Lailan & team were awesome to work with. Hardworking, caring, proactive, her communication style…read moreand Puka's were spot on. They go the extra mile in property search, setting up viewing & inspection appointments, and dealing professionally with the seller's agent & the sellers. Connections to references for resources to guide toward escrow close made a smooth transaction to buying a property chosen in another state with great negotiation skills and advice. Definitely recommends as your go to real estate agent team in Hawaii!

Lailan Bento is a true professional , with both the knowledge, and patience, to lead her clients…read morethrough the myriad of steps of either buying and selling real estate, in the unique market on The Big Island!

Kathryn was amazing! She walked us through every step and thoroughly answered any questions we had…read more I would 100% work with her again and recommend her to anyone looking for a top notch realtor who really listens and wants to find you the best home.

Kathryn recently helped me sell my condo in a challenging market. She is energetic, knows her stuff…read moreand is always available. The pictures and write-up were professional and made a difference. The efficiency with which she responds would make you think that you are her only client. She provides excellent service throughout the sale. She listens and makes suggestions as you would hope a realtor would do. She answers all questions and is available as needed. She gets to know the details about your property so she can present it properly. She is attentive during the entire process. Wouldn't hesitate to suggest her services. She was the best!

Amber is an excellent professional. She helped my family and I make a smooth move from the mainland…read moreto the Big Island in the middle of the coronavirus. She fought to get us the best deal on a rental and took great care to have it in excellent shape . Within minutes of landing at the airport we were inside of our new, beautiful home. We recommend her to anyone to accommodate your rental or home buying needs.

I could not have asked for a better first time home buying experience. Amber was knowledgeable,…read moreresponsive and took serious initiative to find me the home of my dreams. She helped navigate the arduous, and often confusing, process with ease and patiently addressed my concerns along the way. Amber was thorough and attentive in selection of the properties we viewed. Because of her work ethic and approach, I had an extensive selection of homes matching my personal needs. And I was able to make an offer four days after my house came on the market -and I got it! Now I'm living the life I imagined thanks to Amber. In the future, I would not hesitate, and would, in fact, look forward to working with Amber to purchase my next home.

We were fortunate indeed to have Sue Brown and her family representing us in selling our house in…read moreKailua Kona. We chose her not only on the basis of her fine reputation, but from our personal experience encountering her some years earlier as a listing agent for a property we were considering then as buyers. We realized we would want Sue to be the one to sell our house for us at some point in the future because of her gracious personality, expertise, and professionalism. Sure enough, she has just done a great job, from the marketing to the contracting to the closing! It all went better than we hoped for. I would certainly recommend her as a buyer's agent too - Sue was a pleasure to work with and we could rely on her exceptional experience in the Kona market to guide us at every turn. She gave us confidence throughout, and we were very pleased with her success.

Very low key. Not motivated to show homes. If you find the home she might do the paperwork, but…read moreprobably her son will do it.

When looking for a realtor in Kona on the Big Island I had some very specific requirements. I…read morewanted to find someone who had expert knowledge of the local real estate market, not just from a realtors perspective but from a locals perspective. Annette was just that person. She was able to help me find properties that fit not just my budget but also the lifestyle we were looking for. All without trying to pressure is into buying a home. She toured us from South To North Kona and gave us the lowdown on some of the nicer communities like Kalaoa and Hualalai and well as farther up island in Kohala. We really love the island but didn't know it as well as the others so her knowledge was really help us to get a sense of what it's like to live there. I also enjoyed that she was a seasoned world traveler so it's not like she's looking at things from a narrow perspective. I would highly recommend her to anyone looking to buy a home or condo or just wants a better feel for the market there in Kona.

It was a pleasure working with Annette. She is the epitome of professionalism and courtesy. We…read morecontacted her with an extensive wishlist. She happily accommodated our busy schedules, paid great attention to detail, and educated us on the real estate market on the island. She has great knowledge of the different areas of the Big Island, has a tireless work ethic, and will go the extra mile to advocate and negotiate. She is hard-working, personable, and genuinely cares about her clients!

I want to thank First Island Realty for helping me get a belligerent tenant out of my condo. This…read moreperson refused to pay his last month's rent and left the condo in bad shape. The unit was cleaned and painted with a new dishwasher and stove before the tenant moved in. He said he liked it very much and would have his family move in from New York. He had a management job at one of the hotels and had good credit. So, I agreed to let him rent the unit. However, as it turned out it was a mistake! He was the first tenant that I had in 15 years who did not know how to be a good tenant. He signed the lease that said all the rules of the condo would be followed including unwarranted noise at any time and TV noise would not be allowed after 10 PM. There are recordings of loud TV and telephones call that he made at inappropriate hours such as 4 a.m. when people were trying to sleep. The management had to respond to this noisy tenant after receiving many complaints not from one but from many other tenants. People who live in Hawaii have the "aloha" spirit and are friendly and considerate with their neighbors. When the nearest neighbor mentioned to the tenant that he and his wife were having trouble with the noise from his TV and telephone calls, instead of being polite, the aggressive tenant called the police saying he was being harassed. When management tried to reason with him, they received vulgar language and belligerent remarks from my tenant who acted like a child stating he was a "victim of harassment" and that he "didn't do anything wrong." I tried to patiently deal with him for months, to answer his complaints about one issue after another, including battles he was having with other tenants and the management, but it was to no avail. He took the victim role and immaturely fought with everyone. This is when I called First Island Realty for help. They were very responsive and professional. They fully investigated the situation and said that they tried numerous times to mediate the situation to no avail. The tenant reacted to First Island Reality as he did to everyone else, very rudely and belligerently insisting they were all against him. He made no effort to take responsibility for his disrupting other people's lives with his noisy way of life. Because of his total lack of cooperation, they had to get a court date and the tenant was sent a 5-day eviction notice. In his usual uncooperative manner, he did not respond. Furthermore, he refused to have the unit inspected or cleaned out and he left rotting food in the frig and other debris. He finally left to everyone's relief. Thank goodness the unit is clean again! It is well located with 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths, new solar panels, beautiful ocean, and sunset views. People are interested in it, as has always been the case, and it is open to viewing. We hope to find a friendly, quiet and polite tenant to rent the unit! See it for yourself and meet Laure and her staff at First Island Realty. They are warm, friendly, experienced, professionals, who are there to assist you and be responsive to any of your questions. Contact: Laure@firstislandrealty.com Mahalo, Sy Cohn, Owner

Take photos, video, and get all communication in writing. They love to lie even to your face. They…read moreadvertised a furnished condo as having tile floors and a walk in tile bathroom with a king bed. When we arrived they stuck us in a completely different room that did not match the photos with a full size bed, we had to complain multiple times over 10 days and then finally show up in there office before they fixed the situation. On top of that they shut our power off to our room when they found out our AC was leaking with no notice. When we went in person and told them we had proof and pictures of the listing to show they lied. the woman in the office tried to tell me the unit they showed pictures of was "unavailable" and tried to tell me the owner was just a maintenance guy even tho i had already done my research and knew that Joe Schneckenburger was a slumlord who's been through 3 lawsuits that he's lost for how he treats tenants. Only after i called her out to her face for both those lies did she finally call her broker and guess what. the original unit in the listing was now magically available and they moved us into it 1 hour later. Luckily the agent Grant was nice and didn't try to lie to us about anything he was even nodding his head in agreement with me as i argued with her about her blatant lies straight to my face. Maybe they have good intentions but when a tenant comes to you and explains all the consumer protection laws you broke and that we have a lawyer who advised us of the laws maybe don't try lying even more you weasels. I hope you have to live with the fact you're a liar the rest of your life. Unfortunately we never got her name as she hid in the back room until we were gone. And no i didn't cuss or raise hell i sternly expressed my frustration and when you lied i got louder to talk over your BS. Don't trust them get proof of everything! Edit: A resolution was found that we are happy with and we ended up getting the correct condo. The correct one is beautiful and is exactly what we hoped it was. I'm glad they did the right thing!

Worst real estate experience ever. We should have known things were going to hell when the missile…read morecrisis happened on the day of the home inspection (January 13th). For the record, I have my Hawaii Real Estate license so I'm familiar with Hawaii Real Estate laws, etc. Since we were relatively new to the Big Island and because my license was inactive at the time, we asked an agent to represent us after we met her at an open house. Several weeks into the transaction, she hung up on my wife after my wife scolded her about a few things, her follow skills up were poor because she didn't update us on many things in a timely manner (We had to follow up with the lender on many occasions), she gave me the number for the water company to turn on the water although it specifically states in the listing that the water is on a private system, and the main reason I am voicing my dissatisfaction is because she texted me saying that WE (My wife and I) had to pick up the keys from the sellers agent which was located 60 miles away. What agent makes the client pick up the keys after recordation? When my wife went to pick up the keys two days ago, she blew out two tires on our car as she was coming home and luckily she wasn't severely injured. Thankfully, three local residents pulled to the side of the road and gave her a ride to the police station. We are now $1650 lighter in the wallet because our agent didn't do her job. Had she picked up the keys or contacted someone to drop off the keys to us, this incident would have never happened. Needless to say, the BIC at Island Home Realty will be getting a tow truck and Lex Brodie invoice shortly. This transaction took almost 85 days to close due to several screwups by the agent, lender and even escrow. I am embarrassed to have a Hawaii Real Estate license based on how this transaction went down. Code of ethics mean nothing to most real estate agents today. In closing, Escrow called me the day after we signed the CD's saying that we owed them more money. The entire transaction was a disaster from start to finish. Our agent came highly recommended although I'm not sure why. I did more work than she did thus I'm more deserving of the commission than she is. The BIC, Charlie Parry seems to be a nice person based on my conversations with him. Unfortunately, he has his work cut out.

Savanna Scott was wonderful to work with. She is very professional and her knowledge of the real…read moreestate market is unmatched. I look forward to working with her again in the future and recommending my friends and family to her for real estate services in Kailua-Kona.

Lorena helped my husband and I sell our vacation rental, and she did such an outstanding job that…read morewe asked her to help us buy a new home as well as sell our existing home. From the beginning to the end, she went above and beyond what we expected on all aspects of the buying and selling process. She is not only warm and caring but she is also extremely honest, reliable, knowledgeable and hardworking. Over the years, we have worked with many other agents and we can definitely say that she is the best real estate agent we have ever had the pleasure of working with. We didn't have to worry about a single thing working with Lorena, which we greatly appreciated. She was always one step ahead of everything and she went out of her way to exceed our expectations every time. We recommend her to all of our friends and would recommend her 100% to anyone looking to buy or sell their home.