This spring newsletter is designed to answer many of the questions your new management and the Board have been addressing these past few months. The newsletter is informative, instructive and candid. Please use our website for updates and please make sure we have your e-mail address. The goal of the KTOA organization team is to keep all the members fully informed. We are doing all in our power to make your units and your stay at Kihei Akahi as pleasant as possible.
Considerations in buying or selling a KTOA timeshare:
When one advertises on the KTOA website other persons or members will respond directly, as well as interested brokers wishing to represent you. You have the right to manage the sale or exchange directly with the assistance of a title company or with the assistance, in addition, of a broker, lawyer or contract agent. The cost of assistance varies so you should make inquiries before you decide. “Right to Use” contracts can be exchanged between individuals since there is no title insurance involved. A title company can, however, act as your escrow agent to allow the safe transfer of funds between the buyer and seller.
Listing Interval Week for sale on the KTOA website:
contact Rhonda at Bello Realty Inc. at 808-879-3328 or e-mail Vacations@bellomaui.com
Provide the number of weeks available, a contact name, a phone number, e-mail address or mail address, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, Right to Use or Fee Simple, additional unused weeks, if included in the sale, and the per week asking price.
Disclaimer
The KTOA website is designed to provide a vehicle by which our members can communicate buying, selling or renting interests. The postings are a courtesy only. The Board or its individual members have no financial interest in or economic incentives provided by any organization or individuals who assist new buyers or members in buying or selling timeshare interests. Any information provided is purely educational and it is the responsibility of the participants to weigh and verify any such information and to form their own decisions. Any companies or individuals who help with sales and who are named in our website are free agents who have assisted some of our members successfully in past transactions or changes. There are also many other persons available who handle timeshare transactions and the selection of a person or company is the buyer’s or seller’s decision. KTOA members or directors assume no liability in any transaction.
Bello Realty Inc., our managing agent, has been asked by our Board of Directors to refer all buy/ sell or rental inquiries to our website. They are not in the timeshare sales business and their agreement with KTOA is to manage the day to day ongoing operations of the units and reservations in cooperation with, and under the guidance and protocols of the KTOA Board of Directors. Listings are simply a courtesy for all interested parties to enable the interested parties to communicate.
Some of our members have reported good competent assistance in transactions from the following persons or organizations qualified to assist in your transaction and who are familiar with the KTOA timeshare organization,
Hawaii Escrow and Title--- Honolulu office 1-808-532 2977 ask for Sue Lunsford who lived and worked in Kihei and knows our property. Rose Bento in the Lahaina office of Hawaii Escrow and Title l-808-661-5811 can also help you.
Maui Brokers LLC is a new name on the block, but the brokers have been in the Kihei area a long time and know the property well. Jay Markel and John Hillard are names familiar to many of you and can assist you if you need a broker’s assistance in buying or selling your timeshare interest.
Bello Realty Inc. will, upon written request, provide the principals or their representative, in the transaction, with the current status of the seller’s account with KTOA. After the transaction is completed it is the new owner’s responsibility to provide our managing agent with a copy of the final executed documents so that the ownership roster can reflect the ownership change. The copy will be retained as part of KTOA’s ownership records. All transactions must include on the executed paperwork the coded reference number from the original deed and also show the unit/week code.
Listing Weeks for Rent:
contact Rhonda at Bello Realty Inc.—1-808-879-3328, or fax 1-808- 875-1483
Seller: Provide the number of weeks you want to rent, the price per week, a contact name and numbers to reach the seller. Note: no specific week can be sold for rent on the website. Buyer and seller then advise Rhonda of the transaction after which the buyer can book the time on the website
Buyer: If you want to purchase some extra weeks, we can put a notice out to alert other owners of your desire so they can contact you directly.
Considerations in addressing member concerns about booking difficulties:
The issue with booking during high season is that more owners are trying to book in the 13 week period of Jan –March and there is not sufficient unit availability to accommodate everyone. When most of the unit weeks were not sold, it was easier to book on demand. The issue has been progressive and has nothing to do with the change in management. Our new management has been carefully instructed to allow no exceptions to the 9 AM rollup of the next available week. Everyone has the same chance to book by computer. Management, during high demand, likely can only accommodate the first person in line. By the time the next person in line is entered into the system the newly available weeks probably will be gone. We strongly urge our members to use their own computer resources to book. The system is fair, even handed and suffering from over-demand in a limited time. So what options do we have to reduce the pressure on the reservations? Two years ago, at the annual meeting we had a spirited discussion but came to no better solution. Any change would be unwelcome for some group of our owners.
Here are a few suggested ideas:
Allow only the actual number of owned weeks to be used during the high demand time (no saved unused weeks from prior years) Phase this in over a one year window..
Reduce the number of years that weeks could be saved. Phase this in over a one year window.
Allocate two units during high demand time to stays of one to three weeks to accommodate members with fewer weeks owned.
Allow only 50% of the total number of owned weeks that could be booked during the high demand season. Then members with, for example, one or two owned weeks would be restricted to booking every other year in high time. This plan should not be considered until 1) and 2) are seriously considered.
Buy back unit weeks for sale or add extra units. Both suggestions are economically impractical and we are restricted to the eleven units in the complex.
Other suggestions such as a lottery were considered.
An undetermined additional cost, per week, for all high time booking between January 1 and March 31.
Limit usage to owners only during high time –no guests or exchanges.
All of the above ideas would be punitive and divergent from the understanding each member had when they bought in. Another approach would be to market the rest of the year for its benefits and equip the units to be comfortable during that time by adding A/C which is thought to be unnecessary by everyone booking in high demand times. Many rental agencies will not rent units without A/C. Should summer occupant owners expect less?
Other ideas are welcome for consideration - serious interest in any one idea would be necessary to win a majority write in vote. Regardless of what is decided it must be fair to all segments of our membership and not penalize one for the benefit of another.
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Recent booking problem:
A glitch in the Monday morning rollup has occurred twice this spring and is likely related to a similar problem last February. A new programmer is looking into the problem and we hope to have the problem resolved soon. Meanwhile if the program does not roll up as expected, call Rhonda and she may be able to help- We are working toward a failsafe solution and regret the inconvenience.
About your annual dues payments last Fall
the one bedroom units are $490.00/week and the two bedroom unit is $575.00/week. Please review your cancelled checks to see if you have received your payment check back from the bank showing it was cashed. The check was due December 1, 2005 and our records received from Certified/Oihana indicate a number of persons have not paid. The audit is in progress and if you have not paid please do so now. If you have paid and have no evidence of a cancelled check please stop payment and send a new check to Bello Reaty Inc. and note it is for your KTOA 2006 dues. Further delay will be subject to new payment penalties. Use of you booked weeks also requires that your account is current. Thank you for your understanding and prompt attention.
Update on the nearby construction to our Northeast and the on going work at Kihei Akahi
The noise from the nearby construction will be with us for some time as the huge project of new homes and multiple unit structures advances down the hill. The sounds of heavy earth moving equipment will soon be replaced with hammers and saws.
Recently we enclosed an update of the construction issues as of 2/04/06 in each lock- box mailing. A copy is enclosed to bring everyone up to date. The disturbances continue but the lanai side is almost finished except for the addition of tile. Due to more reservations into the first half of the summer the work has been put off until the first part of August when there is more open time on the calendar. Currently there is still painting and spalling on the East walkway side of Building D and painting and spalling on the North end of the Building. The scheduled completion is the end of April-Hawaii time. Work on the elevators will, likely, begin this summer to refurbish the insides with new paint, floor covering and paneling replacement. One elevator will be done at a time and the down time should be minimal. .
About our new management company:
The transfer to Bello Realty Inc. is progressing nicely. We have been disappointed, however, by our previous managements handling, of many issues, especially during the past few months. The result has been an inordinate number of time consuming matters that had been neglected or overlooked by Oihana. A complete audit is currently in progress by a third party auditor and then the Board will consider the overall picture. Meanwhile the Board has been busy assisting the changeover and defining and detailing many of the protocols so that all of our members are better informed on all the details of our organization. Rhonda Felix is our primary contact who directly oversees our units. We are optimistic that the new management team will work well with the Board to improve the overall operation and organization. Together we have been working on protocols so we are of like mind as we roll out each new procedure or plan.
About the units themselves:
New additional linens, which are of better quality than in the past, have been acquired. They are being introduced on an, as necessary basis. Also new Teac CD players and Toshiba DVDs have been installed. Other items on our want list have been delayed pending the results of the financial audit. We have been trying for several months in this short-labor environment to get a responsible lanai tile bid and just this week have pinned down a commitment. Also, after a year of pressure and a lot of personal effort to one of our suppliers we finally were able to have all the new occasional chairs reupholstered to the specifications which had been originally ordered. Four of the recliner side tables are still on order but the mainland store headquarters has assured us they will be available soon. There have been many compliments on the new fabrics on the furniture and the Board is striving to make the units as well stocked and upgraded as reserves will prudently allow. Kitchen items, especially, require a great deal of oversight. Items seem to gravitate from unit to unit and take a great deal of time to sort out. Everyone’s awareness and assistance is appreciated. Although the kitchens are quite well stocked there is always the request for something else. Some members buy and stock a unit with an additional item at their expense and then it is used by subsequent guests. The next year they book into another unit and are disappointed that extra item is not there and they then call Rhonda. We are gradually evolving to a fixed inventory for all the units but the complete unit to unit replication is elusive despite a great deal of effort. One of the issues we have dealing with is the living area carpeting. It is being cleaned more frequently but open doors and windows, along with nearby earthmoving equipment and a week of high winds this month has made maintenance difficult. The Board is aware of the concerns and is weighing options along with all the other things on our list. One of these things is a need to change out some cabinetry in three of our units. In Hawaii there are flying termites that can enter through open doors in some seasons and they seem to love to set up housekeeping in new wood. Replacing the damaged cabinets will probably also be done when the lanai tiling is done in August.
Important news about the safes: The safes have been utilized extensively for almost two years now. We have had two safes, however, that have needed new circuit boards. The system is simple and the fix is simple. We change the batteries halfway through their expected life, but if there is a circuit board leak, that prematurely discharges the battery, the safe will show a readout saying “Low battery”. Report it to management and do not use the safe until the problem is resolved. We have extra parts on hand so the down time should be minimal if the problem ever occurs again. The safes are easy to use, and the codes are any numbers you select plus they are large enough to hold most laptops. The safety over- ride wand, available only to our bonded management, will only function to open a safe when a member forgets their code. It will not be useful if the safe is locked when it reads low battery.
About our maid service:
Janet and Kellena and their assistants were hired back as of January 1. They had been fired without Board awareness or good cause by our previous management last August. The Board was happy to be able to bring them back. And they are working hard to please us. Their task is often difficult with late checkouts and early arrivals. They have a window between 11AM and 3PM each Saturday to transform the units to the clean freshness you expect. If you know you will be leaving early or arriving late please let Rhonda know so the cleaning time can be extended. Everyone’s assistance would be appreciated to return furniture back where it was located when you entered the unit, load and run the dishwasher, leave a note on the island if there is anything that you have noted that should be attended to by maintenance or management and run the newly added beach towels through the washer and dryer. If kitchenware has wandered to another unit during your stay, please retrieve it as we now do an inventory and damage check after each guest leaves so we can improve our accountability. Investigation is in progress to improve our phone service and possible high speed internet options. The complex is also looking into possible wireless internet but presently this is in the early consideration stage.
This may seem like a great deal to read, but it is only the tip of the iceberg of the many things management and the Board confront every day. Our goal is to try to keep everyone happy and, at the same time, be mindful of the budget and the annual assessment. Hawaii has seen huge increases in property values, yet it has the lowest property tax in the nation for some permanent residents (as low as point .01%) but there is a shifting of the tax burden on Maui especially to timeshares. We have had another $5,000 plus increase on our units in total for the first one half of this year, on top of the huge increase last year. The Board has to budget for it, in addition, to all the other things on our list that our members have asked about. Careful management of our resources is becoming increasingly important as we consider all the wants and desires against the annual assessment per unit/week that is always a concern. We all own these units together and the more we each adopt the personal pride in ownership philosophy the better our units will be.
Our next annual meeting is scheduled in Las Vegas on September 23rd.
A summer newsletter will provide you with more details, an invitation for Board positions, notice regarding proxies and an update of the Board’s progress in what has turned out to be a very busy year with assistance from our new management team. Encl. Details on booking and construction update.