20% Rebate for Buyers
$3,500 Flat Fee for Sellers
2% Full Service for Sellers
Thanks to everyone who took action on this post, the Board of Realtors voted to allow OahuRE.com to keep showing all listings.
The Star Advertiser covered my appeal.
The Honolulu Board of Realtors has asked me to remove all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired home listings from...
Posted by OahuRE.com on Friday, September 4, 2015
Why in God’s earth would you want to limit information to the consumer? Please explain to me why? Ask yourself truthfully, if you were to buy a $1,000,000 house and needed to scrape all the money you had for a downpayment, “wouldn’t you want all the information to make that decision?” To what ethical morals are you subscribing too?
Why do you think all agencies are becoming transparent in their business deals? Now, if you wish to control information to benefit your end means then fine go ahead and do that. Just keep in mind that North Korea and China control media and how much information is released because they know how damaging information maybe to their interest. Whoever controls the flow of information holds power over those individuals.
I have fought, served, and will continue to dedicate my life to our way of life so that you may voice your opinions. I understand you wish to have more of the piece of pie at the expense of others. Greed and control is in your nature because you had it all this time and now you will lose your slight advantage. However, slight it is bad business. This is the new age of information. For example, do you believe a buyer agent deserves 3%? If the individual had discovered the property on their own and hired a buyer to finish the deal?
If your argument is beyond righteous then speak out. Show the people of Hawaii you have a legitimate reason. If you don’t have a good reason then I see no discussion on this matter.
Your recent move to restrict information on the Oahure.com website appears to be one more in a string of attempts to block Oahure.com from providing a portal of comprehensive Public Domain information to the general public at no cost. Having utilized Mr. Kaufman’s site for many years, I am appalled.
But rather than present an emotional appeal that you desist, I ask you to consider one based in your own code of Professional Ethics.
The following are excerpts from your Code that are pertinent and that I ask you to consider:
From Preamble: "The term REALTOR® has come to connote competency, fairness, and high integrity resulting from adherence to a lofty ideal of moral conduct in business relations. No inducement of profit and no instruction from clients ever can justify departure from this ideal.
I wonder - Does limiting information on Oahure.com constitute a move to induce profit?
Duties to Clients and Customers Article 1: When representing a buyer, seller, landlord, tenant, or other client as an agent, REALTORS® pledge themselves to protect and promote the interests of their client. This obligation to the client is primary, but it does not relieve REALTORS® of their obligation to treat all parties honestly.
Does restricting information to the public that allows them to make more informed decisions about one of the most important purchases of their lives constitute “treating all parties fairly”?
Standard of Practice 1-2: The duties imposed by the Code of Ethics encompass all real estate-related activities and transactions whether conducted in person, electronically, or through any other means.
I would argue that by not providing the information on your own HBR website in the way that Mr. Kaufman does, you stray dangerously from ethical practice as defined in your own Professional Code of Ethics.
Standard of Practice 12-8: The obligation to present a true picture in representations to the public includes information presented, provided, or displayed on REALTORS®’ websites.
How is restricting information about a listing’s Pending, Expired, Withdrawn patterns NOT deliberately misleading?
For the sake of upholding and promoting the overall professional integrity that I know so many individual Realtors in Hawaii possess, I urge the HBR to withdraw its order that Oahure.com remove Pending, Expired and Withdrawn information from its website.
Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings are part of intelligent home buying investigation and research and add to our information on market value, time on market, and sell-ability to act in accord with our bids. To NOT have this information seems to me an unfair practice on Realtors part to HIDE facts from potential buyers that could have them pay MORE than a home is worth.
Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings should be available to ANYONE going to the trouble to find that information. Oahu website has this information and I applaud that.
We have vacationed in Oahu and enjoyed the experience so much that we have been looking to purchase a vacation condo in the Honolulu area. The best website we have found to search for listed properties is Oahure.com.
What make this site so useful to us is the depth of information available for each listing, specifically the Pending, Expired, Withdrawn status and previous selling price history. The information is very important to us in making our buying decision.
We respectfully request that you allow Oahure.com to continue to include Pending, Expired, and Withdrawn information status on their website.
It has come to my attention that The Honolulu Board of Realtors has requested the website, OahuRE.com, to remove information relating to pending, expired and withdrawn listings, and I would like to add my comments for your consideration pending your review of OahuRE.com’s appeal.
I have been a resident of Honolulu for nearly a decade, my children have grown up here and my wife and oldest daughter are licensed real estate sales people here, so I believe I am familiar with the Honolulu real estate market. I am an investment analyst and have found the OahuRE.com website to be uniquely valuable resource with an incredibly vast depth of data, presented in a really intuitive and user-friendly way to gain genuine insight on Island properties and markets.
Investors are increasingly sophisticated, and increasingly expect the internet to provide meaningful data to support their decision process. OahuRE.com presents the kind of data that gives real estate buyers and investors solid metrics to base purchasing decisions on. It empowers owners to demand top price for their property at the same time it instills confidence in buyers that they are engaging in a fair transaction with the full disclosure of all the facts surrounding the property they have under consideration.
I hope you consider OahuRE.com’s appeal favorably, weighing that full disclosure of all relevant information (not just the minimum) is a driving force for creating and maintaining a high level of consumer confidence driving market growth, and anything less than full disclosure (of all relevant information) potentially undermines consumer confidence with doubt.
I was deeply disturbed by your request of Oahure that they remove Pending and Withdrawn and expired listings.
This seems to be highly unethical behavior on the part of Honolulu Board of realtors as, by hiding this information you are in-effect creating an information asymmetry which is to the disadvantage of the prospective house buyers for the advantage of yourselves and some unscrupulous realtors who would in effect like to "hide this info forcing the buyers to go through these unscrupulous realtors.. While we know this type of behavior exists in businesses especially in developing countries, I would assume that the Honolulu Board of realtors is above this and would take the ethical high road.
If I can be of service to answer any questions please don't hesitate to contact me.
Oahure is a great resource for Realtors and proactive clients. Please stop limiting information from such great resources.
In the important and useful interest of maintaining at least some level of public transparency in the sometimes opaque realm of local real estate transactions, I respectfully request that the Honolulu Board of Realtors cancel its request for oahure.com to remove all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings from its website. For both work and for personal interest, I find oahure.com’s inclusion of this data to be informative, interesting, and helpful.
While presumably well-intended, I believe HBOR’s request for oahure.com to discontinue listing this information is at odds with the best interests of both the professional real estate business community and the general public; and I respectfully ask that HBOR cancel such request.
Please do not require oahure.com to remove any of the information they provide to the public. it is very helpful and informative when trying to make decisions regarding real estate purchases in hawaii.
I am writing to request that you do not require Oahu Re to remove pending, expired and withdrawn listings from their website. Removing this information from their website essentially makes their website just like the Board of Realtors website. Frankly, I find the Board of Relators website useless as all it does it show me what is listed. I want more detailed information to help me make a more informed decision on a purchase of investment property. I want to know how many days the property has been on the market, how many times, if any, the property fell out of escrow, and if it is has been withdrawn from the market and if so what price it was listed at previously. I could get this same information if I contacted a real estate agent to get on their mailing list for select areas and parameters. So I see no difference in Oahu Re's website than any other agent I contact to assist me. I am also free to have many agents look for properties for me. This website allows me to make decisions on what the market rates are for properties to help me a better consumer.
Frankly, the real estate industry is purely concerned about having agents make money and not really care about what is also good for consumers. Agents can do dual representation at which point do they really care about the buyer..nope..only about larger commission. Limiting their website further will fuel the public's impression of the real estate industry.
Please do not hid information from the public. Allow all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings to be listed on the OahuRE website. I need to know what which listings were overpriced and did not sell or which listings are closing soon. Thank you for your consideration.
It has come to our attention that you are attempting to force some real estate dealers to hide information on pending realestate transactions, along with other critical information needed by consumers to purchase homes. We feel this is not only illegal on your part, but highly unethical. We will form a committee and petition elected officials to start an investigation into your actions, as they appear to border on the criminal side of the law.
As I look for property it has become tremendously beneficial to have OahuRE.com as a source for ALL the property information available including Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired properties. This information is ALL PUBLIC information but is not readily available without the simple and clean format provided by OahuRE.com. It would be a complete public DIS-service to make OahuRE.com remove this information from its websight.
It is simple to me, if it is public information, then please keep it simple to access. OahuRE.com is just making ACCESS TO PUBLIC information easy.I am greatly disappointed with your decision to impede the flow of accurate, current and useful consumer information on Oahuʻs real estate market. I have used oahure.com for years to keep an eye on the real estate market and have referred a number of family members and friends to this valuable resource.
We have used the information on the website to find an investment property, appropriately price my parentsʻ as well as my uncleʻs home, and help a friend locate currently listed properties. To be able to find listings as well as comparable sales, view what is pending and in escrow (saving us from chasing after properties that may no longer be active), calculate future monthly payments, and see assessments and tax information all in one place is a tremendous service to the public.
As a business owner, I can see where this service also is a great industry resource. It generates activity and interest while making it easier for professionals to assist clients. The fact that anyone can access the website maintains a level playing field for all professionals. While I do use and appreciate Mr. Kaufmanʻs website, I have always gone back to my own real estate professional to execute transactions. I would think that there are many others involved in real estate who should be thankful for his website.
Most importantly, though, as a consumer, I would seriously question anyone who is standing in the way of consumers getting their hands on information that can help them make an intelligent purchase decision on something as large as a home or investment property. As consumers, we need to have pending, escrow and previously sold information at our fingertips to arrive at the best decision. I respectfully urge you to reconsider your decision.
What's with the secrecy. Let's have the transparecy.
Dear Board of Realtors,
Bryan Kaufman's website is extraordinary. It is an awesome tool for buyers and sellers. The more informed a buyer or seller is, the better decision they can make.
Please do not make him remove the info that he has on his site. He is benefitting everyone.
Please do not remove pending, expired, withdrawn information from our view. This is incredibly valuable information and could result in bad decisions being made when buying a property. Oahure.com provides useful information and is transparent. Hiding this information would be a step in the wrong decision. Please reconsider allowing this info on Oahure.com.
Please do not force oahure.com to remove Pending, Expired, and Withdrawn listings from OahuRE.com. This is public information.
Please do not insist that oahure.com remove or hide pending, withdrawn, and expired listings from the site. I have found Bryn Kaufman's site extremely valuable in aiding my search for Honolulu housing options.
I am an insurance agent and rely on pictures from the MLS system when determining insurability of the property. Please allow OahuRE.com to keep these pictures up. This website is a fantastic tool for the public and by taking down this information, it does hurt everyone (especially clients that are looking for insurance as they’re trying to close their loan). If I cannot get pictures of a property (not Google Earth ones), I cannot issue insurance binders. This could delay closings if I need to drive out to a property.
Please let me know if you have any questions or if there’s anything else that I can help to answer. Thank you for taking the time to hear my concerns!
Please do not remove Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings from OahuRE.com. These information/data are invaluable and provide individuals like me with knowledge that are helpful in my field.
DO NOT REMOVE Pending, Expired, and Withdrawn from OahuRE.com. Those info helps buyers make informed decisions.
I do not want Board of Realtors hiding information like pending, expired, withdrawn from us. I find this very useful when searching for properties.
I am considering the purchase of a Honolulu condo and love the ability to look at expired listings. Since I currently live on the mainland, looking at expired listings gives me additional views of the design and layout of different condos. Please allow Mr. Kaufman to continue to show these listings.
I am looking to move to Makaha Valley Plantation and currently reside in Texas. The only way I can get a feel for the true market there is to see pending, expired, and withdrawn listings. Like many others on the mainland, making the trip to Hawaii to purchase a condo is largely dependent on the "going rate" for a condo in that complex. Watching trends based on pending, expired, and withdrawn pricing is vital in making the decision to actually travel to make the purchase.
Most realtors are all criminal anyway so I don't expect you to do the right thing. But it would help the United States, the State of Hawaii, the people of Hawaii and your reputation to give people the information needed to make good decisions.
Try not to be so damn communist!
I am just one of the victims of your system!
What hide info from the public?
Please some hindering information.
We live in a country that protects free speech. To prevent public information to be displayed is unfair to consumers, is damaging oahure.com business and oppression of speech. Although oahure.com sells real estate, providing information to public is part of oahure.com business. Please allow the to show information customers want to see. You can do the same too. Don't interfere on oahure.com business.
The ability to view pending, expired and withdrawn offers is very useful to me as I search for properties on Oahu. This information helps me to understand pricing trends which in the long run will allow me to buy more property at a realistic value. This information is a benefit to buyers and sellers alike. Purchasing property in Hawaii is complicated enough. Please consider allowing this information to continue to be available for those buying or selling real estate in Hawaii.
I Firmly Believe Information In Matters So Important As a Potential Real Estate Purchase Should Be Readily Available To All Parties… It Is A Matter Of “Public Record” and Can Be Obtained As Such, So Why Would You Try and Make Access To This Information More Difficult For Individuals To Readily Obtain… ???
The Same Is True In Researching Any Stock Or Other Investment… You Would Be Foolish Not To Know The Historical Data and Price To Earnings, Growth Rate, and Historical Price Ranges, Once Again “Public Domain” Why Would You Try and Conceal Information That Helps People Make a Wise and Informed Decision In Something As Important As The Purchase Of Real Estate… I Sincerely Hope You Will Reconsider Attempting To Make This Information Less Readily Available To ConsumersBACKGROUND: I use multiple avenues to search for the best property that I can afford to purchase. One of my best sources is OahuRE.com at which anyone can obtain the information that I or any citizen/resident may use to make key purchase decisions.
COMPLAINT: The Board of Realtors is pressuring OahuRE to hide and not list prices of withdrawn, in escrow and offered properties. This effort of The Board of Realtors results in detriment to the public and rigged/higher prices versus supply/demand fair process; this practice is corruption and must be fixed.
REQUEST: Mandate that The Board of Realtors allow Mr. Kaufman and his Realty company publish information that he feels the customer and public needs.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Although I frequently utilize his excellent website, I have never been Mr. Kaufman ' s company's client nor even met him or any his representatives but I probably will be in the future.
Oahure has the best and complete property listing. It is very convenient and informational for me when I look up for the properties. Please do not remove those information that the website provides. The customer had the right to know.
Thank you.
As homebuyers in this expensive Hawaiʻi housing market we the consumer should have all relevant info available to use as so to make pono choices, especially in such a high priced market as ours.
Let the info remain available to all!
People always complain about car salesman being misleading and lying. I work in the car business and I AM UPFRONT, HONEST AND FAIR, WITH NO B.S. It's sad that you would want to hide information that can help a buyer/seller make an informed intelligent decision.
I love the fact that car information is at the tips of your finger on the internet, because now those days of getting ripped off or paying to much are gone. On the flip side if someone offers too low, I can educate them and let them know while their offer is greatly appreciated, this is the reason I cannot accept it. It's a win win for everyone. The dealership makes a little money and the customer gets a good deal :).
If your property doesn't sell because YOU overpriced it, or YOU didn't market it correctly, than that is YOUR FAULT. Don't be misleading and try to hide information. Do your due diligence and price it fairly, because I guarantee if you get ripped off, you would not be happy or feel good about your decision or yourself.
BE FAIR, HONEST AND UPFRONT about everything and world would be a better place for all of us.
Thank you for reading this and have a wonderful week :):):)
I have been using your site for a while now and as a home buyer, I feel that every information available to me including, Pending, Expired, and Withdrawn listings are crucial to my family’s decision on purchasing our next house. So, we fully support you and hope that the Hawaii Board of Realtors don’t take away those listings.
please allow Oahure.com to show Pending, Withdraw and Expired information.
it is very valuable to house hunters.
The public should have access to the same information as realtors. Information such as pending sales, expired and withdrawn listings may be relevant to individuals and families during their home buying process. Withholding pertinent information is wrong and dishonest. Shame on you board of realtors, trying to keep the public uninformed. Terrible
I am a first time home buyer and I would not like information withheld from me. I feel all information provided by oahure helps home buyers such as myself immensely. Buying a home is a big thing, so knowing as much as possible helps us to make the right choice when buying the prefect home for our family.
As we know you do not encourage to post all pending, withdrawn, and expired listings, so that the potential buyers cannot learn the appropriate risks they are taking when they are purchasing properties via a very decent and user-friendly source. Hereby we write to appeal to you as a professional and ethical expert in real properties that you should help any potential buyers full-informed, without manipulating the fair market operations. Any unfair intervention will only discourage the buyers to lose the patience and interest in a market. Furthermore, it will encourage any home-buyers to hesitate in their decision-making, because they cannot their doubts of over-payment of their purchase.
I heard about your request to OahuRE to remove all pending, withdrawn, and expired listings from the website. I would like to share my thoughts with you on this matter. I acknowledge I likely do not understand the whole story and its background. With that said, I feel it is vital to buyers and sellers in Hawaii that websites such as OahuRE display pending, expired, and withdrawn listing details. This information allows buyers and sellers to make more informed decisions on what a property is worth, what comparable units have been listed for, what prices have been too high to generate a sale, and all around these details provide buyers/sellers with a benchmark. The historical information these listings provide is powerful as well. With access to these listings, I can view photos of similar or other units that were previously listed, review descriptions of those units, and better review the history of a building or neighborhood. This has been invaluable to me during my home search.
I think it would be ridiculous to consider forcing a website to hide these details. As a buyer-in-progress, if you were to make these details unobtainable to me, I would call you folks the lolo’s, and I would advocate for people to file complaints about you to the state department of commerce & consumer affairs. The only reason I can think of for you to be bullying folks to hide such details is so you can further richen the pockets of realtors (probably by making me go through a realtor to get such details). The Hawaii real estate market is deranged enough. Leave folks like OahuRE alone; they provide buyers like me with an invaluable service that helps me make better educated and informed decisions.
Please do not remove the pending, expired and withdrawn listings from OahuRe.com. This information is needed to help real estate buyers in Honolulu understand the market trends for our neighborhoods. Thanks!
I was born and raised in Hawaii, and having done well financially, my husband and I choose to invest in Hawaii real estate. We own 4 properties and plan to buy more. We have found OahuRe history of a property including past listings, withdrawals and past sold prices invaluable in making decisions. We may choose to take our investment money elsewhere in the U.S., if information about properties is not easily available. Sellers should have nothing to hide. Anything but complete disclosure has the whiff of deceit.
Please help Hawaii investors get straight forward information for a fair sale. Allow OahuRe to continue the great service it provides with Proprty histories.
I support Bryn Kaufman’s appeal and wish that his site retains valuable information about listing status that you have requested be removed from his site.
I don't believe you should be able to force the with holding of information such as expired, pending, withdrawn or any other public information we currently have access to.
It is supposed to be a free country.
Bryn is making a phenomenal contribution to the oahu real estate industry.
I think it would be unwise and anti-competitive to restrict his ability to provide comprehensive content, including pending, expired and withdrawn listings.
I use oahure.com for a lot of information I use for our business. I think hiding the sort of information you are trying to hide, by forcing this site not to disclose it, is a fuel to the fire of inflationary pricing in the real estate market. Had I had access to this information in 2004 when I bought a property I would not have paid the inflationary cost that later came back to burn us when the property investors dumped all their properties and subsequently depressed the cost for the next six years for those of us who paid the inflationary cost in a renovated building. Truthful information is key when looking for properties. Most realtors have a vested interested in making commission and don't bring this information to their clients.
Well done Brian at Oahure for the years of struggle in getting to us the most informative real estate site available in Hawaii.
Shame on you Board or Realtors for trying to close this information down.
My house is for sale I use a realtor but I have a tool to see what is happening in the market and I can see what properties sell and close price.
Tools help the market restrictions hurt the market.
I know it must be a surprise to you but not all realtors are created equal and Oahure help educated home owners measure the market please leave it alone.
In asking Bryn Kaufman to remove valuable information from his website you are acting against the interest of your customers and the general public interest. Information is essential to the efficient functioning of markets.
Worse, you are unlikely to benefit your members, either, since any information being withheld might only serve the interest of one agent and seller against the interest of other agents, buyers and sellers. At best, this action could only serve the interest of a very few unscrupulous agents. In the long run, everybody loses.
Please be sensible and community spirited and work to encourage transparency and fair competition in Hawai`i real estate.
I am a regular user of your mls listing. I do need all the information about pending, expired, and withdrawn properties offered by Oahure company to make informed decisions.
I am a regular user of your mls listing. I do need all the information about pending, expired, and withdrawn properties offered by Oahure company to make informed decision.
I understand that the Board of Realtors has requested that several sites remove listings such as those that are withdrawn,expired or in pending states. This would be a disservice to the public and more important to customers When making a decision as important as purchasing a home, it is critical that customers have access to all public information regardless on when that information was made public. There should be no time restriction. Disallowing historical data to be readily accessed would violate so many state and federal statutes and more importantly would cause harm to customers and possibly provide an unfair advantage to sellers and customers who may have access to that data. This is very similar to what Google is now facing with take-down notices. Although it has been established into law in the EU, it is protected in the US as well as many countries worldwide.
We live in a new era. The burden should be on then sellers. If they do not want that information to be readily available, then they or their agents should not list their properties on the web. Penalizing any web based services from displaying and/or storing that data is not the way and will definitely cause harm to potential customers.
As members of the Board of Honolulu Realtors, I would think that your mission is to provide a level playing field and not create a protectionism environment for Realtors. Doing so would definitely harm customers such as me. I urge you to do the right thing by allowing such data to be readily available to customers and to create no restrictions on its storage.
Thank you for your consideration.
Could you please continue to allow postings of pending, expired and withdrawn listings on OahuRE.com website as this information is vital for the public access to determine market value and should be available to everyone.
If you are trying to control the information on properties, you may be serving your members but you are creating a mistrust to the very consumers who are your clients. In this age of free internet information, your lack of information or control thereof will only turn your potential customers to other real estate websites. Simple as that! Loose it or keep up with the times and be more open and innovative.
I can easily see how Realtors (rather, their Realty companies) might feel threatened--they want the public and their clients to use their sites. When I was in the market to buy a house, I kept on having to explain to my realtor (who I absolutely adored, by the way) that I preferred to use Oahure's listing rather than Prudential's because I like the independence to do my own research. This is basic freedom of information and I am sure that the Board has no legal grounds on which to base its request to censor.
The information your department has asked oahure.com to hide is unconstitutional. It is vital to the livelihood of myself and my business partners to have an easily accessible resource that helps valuate properties in real time. Without it, developers, commercial and institutional buyers will have a great advantage over all others.
Please do not require removal of any information from OahuRE.com. Home purchase is the biggest financial decision most of us face. We should be entitled to immediate and direct access to all available information to aid in this decision. In my experience, other agents do not readily divulge all information and sometimes provide misinformation. I strongly feel the public should be able to readily review all information directly and immediately. This website is a truly outstanding resource for potential homebuyers. Removing any transparency is not only inefficient and potentially detrimental to buyers, but erodes public trust in the commissioned sales system.
Information should not be limited, hidden or kept with few selected people, this is especially true with biggest purchase you will make in your life time.
It seems Honolulu board of realtors do not like educated smart buyers! Please make a smart decision and let OAHURE provide all the information necessary for a buyer to make a smart choice for their family with their hard earned money.
My husband and I have used your valuable website to aid in our home search, and I truly appreciate the knowledge gained from the information provided! It would truly be a step backwards for the Hawaii Realestate industry if information is allowed to be "hidden"!
Good luck, and if we can write anymore letters or sign petitions, please contact us!
Between myself and my fiancée, we've owned / own eight homes on Oahu.
We recently bought a home and, now, we are also selling a home. Both properties are viewable on Oahure ("recently sold" and "pending"). I don't have ANY PROBLEM with this information being made public. It's very valuable information for both home buyers and home sellers.
I don't understand the restriction being placed on Oahure to prevent the posting of pending, recently sold or withdrawn properties. I don't see how this violates anyone's rights or any law (that I am aware of).
Oahure is a great resource for Realtors and proactive clients. Please do not require Oahure.com to remove any of the information they provide to the public.
Thank you for taking in consideration the average consumers' interests!
Please do not force oahure.com to remove Pending, Expired, and Withdrawn listings from OahuRE.com. This is public information.
Leave it alone!
As an owner of 4 condotels ...I can tell you that this website is invaluable
for potential buyers on the mainland....
WHY REGULATE TRANSPARENCY?????
We need this information to make informed decisions. Without it, we would be left to getting PARTIAL information from realtors...who will present us with information
that puts their agenda first....to encourage us to buy or sell a particular property at a particular price....that suits their needs/commission objectives.
Please allow consumers to have all the data out there to make informed decisions. We should know which property has been expired, or withdrawn. Thank you.
You would be doing a great disservice to this community if your were to preclude oahure.com from posting all Pending, Withdrawn and Expired listings from oahure.com website.
Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings are part of intelligent home buying investigation and research and add to our information on market value, time on market, and sell-ability to act in accord with our bids. To NOT have this information seems to me an unfair practice on Realtors part to HIDE facts from potential buyers that could have them pay MORE than a home is worth.
Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings should be available to ANYONE going to the trouble to find that information. Oahu website has this information and I applaud that.
As a former realtor, I found Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings on OahuRE.com invaluable to my clients and myself.
The information allowed me to provide my clients with information about potential properties that would justify the price we were offering and even allow us to more accurately find comparable properties with similar prices in expired listings. With some minor understanding, we could see how the market was trending as well and explain it easily to our clients. I still use this information frequently, and find that this information is a benefit to myself, allowing me to make informed decisions.
Please withdraw your request for OahuRE.com to remove all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings and allow them to be listed on the OahuRE website.
I was deeply disturbed by your request of Oahure that they remove Pending and Withdrawn and Expired listings. Why hide information? There is no advanatge to the buyer of such an action. It only leads to distrust in realtors as a group and as a profession. This seems to be highly unethical behavior on the part of Honolulu Board of Realtors. Please retract your self-serving request and treat your clients with respect.
Only too many times I have viewed property listings claiming to be upgraded the year of the listing and the property pictures look exactly the same as it did in a Withdrawn / Expired listings from several years ago. Without the Withdrawn / Expired information buyers can't see this information. What is the reason to hide this information?
Pending or In Escrow? Why would someone not what this information public? It's nice to see whats in escrow in the same area you are wanting to purchase. Properties fall out of escrow for many reasons and I would want my listing public until it closes escrow.
To whom it my concern,
This information should be available to the public to make an informed decision and to educate the public on the process.
Thank you
I am not sure what good this letter will do but I am requesting that you NOT force the removal of pending, expired and withdrawn listings from the oahure.com site.
I owned a property in Lanikai years ago and hope to buy there again. The oahure site is invaluable in my searches.
This info should be public.
I find that Oahure.com to be a valuable resource in researching and educating myself about real estate on Oahu.
Please allow this website to continue showing all pertinent information which includes pending sales, withdrawn listings and expired listings.
To withhold information is to do a disservice.
Please, this is valuable information.
Everyone should have access to this informationI like being able to do my own comparisons and would like to see oahuRE.com endure.
I would like to voice my opinion about the board of realtors removing vital information from oahure.com web site.
I am an investor and although I can easily get this information from my realtor, I like to do my own research before setting up appointments to see property.
That way I do not waste my time, my realtors time or the sellers time.
Limiting information to the customer is never a good idea.
To limit this firm from advertising in the way they do is a dis-service to clients. Many people do not trust Realtors. I have watched numerous sneaky deals done and many Realtors "pushing the envelope". Yes, there are good ones. Good ones would not want information buried that could aid a buyer or seller in a transaction.
A former owner in our condo used Bryn specifically because of the information he provided. Their condo unit had a firm offer in less than 14 days.
Give it up and leave them alone. Shame on you.
Leave OahuRE alone. That site provides buyers with an invaluable service that helps us make better educated and informed decisions. DO NOT force them to remove property histories from their listings. Access to all available info is imperative. To deny that access is wrong.
I have learned that The Honolulu Board of Realtors has asked OahuRE to remove all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings.
I am astonished that the Board of Realtors is taking this action. Both home sellers and buyers should have access to all information available. The services provided by OahuRE allow home sellers and buyers to access the information they need directly without having any information filtered by realtors who may try to hide information that may affect a sale, purely for the purposes of completing a sale and getting their commission.
Consumers have a right to the information provided by OahuRE. That is the American Way. No good realtor should feel threatened by this.
It would be a public disservice and a great disappointment that OahuRE not be allowed to continue to post the pending, expired and withdrawn information. Overall it is a net gain for all realtors to have informed buyers & sellers…….
Saw the article in the Star Advertiser regarding the local realtors attempts to control the flow of information.
The Luddites will always be with us.
Keep up the good work.
I believe Bryn is doing a great service for the regular consumer. You should let him continue what he created because he is way ahead of his time in doing real estate sales. Why didn’t anyone else thought of this magnificent market strategy to enhance sales!! Of course I do have an Realtor when it’s my turn to list or buy!
As a buyer and seller, I do not want Pending, Expired and withdrawn information removed from OahuRE.com
Please withdraw your attack on Oahure.com and allow freedom of information, and stop this blatantly self-serving policy!
Please let oahure display pending, expired and withdrawn information.
This is regards to mlsviolations and oahure website. Oahure.com is a blessing for information about properties for sales, prices, and various inquiries of past, present, and future. The board of realtors want the buyers and sellers to be at there mercy and to only benefit brokers and realtors not the consumers if information is being held back. Please don't let this happen, oahure.com website and all of its information helps the customer. Thank you
I hope you consider OahuRE.com’s appeal favorably. Knowledge of withdrawals, pending and expired listing will help the buyers/sellers make more sound decisions.
With this proposal, you are just making yourselves look like Hawaiian Electric Company, a greedy monopoly protecting its privileges at the expense of the public good. Stop and reconsider before you engender the ill will of the public.
I do not want Board of Realtor to hide any information from us as a potential buyer.
Thanks !!
Truly support your company.
Aloha Board of Realtors,
It is really sad what you're trying to do. We live in a day and age where access to information is what the public demands. Look at any newspaper or media outlet and you see how fiercely people are fighting for more information. People deserve to know where their food comes from and whether there is any GMO's in it. People deserve to know what really happened when a police officer shot a citizen. People deserve to know if their plastic water bottle is made of harmful chemicals. When buying a used car, there are companies such as CarFax because people deserve to know the history of the car they're buying . The same applies here! People deserve to know the history of a home they are thinking of buying.
What logical, valid argument is there for withholding this information? Does the benefit of withholding this information benefit the consumers? I would argue that the reason the Board of Realtors is trying to hide this information is because it can show incompetence by the realtor representing a property. For example, if a property has been listed for sale at a price of $900,000 and it has not sold for some time, the realtor works with the homeowner to set a lower price. The home still does not sell for some time, so the price is lowered yet again. And this goes on for a while until the realtor tries to explain the reason for the home not selling even in this sellers market, is because of this factor or that factor when in actuality the main cause is just that the home was overpriced to begin with. The initial overpricing was a result of bad consultation by the realtor, as the realtor helped the seller to set the initial price with their market analysis. To hide the bad decisions by the agent which caused the home to sit on the market for too long, the agent convinces the seller to withdraw the listing and relist it, sometimes the very next day. Isn't this false advertisement? The same home listed for sale for months is removed from the mls and then placed back for sale the next day simply to hide the fact that the home has been sitting on the market for months. It's like taking a steak at the grocery store that has been for sale for a week, slapping on new sticker showing a newer date and placing it back for sale.
I'm sure your Board has a code of ethics, professionalism, and morals. Is hiding information from the consumer ethical, professional, and moral?
One aspect of the current local real estate market revolves around currency exchange rates. When exchange rates for the yen, the yuan, or any other foreign currency changes, it can bring significant amounts of investment capital from foreign investors into our local market. All our local real estate agents are highly aware of this.
Some listing agents have an eye for properties that might be attractive to foreign investors and suggest the sellers list the property at a price significantly higher than the local market, in hopes of quickly securing a high sale price from a foreign investor.
If the property sells at the initial “foreign investor” set price, the record of that sale helps drive the whole market up, and is just part of the continuing process resulting in a higher market price for similar properties in future sales.
If, on the other hand, the property does not sell at the initial “foreign investor” pricing, it will then be re-listed at a price that is more reflective of current market pricing.
In the same way that sales to foreign investors are allowed to drive the market price up, failure to sell at the higher “foreign investor" price should be allowed to temper the rise of the market.
The attempt to hide the downward-revised prices of of listed properties can result in an unrealistic skewing of the market, and could be a major contributor to the market’s susceptibility to reaching “bubble” levels, which are then more likely to collapse.
Being able to see the downward-revised prices provides a reality check for all those involved in the process, and access to those records should not be restricted to just real estate insiders. It should be available to those who fund the entire industry, the buyers.
Please don’t allow the Board of Realtors to prevent buyers from being able to see both sides of the “foreign investor” pricing process.
Your website is AWESOME!!!
I wish I knew about it in 2007 when I bought my first property.
My realtor "allowed" me to pay $50,000 more than I should have. I am upset with him till this very day.
I found out I paid too much by looking at your website.
Six months ago I bought another property.
This time I "did my homework" by using your website and have been tracking properties for 8 years.
I feel I got a really good deal on my second property thanks to you and your website!!!
THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO FOR THE "LITTLE GUY" LIKE ME!!!
MUCH MAHALO!!!
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!
"Transparency" is really big in our society now days and that is exactly what your website does.
If things are "secret/hidden" it makes you wonder what kind of an industry real estate is and may explain why so many people in Hawaii are HOMELESS!!!
Why would Honolulu Board Of Realtors NOT want the public to be informed when it comes to making the single and biggest purchase of their life.
I think you are wrong and doing a great dis-service to the public! You are giving the impression as the Honolulu Board of Realtors that you have something to hide.
I hope you will reconsider what you are trying to do.
Mahalo for your time.
FOR SEVERAL YEARS, BRYN KAUFMAN OF OAHURE.COM HAS GIVEN US UP-FRONT, HONEST INFORMATION WHICH HAS HELPED US MAKE SMART HOME BUYING DECISIONS.
SHAME ON THE HONOLULU BOARD OF REALTORS FOR TRYING TO PREVENT MR KAUFMAN FROM CONTINUING TO PROVIDE THE PEOPLE OF HAWAII WITH THIS IMPORTANT INFORMATION TO HOME BUYERS.
Thanks for your site, hope you can keep it open. You will get all my future business.
Dont let the bullies at the Board of Realtors influence you.
I am so grateful for Bryn Kaufman and all the information he has put on the OahuRE website. I am requesting you allow all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings to be available on OahuRE.com.
Please keep the public's best interest in mind and do not hide this information from us.
Please don’t force the surreptitious hiding (censoring) of information that is perfectly legal to disclose. While you may believe that hiding this information helps the industry members that are important to you, I propose that such a view is very short sighted, and may cause chilling second order affects from the negative press. Plus, the information will get out there some way or another, if there is a legal demand for it. Have you ever heard of the Streisand Effect? The Hawaii Board of Realtors looks to be aiming for a demonstration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
Oahure’s info was invaluable to my family in researching our home purchase. Detailed information such as pending sales, expired and withdrawn listings are hugely relevant to individuals and families during their home buying process. Please let Oahure to continue to show this information. Thank you.
Please let this site keep providing the full transparent information it does to consumers. It is invaluable in buying and selling a home on Oahu to determine fair price. If anything I wish the board would look at and address the nearly identical commissions charged across the board by realtor agencies. I also wish the board would address describing a house as "excellent." This description should not apply to these houses that were built in the 60s at the very least! It is misleading and frankly dishonest. The additional information provided by Oahure helps to determine the true condition.
Let the sun shine in and give the consumer more information!
I’m a real estate agent in California and a successful real estate investor. Last February I purchased my first condo in Waikiki and I used OahuRE.com. It’s the best information I have ever seen since searching for real estate on-line. BTW, I did not use OahuRE.com as my buying agent.
Let him keep publishing the info. You are exposing Oahu real estate agent to anti-trust litigation from the federal government if you restrict the info, which is in the public domain.
I would like to express my deep felt dismay for the board of realtors decision to limit information shared on OahuRe.com. I used the site both times that I purchased a home and when we sold our 1st home eventhough I used realtors from other companies. The site gave me confidence in knowing that my realtor and I were on the same team and that I could make fully informed decisions. If the Board continues to limit the information shared on OahuRe, public confidence in the Board will be greatly diminished. In a time when openness and transpency is so important to the public, I dont understand why the Board would move away from that.
I urge the Board to restore OahuRe's ability to share all information related to MLS listings.
As a buyer and seller, I do not want Pending, Expired and withdrawn information removed from OahuRE.com
Continued release of the above information is essential in an open market. Buyers have a right to access.
Greed/control are not favorable marketing qualities!
In this age of information, to remove pending, expired et al listings is going backwards in time. I cannot fathom why you would even consider this option. Please keep your organization prudent with disclosure and pertinent information. Thank you.
It has come to my attention that The Honolulu Board of Realtors has requested the website, OahuRE.com, to remove information relating to pending, expired and withdrawn listings, and I would like to add my comments for your consideration pending your review of OahuRE.com’s appeal.
The long-term success of any group of professionals is not possible without the trust of the consumer. It is within your power to force OahuRE.com to remove the pending, expired and withdrawn information from its website, but you would be diminishing my trust in your profession by intentionally withholding from me information that may assist me in some of the most important financial decisions in my life.
I am optimistic that, as accomplished and ethical individuals, you will realize that in the long run the best thing you can do is to provide the consumer more information.
I have often been frustrated by other sites that require an email address or log in. Why doesn't the board allow sites like oahure that is sooo customer friendly.
I just wanted to tell you I fully support your business and giving everyone access to all the information regarding homes being sold on Oahu. I’m pretty disgusted to know they are trying to censor you. If I’m making a huge purchase that will take me 30 years to pay for, I better get every bit of information on that piece of property and you provide that. I recently purchased a house and I think my realtor was shocked at the amount of information I already knew about the place before I stepped foot on it. I don’t think she would have given me all the information your site provided.
Thank you again for providing this to the people purchasing property in Hawaii.
This information is publicly available and aggregated by OAHURE.Com as a service to their potential buyers. They have broken no laws and should be allowed to continue to provide services to prospective clients. The more information and transparency available to consumers is a benefit to consumers serving to build trust that government and real estate professionals are working to fairly transact and provide business services.
Publicly withdraw you directive to OAHURE to remove publicly available info from this great website.
This is an open market requiring fullest transparency to be to good of all, consumers and realtors.
I have purchased two homes, sold one and used two different realtors since finding Bryn Kaufman's website. I knew nothing about buying or selling, but I felt informed enough to make such purchases and a sale with his website.
Realtors will always poses invaluable knowledge and information, so they will always be an important part of the equation. I would also like to say that I have worked very hard to financially contribute to Hawaii's Real Estate's thriving market, even during the horrible financial housing crisis. It is only fair to provide as much public and detailed information available to consumers (in one place). Unfortunately, Bryn Kaufman has not benefited from my transactions and probably should because I was so well informed about days on market, sold, escrow, pending, etc through my buying and selling processes.
It would be a shame to single out the one smart real estate website that educated me and many others on making the single most important financial purchase in ones life.
Perhaps, Hawaii's Board of Realtors can partner with Mr Kaufman, rather then against. Providing such information truly benefits everyone and not just some.
As my first grader sang all year long, "working together, we get things done"!
With humble respect to Hawaii's Board of Realtors, please find a way to work with Oahure and reconsider requesting Oahure/Bryn Kaufman to remove any information from their website.
I use oahure ever day. Please do not make them remove information that is beneficial to the public. I am a hard working nurse, and would like to eventually buy a home for my family, please allow me to do that with all the information I need.
Capitalistic transparency is a virtue -- please don't stand in the way!
I agree with this statement below. With the price of real estate in the islands this web site helps the seller/buyer makes informed decisions.
I was deeply disturbed by your request of Oahure that they remove Pending and Withdrawn and expired listings.
This seems to be highly unethical behavior on the part of Honolulu Board of realtors as, by hiding this information you are in-effect creating an information asymmetry which is to the disadvantage of the prospective house buyers for the advantage of yourselves and some unscrupulous realtors who would in effect like to "hide this info forcing the buyers to go through these unscrupulous realtors.. While we know this type of behavior exists in businesses especially in developing countries, I would assume that the Honolulu Board of realtors is above this and would take the ethical high road.
Previous listings should not be hidden from the people. You guys are trying to hurt the people of Hawaii and just trying to be greedy and make more money for yourselves and destroy our home market. Making it so that normal people can't afford Hawaii. We should be able to have all of the information available on current and previous home prices. What you are doing is wrong and should be illegal. Leave Oahure alone, at least they are trying to give people in the market to buy a home the most information, so that we can make an informed decision. If a home sold one year ago for 400,000 And now it is listed for 700,000, I want to know that. Creating another balloon in the market with all the greed and you guys just want to stop the only people trying to give us that information.
Pending, expired, and withdrawn listings on OahuRE are very important tools for buyers and sellers alike to find out what's going on with the market. Without these listings, information ability is crippled, and nobody gets what they want. I hope you see the error of your ways and allow OahuRE.com to keep this listings.
The real estate market is difficult to navigate without the help of OahuRE. My husband and I relied heavily on the site to purchase our first condo, and again when we had the means to sell our condo and buy a townhouse to accommodate our growing family.
We are part of the up and coming generation who is finding it hard to make a living in Hawaii with the increasing cost of living - including the rising cost of home prices. By taking away access to important information listed on OahuRE, you are just increasing the barriers and difficulty my peers will have when purchasing their first homes.
There is so much deceit in government right now, and self serving politicians looking out for their own interests. I'm disappointed to see that the Honolulu Board of Realtors is following suit.
I strongly urge you to reconsider your position, as it would be very detrimental to Hawaii homebuyers.
Oahure.com’s website is by far the most informative, factual, and helpful website around for real estate on Oahu. The Honolulu Board of Realtors' order for removal of all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings reeks of secrecy, protectionism, and bad practice. What exactly is your intent of hiding valuable and comparative information from serious potential buyers like me who use the website to evaluate all similar houses? It DOES make a difference to know that a house did not sell and then was withdrawn, only to appear again a couple months later in the guise of a brand new listing. Shouldn't that be public information? It seems the board is only representing the interests of the sellers and not the buyers by taking away this information. Please reconsider your decision.
What gives you the right to dictate what the public has access to.You should be ashamed of yourselves for trying to hide information from the public to make people pay higher prices.The public should come together and file a class action lawsuit against people like you!!!!!!!! Oahure.com is providing the good people of this state important sales info to help us better dictate this overpriced real estate market so leave them alone!!!!!!!
Oahure.com is the only user friendly site I have found. Its wealth of information helps home buyers and provides much more detail than any other sites or realtors for that matter. To force him to remove expired or withdrawn listings puts home buyers at a great disadvantage. We have a right to know if we are potentially overpaying for a house. It is a huge investment and no one wants to be taken advantage of. Oahure give us the insight to make decisions for ourselves instead of having to rely on a realtors "advice" or "expertise". Bottom line is trust and when a realtor stands to make a bigger commission off of a sale of a house, more often than not, they will take that advantage.
Please reconsider and allow Oahure the autonomy to continue posting all this vital information.
Keep on fighting Honolulu Board of Realtors. I appreciate all your efforts and firmly believe we should have access to all information. That is just wrong of them to try to block and withhold information on properties. Thank you Bryan for all your intent and hard work.
I read with interest the Star Bulletin article about OahuRe and their disagreement with the MLS/Realtor organization.
I want to express my STRONGEST possible support for not suppressing OahuRE’s ability to disseminate information for Hawaii consumers. Obviously, any market works best when information is freely available. Mr. Kaufman is simply fulfilling this need. Restricting this obviously is detrimental to consumers, but also to Hawaii’s housing industry in general.
I think my wife and I are representative examples. We have invested in the Oahu real estate market on and off for several decades. On average we hold our investments ten years and rent them out on a long term basis. We treat our tenants well, invest in the properties and, in the case of condos, participate in the AOAO and try to generally upgrade the housing stock.
We find OahuRe to be invaluable. I can guarantee that without the assurance we can get from our own private analysis, we wouldn’t be investing as we do. Over the last ten years or so, we have bought or sold four properties. In all of these cases we have used a trusted realtor from Locations; not OahuRE. We have used Locations because of our long-term relationship with a particular broker and her knowledge of the marketplace. We wouldn’t do a deal without her. But by the same token, we wouldn’t have entered into many of these transactions without being able to feel comfortable knowing what has transpired in the past and being able to look at the data personally.
We implore you not to move backward against the tide of openness and progress. You would not only be punishing OahuRE, but also Hawaii’s consumers and your industry as a whole.
The Oahure website was extremely useful for my wife when we moved to Oahu 2yrs ago. We are a military family and without the website, it would have been impossible to understand the Oahu real estate market. Being able to see pending, expired and withdrawn listings was critical to giving us the confidence moving forward with a purchase. Furthermore, we still utilized a real estate agent that had 30 plus years experience. We still utilize the website every week to help us strategize our next purchase. It would be extremely disappointing if the website was forced to withhold information from the public.
Historic information regarding pending, expired and withdrawn home listings should remain accessible to the public on oahure.com. Today’s consumer seeks internet information to make informed decisions on any major purchase. Removing the info will only serve those who will profit on the sales side. It seems unfair, unethical and will contribute to Hawaii’s already inflated real estate costs.
I read on staradvertiser.com about the Honolulu Board of Realtor's recent demand of you to remove some of the listing information from oahure.com. I'm in support of you and your site, as you might imagine. I've seen many people making the argument that more information is better, which I likewise agree with. My thought was have you considered making the argument that all the information you provide on your site is essentially publicly available information? Not sure if that is in fact true, though I'm inclined to think so (at least most of the information?). But if it is true, then perhaps that would be another argument in your/the site's favor.
I would imagine a very upset public if HBR does not relent on this issue!
Best with it, hope it turns out well. Thanks again for the great site.
Please continue to allow Bryn Kaufman to run OahuRE.com in a manner he sees fit. Do not censor his website in any way. All data pertaining to real estate is public information.
Otherwise, your desire to contain public information will be overturned through new legislation, the citing of the Freedom Of Information Act, etc. You are about to open that "can of worms." Take the high road...in fact, allow all agents to do the same.
Compete for consumer dollars in a free marketplace.
I am writing to request for you to NOT censure oahure.com. Do not hide information and enable consumers like me to make the most informed decision possible about what is the largest financial decision in my life--purchasing a home. Hiding information is unethical, is not beneficial for the public, and tarnishes and degrades your reputation and integrity as an organization.
As an ex Realtor in the state of PA, living now in FL, and using OahuRE to view and purchase future sales in Hawaii, I am shocked to hear that the Board of Realtors would like Pending, Expired, etc. information removed! This information is valuable to people who take the time to sign up and use this wonderful site!! The history of a property is public information and should not be hidden in any way, shape or form, from people interested in a property..whether for rental, purchase or just interest.
This information that OahuRE gives its potential customers, or just an interested party, is allowing the person(s) to receive the information needed to make the right choices. We live in FL and purchased a home in Oahu, using this wonderful site, as few years back. We already had a Realtor working for us. But, this site allowed me to see the listing prior to our Realtor receiving it and allowed me to take action, after reviewing the history information, and make the right decision for our family...from FL!!
Not only in Hawaii, but around the globe and here in FL too, the market over the past 10 years has seen many lows. For a person looking for information about their neighborhood homes..looking to see if things are improving..gathering strategic information to make changes, this information is very helpful. Again, this information is public knowledge!
I vehemently oppose your request to force Mr. Kaufman to remove pending, withdrawn, and expired MLS listings from his Website, Oahure.com. This information is vital to me and many others when evaluating properties to purchase. His Website has informed my purchase of two properties on O‘ahu. Without his Site I wouldn't I have pulled the trigger on these purchases and no Realtor has the time/patience to help me evaluate purchases within my parameters. The information his Site provides bolsters housing demand; the same cannot be said of these anti-competitive antics put on by the Honolulu Board of Realtors.
It is very revealing that the Board of Realtors would find it necessary or desirable to eliminate public access to public information. You apparently want to deny prospective buyers of the information they need to make fully-informed decisions. You want buyers to have to rely entirely on whatever information (or misinformation) brokers deign to give us.
Why are you so afraid that buyers (and sellers) will actually know what is happening in the marketplace?
You should praise Bryn Kaufman for pulling back the curtain and showing us what is really happening in Oz.
I would like to express my dismay at the request to remove listings from the OahuRE.com website.
Frankly, my family has used this site many times in the last several years and it helped us make two purchases even though we used realtors other than the one who runs the site. The site is a great service to buyers, sellers and even other realtors who can refer savvy clients to the detailed data the site provides.
Rather than punishing the site, the Board should give it an award for being such a valuable resource.
I cannot imagine buying a property without using Oahure.com. There is no reason in my mind that would benefit the consumer if Oahure.com is required to restrict the information it so readily makes available now. If this does pass it will be a great diservice to the general public. If I ever moved out of state I would hope that wherever I moved to will have a similar website just like Oahure.com. I hope the board of realtors changes their minds or they lose this request because I really do not know how people who haven't already purchased property will make educated decisions that could impact the rest of their lives. Buying a home is such an important choice every buyer should have the opportunity to use Oahure.com and have all that information available to them. Other websites that want to hide or restrict information in my mind want to do so to make more money and thats not right.
We come in contact with transitioning military members and their families on a daily basis. I can attest that the information provided on OahuRE is necessary for consumers to make informed decisions in regards to the purchase and sale of real estate on this island. In many cases, without the information service members would NOT purchase real estate.
Personnaly, without access to OahuRE, I would not have purchased my last condo in Waikiki. Realtors that I have been exposed to do NOT share infromation. Their interests are aligned only with the transaction, not with the buyer or seller. Individual interests do not always coincide with the greater good. Free information creates challenges for unscrupolous (or uninformed) realtors. However,free information is vital to a thriving market. Trust is vital, hidden information does not add to trust.
Expired, Price changes and Withdrawn listings provide a fuller picture of the market. Any restriction of that information adds to the already precarious reputation of realtors.
It is very disheartening to learn that the Honolulu Board of Realtors wants to restrict a company from providing very pertinent information to the Residents of Hawaii in their research and due diligence when either purchasing or selling their homes.
It's not like we will not use Realtors for their experience but what are you fearful about allowing the people of Hawaii to receive more information as they formulate their thoughts towards their decision making on selling or purchasing.
Transparency and availability to as much information as it relates to a property's profile,comparables,pricing (current and history), etc. will foster valuable discussions between the buyers agent / sellers agent and the client .
I request that you do not sanction Bryn Kaufman's Realestate company from making this valuable information available to the very clients that are providing business to your realtor membership. By forcing the withhold of this type of information by this Realestate Co. to the general public does not foster trust and confidence in the HBR organization but instead it exudes a hidden agenda that is suspicious and may flirt on collusion in some situations.
Mr. Kaufman is doing a great service for Hawaii and by you trying to prohibit his providing of information to the general public is doing a real disservice to all of Hawaii.
I stumbled upon Oahure's website many years ago when purchasing a condo in Hawaii was just a thought in the back of my head. I really didn't think buying was going to be a reality for me. But I was able to use the websites information, including pending, withdrawn and expired listings, in conjunction with active and sold listings, to educate myself on the market and to get a better handle on values within the condo building I was considering. It was because of this information that I began to feel it might be possible to pursue a purchase. I learned what was selling and what was not selling and what was priced correctly and what was not.
Without this information on Oahure.com, I never would have taken the next and contact a realtor. Ironically, I did not work with Oahure realtors but spoke with a different realtor with a different company.
In the end, I did make a purchase. And if not for my ability to educate myself thoroughly via the Oahure website, including pending, withdrawn & expired listings, I never would have taken the next step and reached out to a realtor and begin writing offers to make a purchase.
I continue to use the website information today and may well make another purchase.
Oahure.com has the best and complete property listing. It is very convenient and informational for me when I look up for the properties. Please do not remove those information that the website provides. The customer has the right to know.
I was deeply disturbed by your request of Oahure that they remove Pending and Withdrawn and expired listings.
Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings are part of intelligent home buying investigation and research and add to our information on market value, time on market, and sell-ability to act in accord with our bids. To NOT have this information is an unfair practice on Realtors part to HIDE facts from potential buyers that could have them pay MORE than a home is worth.
Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings should be available to ANYONE going to the trouble to find that information. Oahu website has this information and I applaud that.
Your actions do a disservice to potential home buyers by limiting this information. Why are you trying to screw us over?
Why is Hawaii Board of Realtor asking Oahure.com to remove property past history? Are you try to hide information from buyers so you can make more profit? I have lost my trust of realtor because now I know board of realtor want to withhold information from buyer to make informed decision.
What is the reason for you to do that? Are you try to make home seeker to buy a house without complete property history, so realtor can make more profit on the transaction?
Or you worry, once buyer gets those information, he/she won't allow realtor to lie to them?
It doesn't make sense in this day of age to hide those information.
Please give me a reason why Oahure.com is required to remove those information from website?
Please do not remove the Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired Listings from Oahure.com’s website. This is the hands down the best website available in Hawaii. As a homeowner, this website has been a valuable tool for me to keep informed of what’s going on in the real estate market in our neighborhood and in Honolulu in general. It also helped us find the home we currently live in. It would be a disservice to remove this vital information from the public.
It disappoints me that the Board of Realtors would request Oahure.com to change or discontinue providing buyers and sellers vital information that could help them make educated decisions in the market. Oahure is transparent and provides a great service to the public and its customers. I feel all realty companies should follow their lead and provide the same service in this new age of technology. Gone are the days when we would sit at the desk and search through the MLS book for comps. Buyers and sellers are more sophisticated these days and they want all the information possible at their finger tips to make good sound choices. Shame on you for trying to hide and keep this information from potential customers. Oahure knows times have changed and the world has become a much smaller place with the use of computers. Bryn Kaufman keeps buyers and sellers alike INFORMED! Keep up the good work! Board of Realtors need to wake up, you are doing all potential customers a disservice by hiding information that is critical to making good decisions for themselves.
Your plan to force Oahure.com to limit the information they provide can only lead to less informed consumers and discredit to your organization
Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings are part of intelligent home buying investigation and research and add to our information on market value, time on market, and sell-ability to act in accord with our bids. To NOT have this information seems to me an unfair practice on Realtors part. Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings should be available to ANYONE to find that information. Oahu website has this information and I applaud that. To HIDE factsfrom potential buyers that could have them pay MORE than a home is worth.
Oahure.com is by far the most accessible and user friendly website for the non-Realtor. The information provides values that are important to me as a homeowner when contemplating buying or selling. It allows the public instant information without the hassle of contacting a Realtor or real estate agent. Most information I seek is simple and not serious as a buyer or seller. When I am ready I will definitely interview a Realtor of my choice, a not necessarily use Oahure.com team member.
Please allow OahuRE.com to post pending, expired and withdrawn properties because this helps buyers with decision making. In addition this prevents price gouging by the sellers. Otherwise, you as realtors will be just as guilty to this crime.
The idea that the Honolulu Board of Realtors can protect it’s guild members by obfuscating information will ultimately work to reduce the number of transactions that occur on the island. Transparency always adds to liquidity and activity. Liquidity means more commissions for the guild and taxes for the city. Do you want a bunch of overpriced and stale listings sitting on the market for many years at a time? Do you want to scare away potential investors who are afraid of getting ripped off? Nothing makes potential real estate investors lose interest in a particular market than a seeing a bunch of stale listings where bids and offers are miles apart.
I have been an active real estate investor for many years. Since moving to Hawaii three years ago, I have purchased four high end properties and have already sold one. The OahuRE website to be uniquely indispensable because of the pending, expired and withdrawn listings have given me insight into the accurately pricing properties.
Everybody in the local real estate community should reconsider this stance and, in fact, start moving in the other direction. The more information people have, the more accurately they will price their properties, which will lead to greater activity. This is common sense for people who have been involved in markets for many years.
I rely upon Oahu Re to provide me with the information that I need to make decisions. It seems as though the realtors want to keep the public in the dark about houses and prices. This is a terrible idea and impedes a free market economy. Hawaii real estate is very competitive and expensive only with sites like Oahu Re will buyers be able to know enough to make informed decisions.
Please allow Oahu Re to KEEP the pending, expired and withdrawn listings.
We want to know.
Please do not allow the board of realtors to monopolize realty information. As a consumer we have a right to be a thoroughly informed consumer. I love Oahure and feel it is open and honest for the consumer.
Please do not distort our real estate market. Where only the Realtors will know what the market value is for properties. I would think from a legal standpoint, Realtors could and have abused a closed view of the market. What with pocket listings, appraisals that come in way below the asking price, and listing overpriced. I would think Realtors could buy under-market prices, and then re-sell, using their insider knowledge for gain for the actual asset holder of the property.
I think the legal system, then should hold Realtors to and even higher standard than they are now. The Realtors are suppose be a self-regulating body, not wall street want-a-bees.
So, please do not distort and hide the working mechanics of our Hawaiian Real Estate Market.
i agree that in the best interests of the public, all information for pending, expired and withdrawn listings should not be hidden and should be made available for review by the general public.
As a real estate investor in Hawaii and California I'm offended and outraged at your aggressive posture to hide material facts regarding real estate transactions. It makes one ponder your intentions. With that being said please don't offer up an answer that panders to anyone's intelligence.
There is nothing wrong with transparency in real estate transactions. If at all one of your reasons is owners privacy... most individuals that are interested in that issue have a multitude of options in hiding their names.
OahuRE has been an invaluable resource for my parents' recent homebuying venture as well as my own family's near-future move to Hawaii. I am not sure what basis the Hawaii Board of Realtors claimed with such an unethical request to keep public information unavailable (or at the very least extremely difficult to find) to the public, but I certainly hope this request is denied. The fact that such a request was even made raises questions to the ethical behavior of those who requested it in the first place. This website is not biased in any way. It does not harm anyone other than parties who want to profit from public ignorance. Hawaiian properties will always bought and sold fervently, there is no need to blindfold anyone in order to make a paycheck. These homes are distinctly more expensive than in most places in the country so all additional information provided in a home search is crucial, warranted, and thanks to OahuRE, accessible.
Please allow OahuRE to continue the great public service it is currently providing, and not tie the potential homeowner's hands behind their backs.
We have been very pleased with mr Bryn Kauffman's website. It is extremely informative. I have recommended it to several potential buyers. Please do not remove this valuable website.
If OahuRE.com is coerced by the Honolulu Board of Realtors to remove pending, expired, and withdrawn listings, we'll all know whose interests this board serves. You should all be ashamed of yourselves and the individuals behind this request should be made public.
Worse, you should be embarrassed by your profound disconnect from reality. Information, once released and posted publicly, cannot be bottled up again to serve your narrow self-interests. As a buyer and seller in the Honolulu real estate market, this information is profoundly valuable... Not the least of which is how it serves to protect us all from the type of realtors like those on this very board.
This website and the realtor who hosts it are a breath of fresh air in the dank funk of good old boy, protected class realtors.
Who's interests do you serve?
It is informational age today. Hide information from public only hurts business. If you feel it is unfair for the paid members, why not reduce the membership fees. I believe Hawaii real estate is over charging sellers for the services they could get for a lot cheaper from the mainland real estate agents. It is unfair for homeowners as well as buyers to pay 6% since most of the information is available on internet already. Charge should be done by reducing the board membership fees and realtor's fees.
Why force Oahure.com into hiding relevant & valuable real estate information ? Why the secrecy ? Are there any federal or state laws that require this ? Does the Board of Realtors have something to hide about the Oahu real estate market ? Maybe we need an investigation into the practices of the Oahu Board of Realtors !
I find Oahure.com to be almost like the "Google" for the Oahu real estate market - it is an information rich & tremendously valuable site that allows me to do a thorough research & valuation of the properties available, sold, pending or withdrawn - thereby making me an informed buyer/seller & allowing me to make rational decisions that is fair to both the seller & buyer. It also keeps out unethical real estate agents, buyers & sellers who try to take advantage of uninformed buyers or sellers. Kudos to Oahure.com for being so forthcoming w/ all the research & data that helps everybody in the real estate market. Unless there are any laws against this I see no reason why Oahure.com should not share all of their research & data on the Oahu real estate market.
Shame on you Honolulu Board of Realtors! Sales history is just that and should reflect the entire history of all properties listed. OahuRE is doing their job and providing a great service to consumers. Are you?
Please do not remove pending, expired and withdrawn listings from OahuRE.com. This is valuable information, useful in understanding the pricing & buying decisions, and marketing of homes. It feels unfair to be requiring this.
I understand you have asked oahure.com to remove all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings from their site. I find this information to be extremely valuable as I buy and sell real estate regularly. This year I have/am moving several million dollars worth of property. If it wasn't for the detailed information provided by oahure.com I would not be able to make so many important decisions so quickly. Please consider rescinding your request to oahure.com.
Thank you for your consideration.
Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings are part of intelligent home buying investigation and research and add to our information on market value, time on market, and sell-ability to act in accord with our bids. To NOT have this information seems to me an unfair practice on Realtors part to HIDE facts from potential buyers that could have them pay MORE than a home is worth.
Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings should be available to ANYONE going to the trouble to find that information. Oahure.com has this information and I applaud that.
Oahure is a great resource for Realtors and proactive clients. Please stop limiting information from such great resources.
It has come to my attention that the Honolulu Board of Realtors has asked oahure.com to remove all pending, withdrawn, and expired listings from their website. This is a very puzzling request. Why would anyone want to withhold information from potential buyers that is clearly relevant to their real-estate decision-making process? Cui bono? Who benefits?
Please reconsider your request. It strongly suggests that the Board wants to keep buyers in the dark about the history of current or past listings on the MLS - a very troubling thought, and a concern that you will hopefully put to rest by allowing oahure.com (and any other RE website) to display all information available on properties on the market at present or in the past.
We read with dismay the recent Star Advertiser article requiring Oahu Re to remove pending, expired and withdrawn listings from their website. This smacks of conspiracy within the realty field to withhold important consumer information and does not present a credible and trustworthy image to the public. My husband and I have used Oahure.com for several years in order to be knowledgeable consumers, working in conjunction with our realtors to efficiently and quickly cull through listings best suited for our needs. The Hawaii realty market is a fluid one which requires quick action for successful negotiations and transactions. Please do not force Oahu Re to remove all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings from its website. It consolidates public record information that is timely and valuable to the consumer.
I am writing because I think the information that is provided on OahuRE.Com, including the listings that are pending, expired, and withdrawn have had a very favorable impact on the real estate market the last several years.
My husband and I used the information from this website during our three year search to find another property in Kailua when we wanted to sell our former residence that we had owned for 14 years. We felt much more confident when we finally selected a replacement property, and truly feel that we probably would have given up if we had not had OahuRE as a resource, even though we were actively working with a realtor at another firm, knew most of the realtors working in Kailua, and went to open houses weekly. Many of my friends and coworkers who have bought and sold properties also rely in the same way on OahuRE.Com, and maybe that is what the Board of Realtors really doesn’t like?
By wanting to prevent the pending, expired, and withdrawn data from being shared by OahuRE.com communicates a desire by the Honolulu Board of Realtors to hide, and very likely misrepresent, information, which is the type of activity that gives some realtors a bad name and makes people who are spending a gazillion dollars on properties not trust many Oahu realtors.
I think it is huge mistake for the Board to continue to pursue this matter against OahuRE.Com. Maybe some honest soul searching about what is really causing the Board to want to do this would be a better use of time?
The site is a God send for potential buyers. And even sellers. Only tyrants and communist hold back the general public from information.
I have found OahuRE.com some years ago and I fell in love with how the website was designed. It has the best and complete property listing. The pictures are great and the infos are terrific meaning, right away, I'm learning everything I need to know about a listing(how long it's been on the market; how many times it was on the market(on/off/on/off etc...;how much it was, how much it is now etc...). It helps me as a potential buyer know what I am getting into. Please do not make Oahure.com remove anything. As a customer I have the right to transparency and that's exactly what Oahure.com is providing me with. PS: I am very grateful to Mr Bryn Kauffman for building such a website. It is the most complete property/housing website I know. All the other property websites should learned from this one.
Access to public information is a critical right of all consumers in making informed decisions. The service and access to information to sold, pending, withdrawn and expired properties provided by OahuRE.com has helped me tremendously as an investor and home buyer over the past 10 years. The information provided in a quick and accessible format has saved me thousands of hours of research over these years and aids me in staying informed about the Oahu real estate market, which is unlike any other in the country. I wish I had this type of transparency in other states where I own investment proprieties.
May I suggest a growth and collaborative mindset to this situation, instead of "shutting" or limiting Oahure.com, the Honolulu Board of Realtors should use this great and well-maintained "engine" as the Honolulu Board of Realtor's website and information source for all realtors. This would probably save the board thousands of dollars of website related costs and not to mention legal fees in trying to limit this tremendous resource.
I would like to request information from you. What legal or professional authority gives the board the right to keep information public information away from the public? How do you consider keeping aggregated public information accessible only via licensed realtors to be professionally ethical?
I look forward to more collaborative solutions and receiving your answers to my questions.
Limiting the information that is available does not benefit anyone at all. Please allow the information to be visible. It is a very helpful tool for both seller and buyer.
As a regular user of Oahure, and having developed a working relationship with one of their realtors, I find having access to pending, expired and withdrawn listings very helpful in assessing true market value of listings. If I don’t know what hasn’t sold and at what prices then it is much more difficult to assess a true market value. I also believe that it is much better for businesses and industries to voluntarily accept pricing transparency than to have government have to enter the fray and dictate the rules of transparency.
For years Oahure.com has been the leader in innovative and transparent business practices. I’d hate to see that kind of consumer-friendly approach thwarted because others in the business were threatened by fresh air and open access to informationOAHURE provides a valuable service to real estate buyers. To impose your restrictions on what them is self-serving and deprives the public of useful information.
You should be ashamed of yourselves for even considering it.
I would like to protest The Honolulu Board of Realtors intention to remove all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings from OahuRE.com.
This means the Realtor community is trying to hide, which listings were overpriced and did not sell, or which listings are closing soon. This decision would drive me away from a Realtor Community which tries to hide information from me and look for or even help build alternative channels to buy and sell properties.
I appreciate your attention in this matter and your consideration to recint this action.
Keep potential clients in the dark. You make more and more people not want to trust a realtor. You are as bad as Hillary Clinton and we all know how that's working out for her.
I am very disappointed that the Honolulu Board of Realtors, who I believed supports the best interest of the buyers along with the sellers, is requiring Oahure.com to remove facts about listings. I, along with family members, friends, and colleagues have all found that Oahure.com provides an invaluable service to anyone interested in researching real estate listings in Honolulu. In the spirit of “transparency,” fairness, and free market competition, I highly encourage the Honolulu Board of Realtors to reconsider prohibiting Oahure.com from retaining factual data of listings for the public to use as reference. Thank you for reconsidering, and I ask this board to consider the consequences of public opinion and the influence of social media.
Your consideration to Removing Pending, Expired, and Withdrawn from OahuRE.com will remove the intelligent home buying process that we want and need. These listings provide transparency that allows individuals to research in conducting their due diligence, whether buying or selling. By removing these listings, the power is strictly in the hands of realtors and associates. Perhaps that is your intent?
Board of Realtors: I am writing to support OahuRE (Bryn) in continuing to provide accurate and useful information to its customers. I have also used Bryn’s services and he was professional and knowledgeable. No complaints!
Having said that, I am greatly disturbed with your decision to restrict this information. I have referred a number of family members and friends to this valuable resource so that they can be empowered to make decisions without having to rely 100 percent on the information provided by realtors—some of whom are inexperienced and unprofessional.
To be able to find listings as well as comparable sales, view what is pending and in escrow, withdrawn, sold, along with zoning, tax information, photos, maps, etc., and just being able to do it at my convenience rather than being at the mercy of agents whom are often too busy or on a time crunch, is just awesome. This is an incredibly powerful data portal—maybe the Board should give it a test drive? You will see why customers love it.
Most importantly, though, as a consumer, I too seriously question why the Board chooses to stand in the way of consumers getting their hands on information that can help them make an intelligent purchase decision on something as large as a home or investment property. Where’s the threat? Having an informed consumer (aka buyer or seller) also makes an agent’s job much more easier. I firmly believe consumers need to have all of this information AT OUR FINGERTIPS to arrive at the best decision.
Please look at this from a different perspective and reconsider.
MahaloPending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings offer buyers transparency. It is honest and ethical to divulge this information. Knowledge is power please don’t try to take that away from consumers.
Do NOT force OahuRE.com to remove or withhold any information about real estate.
The information they provide is helpful and honest. I have recommended OahuRE.com to everyone I know that is looking at local real estate. The site is a breath of fresh air!
Am a fan of the OahuRE website and am watching the debate about it's existence closely. Democracy, free speech, and free commerce are concepts that deserve our full support. Censorship is a tool that is not in keeping with our traditions and practices.
Oahure is a great resource for people looking to purchase a home. I have been a resident of Honolulu for nearly 2 decades and I have been looking for 3 years to find a place to buy and call home. Even though I am working with a realtor, Oahure has been an essential resource that helps me assess the options I or my realtor find. Multiple times I find info & places on Oahure before my realtor then work with her on digging deeper.
I hope you consider OahuRE.com’s appeal favorably, weighing that full disclosure of all relevant information (not just the minimum) is a driving force for creating and maintaining a high level of consumer confidence driving market growth, and anything less than full disclosure (of all relevant information) potentially undermines consumer confidence with doubt. It is important to maintain a level of public transparency in the sometimes opaque realm of local real estate transactions,
I respectfully request that the Honolulu Board of Realtors cancel its request for oahure.com to remove all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings from its website.
Some Honolulu realtors are and have been known to be crooks / criminals in misleading buyers and sellers while representing properties for sale. Just go to the courts to see all the problems with realtors.
All the present Board is doing is to hide potential criminal activities which will eventually be a law suit against the Board and its members when someone is hurt by your promoting hiding information.
The population wants to know why the Board wants to hide information that is helpful.
Is the board made up of crooks and criminals who prey on the innocent by killing all information?
Why are you not open to revealing information like the state of California?
All social media will have this question and will have your reply.
It is time for Hawaii to prevent crime not promote it.
I would like to request that you do not stop OahuRE.com from displaying important Real Estate investment information from the public.
This information is very important to potential buyers when making a purchase decision. It is also valuable for sellers when determining the best price to list their property. My experience in real estate investing leads me to believe your Board of Realtor members all agree that Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired information is critical to their ability to provide good sound advise.
I ask that you do not restrict this valuable information from public access. A good Realtor does not need to have information hidden from the public to have a good practice.
I extremely disappointed and disturbed by the Board's request of Oahure to remove Pending and Withdrawn and Expired listings.
This move by the Board is similar to other companies trying futilely to protect their self-interest against social and technology evolution. For example, as much as record companies wanted to control music distribution for their own profit, the Internet and society were relentless and changed culture and the shape of the music industry forever.
Face it – We are in a world of information access. OAHURE is the FUTURE… Eventually the Board must realize this, embrace this and change their business model to not be afraid of giving consumers the information they want.
The Board’s mantra should be: Give consumers access to the information and win their business with value added services. Or better, evolve or become extinct.
Stop the insanity!
Oahure.com is THE best site on the Internet for buying and selling a home. Hiding information from consumers is NEVER a good idea and should be illegal. Buying a home is the single biggest purchase most people will ever make in their lives. Why would any honest people want to hide sales information from potential buyers? I'll tell you why: It is because keeping that information secret gives power and leverage to certain people. It's just not right to hide the details of real estate transactions from real estate buyers. Whom does this information hurt? No one. Whom does this information help? Every potential buyer. Bryn Kaufman helped me buy my home on Oahu and when I sell it he will be the one I go to. Please do not add another layer of "protection" that in fact DOES NOT protect anyone.
This is against the spirit of fair competition and consumer protection that The Honolulu Board of Realtors wants to hide Pending, Expired and Withdrawn listings and the sold price history.
Such group of realtors are afraid of losing the bargaining power when consumers get more knowledgeable. They cannot mislead the consumers when they have more information. Blocking transparency and information is a bad act against the society.
The transparency of the Honolulu real estate markets cannot be taken away from the bad-willed people.
Leave Bryan alone, the Realtor agents are probably mad that they have to pay for an inferior MLS service when Bryan does it way better and they probably use it too!
We the public want access to all the information- all the time and don't want to wait for or bother some Realtor to get around to getting info for us. We'll use said Realtor when we want to buy and protect ourselves when we want to buy or sell.
I was at one time a Realtor Associate and although I am not in the position now to buy now, I frequently look at info on Oahure and would never want to call a Realtor until I wanted to buy.
Incredible that they would do such....but why am I surprised....I always like to believe such large governing organizations are looking out for the little guy but instead they look out for themselves....Bryn, u have a fantastic website and a great source of info and we mainlanders appreciate you! As an attorney in Georgia that also attended U of H Law School, I am following the outcome with great interest!
If you intend on withdrawing that information, you should be forced to make a case for why this is for the better for realtors and consumers alike. If forced to do that, I believe the reason behind this rule will be exposed (to tilt the game in favor of the realtors) and thus eliminated. PLEASE, one member of the board, explain the benefits of this rule.
I strongly oppose the demand of the board of realtors to require OahuRe.com to remove all past, pending and expired real estate listings from their site. This information is public information that is enormously useful for the private homeowner to access when researching the sale or purchase of real estate in Hawaii. It is also useful for general information to a resident of a particular neighborhood aside from the sale or purchase of property ie: crime, schools etc.. I have personally accessed this site 100’s of times in the last years and would be very angry if the board of realtors won this battle.
When I bought my house 6 years ago I used Oahure.com to dig into the details of the houses I was interested in looking at with my realtor.
My agent was still paid even though I was the one finding the properties and evaluating them myself. This is a much more engaging way to find a home that will in the end fit my family.
By trying to silence oahure you're organization is showing its desire to put the lining of its own pockets over the value that oahure puts in the hands of buyers and sellers like me. Shame on you!
Please consider taking the high road on this matter and leaving the best real estate website in Hawaii unchanged.
I am writing to support OahuRE.com being allowed to keep their old listing data online.
As a longtime Honolulu resident and homeowner, I can assure you that the ability to see old listings (especially photos) of properties is extremely valuable to home buyers and sellers. Whenever I buy or sell a house, I want to see what it sold for and what it the property looked like over the years. I am deeply appreciative of the Board of Realtors and the services provided by Realtors, but in this age of information, it does not make sense to try and hide historical data from the public. If you shut down OahuRE, the information will just spring up somewhere else online, perhaps in a website run by an offshore company. This has been proven over and over again in the internet age. Such a situation would be much worse than the current scenario. OahuRE is a respected website that has been in the community for many years. I encourage you to work with OahuRE to achieve a solution that meets the Board of Realtors' needs and still preserves public access to the information.
this email is in support of The website, www.oahure.com, to continue to show all data on properties. As a real estate buyer and seller I have found great value in the information provided in the website. In this day and age of technology the access to data is ubiquitous and expected.
This is the best website that provides us, customers, image information that we need and want when evaluating purchasing decisions.
The old model of having to wait and rely on your realtor to provide you information that they have determined is appropriate for you is no longer acceptable.
This industry and its representatives need to evolve and better understand the needs of your customers.
The website oahure.com understands these needs and has provided a great solution.
Your organization should improve upon their solution and make your offering more appealing and of more value. That's the way that you should serve your customers, instead of trying to shut down a small business.
I read the article about a week ago in the Sunday paper where I learned the Board of Realtors wanted Byrn to hide all pending, withdrawn, and expired listings on OahuRE.com. Why? My wife and I find his site the most comprehensive source of real estate information for Honolulu on the internet. What is gained other than preventing a real estate entrepreneur from having an advantage over his peers. The Board of Realtors may have obligations to its Brokers and Agents but putting blinkers on valuable information doesn’t serve the public.
Let Byrn list whatever he wants. If the Board of Realtors wants to compete let them catch up to him instead of visa-versa.
I have been planning to purchase a home for several years as a part of my plan for retirement, I frequently visit the OahuRE website to get an understanding of what is available and to see how selling trends and pricing are fluctuating. When on the island I will often drive by some of the ideal ones to see if my first impressions were correct. I have found it to be the easiest to use and most comprehensive site of its kind. The site's transparency and detail has given me a new respect for realtors. When it comes time to buy a home I will most definitely choose them as my go to. We (buyers) are tired of the old sales games, of realtors akin to cheap used car salesmen doing it old school their way, not the clients. Ask around, it's true. Imagine being able to look at many homes in your price range and preferred area, picking a desirable handful and then after driving by to narrow the list to a few, contacting a realtor for a showing or two. That could really work well. Do we really want to get stuck in someone else's car having them show us in the " unload this one first order " the homes they believe are right for us and best for their motives. Then after ultimate frustration making a choice to get it over with.
Realtors, times have changed with technology, embrace it, make it work for you and change with it as a business or perish.
As a side note, I have family that are mortgage brokers and realtors on the mainland. They do not behave in the fashion I have described above and loath those who do.
I have been using OahuRe.com for years. They have the best info of any website. I don't think MlS should have any censorship powers to force them into deleting any info that would benefit the public. And this would make MLS look really bad to the public (bad press).. I am not a realtor, but have looked for properties for myself in the past.
Please don't remove the listings. It gives a chance to be able to do comparables, plus when I need to look up an expired listing that I knew was there before..
To Whom It May Concern,
I'm writing to ask you to allow OahuRE to leave the pending, withdrawn, and expired listings on their website. This is an extremely useful tool in being able to evaluate a property for purchase.
There's absolutely no reason to limit this information from the general public unless the Board of Realtors intentionally wants to do so for unethical reasons.
I appreciate your time and consideration.
Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings are part of intelligent home buying investigation and research and add to our information on market value, time on market, and sell-ability to act in accord with our bids. To NOT have this information seems to me an unfair practice on Realtors part to HIDE facts from potential buyers that could have them pay MORE than a home is worth.
Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings should be available to ANYONE going to the trouble to find that information. Oahu website has this information and I applaud that.
Please allow past listings to remain on Bryan Kaufman's website. These have helped me to find decent rentals and will help me when purchasing a condo or house when I have completed my Doctoral degree
What is your main reason to impose masking the Pending, Expired or Withdrawn listings from public knowledge on OahuRe.com? Your Board membership is supposed to serve the members and their customers. Just because your website does not provide all the pertinent information about the property listings to the general public, you must refrain from making demands on other websites which provide them. When the consumers have less information, they become vulnerable to baseless advice and may rush into deals that they may have big regret afterwards. The only people who come out on top would be the realtors with tough listings.
Instead of attempting to block information of other websites, how about revamping your own website, hicnetral.com, and show the Pending, Expired and Withdrawn to the general public.
Bryn, the information contained in expired, withdrawn and pending listings can be quite valuable to people looking to make informed decisions about real estate purchases.
Hiding this information from your clients, prospective clients and real estate professionals is ridiculous and harmful to your company. The Honolulu Board of Realtors should not ask or require you to withhold this information as other agencies are allowed to display it. Their decision to require you and your company to withhold this valuable information makes no sense and only has a negative impact on persons looking to purchase property with as much information as possible.
Please feel free to forward this to the Honolulu Board of Realtors as I strongly object to this requirement and ask that they consider the rights of the public to make sound, informed decisions using this valuable information.
Thanks for all that you do.
We have been avid user of Bryan Kaufman’s Oahure website for years. In fact we discovered our current home viewing his website. Even though the website was a great resource, we still worked with an outside realtor to help us with buying and selling process. We are requesting you continue to allow Bryan Kaufman and his firm to provide such valuable information to future home buyers/sellers.
The public does not want to remove these listings from the Oahure.com.
We own multiple homes and we want this information available to the public. We do not want interested buyers to be forced to go through an agent to find out that at one time we listed our home for sale. If we paid for this service in the past and the statute of limitations for selling my home through our (sweet and wonderful) agent has passed, then we shouldn't be penalized if someone wants to buy our house outside this period. If other agents have access to this information indefinitely, then we want the public to have the same access.
We want to know about pending, expired and listings withdrawn from the MLS without having to hire an agent to get this info. We understand that Buyers don't have to pay for agents, but they ultimately do because this is paid for by the Sales Price. Please do not remove.
All I can say is that all listing should show all the facts. What the lease rent is, what the terms of the lease are and when the renewal and/or expiration date is. It's such a simple thing to do. Also the maintenance fees. That would save you a lot of time and answering emails regarding those questions.
Please do not remove all that valuable information from OahuRE.com. Transparency equals fairness, and this is a big chunk of change to be transparent about.
All I can say is that all listing should show all the facts. What the lease rent is, what the terms of the lease are and when the renewal and/or expiration date is. It's such a simple thing to do. Also the maintenance fees. That would save you a lot of time and answering emails regarding those questions.
I support Bryn Kaufman’s appeal and desire that his site retains valuable pending, expired and withdrawn realty information that you have requested be removed from his site. This is very useful information when researching properties for purchase.
This should be public knowledge and shouldn't be removed. I used this information on my purchase and compared the numbers my realtor gave me and the comparable actually shown in the appraisal report. Oahure.com is the most complete accessible informational site you can find, that includes links to property records. I support Bryn Kaufman and the Oahure Staff.
Please do not force the removal of pending, expired and withdrawn info from oahure.com
I have been using his service the past decade and found the information available very useful in my purchase of multiple homes.
It is to the advantages of a potential buyer to know everything. There are more benefits to gain than not. Making intelligent decision is based on the information gleaned from the site.
I suggest to leave the site as is...........thanksPlease leave OAHURE.com alone. Let them post the information we find so useful as buyers and sellers of Oahu real estate.
leave the best source for real estate alone. please
My e-mail to the Board of Realtors is regarding the restrictions being placed on Oahure.com from showing listings. My business needs information regarding sales and I use it for many purposes. The trend is towards more, not less information. Those businesses that restrict go bye bye because others will supply the product. Although the Board has information they consider proprietary it is information that will become obsolete over time as other venues supply the same. I have experienced many Realtors who cannot react in real time situations and therefore jeopardize the clients ability to make fast, informed decisions. Using Oahure and the Boards own site helps bridge this gap.
Restricting access to information irritates customers and builds distrust. Let Bryn continue his excellent service to Oahu.
I think it is appalling that the Board of Realtors would try to keep the public with limited knowledge of the Hawaii Real Estate market. How dare you not allow information of past sales to be viewed by the general public.
That goes against state sunshine laws but it seems that the Board or Realtors think they are exempt from any form of transparency.
Your board also allows (without reprimand) brokers who are also realtors to advise clients to open multiple escrow accounts on the same property because there is no Hawaii Law against 2 escrow accounts at 2 different escrow companies on the same property within Hawaii. If that is the case, there is no need for escrow nor a board of realtors.
Thank you for your website for Real Estate listing. This site helped us to purchase our first house a few years back in the Ewa by Gentry area. This site allowed us to make a very educated offer to the seller. This site made sure I didn’t offer more than the comps said. The other thing we liked about this site is we could see what criminals are in the neighborhood and yes; we passed on a few houses because of problems that the seller agent didn’t mention to us. To The Board of Realtors I say KEEP THE SITE AS IS. Bryan and his website are doing a better job them most agents out there.
As a member of the general public, and a former REALTOR with the Honolulu Board of REALTORS, I send my email to the MLS arbitration board in support of Bryn Kaufman’s right to provide factual information regarding the listings in Honolulu – showing pending, withdrawn and expired information. This right is to extend to all members of the MLS who express the diligence and take the responsibility for providing correct and up-to-date information.
Technology has been embraced by the real estate industry worldwide.
The ‘technology genie’ is out of the bottle. It drives commerce…it stimulates human progress…and progress cannot be controlled in the manner in which you are asking Mr. Kaufman and other members to do so.
This decision and arbitration need not be argumentative at the expense of the buying and selling consumer.
I add the quote of Martin Luther King:
“The ultimate measure of a man [and I include an organization] is not where he [it] stands in the moments of comfort, but where he[it] stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Oahure is the best site to receive information in one spot. If not for oahure, I would have stopped looking for a property and not have bought a place. For the novice buyer, it is hard to research for properties on sale. The pending, expired and withdrawn information alerts buyers of the progression of the properties the buyer is interested in that there may be a possibility of a property coming back on the market.
When I first received orders to move to Hawaii, I was living in England. Getting good real estate information while living on the other side of the world was quite difficult. Ultimately, OahuRE.Com became our go-to site for searching the Internet. There was simply nothing else out there that provided the same level of information.
Now I’m about to move to the mainland, but there is nothing comparable to OahuRE.Com. The lack of information in other state is enough to make me want to pull out my hair. So I default to Zillow.Com, because withholding information - withholding data — seems to be the industry norm.
With OahuRE.Com, Hawaii sets a different standard — yes, it reflects on all of Hawaii — because it says that you are a state that is completely open with its data — you have nothing to hide.
Don’t be like the rest of the country by attempting to control the market through the control of information (which runs contrary to basic economic principles of Adam Smith and the assumption of transparency of information) — set the standard, maintain the standard, and support total information transparency on the real estate market.
The public has a right to know what the market bears to avoid being scammed . Please do not remove listings from the mls. People who price their listings according to the market will not have a problem with this.
I am writing to request that you reconsider your request for OahuRe to remove pending, withdrawn and expired listings from the website. When my wife and I decided to by a condominium in Kakaako 2 years ago, ALL the information on OahuRe was valuable, as we started to learn about real estate in Honolulu (we live in Texas, but plan to retire in your beautiful city). Because of the availability of all the in-depth online information at OahuRe.com and with the help of a local realtor we were able to make a decision about where to buy and how much to pay, that we could feel good about. Please do not ruin this amazing resource. I consider your position anti-competitive and bad for everyone - buyers, sellers, and realtors alike.
I use Oahure.com and Bryn Kaufman's valuable information as the only truly reliable site for ALL listing information. This is a tool that should be accredited not concealed. It would be totally unethical to be forced to conceal any property data from prospective buyers or sellers.
Markets are fair and efficient when the participants are allowed to have full knowledge of market conditions and available resources. How is it that the Board sees themselves as promoting their industry with this behavior?
The Board of Realtors reveals itself as just another industry protection racket. The consumer is not in their best interest. Lets proceed with criminal charges against them.
I support your work. It helped me make an informed decision when buying and selling. I find most boards like this one are full of self interest. I believe there should be a land owner oversight committee that regulates these realtors. I also believe the lease and renters should have there own Union to combat unscrupulous behaviors.
I have a property manager looking after my home, and while the rent check is consistent, The PMs behavior is outrageous. We will soon parting company.
This is the Information Age - never stop fighting for free flow of public records. I applaud your efforts.OahuRE.com has been providing the public and real estate consumer a valuable set of services for quite some time.
Your recent and pending actions to compel OahuRE.com and Bryn Kaufman to cease providing very beneficial data from the buying and selling public of real estate in Honolulu is uncalled for. Today the consumer is in need of open sources of data regarding the real estate in Hawaii. By limiting the availability of such data as Withdrawn, Pending and Expired real estate listings from the public so that the “Board of Realtors” can essentially maintain a monopoly on that data is uncalled for.
Therefore, I respectfully request that you reconsider your intentions and cease further action in this regard.
I can’t believe that such practices of hiding ANY information from new homebuyers are actually allowed. Consumers have the right to know any and all information on a home that they may be interested in before buying it. My hats off to Bryn Kaufman for taking a stand on behalf of the everyday, hardworking consumer. Those realtors who are trying to force Mr. Kaufman to follow this seemingly unscrupulous tactic is truly out for themselves. What? Here in Hawaii, don’t we pay high enough prices for homes that are really not worth the price its being sold for? Shame on you!
Hello, I appreciate the service OahuRE has provided and I support your wish to keep the pending, withdrawn and expired listings available. I'm sending this email because I do not facebook.
Removing any information limits and hinders purchase decisions. There is power in information. I can not think of any ethical reason the Honolulu Board of Realtors would cite to limit information to the public. Modern real estate buyers rely on information to make their best purchase decisions. Why hide information?
I was recently made aware that the oahure.com website has been asked to remove all pending, withdrawn, and expired listings. A buyer AND a seller should have the right to review all comps in order to make educated decisions when buying and listing properties. It is important information to know how many times a house was put on and removed from the market. Hiding this information from the public seems to be a tactic used by realtors to drive the market up, when affordable housing is the best thing for all RESIDENTS... Please allow Bryn K. to provide ALL relevant information to the public.
I am very disappointed by the recent decision by Honolulu Board of Realtors Association to limit the listing information on oahure.com. I believe the more information available to buyers/sellers would better serve the interests of all involved in the transaction. It sounds like your organization only looks out for the interests of realtors and brokers. Please allow oahure.com to list all pertinent information on its website so that consumers can make an informed decision. Thank you.
In my opinion, OAHURE.COM should be commended for providing an invaluable community/public service that truly helps families find homes that meet their personal needs. I personally have often used and highly recommended this valuable source of information to friends, family, and business colleagues (particularly military members who are stationed in Hawaii). To OAHURE.COM, please persevere and keep up the good work! To the Hawaii MLS, please consider the negative public perception you are generating to your service and the lack of pubic trust in real estate professionals in general that is caused by your campaign to limit information that is being freely made available to the public.
Your blocking of this information benefits no one but realtors. We are Honolulu apartment owners. We used OahuRE.com to monitor prices for several years before making our purchase, ultimately buying based upon information found there. Show us all listings so we can see the overall dynamic of the market.
Honesty and transparency are basically synonymous. Forcing Oahure to limit information borders on dishonesty.
Oahure has the best real estate site on Oahu.
The Board of Realtors, itself and as individual board members, should pattern their own sites after it to promote more honesty in the profession.
I have bought and sold twice on Oahu and found OahuRe the best source of information. As an honest seller, I have no objection to the type of postings in question. As a buyer, I find them indispensable when a new listing has no pictures or little information. There seems to be a trend toward skimpy listings. Ok if you want your profession to enjoy the same reputation as used car dealers.
I am a real-estate invester, in need of all of the information I can get my hands on. If I make a wrong decision due to purposeful holding back of information (the boards censoring of information), in any way, there will be a lot of trouble. It’s already causing trouble.
How can having information about the market hurt any buyer?
We need to stop this type of underhanded manipulation of the market.
This is wrong in so many ways!!!
I am a hugh fan of Bryn Kaufman’s website OahuRE and the data he exhibits. They provide invaluable information that has assisted me with purchasing my home. For your information I did not use them because I had already committed to a realtor before i found his site and I am a moral person and would not change mid-stream. I did most of my own research on various sites, including his to determine what area was best suited for our financial needs. Realtors I have worked with in the past have always steered me within their realm of listings and are not so willing to share historical data unless it is of benefit to them. By utilizing Bryn’s website, I was a more educated buyer on many levels that were important to me.
I have told all my friends about this website because they are educated buyers as well and want to know all facets of activities in a particular neighborhood they are considering.
Don’t forced him to remove his existing data. It is important that the Board of Realtors come into this century with their tactics of buying and selling real estate in Hawaii. Buyers are smarter than they think!
our society is free enterprise society.
A private enterprise for its own interest cannot force or limit another firm's free speech.
I write in support of the OahuRE.com position on providing their clients, all consumers, and all parties of interest, with complete and current information. Doing so makes their life easier and decisions clearer. Not doing so, does not.
I'm assuming that the counter to this position and my logic is that clients are able to source this from their agent, who can source it from the MLS, who owns the data meaning the information. The truth is that not all agents will serve their clients thusly. Atop that, prospective buyers will stay in the dark, as well as the general public.
That said, the MLS and the Board are under no obligation to give away their proprietary data on the market, notwithstanding many letters sent to you here, all of which articulate reasons for sharing this.
If those reasons are not compelling, the perhaps you should consider monetizing your ownership position of all this data of yours by allowing those so interested to pay you a subscription fee. It seems a reasonable compromise. And will be seen as such the more universal the subscription offer is, and the more inexpensive it is.
While I am not a realtor at present, I study the housing market in many aspects. The consensus is that Hawaii has the most expensive cost of housing in the country, brought upon by forces not of the realtor's making, forgive me if I bring this down to the relevent part of the market. However, the realtor's services do add to the cost of housing, and the higher that cost, the more the general public and the buying public feels pain. Especially in a time of rising prices. Recall the legislation that was brought out in similar times in the past - the legislation against flipping is one such example. Another is the push back against high commissions.
If I was advising your membership, I would both suggest the way of monetizing this proprietary info, and I would encourage them to think of the bigger picture, specifically the relationship between them and their clients, and the general public. Next year is an election year, next year prices are going to be higher for all housing, next year there will be all sorts of legislation inspired by the high cost of housing. I would think realtors would want to cultivate a positive image, and being proactive here would be one way to insure good pr, and increase the goodwill that the public has for realtors.
Food for thought, and thanks for your consideration of my 'cooking' smile.
I feel that your request for Oahure to remove certain listings (pending, withdrawn, and expired) is bad for the consumer. It looks to be a request that is more in the interest of driving up pricing and pulling the wool over a buyers eyes.
Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings are a very important part of the home buying process. They are used to intelligently investigate and research a home prior to buying while also adding to our ability to make informed decision based upon true market values, time on market, and marketability of a home.
To NOT have this information, it seems that the mls is performing an unfair practice on the part of Realtors so as to HIDE facts from potential buyers and drive up housing prices.
In the end, it looks like this would in the interest of having a buyer pay MORE than the home is worth. These types of listings should be available to anyone and everyone that is looking to properly research and purchase a home in Hawaii.
Bryn Kaufman runs an innovative and well-received website. His conduct is a tribute to the profession. Trying to suppress him by demanding he remove pending, withdrawn, and expired listing from his website is anti-competitive and contrary to free market principles. If you feel his business model infringes on your business, go ahead and emulate his. We heartily support Bryn and ask you to leave him alone.
This is the best real estate website in Hawaii and will probably have an adverse affect by removing/limiting the information. Its back warding thinking as other markets are beginning to open up. The lack of transparency will hurt the overall market in the long run.
I was recently searching the oahure.com website and discovered that you forced the site to remove listings that were pending, withdrawn or expired. This is a grave injustice and I implore that you allow the website to continue to list all information that is available.
I am a firt-time homebuyer and this information is invaluable to me in making educated decisions and to gauge the market where I want to buy. With you allowing other brokers to list this information shows that you are deliberately attacking one sole business/website that has only looked to help private buyers with the market. Disallowing this information in its entirety also does not benefit anyone except for possibly a select few agents, but in no way does restricting this information help buyers or sellers.
Please reconsider your decision to restrict this information, reallow it for the sake of transparency and to benefit both buyers and sellers. This has not been an issue in the past and doing this makes an appearance that there is some sort of fraud or kick-backs occurring.
I was deeply disturbed by your request of Oahure that they remove Pending and Withdrawn and expired listings.
This seems to be highly unethical behavior on the part of Honolulu Board of realtors as, by hiding this information you are in-effect creating an information asymmetry which is to the disadvantage of the prospective house buyers for the advantage of yourselves and some unscrupulous realtors who would in effect like to "hide this info forcing the buyers to go through these unscrupulous realtors.. While we know this type of behavior exists in businesses especially in developing countries, I would assume that the Honolulu Board of realtors is above this and would take the ethical high road.
If I can be of service to answer any questions please don't hesitate to contact me.
I recently moved from California to Honolulu. While preparing to purchase our new home, the Oahure.com website was an invaluable resource to follow the real estate market. The withdrawn, pending, and expired properties should be allowed to remain on their website. It provides potential buyers and sellers useful information which can be essential in deciding to move forward with a transaction. I request that oahure.com be allowed to keep this information.
DO NOT REMOVE Pending, Expired, and Withdrawn listings from OahuRE.com. I consider this desired action on your part to be a deliberate controlling, manipulation, restriction of RE info that average buyers, investors and sellers like me rely on to make important personal decisions. There is no reason in the world that your desired action is beneficial to average people who otherwise do not have access to the MLS. The service offered by OahuRE.com is valuable to me and many like me. Cease and desist!!
While I am, unfortunately, not shocked at your gag order on OahuRE, I am still disappointed that you would succumb to the pressures of unethical data suppression. I support Bryn Kaufman's appeal. Furthermore, I support his request that you eliminate such an anti-competitive rule from your practices altogether.
All of my professional and personal financial decisions are motivated by and dependent on historical data. Eliminating the only available source of historical real estate information undermines all strategic decision making by both buyers and sellers. Stifling the current free flow of accurate information forces pricing and bidding to be largely at the intuition and whims of agents. Personally, I trust the accuracy of a good, data-driven model over uninformed human judgement--especially when those humans derive pure benefit from upward biased estimates.
It is unclear to me what the market gains from hiding valuable and unbiased information from the public. It is clear to me what individual agents stand to gain if they are allowed to capitalize on forced ignorance. I beseech you to move into the 21st century and accept that the market as a whole benefits from being better informed. Please make the right decision and rescind your gag order against OahuRE. Moreover, please stand behind ethical principles and redraft your restrictions against adequately informing all of your customers.
Surely you can see this misguided behavior to suppress information for the benefit of the industry, is foolish and ultimately counterproductive.
This reflects very poorly on the HNL Board of Realtors.
Anti consumer behavior is completely out of step with modern emerging business protocol, of fairness and transparency.
The marketplace always ultimately dictates what happens.
This is not the 70's. There is this thing called the Internet, you may have heard of it.
Surely you can see this misguided behavior to suppress information for the benefit of the industry, is foolish and ultimately counterproductive.
This reflects very poorly on the HNL Board of Realtors.
Anti consumer behavior is completely out of step with modern emerging business protocol, of fairness and transparency.
The marketplace always ultimately dictates what happens.
This is not the 70's. There is this thing called the Internet, you may have heard of it.
We are your customers and as such we should have access to as many tools as possible to make educated decisions about one of the biggest purchases that most people make in their lifetimes, their home. Oahu has an extremely competitive housing market, so realtors certainly aren't at a disadvantage with consumers being able to fully access all listings. Moreover, this is a sellers market currently and many sellers are listing their homes for far beyond assessed values and trying to make the most of the limited supply, high demand situation here. As buyers, we should see how often homes are being listed, at what price and how quickly homes are selling. This helps us to compete against multiple offers and make the most of each transaction. It also works to help consumers from overpaying in an already severely overinflated real estate market. Hence, all the talk about the lack of affordable housing here. What does the Board of Realtors have to gain by removing this information from consumers? What evidence do they have that this information is detrimental to the home buying experience on Oahu? It seems to me that sellers and real estate agents are already doing extremely well in the current housing climate. Buyers needs also need to be considered.
Please don’t hide any of the current available information on OahuRE.com
I’m a registered user and, like most everyone else who uses the sight, find it invaluable, fair, and convenient.
I believe keeping the information unhidden is forward thinking. I hope you do too.
Please do not remove these very important listings from Oahure.com. It is one of the best ways to inform the public of what was once available and can be again. Both to the seller as well as the buyer,
in an already expensive market in our nation. Homeownership, affordable housing, isn't that part of an american dream?
I would just like to express my support for Bryn Kaufmann's website and his position of providing as much information as possible for the consumer. I think that it would be a shame if vested interests are allowed to curtail a useful service provided by a public-spirited entrepreneur for the general good.
Please restore oahure.com's right to include Pending, Expired, and Withdrawn listings in their website. They are basically making it easy to provide what is actually public information.
It has been an exceptionally useful tool that helped us purchase properties while we resided in the East Coast.
This action is solely for Honolulu Board of Realtor's self interests and should be condoned. The public has the right to all this information.
Thank you in advance for restoring transparency.
RE: Case requesting Mr. Kaufman to remove Pending, Withdrawn and Expired listings information
It appears to me that the Board of Realtors is not fulfilling their duty to the public by directing Mr. Kaufman to comply with the above directive. It also appears that you as a body, are trying to control the market by keeping us, the consumer, in the dark. I see no reason why the public should not have the information relative to any property—-how else would the buyer, or seller for that matter, be able to make a reasonable, practical and effective decision for him/herself? Do you propose to also direct the consumer when to buy, how much they should/should not pay as well? In essence, you will soon be going down that slippery slope by starting with this unreasonable directive.
Stop and think what you are doing—it is wrong! Put an end to this and withdraw your direct to Mr. Kaufman. We as a public deserve to have fair representation of anything we purchase and knowledge of any of the above would allow us to make good buying and or even selling decision.
Thanks for your consideration.
This is appropriate information for the public domain. Intentionally hiding it smells of price fixing and monopolization. Your profits are not my moral concern, and this is not your information to control once the listings have been publicly posted.
Presuming that none of you on the board have been declared mentally incompetent by the courts,there are no rational reasons for not allowing any realtor to divulge pertinent information about properties, their often troubled and legality-plagued pasts, uncorrectable zoning violations. We have used Bryn's site for years to guide clients into good properties with good histories. AS YOU ALL KNOW, (presuming any of you knee-jerks actually know how to use a mouse) Bryn has simply better software, a smarter and more intuitive interface and far more data available with many less clicks than the MLS. We have used both systems side-by-side for years. WE and hundreds of others who make livings in real estate are pleased and happy to be able to add Bryn's quality and technical proficiency to our arsenal of tools to help buyers learn and understand the market here on Oahu.
WHY would you want to discourage buyers and sellers ( who are obviously buyers again)from being informed. This strikes me as an oversactive, petty jealousy over someone doing the job better free than
MLS does for an exorbitant monthly fee. Why are you complaining?...what collective idiocy thinks that biting the hand that feeds them well and often is a smart way to do business. You should not fear the many hundreds of companies nationwide who do very well at encouraging buyers into an increasingly shaky market. You should honor them. Thank them. Be very grateful that they are setting a standard that you could follow IF you chose to actually behave as professionals.
We are in an age of data and disclosure. The information that has been available on the OahuRE.com website relating to pending, expired and withdrawn listings has been invaluable in the analyses of specific properties and neighborhoods in order to allow buyers and sellers to make informed decisions and to allow better understanding of the market and market conditions. It is unfortunate that the Board of Realtors is moving to conceal this data from the public. From the HBR website: “As the ‘voice’ of Oahu’s real estate industry, HBR promotes and protects the interests of its members and the community at large”. Please consider the last 5 words in that statement directly from the HBR. There are 5,000 HBR members while the population of Hawaii is estimated at 1.4 million people. Would then it not then make the most sense to continue to allow the information to be available for the benefit of the 1.4 million public?
I urge you to accept the appeal and continue to allow public access to this information on the OahuRE.com website. Please feel free to contact me should you care to discuss this further.
Thank you for your consideration.
The oahure.com site is an extremely valuable source of information for home buyers. I have used it extensively to locate and purchase my two properties on Oahu. Limiting access to the public of key information is a disservice to the community and to your realtor members. An educated and informed buyer should be your organizations goal. This decision must be reversed.
Public information should be convenient to the public, enabling the buyer to be well informed in the comparison and value of available dwellings. Hiding this information enhances risk to a middle class homebuyer in a fragile aggressive market.
Oahure realty is the best listing company I have ever found. I have followed them for several years now and find them extremely useful. It would be such a loss not to have all of the information they provide for buyers to make educated decisions. Please allow them to continue to provide this information by not restricting them. Thank you for your consideration in advance.
In the important and useful interest of maintaining at least some level of public transparency in the sometimes opaque realm of local real estate transactions, I respectfully request that the Honolulu Board of Realtors cancel its request for oahure.com to remove all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings from its website. For both work and for personal interest, I find oahure.com’s inclusion of this data to be informative, interesting, and helpful.
While presumably well-intended, I believe HBOR’s request for oahure.com to discontinue listing this information is at odds with the best interests of both the professional real estate business community and the general public; and I respectfully ask that HBOR cancel such request.
My husband and I have been searching for a home for our family for about a year now. We’ve have found the information that you are wanting to remove as being critical for us. Maybe as a seller listing that kind of information could hurt a sell BUT as a buyer it really helps to know if a property has been withdrawn so that we know its sale history and can ask questions and start up talks with the seller and their agent. I have in our process found that many sellers only disclose what you ask. Please keep that information listed so that the we buyers (sellers will sooner or later be buyers) to allow both parties to ask questions and talk. Please allow a buyer to have all information to make the best financial decisions for their family. Buying a home can make or break LOVING families and should not be taken lightly.
I have been using OahuRE since 2007. I respectfully request the Hawaii Board of Realtors not to have OahuRE remove pending, withdrawn, and expired listings on the OahuRE website.
I use this website as an important tool to perform market analysis on purchasing property.
I am not an realtor but have done extensive research on the Oahu real estate market. OahuRE provides valuable information that greatly helps individual homeowners make important home buying/selling decisions.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
It was with some concern that I read of the Honolulu Board of Realtors attempting to remove pending, expired , or withdrawn listing information from the OahuRe site. I am a homeowner on another island and no longer peruse realty listings on Oahu. I can say however that while I was searching on Oahu that I utilized the OahuRe site extensively. It was quite educational and informative especially coming from another region of the US. I think it would be shortsighted to remove any of the provided information for both realty professionals and lay people like myself. Thank you for your attention to this matter
There is a somewhat scatological term (actually several-- "jerks" is the least offensive) that is often applied to those who cause pain, discomfort, frustration or aggravation to others, not because it profits or benefits them in any way, but simply because it is within their power to do so. It appears to me that is what the HBOR is trying to do to the Mr. Kaufman's Oahure site. What does the HBOR and their minions, or even the hardworking real estate agents in the field have to gain by limiting the information provided on Mr. Kaufman's website? Certainly the reasons given in the Advertiser article were unpersuasive. As an investor, and also a home buyer, I look to Oahure.com for all the information needed to give myself the best chance to find a property that satisfies my needs and objectives, and certainly knowing which listings are pending, expired, withdrawn, and/or sold are important elements in my decision making process.
And the irony is that after taking advantage of Mr. Kaufman's site, I often use my own real estate agent (associate) to consummate the deal, but without having to depend on her taking the time to do all the research I have done, or even trusting that she has done it to the level I require.
Please allow Mr. Kaufman to keep that information available on his site.
The information superhighway and technology has changed many business practices and their antiquated rules. The Honolulu Board of Realtors may wish to adopt and adapt to the 21st century. The removal of pending, expired, and withdrawn conceals the truer historical activity of a subject property listing. Re-listing a property as a new listing by an unethical realtor(s) affects the data on the MLS system and can be misleading giving a false perspective on the days on market (DOM).
Bryn Kaufman’s comprehensive website OahuRE provides current and accurate information that benefits both the seller and buyer, that is the beauty of it. Bryn is a boon to your industry, it is a sign of the times for change. Nostalgia is rarely a good business model-no matter what industry you are in.
Your effort to stop OahuRE from continuing to publish pending, expired, and withdrawn properties is seriously misguided. Suppressing this information will give Hawaii Board of Realtors an unimaginably big black eye. It can only be perceived as an effort to cheat the public of their right to make an informed decision in making the biggest purchase/investment that most people will ever make in a lifetime.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) established new policies for Virtual Office Websites (VOW) that governs local Realtor associations; e.g., The Honolulu Board of Realtors (HBR). NAR's policies on VOW’s pending, expired, and withdrawn sale listings are not restricted information and disclosure is optional for local Realtor associations such as HBR. Mr. Bryn Kaufman a member of HBR was put on notice to cease and desist disclosing this information publicly on his website OahuRE or a consequence of a sanction for non-compliance. Yet, there are other members of HBR that supplies this same information on their website and have not been put on notice.
If this scenario has validity it is selective enforcement and unjust. HBR has a fiduciary duty to govern their members free of discrimination and prejudice advocating the NAR standards of its policies and rules fairly.
The information that is provided in the OahuRE site is merely that - information. Obstructing and/or limiting access to this information is inequitable!
Access to information allows for greater knowledge.....and knowledge if power.
Hiding this data equates to suppressing data that is relevant to interested parties in all aspects of real estate, property management, and more.
As a property inspector I use this resource to better understand a property that I may inspect. Other professionals in the periphery of real estate also use this site to enhance their knowledge of properties.
Consider that building permits are public record - including applications, work in progress, cancelled work, finished projects - EVERYTHING. The general public is able to access this information freely and is not required to hire a licensed contractor, architect or engineer to obtain this information. Would it be fair to limit access to this information to a few licensed individuals? NO.
Neither is it fair to limit access to listings that are expired, withdrawn and/or pending.
Please reconsider and allow all listings to be shown, for the benefit of everyone involved.
I have been using Oahure.com’s website for years and have found it to be very helpful to buyers and sellers due to the level of detail provided. I feel that Mr. Kaufman has provided a great service to the public to keep us better informed of property transactions. I have read the other comments and letters supporting Mr. Kaufman in being able to provide listings that have been removed, pending, expired and withdrawn and agree with all of them.
By forcing Mr. Kaufman to remove valuable information from his website, the public is being robbed of information extremely useful in making a well-informed decision to buy or to sell. The public has a right to know property listing information and Oahure.com has been the only website offering the type of information the public has access to.
Please withdraw your complaint against Oahure.com.
Regards from a faithful Oahure.com follower.
Please do not allow this to happen! As a buyer it is imperative for us to have access to the Pending, Expired, and Withdrawn listing to better determine the history of a property. The complexity of buying a property on Oahu is daunting and this site, oahure.com, has made it just a little bit easier. If you take away our ability to truly and accurately analyze the history of a home you take away a key factor in the decision making process.
This complaint is not valid for legitimate transactions only those wishing to game the system and take advantage of buyers.
I was just informed that the Board of Realtors has requested that several sites remove listings such as those that are withdrawn,expired or in pending states.
The right to know and free speak basic rights for our state and federal government.
I will be talking to my lawyer regarding your actions and will consider a class action law suit.
Please reconsider your request to remove/limit listing information from oahuRE.com and other sites.
Knowledge is power, and by controlling information from consumers, you are upsetting the balance of power between sellers and buyers; tipping the scales by disempowering one side over the other, and contributing to a possible repeat of a real estate bubble crisis by a creating a chimera of the market without a historical context.
Think about it.
Oahure is an invaluable tool for potential home buyers and sellers in Hawaii. The information is public record and should be available open and freely. Oahure does an incredible job organizing and presenting this info which allows both buyer and seller to be informed of the overall RE market in the state. They should absolutely not be blocked from posting Expired, Pending and Withdrawn info from the website.
Oahure.com is by far the best real-estate website I have ever used including mainland websites. It has ALL the information needed to make an informed real estate decision. Who are you to determine what information should or should not be disclosed ? That is nothing but a blatant and obvious attempt to protect realtors and allow them to determine what information to share. That is not their job at all. I have bought and sold many homes, had good and not so good realtors . The last five real estate transactions were in Hawaii. I used Oahure.com to find my homes, determine list price for sales and generally to get a feel for the market overall. I also used a realtor in each case and was able to discuss my requirements with them from an informed position . Your continued harassment of Oahure is truly an obvious and one sided view aimed at keeping critical information proprietary to realtors . That is outrageous. It can only serve the public to have full disclosure at their own fingertips when making the most major purchases of their lives. It is unbelievable but not surprising the Honolulu Board of Realtors is looking to suppress this information from the general public. Shame on you !
It would be unethical to remove all Pending, Withdrawn, and Expired listings. My question is why? So homes can be sold overpriced? So potential buyers can make uninformed purchases which could lead to the market crash all over again? Do not remove all pending, withdrawn and expired listings. This is a useful tool to educate buyers and make an informed, legitimate, and ethical purchase. it also prevents false listings which could result in delayed sales and a waste of time and resources. Do the right thing….Leave the listings AS IS!!!
As a Realtor and a long time broker in California I am watching this issue closely and see the Honolulu Board as a trail blazing model for the rest of the nation...at least I did until recently. In fact I called Mr Kaufman years ago to ask him to sell me the code behind his site. That request was a moot point as my local MLS is still in 1990 as regards their RETS feed permissions! Where my MLS was running on steam power you guys were light years ahead and have a chance now to be the model for the next ten years as the ground shifts beneath us. I know the tendency is to try to maintain the control of the data but my long experience is that the more there is out there the better it is for me...but only if it is the accurate and timely info that we as MLS subscribers demand of ourselves. Indeed, over the past few years I've had smoother and more rapid closings, had a higher degree of client satisfaction (and made more money) as my client base got more and more informed and savvy. I attribute this to DIRECTLY the rise of widely available AND ACCURATE information such as that presented on OahuRE.com. Where other boards, including my own in San Diego, have a gatekeeper's attitude I saw yours as refreshingly consumer-centric and I'm surprised now that the matter is even being made the topic of dispute. Since the day it was conceived the MLS has been THE place to go for the actual factual and THAT is the value of a Realtor...ACCURATE info from a trusted source. Let Zillow, and others, peddle their inaccuracies...we got the facts! Like any new trend, fear is held by those unwilling to see things through a deep dark truthful mirror and they fear the unfamiliar. If we are being honest with ourselves, those of us who have embraced the new business climate can truthfully say that if all we are is a data source...we can be replaced by an iPhone. Fortunately we are much more than that as has been revealed over the decades by the many members of the NAR who I call friends and colleagues. I hope you will consider the proposed rule change and permit the delivery of the info that we have come to rely on.