But all work and no play can make for a dull life. With that in mind and to share with my children another side of life, I was also involved along with my family in sponsoring and promoting Opera San Jose in its budding years. While that was a very busy time in my life, it was also a very rewarding period watching my family grow as well as watching the community where we lived expand. What a unique experience it was to have been alive and maturing in Northern California during those four dynamic decades beginning in the mid fifties. What an insight it was to experience the population explosion, development and growth and what it did for real estate investments.

During my stay on the Mainland, I never lost my love for Kauai. As the saying goes, “You can take the boy out of the Islands, but you can never take the Islands out of the boy!!!” With that in my heart, I was lucky enough to have been able to keep coming back to Kauai over the years as often as I could. I though it was important to keep coming back to Kauai, not only for my own sake in terms of charging up my batteries, but also because I wanted to share the Island experience with my children while they were in their formative years. Eventually, I took time off in the mid seventies to realize a dream and personally built a vacation home for my family at Anini Beach where I grew up. Not only did that experience give me a good idea about what it was like to build a home on a small Island out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but it also gave me insight into the ins and outs of the vacation rental world. By 1992, I had had enough of the congested freeways, smog, and generally crowded conditions in the metropolitan San Francisco Bay Area and moved back to Kauai for good where I have continued on with my construction work and real estate activities. Home at last and finding no local opera company here to support, I switched my community service activities to the North Shore Lions Club in Princeville on Kauai where I was the recent (now past) second vice president of our club. I am also a member and supporter of the Hanalei Canoe Club.

Having been intimately involved with the Island of Kauai for most of my life you can imagine that I know this place and its people probably better than most people know the back of their hand. And yes, I still speak pidgin English though you’d never know it unless you hear me talking to my local friends. But more importantly, I also know the tempo and pace of the Mainland world too because I once lived there as well. While I find selling real estate is a process of education, it is also a process of getting people to feel comfortable with some of the differences, not only in the local real estate market, but also with respect to the diverse cultures here not to mention the unique way of life found in our Islands. I have taken those thoughts one step further in the form of starting to write a book called “Latitudes of Attitudes” which addresses the differences in cultures both here and on the Mainland….and more specifically what happens when these cultures come together as they have here in Hawaii. Don’t ask me when the book will be finished, because working in the real estate business full time keeps me hopping, and sometimes keeps me further away from my writing than I would like. However, if you read between the lines here, you will find that if you decide to work with me, you will be getting more than just an average agent here on Kauai. While I am easy going for the most part, if you turn me loose on something, I will turn this Island up side down for you. As I tell my clients, I am your navigator and you are the captain. After all, it is your hard earned money that is at stake. My job is to try to find the right property for you while keeping you off the rocks in the process. If I am working to market your property, I will work just as hard to find the right buyer. The important thing is that if we work as a team, I feel confident that we can make it all happen. And basically, that is who I am.

Since there is more to life than just business, if you enjoy deep sea fishing or scuba diving, these are my hobbies and perhaps we can spend some time connecting on this level as well. Believe it or not, I just took up golf and if you don’t mind a real rookie, I don’t mind giving it a go. Someone recently asked me if I was a “scratch golfer” to which I replied, “Yes. I scratch my head after hitting the ball trying to figure out where it went.” That’s only because you are not supposed to look up when you hit the ball. What ever the case may be, whether it is real estate or just having fun, lets make the experience enjoyable.

While I am a licensed Real Estate Broker, when you call, please, just ask for Sterling. I do have a last name, however most people over here aren’t that formal. They just know who I am because the name Sterling is distinctive enough. The name also represents who I am and what I stand for. That is very important to me because that is what living on Kauai is all about…it is called aloha. And that is why I am ALOHA STERLING PROPERTIES where the name says it all.