With a Little Help From a Friendly Guy
Berton Hamamoto Brings a Financial Planning Perspective to Real Estate
Berton Hamamoto was always a people guy. Growing up in the 60’s in the then new Moanalua Gardens subdivision, his pack of friends would race down trails to the park, challenge each other at marbles and savor an innocent freedom unknown to kids today. The five p.m. bugle and cannon shot from Fort Shafter let them, and everybody up to Tripler Hospital, know to go home for supper. To this day, Hamamoto hangs out with the same childhood friends.
In his professional life, Hamamoto’s fondness for friendly company steered him toward real estate. “As a financial planner I got to see people in different industries: insurance brokers, stock brokers and REALTORS. I gravitated toward real estate because I noticed REALTORS competed with each other, yet they were all friends, not adversaries,” he recalls. “The insurance guys had to put down their competitor’s product. Stockbrokers had to outperform the other guy. But if one REALTOR got a listing and the other guy didn’t, that REALTOR could always find a buyer for the property and still do OK. They’re not so cutthroat.”
Hamamoto got his REALTOR’s license while working for a financial planning company and started purchasing, selling and managing his clients’ rental units. He learned the ins and outs of tenants, toilets and trouble—the notorious “Three T’s” of rental property. In 1992 he went out on his own—and opened Property Profiles, a real estate sales and property management company that emphasizes Hamamoto’s expertise as a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). “I view real estate kind of differently,” says Hamamoto. “I’m more focused on how real estate plays a part in a person’s financial portfolio, how that is balanced with the rest of the portfolio, and how you grow that asset. I’d prefer to sit and talk with you as a consultant about your financial goals and how real estate fits in. I’m not so much into, ‘I can sell your house for you—look at my brochure.’”
When sitting down with Hamamoto, clients can expect friendly, sound financial advice. “As a financial planner you start to learn that it’s not how much you make, it’s what you do with your money that counts,” Hamamoto explains. “Being financially secure revolves not around you having to physically go out and earn money, but on you having investments that earn money for you. We advise people that as they earn, they need to invest so that eventually the investment portfolio is large enough to pay out dividends, interest or rental income to support them so they don’t have to work anymore. That’s the goal.”
Hamamoto clearly enjoys the REALTORS he works with. “If you ask most of them what drives them, it’s that they get to help people. You’re helping people buy a home and achieve a lifelong goal of home ownership. That’s a fulfilling thing to do. It’s not necessarily about the money. Money comes with being able to help people. That’s the first and foremost objective.”
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