Renting a House in Hawaii 101

We're here!  It was not the smooth transition we wished for--poor X has the flu and my dad is under the weather.  Nonetheless, we are enjoying our first few days on the island.  I bought a Prius, which has been my dream car for awhile.  We switched our Korean cell phones over to a US carrier.  We visited the Walmart.

One thing I was not prepared for was the vicious rental housing market.  We have looked at six places so far.  We've found three that were acceptable.  The first time we liked a house, we said, "we like it, but...we'd better look at some more places."  It was rented out from under us the following day.  Having learned our lesson, we put in an application for the next place we liked.  The next day, we found out that someone else had been selected.  We just found another one that was acceptable--a far cry from the palatial apartment we left, but definitely livable--this morning.  Hopefully we'll have better luck with it.

I'm used to selecting a house, calling the landlord, and signing a lease.  We are babes in the woods in Hawaii.  Every house showing we go to has other potential renters prowling around, snapping photographs.  We're really hoping to buy next year.  I wonder if the housing market is as competitive.

On the plus side, we live here now