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Leaving it at Work

Helping people balance their work, home lives and down time. Hawaii attorney Mark Murakami discovered a secret of success early. “My priorities, in order, are: husband, father, attorney, Coast Guard Reserve officer,” says Murakami, a member of the law firm Damon…

Where is the Bottom?

When will it recover? Just about everyone in the Hawaii housing sector – brokers, lenders, economists, appraisers, analysts – says the crystal ball on prices is murky. A lot of outside factors make it difficult to predict where prices will…

Hawaii's Top 25 Realtors

Welcome to our 2009 list of Hawaii’s Top 100 Realtors, based on sales volume for 2008. We hope you find it informative and useful. On this page we rank the top 25 sellers and on the following pages we list…

Cold Calls and Shoe Leather

What makes commercial real estate so complicated? “Downtown” Jamie Brown, a CRE All-Star and president of Hawaii Commercial Real Estate, looks puzzled by the question. “Have you ever seen a commercial real estate contract?” he asks. Fishing out a thick…

The Storm Warning

Will commercial real estate be the next crisis? “There’s an old adage,” says Steve Sofos. “Pigs get fat; hogs get slaughtered.” Sofos, president of Sofos Realty, Hawaii’s largest independent commercial real estate brokerage, is discussing the possibility of a collapse…

Young and Green

Michael Fairall doesn’t go to great lengths to advertise the “green” side of Mokulua Woodworking, his Kailua-based construction company. Never mind the sometimes surreptitious adherence to LEED standards, like low-flow plumbing (“Basically, we bring that approach to anything that we…

Ask SmallBiz: Dividing Family Stock

Q. What should the owners of a family business consider when dividing shares of stock among their children? I have been told never to give two children equal shares. -Monica Toguchi,
VP, Administration and
 Planning, Highway Inn Inc. A. You’re right,…

25 People for the Next 25 Years

Thirty-year-old developer Adam Wong has an intoxicating vision for a vibrant — and affordable — Honolulu. Thirty-three-year-old James Koshiba dreams of a new generation of socially-conscious businesses that do as much for the community as they do their bottom lines.…

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