Agent Spotlight: Lance Owens & Kimi Nagatoshi, LUVA Real Estate
Leverage sat down with LUVA agents Lance Owens & Kimi Nagatoshi, who specialize in Hawaii’s Big Island. Together, they’ve made real estate a family business. Outside of helping their clients with all of their real estate needs, they each enjoy their own thrill-seeking hobbies.Leverage sat down with LUVA agents Lance Owens & Kimi Nagatoshi, who specialize in Hawaii’s Big Island. Together, they’ve made real estate a family business. Outside of helping their clients with all of their real estate needs, they each enjoy their own thrill-seeking hobbies.
How did you get into real estate?
Lance: I had it in the back of my mind for about 5 years, and after a long day at work (12-hour day), I was driving home ( I had loaned my car out to a customer that day) and they had left the radio on a “preaching” radio station, I was so tired I didn’t even change the channel, it was a short drive home. The man on the radio station said... “Look now son, you can climb into your car and you can turn that steering wheel to the left, you can turn that steering wheel to the right, but until you put that car in gear, nothing is going to happen.” It’s like that preacher was reaching out to me directly. I went home, found a real estate school, and started an in-person class that weekend. The rest is history.
Kimi: 7 years ago, I needed a career change from doing marketing for a medical laboratory, which had me covering the entire Island of Hawaii and driving 5 hours a day. Lance’s career as a realtor was taking off and I decided to join him full time. The change was easy since I had listened to him talk to clients, agents, escrow, loan officers, and banks for so many years. It actually surprised me how much I knew by hearing him in the background. It was an osmosis of information.
Tell us about one of your most interesting deals.
Lance & Kimi: The banks had contracted me [Lance] back in the short sale/foreclosure heydays, to reach out to homeowners and offer them an “enhanced short sale," where the bank gave the homeowner - on an average $10k to move out, and they would waive the debt—"cash for keys." It turns out when we talked with this elderly couple, we made it a mission to help them save their home. In the end, they did save their home. We did not earn a commission, but the rewards were way higher than anything financial.
What are your daily “must-do(s)”?
Lance: Check the real estate hotsheet, see how many homes and condos are active, compare that in my head to the previous month and the previous year.
Kimi: Since I do our transaction management, I go through each file thoroughly daily to make sure we are meeting contingencies and update our clients on a daily basis, even if there aren't any updates.
How do you like to spend your free time?
Kimi: I have a highly competitive nature. I used to compete in Equestrian Hunter/Jumper shows on Oahu. When we moved to Hawaii Island in 2019, I found there were no English competitions, so I started competing in rodeo events (ie: barrel racing) until someone loaned me a Cutting Horse. I had no idea horses were so smart. The idea of the sport is to drive a single cow out of the herd, drop your hand, and let the horse keep that cow away from the herd without using cues. The idea was started by working cowboys on ranches who would work to separate cattle into different pastures and then evolved into a sport to display who had the smarter horse. Now I own 3 Quarter Horses.
Lance: Dual Sport motorcycle riding, or my sideXside, working around the property.
Share one thing on your bucket list.
Lance: (TAT) TransAmerica Trail , a cross country dual sport motorcycle trail. Even if only half way, it had been a goal for my 60th birthday but that was the first year of COVID, so it got put on hold. But our son was home for the holidays so we did a 40 mile ride on Mana Road.
Kimi: Summit Machu Picchu.
Is there anything else you’d like to share about yourself or your business?
Lance: The moment I realized it wasn’t a job, but it was a career was the moment I excelled in my career. The ability to help my clients, whether selling/buying, realizing their dreams is important. Helping the profession overall, with volunteer work with our local board, our state board, and NAR, has been rewarding, very rewarding.
Also, helping team members in our office and even the realtor on the other side of the transaction is also rewarding.
Kimi: Our individual stories are nothing compared to ours combined. When we first met more than 30 years ago, Lance had to ask me for gas money for his Porshe 911 so we could race at an undisclosed location on Oahu against my Maserati Bi-Turbo (I lived at home). Since he could beat me off the starting line I gained a lot of respect for this man. He then won my heart by fixing my car that blew an air hose and loaned me his 911 stating “it’s only metal.” WOW!
Lance continues to impress me daily with volunteering for local realtor boards and has been our President twice. He’s fought proposed legislation, met with government officials and is a “Monster” with helping promote Homeowner concerns. I am proud to be his wife.
