokers. During the time that I was teaching tennis to his two sons I constantly noticed has incredible his life looked. Make your own hours, have time to spend with your family, all the while making real good money selling real estate. What that image on the outside did not tell me, was all of the long late hours at the office and all of the stress of basically waking up unemployed each day unless if you become really great at selling. Welcome to real estate sales and beyond.

Enter Honolulu, the island of Oahu...

Upon obtaining my Hawaii real estate license in September of 2002 it seemed like the right thing to do was to join Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties in their Waikiki office. They were know for the best new agent training program at the time which lasted approximately 6 weeks. Gruesome, day in and day out, previewing sometimes 15-20 listings per day, we learned to get out there and grind, hustle, and to get to work. Many young and old aspiring minds I did meet during those initial days and it certainly taught me that nothing in life will be handed to you for free. Getting started in real estate is probably one of the most difficult aspirations anyone can pursue and survive in without having a mentor.

After 2-3 months in I was starting to realize that if I do not do something real quick I am going to be out of my hard saved savings funds in no time. I sent out an email to the entire company asking if I could join a top producing agent to learn from and the rest is history. I joined a lady in the Aiea office near Pearl Harbor and we took off. We sold 113 homes in my first year in real estate making us one of the top teams on all of Oahu. Pretty much handing home buyers keys every 3 days or so is how busy we were. 

After 15 years on Oahu and hundreds of home sales later, it was time to explore living on the mainland again. However, after some time in Florida and Minnesota where my wife is from we truly realized how much we were missing Hawaii. Especially the Big Island where we had initially met. So, we went for it again and moved back to the Big Island, but this time the Kohala Coast. Reuniting with an amazing friend and top luxury broker Harold X Clarke reminded me again what it means to work with the best of the best in the world. Living and learning real estate on Oahu was certainly one thing but the time I had spent with Harold on the Big Island. Harold has a unique way of dealing in the ultra luxury market with his calm demeanor and intelligent analytical way. What astounds me is how so many people in this world are not able to identify so easily with times in which they are working with the finest representation available. Only people only knew what they had.

For me, I am beyond thankful to be a part of this private and exclusive team in which I consider to be the best in Hawaii.

Contributed by Paul Adams, Broker - MegaCapital Hawaii Corp.