By Lisa Scontras

Bill Birmingham, owner of Mold Hawaii, says his dog Buster is the most cost-effective and most accurate mold detector in the Islands.

Buster is adorable.

The mold-detecting dog often elicits "ooohs" and "awwws" wherever he goes in the Islands. But a small segment of the community views the 17-pound Jack Russell terrier/fox terrier mix as something of a monster.

"Mold is a real deal-killer, so Realtors don't like to see Buster coming around," says Bill Birmingham, owner of Mold Hawaii.

Birmingham says that 6-year-old Buster is the fastest, most cost-effective and by far most accurate mold detector in the Islands.

"He's the only one I need," Birmingham says. "He's 100 percent accurate. He hasn't been wrong so far."

Buster's sensitive nose could lead to thousands of dollars in savings for clients and, more important, the expedient elimination of health risks from their homes or businesses.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, mold growth often occurs when excessive moisture or water accumulates indoors, especially when the moisture goes undiscovered or unchecked.

Mold spores reproduce by producing tiny spores that waft through the air. When spores land on damp spots, they may grow and digest their host Ñ wood, carpet, drywall Ñ to survive. Mold's potential health hazards include allergic reactions, asthma and other respiratory problems.

Hawaii's tropical conditions provide a breeding ground for mold. Birmingham says nine of 10 Island condominiums, and two of five houses are affected.

"There are 10,000 kinds of molds, including 22 that are known to be harmful to humans," he says.

Before Buster, Birmingham performed mold inspections with hand-held meters that measured moisture in the air.

"If we were called a month after a leak, that water would be all dried up. But that didn't mean the mold wasn't there," Birmingham says.

Another method involved poking holes every few inches on a wall to test for spores.

"We might not find spores, but an infected area could be just inches from where we poked the holes," he says. "It took a long time and was very expensive."

Birmingham got into the business of mold in 1998 when he launched a water damage-control company that cleaned up and dried out water-soaked areas to prevent the onset of spores.

He went into inspections in 2001, and found Buster a year later when he happened upon the Florida Canine Academy's Web site while surfing for better mold-detecting equipment.

The academy teaches dogs to sniff out bombs, drugs, money, weapons and termites. Buster was one of the first canines it trained specifically to seek mold.

Mold dogs are a new idea to the United States, but they have been used in Europe for more than two decades.

In recent years, Birmingham has expanded Mold Hawaii's crusade against Island mold to include consultation.

Setting the stage for a 'resale'

By Lisa Scontras

It's good therapy to clean your closets and re-arrange your furniture but did you know that these tasks can also mean more money when selling your home?

It's true. Just like detailing your car before you sell it, home staging methods are the latest tools in the toolbox of techniques designed to help sellers make their homes more appealing to buyers.

According to Bonnie Coen, Realtor/home stager and partner at Prudential Locations LLC, the uptick in the number of homes on the market means it's more important than ever to set your house apart from the crowd. Home staging is a way to do that.

"When buyers have a selection of homes to choose from, a staged home will generally sell faster and for more money than a competitor that doesn't show as well," she says.

Coen goes on to explain that if you can give your listing the feel of a model home, buyers can better see the optimum use of the space and its livability.

"That's why developers do it," says Coen. "If, on the other hand, the home feels more like a 'to do project,' buyers are likely to turn away or want you to bring the price down."

Professional home stagers are practiced in the art of preparing a home for resale.

"They work with the flow of the home, eliminate clutter, edit and arrange furniture and enhance curb appeal," she adds.

Depending on the price of your home, you may elect to spend thousands of dollars to hire a stager to give your home a whole new look with new furniture, accessories and art, or you may elect to find a real estate agent who has a background in staging to give you some advice as part of their listing service.

High-end homebuyers expect more in the way of staging, says Coen. But whether you're selling a million-dollar oceanfront villa or a 500-square-foot condo, there are ways you can make your space feel more open to accent the home's best features.

If you don't have a budget to do a full-scale staging make-over, another option is to re-arrange the existing furniture to create a better traffic flow or remove some pieces to open up the space. Coen says she'll give homeowners a punch list of suggestions. Here is a list of the basics.

• Clean, clean, clean.
  "Scrub like crazy and make your home sparkle," says Coen, who lists eight key areas.
  Don't assume buyers can look beyond clutter and untidiness. They often can't.
  If the kitchen, bathroom or windows are dirty, the perception may be the sellers are just as unconcerned with maintenance and care of the home.
• Declutter
  Home staging basics include tricks for making the home feel bigger.
  "A cluttered home looks smaller and is distracting to many buyers," says Coen, who recommends getting rid of half the items in every room.
• De-personalize the home.
  Pack up personal photographs and family heirlooms. You want buyers to imagine their own photos on the walls.
• Fix all the unfinished do-it-yourself jobs. Eliminate "to do" list repairs entirely such as leaky faucets, running toilets, holes in the walls, torn screens, burned-out light bulbs and closet doors that don't close properly.
• Clean up the yard. Remember, first impressions do count. Typically, a homebuyer makes up their mind within 30 seconds of walking into an open house. Some are forming an opinion when they pull into the driveway. Make sure the trees are trimmed and the lawn is cut. Children's toys should be put away and broken or rusted items removed.
• Paint the interior and exterior of the home. Coen believes this is the most cost effective way to give your home a fresh appearance. Be sure to keep the colors neutral.

Little things can make a big difference in maximizing the value of your home.

The devil is in the detailing of your home. Using staging principles to make the house appear cleaner, larger and more inviting can work wonders and statistics show will get it "sold."

Population shifting to Ewa Plain

Who'd have thought it? Vibrant, people-filled communities on this flat Ewa plain where the tallest things around, other than a few plantation houses, used to be sugar cane tassels? Well, look around. Developers are building some sweet neighborhoods where sugar cane once grew.

Beginning in the early 1960s, the opening of Campbell Industrial Park brought thousands of new job opportunities to southwest Oahu. Two petroleum refineries, a steel fabricating plant, cement plant and many other industrial enterprises started an economic upsurge in this part of Oahu that just kept growing.

With more jobs came more homes, and now there's no end in sight. Developer Gentry Homes is building several first-class, master-planned neighborhoods in Central and West Oahu. The company's Ewa by Gentry development in Ewa and Ewa Beach include the new Huelani and Terrazza communities.

Haseko's 1,100-acre Ocean Pointe Ewa master-planned residential development now under construction is a 15- to 20-year project that will include Ewa Marina, the largest marina in the state.

The 32,000-acre, master-planned urban center of Kapolei rivals Honolulu in size. The development won a National Developer of the Year award for owner-developer Campbell Estate. Thirty years of planning went into the creation of Kapolei, and the rewards are beginning to pay off big-time.

In addition to the innovative new homes in The Villages of Kapolei, now completed are Kapolei's major master plan projects: a business park, shopping center, a 16-screen theater complex, medical park, commercial work centers and complexes for essential government services. These eagerly anticipated state and city office buildings are now relocating many government offices and employees to the new city of Kapolei.

New schools, a regional police station and fire station are all in place, and the first phase of the Kapolei Public Library is complete. There's more on the drawing board, so for the latest, sign on to campbellestate.com. HS