Kapilina Beach Homes — Local services in Oʻahu

My wife and I have lived here for nearly 4 years now and love it. I read the three 1-star reviews that have been posted and feel sorry those people had such negative experiences. They are definitely the exception.

Our single family 3 bedroom/2 bath house is one block from the beach/two blocks from the lagoon, has a massive shared back yard, several mature shade trees and great neighbors. The construction is late 1960s military, i.e. rather plain, but our unit has been renovated as will all 1400+ units as they're turned over. All the usual amenities are modern and attractive. We went with the leased room air conditioners and run 1 or 2 of them depending on the time of day (living/dining room during the day, bedroom at night) which do a decent job of keeping things comfortable. The car port and additional outside storage are nice touches.

Shared amenities like the awesome beach, pavilions, playgrounds, fishing areas/dock, tennis/basketball courts, weight room, dog park, etc. have all been redone since the new management has taken over and are well maintained. They're currently building a new community center that'll include a pool, workout facilities, community rooms and offices. The new dog park with separate area for small dogs is nearly ready, and the newest playground with splash pads and other water features is underway What a great place to be a kid!

The staff here is first rate. The office staff has always been professional, extremely friendly and quick to help out any way they can. There are three dedicated resident managers to take care of any issues you might have and help to ensure policies like outside appearance, quiet hours, common area use are understood are adhered to... you won't find cluttered lawns, junk vehicles, late night loud parties or rude behavior at the beach, picnic areas, playgrounds, etc.

Grounds and maintenance crews are equally terrific. All mowing, trimming, watering, etc. are part of the package and the grounds are beautiful. Maintenance is quick and efficient and available 24/7 for emergencies. We've never waited more than a couple days for non-emergency fixes and the one after hours emergency we had (broken toilet) was taken care of within half an hour!

A very safe place to live, also. The entrance is gated and staffed 24/7. We have our own courtesy patrols via car and by 4 wheeler for the beach. The community is patrolled by both HPD and military police (the land is owned by the Navy and leased to the management company), we have our own neighborhood watch group, and as a result the crime rate is one of the lowest on the island.

Is this Eden? Of course not! We live in the glide path (landing) of Honolulu International Airport/Hickam AFB. Unless you live in one of the units DIRECTLY under the main path, it's no worse than living near the freeway or (for mainlanders) near a train track. You get used to it quickly and barely notice it. Does the leasing team try to hide it? No! As part of the leasing process you sign a statement that you're aware of the issue. The noise is definitely more of a problem if you live on the other (East) side of the airport. Are there bugs? Yup! I don't think there's a unit that doesn't have a few carpenter bee nests. They're harmless, but if they bother you the management will do their best to eradicate them. Cockroaches? Uh huh. We deal with them by not providing them any reason to be here, i.e. clean counters/floor/closets/under appliances, etc. If you can't handle it yourself, exterminator services are free. We haven't needed them. Electric bills do seem a bit flaky/erratic. We're served by the Navy, not HECO, so that may have something to do with it. Oh, you DO need a car here. We're a bit off the beaten path (a real positive for us) and the nearest bus stop is a tad over a mile walk.

So again, we love it here and can't imagine living anywhere else. The positives FAR outweigh any negatives. I've a feeling the one-star reviewers had other issues beyond their posts. I wish them luck finding...

I will be honest the amenities are ok, but this place is a scam. If you are military then AVOID AT ALL COSTS, they will honor the military clause in their lease, but they put a little part saying they will charge for the following months rent after notification of orders, and will charge you extra late notice fees for breaking your contract under orders. There may be some good points to community but when they are trumped by what is obviously a greedy corporate profile and lack of care for general community upkeep I have to overlook those attributes.

I have seen the school come up quite often and even though it is rated by an outside organization the school is below par. Not for lack of trying but more for lack of curriculum and the absurd number of days the teachers take off, look at a calender and add up the days it comes out to 2 months of the school year.

The beach, a few years ago the beach was a heavily pebbled beach which has sand on it now but you might as well prepare to walk on rocks. When you get to the water about 5 feet in you will hit the stones and most likely cut up your feet. The view is nice, that I will most definitely agree to. However, there are no private beaches in hawaii so that is a false point of advertising and prepare to watch anyone and everyone show up and trash the beach constantly.

Overall conditions of the town homes was not good. We battled broken ceiling fans for over 6 months, a water heater not working on a monthly bases, holes in the floor boards of the walls allowing mice to enter the house, and other such problems. Some of the maintenance people would try to help but it seemed like they knew it was a lost cause as well.

Finally the bug problem. If you try to get help with it I wish you much luck. We had a MAJOR roach infestation and we're paying out of pocket to try and combat that but the solution given is to spray and say,"you're in hawaii so you know there are going to be roaches." That was a direct quote from the leasing office by the way. Centipedes are constantly getting into the home and when you try to get pest control help the office will tell you centipedes don't come into houses they stay outside, I say this because when I told them I had either caught or killed 10 in my house they flatly denied that any centipedes would ever go into a house.

This place aims to be resort style living, which is a lofty goal but the way they do it is to offer amenities to overlook everything else. Unfortunately without a solid foundation of good housing and better maintenance practices those things that can contribute to a higher rating will be overshadowed. We saw a lot of empty units as we left and it seemed to only be getting worse. If you move there I wish you the best of luck. Also notice the 5 stars are people who lived here

So we have lived here for over a year and I am gladly changing my review from what I originally thought to be an easy five star to 1 star (it would be lower but yelp only allows 1 star). This place is absolutely horrible with service, value and honesty. We paid 2700 a month for a two bedroom, one bathroom while our next door neighbors paid only 2200 (funny how that works out). Our house was infested with roaches and more then the normal Hawaiian expectation. We called and put in several requests each month and although they came out to spray it never solved the issue. We submitted photos of the roaches in my daughters bed and all over, and even asked to change houses and nothing was done. I am active duty Navy, and I can honestly say that if you are stationed near Hickam or Pearl Harbor you will be miserable living here and the commute to work; they constantly say that the ferry will come back but it's just not true and the commute is over an hour each way. I always try to give honest reviews but after a few months I counted every single day until the end of my lease. I do not like giving bad reviews to anyone but I want to save as many service members as I can from staying here. Now my favorite part- they charge you $50 a month per AC unit (the window ones) in your house to rent which adds up to $600 for each unit every year (Lowe's sells the same unit for $275). When you move in your required to give a $500 security deposit which is normal and expected; however, when people moving out told me I wouldn't see a dime of it, I thought they were playing around. Upon the moving out inspection, I found out I would only get absolutely nothing back due to excessive cleaning fees- $67 just to clean the oven door and to repaint our living rooms walls which we had already primed as directed but the quality was not good enough so they charged us $163 and overcharged electric bills for a house I hadn't lived in for almost a month. We moved out 15 days before our inspection but yet my electric/water/gas bill was $235 for that month. They lost power for three days straight and costed us $300 in wasted food and not a single apology was given or an offer to prorate our rent or even help with grocery costs. To end it all, Kapilina is a beautiful community that invests all of their money in the beach and scenery but their service is absolute garbage and although some of their staff is amazing and absolute sweet hearts (Kathy Mara), the remaining few are so bad they ruin the entire atmosphere. Their claims about a gated community are absolutely false, anyone with an ID can stroll right on in with a day pass which can be given to any criminal with a smile. I have been in the military for a long time and I have lived in many different places and this is one place I can truly say that you should never live in! Just move into Hulsey Terrace and you will thank me in...