I believe I started my real estate pre-licensing course near the end of 2004 at the Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties or Barbara Dew School of Real Estate class at Kahala Mall. I don't even remember what it was officially called. At the start of that, I had no intentions of becoming a real estate agent or broker. It was only during the course when I realized that the course was not really going to teach me anything more than how to pass the real estate agent licensing test. I was actually interested in learning about commercial real estate, something that isn't really taught in any short term course and instead, is learned through experience. That is when I decided to get my start as a residential real estate agent, still nothing to do with commercial!
If you know me even slightly, you know I enjoy cars and racing them, and I enjoy fine coffees. I also come from a family of "restaurateurs". I'm not talking about fancy restaurants, but more like local drive-in plate lunch type of eateries. Why does this matter? Because I wanted commercial property to have my own cafe and car shop. I am obviously still working on that, but I am happy to brew a cup of coffee for you to enjoy while we work on your real estate transactions! So, the big goal is for me to have some commercial property with my own businesses operating in the building. How close am I to that? No where even close. If anything, it will happen as sort of a way I enter "retirement age" and by that time, would I still want to have those things?
Back on track. Immediately after the pre-licensing course, I took the actual licensing test, passed and signed on for the best new agent training available, the Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties New Agent Training Office. That was located in Kahala Mall back then and was very well known to be the best available training in town for any new licensee. From there, I transferred to the Waikiki location because I lived two blocks away at the time.
After almost two years with Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties, I decided to try out a "non-franchise" brokerage. That brought me to East Oahu Realty, Inc. I spent the last 7 or so years there, during which a lot of other big events occurred. My years working alongside some of the most experienced REALTORS
® in town has been invaluable to me.
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| Kelli and I married in 2009. |
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| I also tested for and received my broker's license in 2009. |
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Got a long haired mini dachshund pup
in 2012 and named her Lola. |
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Kelli and I had a baby in 2014 and
his name is Mason. |
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We got a second mini dachshund about
a month after Mason was born and we call him Oscar.
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I gained a lot of knowledge working with the agents at
East Oahu Realty, Inc. Just about every other agent there
had at least two to three or more times the number of years
of experience that I had. My time with them has been invaluable and has provided me the confidence to continue my real estate practice as an independent broker.
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Fast forward through all of that, and everything else, brings us to 2015. With the assistance of
Ryan K. Hew, Attorney at Law, LLLC, I created Rick Nakama Realty LLC. The final step of changing the information with the Honolulu Board of Realtors was completed at the end of February and today (over a span of a few days) I begin this new blog.
I am not a professional writer or anything like that. I just like to blog and I will try to consistently blog again. I don't plan to just blog about the latest real estate thing going on because we all know that the only people, if anyone, that would be reading it, would be people preparing to buy or sell real estate. After that happens, they most likely won't want to read about real estate very often. That is why I will be trying to blog about various things and hopefully there is some sort of real estate tie-in most of the time. Afterall, my original blog was called, "Rick's Blog About Anything." I would link to it, but it seems to have disappeared.
If these types of blog posts are just too long for you, I also post on
Twitter and
Instagram as @RickNakama.
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Strolling the streets to get a feel of what is in the neighborhood...
I'll save the suit pictures for later, maybe when I'm actually wearing a suit
because really, when do we ever wear suits here in Honolulu? |
By the way, I have a great 1 bedroom listing at Palm Villas 2. Maybe I will tell you more about that in my next blog post! ;)
Thanks for reading. Let's have coffee!
