59 - Aloha from Hawaii's Loa Ridge: The Story of Gary Ruby

[00:00:05] At the intersection of true crime and real estate, you'll find Crime Estate. I'm Heather.

[00:00:09] And my name is Elena. As real estate agents and true crime junkies, we view crimes through

[00:00:14] a different lens. So walk through the door of some of the most notorious true crimes with

[00:00:18] us and discover how sometimes the scene of the crime has its own story to tell.

[00:00:27] Hey y'all, or maybe I should say aloha because today's Crime Estate takes us to the islands

[00:00:32] of Hawai'i. I'm Heather and I'm here with two of the best women in Dallas, my co-host and

[00:00:37] fellow real estate agent, Alana, and our producer and commentator plus boy mom extraordinaire,

[00:00:42] Melanie. Hey ladies.

[00:00:43] Hey. Hawai'i sounds amazing.

[00:00:45] I know. Don't you wish we were there right now?

[00:00:47] Let's take this on the road.

[00:00:49] Well, I'm going to have to reserve my enthusiasm about recording on location until I hear the

[00:00:54] story. But yeah, Hawai'i sounds amazing anytime, all the time.

[00:01:00] Yeah. Have y'all ever been before?

[00:01:01] I've not.

[00:01:03] I've been twice. We went maybe two spring breaks ago and then maybe one time when the

[00:01:10] boys were more like four and six or so.

[00:01:13] Yeah. So we took a huge family trip before my brother or I had children. So my parents,

[00:01:18] my brother and his wife, me and my husband, and my parents paid for it. So that really

[00:01:22] made the trip awesome.

[00:01:24] Yeah, for sure.

[00:01:24] But the other thing I love about Hawai'i'i is the time zone is so different that you really

[00:01:29] can't work while you're there. You have to take a vacation because like when you're up

[00:01:34] during the day, it's time for people to sleep in the States.

[00:01:37] I don't like that.

[00:01:37] In the States.

[00:01:38] No, you don't?

[00:01:38] Mm-mm.

[00:01:39] You just want to work on vacation?

[00:01:41] Well, I don't want to, but I want to have access to work if needed.

[00:01:44] I mean, you can. It's just that you're going to be in different hours. Like the one thing

[00:01:48] that we found was we would be waking up really early and which was kind of fun, like to wake

[00:01:54] up at 5 a.m. and you would see the sunrise every day and you would go and you would just

[00:02:01] be really productive. You'd go have actual breakfast. A lot of times when I'm on vacation,

[00:02:06] I don't really have breakfast. It's more like lunch. And then you'd go to bed early.

[00:02:09] You know, but so it was just kind of fun to go and be productive and go to the beach or

[00:02:15] go exploring the island and we would do it just kind of earlier hours.

[00:02:19] Yeah.

[00:02:20] All right. Well, so as you know, Hawaii is made up of multiple islands, eight in fact,

[00:02:24] and our story today takes us to the capital of Hawaii, Honolulu, on the island of Oahu.

[00:02:31] In particular, we find ourselves in the gated Hawaii Loa Ridge neighborhood located in East

[00:02:37] Tonolulu. The community's HOA website describes itself as one of the world's premier residential

[00:02:43] neighborhoods. Hawaii Loa Ridge was conceived specifically for those who demand the ultimate

[00:02:49] and exclusive living. The ridge has become a haven of elegant and luxurious homes on remarkably

[00:02:55] beautiful and unique real estate. This neighborhood of 557 homes ranges from $2 million to $27 million,

[00:03:02] and they have just amazing views of the Pacific Ocean. The community includes a tennis court,

[00:03:09] private roads, excuse me, private roads with controlled access, a park with picnic tables,

[00:03:14] 24-hour security, and a community building. And it's only about a 15-minute drive from the famous

[00:03:19] Waikiki Beach.

[00:03:20] So not only are we on a gorgeous island, but we're in an amazing house on a gorgeous island.

[00:03:25] Check and check. You are absolutely correct.

[00:03:27] Perfect. So Gary Ruby purchased this Ocean View home in 2020 for approximately $2.2 million.

[00:03:34] And according to his realtor, Heidi Bertucci with Corcoran Pacific Properties,

[00:03:39] he really liked this neighborhood, but he was looking for the right home where he could live forever.

[00:03:43] And when he saw this, he knew this was the one.

[00:03:46] I think it's fascinating. I have clients do that all the time.

[00:03:50] Like they'll just walk in like this is it. And sometimes I feel, do you ever get goose bumpy

[00:03:53] when you're showing clients and you're like, this is the one for them?

[00:03:55] Yeah.

[00:03:56] I read that she had met him when he was looking at another home in the neighborhood

[00:04:00] and they had clicked and he'd just kind of been looking around, waiting for the right one that,

[00:04:06] you know, that was it. And he, from everything I read, I mean, he, I think he was a civil servant.

[00:04:14] You know, he was trained as a lawyer, but he was actually like, he had saved his money.

[00:04:17] I mean, he wasn't, you know, traditionally wealthy. He had just saved his money for a long period of time

[00:04:24] for, you know, this beautiful home.

[00:04:27] Gary's home at 357 Le Le Coupe Place was a three bedroom, three bath, 2,300 square feet

[00:04:34] and sat on a corner lot.

[00:04:36] Now this stucco vaguely Spanish style home with an open floor plan and vaulted ceilings

[00:04:41] was surrounded by lush green grounds, palm trees, and a view of the ocean from the wall of glass windows

[00:04:47] and balcony to the outside. Built in 1981, it had been remodeled and redesigned in 2015 by a European architect.

[00:04:55] You know, those 80s are so old.

[00:04:58] Yeah, but they're ugly. They weren't that old.

[00:05:00] Yeah.

[00:05:01] I'll say this house looks beautiful. Like, yeah, the pictures I saw of it. Now it may, let's be honest now,

[00:05:07] I may not even have cared about the inside of the house when you just see the huge Lanay.

[00:05:12] I can never say it. Lanay.

[00:05:14] Lanay.

[00:05:14] Lanay.

[00:05:15] Lanay. See, thank you, ladies. See, you haven't even been to Hawaii and you can pronounce better than I.

[00:05:19] Is that a Hawaiian word?

[00:05:19] Yeah.

[00:05:20] They say it on Golden Girls. That's why I know it.

[00:05:22] From Golden Girls. They say, we're going to go on the Lanay.

[00:05:24] Things you learn from TV.

[00:05:26] They're in Florida.

[00:05:26] Yeah. Well, you know, like the balcony kind of, or the patio outdoor area.

[00:05:30] Yeah, that's a total Hawaiian word.

[00:05:32] I wonder why they say it in Florida.

[00:05:34] Well, on Golden Girls.

[00:05:35] Okay, sorry. Go ahead.

[00:05:36] No, it makes sense. So, yes.

[00:05:38] Yes. And you go out there and it's this beautiful green palm trees and you can see the ocean. So,

[00:05:44] yeah. I mean, I'm sure the house was lovely, but you're getting location, location.

[00:05:49] Yeah. I mean, if I could retire to Hawaii in a house with a wall of windows overlooking the water,

[00:05:55] that, I mean, that's sort of my dream. I don't think I'd ever get John there.

[00:05:58] Oh, no.

[00:05:59] He's not really a beach guy.

[00:06:00] I can see that about him.

[00:06:02] Yeah.

[00:06:02] Oh, I would love to. I think it would be exceptionally expensive.

[00:06:06] Well, $2.2 million in 2020, apparently.

[00:06:10] You know, it's more the food is so much more expensive over there. I mean, they're great food,

[00:06:17] but the food is expensive. Just the kind of the cost of living is expensive. I mean, you know,

[00:06:22] cars, just think about it, like getting them transported over there. This last time we went

[00:06:27] to Hawaii, we stayed in Waikiki. We were using points. So, you know, a week free at the Ritz Carlton

[00:06:34] at Waikiki was lovely. But we did get a rented a car and just explored the island. It's really

[00:06:42] beautiful and really kind of cool to go to Pearl Harbor as well.

[00:06:47] Oh, yeah.

[00:06:48] Yeah. So, Gary buys this house and at this point, he's actually in his early 70s. Like you said,

[00:06:53] Mel, he had saved for a long time, worked really hard. And he had pretty much retired and was

[00:06:59] looking forward to spending time with his family and friends at this new home overlooking the ocean.

[00:07:03] Now, he was originally from Canada, but had moved early on to Hawaii to spend his life.

[00:07:09] And according to those that knew him well, Gary loved the theater, music, literature,

[00:07:13] and travel. But first and foremost, he loved his family and friends. In an email to his brother in

[00:07:19] 2022, Gary shared that he had a new boyfriend, a Colombian man by the name of Juan Barron,

[00:07:24] who was much younger than Gary at only 25 years old. The two met on Tinder in early 2022.

[00:07:32] I don't like this so far.

[00:07:34] You don't like the Tinder meet?

[00:07:36] No.

[00:07:36] You don't like the age difference?

[00:07:38] I don't. I just have a weird feeling about it because I kind of like Gary so far.

[00:07:42] He sounds good. I'm hoping he's not the bad guy.

[00:07:45] Oh, no. The look you just gave me.

[00:07:47] The pictures of him were lovely. I mean, like, you know, he looks like this nice,

[00:07:51] innocent man that you could see as your uncle, you know, or at the coffee shop. I mean, he looked,

[00:07:58] you know, looks really nice. And but yeah, I think everyone sees a giant red flag with a 50 years

[00:08:06] age difference and theoretically a very different socioeconomic. Not that that's, you know, the most

[00:08:12] important thing, but, you know, somebody has more of the power in this story.

[00:08:17] So let me ask you this. I mean, we're all three married, happily married, I would think.

[00:08:22] You have to disagree right now.

[00:08:24] But if you were dating again, like what is your age difference?

[00:08:30] Like level of comfort? And is it different for men versus women?

[00:08:36] I think it's probably much different for men than it is for women.

[00:08:39] I think men can date much younger, in my opinion.

[00:08:44] Mm-hmm.

[00:08:45] I think they can. I don't like love that. I'm, you know, I there's nothing. Love is love. And

[00:08:54] you shouldn't judge other for other people. For me personally, probably 10 years more or less is

[00:09:00] probably where I would go.

[00:09:02] That's what I'm thinking. Because at this point, I mean, if I dated somebody more than 10 years older

[00:09:07] than me, they're already like almost a senior citizen.

[00:09:11] When you say it like that.

[00:09:13] Wow.

[00:09:13] I know.

[00:09:14] But I don't know that I would go 10 years younger.

[00:09:16] Yeah, I might be like five years younger, 10 years older or something like that.

[00:09:20] I feel like at my age, I would, whatever will take me. I'll take them.

[00:09:26] Stop. You're a catch.

[00:09:28] You'd be bending them off.

[00:09:30] Oh, whatever.

[00:09:30] Yes.

[00:09:30] But I digress as sometimes I do. Let's go back to Gary and Juan because, look, we don't

[00:09:36] actually know a whole lot about their relationship other than they met on Tinder in early 2022,

[00:09:41] as I said, and Gary had emailed his brother, which says to me that this was maybe more than

[00:09:46] a one-time meetup if he mentioned him to his brother. Like, I think of Tinder as a meetup.

[00:09:53] Like a hookup.

[00:09:53] Yeah.

[00:09:54] That's what I thought it was.

[00:09:55] I think that's outdated.

[00:09:57] Oh, okay.

[00:09:57] Yeah. I mean, judging from my single sister.

[00:10:00] Oh, right.

[00:10:00] Well, she's not single anymore.

[00:10:02] She's not single anymore, but her group of friends are single. You know, Tinder is a valid,

[00:10:08] normal way to meet people nowadays. I mean, I do think it's more less serious than, not that

[00:10:16] any of them are that serious, but I think there are people who meet on Tinder and get married.

[00:10:21] Yeah.

[00:10:22] All right. So by March of 2022, Gary's brother,

[00:10:25] Lauren was concerned about Gary because he hadn't heard from him in over three weeks. And so he

[00:10:29] reached out to the authorities in Hawaii asking for a welfare check on his brother. When the police

[00:10:35] arrived, they found Juan Barone at Gary's house in the Ridge, but Juan wasn't alone. He was entertaining

[00:10:40] his new love interest, Scott Hannon. Juan told the authorities that he had purchased the house

[00:10:45] from Gary five years prior, though unbeknownst to him, Gary didn't own the house then. And a sweep of

[00:10:51] the house found a standalone bathtub filled with concrete, which investigators obviously thought

[00:10:56] was suspicious.

[00:10:57] Obviously. That was a turn you weren't expecting.

[00:11:02] It really wasn't.

[00:11:04] Okay. Well, Alena, in order to further search the house and the vehicle Juan was driving,

[00:11:09] which of course was Gary's, the authorities decided to take Juan and Scott to a nearby hotel

[00:11:14] for the evening. And so they drove them to a hotel in Waikiki, probably not the Ritz. Mel,

[00:11:19] if I had to guess. So Scott was actually from LA and he had met Juan recently while visiting Hawaii

[00:11:25] on vacation with a couple of other friends and they really hit it off. So he extended his vacation

[00:11:30] a week to spend more time with Juan. A little, you know, vacation romance.

[00:11:35] I mean, that is a vacation hookup extraordinaire.

[00:11:37] So according to an article in Hawaii News Now, sources say that the courtesy transport was provided

[00:11:43] to 34-year-old Scott Hannon and 23-year-old Juan Perron because investigators didn't have enough

[00:11:49] probable cause to detain them and officers wanted to search their car. But plainclothes officers

[00:11:56] were not assigned to follow them. And it's what investigators found when they further searched the house

[00:12:01] that was really the most concerning. Because the bathtub full of concrete was covering up a dead body,

[00:12:07] that of Gary Roots.

[00:12:08] Dang it.

[00:12:09] I know.

[00:12:09] I was afraid of that.

[00:12:11] By the time the body was discovered, though, Juan and Scott were already on a plane to California.

[00:12:17] Is that, is, is this bad police work? Or is this, would this be like common that they would do

[00:12:23] something like that? Like, what do you do if you suspect something is awry in a house and you have

[00:12:28] these two guys, but you can't, you can't arrest them. They've not done anything that you can prove

[00:12:31] yet.

[00:12:31] I mean, but don't they typically say like, hey, don't leave the state?

[00:12:35] I mean, maybe they do.

[00:12:37] Well, maybe they said it. It doesn't necessarily, but remember he's not American. So I feel like

[00:12:43] they could have maybe taken his passport away from him as a way to, to, to keep them in. But yeah,

[00:12:50] I mean, at this point in time, they had him found the body. It just was highly suspicious.

[00:12:56] Right. Something weird. Yeah.

[00:12:57] Yeah. And look, a lot of other people had the same questions we're asking right here.

[00:13:01] But at this point, like we said, they just knew that there was a bathtub full of concrete. They

[00:13:06] hadn't found the body. So, um, they really couldn't prove that any crime had occurred yet.

[00:13:11] And so while they were not given any restrictions to our knowledge, they both hopped on this plane.

[00:13:18] And according to Scott, Juan told him that he was being targeted by a cartel. That's sort of what

[00:13:25] he used as a, like, why do we have to get out of here explanation? Because remember, like,

[00:13:28] they just met on vacation. Oh, dang. Yeah. They'd only been together like what a week or two.

[00:13:35] Yeah. I mean, so. And the police show up and they're like, Hey, let's go sit over here at this

[00:13:38] hotel while we're investigating. And so Juan spins the story of like, we've got to get out of here.

[00:13:43] The cartel's targeting me. He was, why would you go? That's insane. Well, maybe if you thought the

[00:13:50] Hawaiian cartel was, maybe the Colombian cartel. Well, yeah. No, Colombian cartel makes much more sense.

[00:13:55] But why, but if the cartel was after John, would you just follow him when y'all were dating?

[00:14:01] Well, Scott was from LA. I would have followed him to the ends of the earth.

[00:14:04] Oh, I'm sorry, Erin. I love you, but no. Two weeks in, if you thought the cartel was after you,

[00:14:09] no. So they were sort of flying back to where Scott was from. Yeah. Scott was from LA. Okay. And so I

[00:14:14] think it makes more sense that Scott could be just saying he was going home and saying,

[00:14:19] you can come with me versus him following. That's weird. All right. So authorities quickly

[00:14:25] tracked the two down where they were found hiding in a crawl space under an enclosed bench on a bus

[00:14:32] headed to Mexico. I have so many questions about that. Like, Hey, get a bus ticket. They get on,

[00:14:37] they get in a crawl space or they don't even get a bus ticket. They just, they had to get a bus ticket

[00:14:42] for authorities to track them down. Oh yeah. Yeah. Everything I read about it just kind of

[00:14:46] went quickly over this. And I'm like, I want pictures. I want that understanding of how this

[00:14:52] worked. So the two were quickly arrested and it became clear that Scott was essentially just in

[00:15:00] the wrong place with the wrong people at the wrong time and had nothing to do with Gary's death.

[00:15:05] Juan, on the other hand, was arrested for murder and forgery charges related to the fraudulent

[00:15:10] transfers of Gary's house and vehicle into Juan's name. And look, Juan actually confessed

[00:15:16] to murdering Gary, but he says he only did it after the two had sex and Gary told him that he was HIV

[00:15:22] positive. Yeah. And I mean, and really it does not matter one way or another, but Gary's family does

[00:15:29] debate that because they say that that's the type of thing that Gary would have been very upfront about

[00:15:34] that he was not at all kind of hiding this type of thing. And so they really suspect that that would

[00:15:40] even occurred at all. Yeah. Cause in 2020, it wasn't like, it's not like the eighties, I think

[00:15:45] was more of the taboo time. Yeah. Well, yeah. And again, to like both of your points, it doesn't

[00:15:52] really matter whether he was or wasn't, but that's actually something they could check. So I feel like

[00:15:56] if that were the case, that would have come out in later stories. So Juan says he strangled Gary with

[00:16:01] a belt. Though some stories he tells also say that Gary choked and then Juan strangled him. Like maybe

[00:16:07] he used it as an opportunity like, oh, you're already choking. I'm just not going to save you.

[00:16:12] And then afterwards he moved him to the tub, slit his wrist, and then upon finding concrete in Gary's

[00:16:18] garage, decided to cover his body in concrete along with coffee grounds in order to prevent a smell.

[00:16:24] So they were living in the house with a dead body.

[00:16:27] I know.

[00:16:27] That's bad.

[00:16:28] That is not something you would ever do.

[00:16:30] Oh, hell no.

[00:16:31] Not even if it had a great view of the ocean.

[00:16:33] Oh, no. Well, I mean, the thing about you, Heather, I don't know if our listeners tend to know that

[00:16:38] you don't really have a strong sense of smell.

[00:16:40] That's true, but I still wouldn't live in his house.

[00:16:45] All right. So according to Scott, Juan was always inviting people back to the house after a night

[00:16:49] on the town, but he kept the door to the room attached to that bathroom lock and no one was

[00:16:54] allowed to go inside. And then police found video evidence of Juan going to Lowe's to buy more

[00:16:59] concrete once he realized that concrete in the garage wasn't enough to fully cover Gary's body.

[00:17:04] An article I read said, Verone can be seen on video purchasing several bags of cement and an

[00:17:09] American Express receipt at Lowe's for the purchase of 440 pounds of quick create brand cement on

[00:17:15] February the 7th. So if you remember, his brother didn't call until like the beginning of March

[00:17:22] when he hadn't heard from him in three weeks.

[00:17:24] Right.

[00:17:25] So he had probably been dead that whole time.

[00:17:27] That's horrifying. And theoretically, they had just met in the beginning of 2022.

[00:17:33] 2022. So all of this went down in a very quick span of time.

[00:17:38] So at this point, that's really the first piece of evidence, right? The cement purchase.

[00:17:44] Yeah.

[00:17:44] But I really want to know is these people that he brought back to the club didn't think that was

[00:17:49] weird that the door was locked and closed.

[00:17:51] And I mean, you know, I'm not really sure what's appropriate when you go to somebody's house like

[00:17:56] after a night of clubbing that you don't know. That's not a situation I've been in.

[00:18:00] How do you not know that?

[00:18:01] I mean, do you go to Stranger's house after a night on the town?

[00:18:05] Yeah. And I open all the doors. That's the first thing I do.

[00:18:09] Look in the bathroom cabinets.

[00:18:11] Perfect.

[00:18:12] Well, one of the things that I saw was that, you know, there were actually a couple of articles

[00:18:17] that had come out in the news from people that apparently had met Juan during this short time

[00:18:23] period. All this is going down because he was meeting people on Tinder. And, you know, as

[00:18:28] you mentioned, he was bringing them back to his house. And so several of these folks like,

[00:18:33] you know, wrote articles or, you know, were interviewed going, it could have been us.

[00:18:36] It could have been us. And apparently what they said was that Juan kept telling them that he was

[00:18:41] just, you know, his parents were really wealthy and that he was a creative financial analyst.

[00:18:46] That was air quotes. I don't know what a creative financial analyst is, but that was how he would

[00:18:51] explain that he had the money and that he would pick up the bar tab when he was really using Ruby's

[00:18:56] money. Yeah. So as the case against Juan is being billed, investigators found out that Juan tried

[00:19:02] to trade in Gary's gold Audi A6 at both the Honolulu Audi and the BMW dealerships. He told

[00:19:09] both showrooms that the car was given to him by his uncle Gary, who lived in Texas, and that the uncle

[00:19:14] would sign all of the trade-in paperwork remotely. According to an article on KTIV Island News,

[00:19:20] Brown provided sales associates at both location with Ruby's vehicle insurance using Ruby's

[00:19:24] personal email to transmit a copy of Ruby's Hawaii's driver's license and ultimately presented

[00:19:29] the Audi general sales manager a fraudulently obtained certificate of title issued February

[00:19:35] the 7th, same day he bought the Quick Creek. This title was issued by the Department of Motor

[00:19:40] Vehicles, Kappa Llama Satellite City Hall, and named Barone as the registered owner.

[00:19:46] And ladies, that's not all. As I mentioned before, Juan originally told investigators that he

[00:19:51] had purchased the house from Gary five years earlier, long before Gary owned the property.

[00:19:55] He presented a sales deed purchased on HawaiiDeed.com showing that Juan bought the property from Gary

[00:20:01] for a grand total of $478.53, which he paid for using Gary's own credit card.

[00:20:09] This guy is stupid.

[00:20:11] I mean, that's not a thing we see here. Like, I don't think you can go to TexasDeed.com. I mean,

[00:20:16] maybe you can, but usually you have like a lawyer drawing that kind of stuff up and they file it

[00:20:22] of record and...

[00:20:23] I mean, wouldn't he think it would be surprising that someone would buy a house for $478?

[00:20:30] With your own credit card?

[00:20:31] I'm totally Googling TexasDeed.com to see if that's a thing. Let's see.

[00:20:37] It does not appear to be. I'm going to keep going. Nobody get any ideas about fraudulent purchases.

[00:20:45] Next time we come over here, Elena, this is my house now. I will have purchased it because

[00:20:53] she wants to give me a really good deal and just do not go into the back mastermind.

[00:21:01] Heather's a better agent than that. She would not give you a good deal for this.

[00:21:06] All right. So in March of this year, Juan Barone pled guilty to a second degree murder of Gary

[00:21:12] Ruby. And as part of the plea deal, prosecutors won't seek a sentence of life without the possibility

[00:21:17] for parole. Prosecutors will recommend a minimum term of 20 years to the Hawaii paroling authority,

[00:21:25] according to the plea agreement. That seems like much too little time. 20 years, he was 25. He's

[00:21:31] going to get out at, let's say, 48.

[00:21:33] Yeah, I was really frustrated when I was reading about that. But so I dug a little bit deeper on it.

[00:21:39] And apparently in, I think, September of last year, the lead prosecutor on the case was fired

[00:21:47] because he had been doing, I guess, public speeches talking about, I guess, crime prevention.

[00:21:53] But he was using actual photographs from crimes, including this one in these public forums. And so,

[00:22:00] which apparently is a big no-no when you're not being given the permission to use these. And so what

[00:22:07] happened was that Juan's defense attorneys were using this as, talking about prosecutorial misconduct,

[00:22:18] as a negotiating tactic, saying that jurors could be tainted. And so that's why they've been pushing

[00:22:26] it out. And the lawsuit was being drawn out for a couple of years. And so I think they were probably

[00:22:32] just like, let's just get what we can get out of this.

[00:22:35] Well, and making matters more complex, you know, Juan is in the U.S. on an expired visa,

[00:22:40] having entered in 2018. So if he's paroled, then you've got U.S. Immigration and Customs

[00:22:46] Enforcement. You know, will they take custody of him and start removal proceedings back to his

[00:22:50] home country of Columbia? I would assume so. They're not going to let him stay here on an

[00:22:53] expired visa. That's what they would do. Yeah. So do you all want to know what happened to the

[00:22:56] house? Yep. All right. So the house went back on the market in early 2023 for $2.5 million and was

[00:23:01] listed by the same agent who sold the house to Gary originally, Heidi Bertucci of Corcoran Pacific

[00:23:06] Properties. The home was being offered by Gary's family with the option to also purchase the

[00:23:11] furnishings and artwork. And Gary's niece, Maya Ruby Clemon, received a book with his belongings.

[00:23:17] And the book had entries written by previous owners of the home and passed down to new owners.

[00:23:22] Ruby Clemons read part of an entry the previous owners wrote to her uncle.

[00:23:26] Dear Gary, welcome to your new home. We are so pleased that we can pass on our home to someone

[00:23:30] that appreciates all the design. We had a beautiful time here and we wish you the same.

[00:23:35] Yeah. I just think that is so sweet. I mean, it's so sad how it all ended up. I do love the idea of

[00:23:42] giving something to the people who buy a home that you've had a good experience in. I know when we

[00:23:49] bought our home that the previous owners gave to us a kind of a framed poster when our home was on a

[00:23:58] home tour and it was a picture like a painting of our house. And we just thought that was so cool.

[00:24:02] That's really nice. And over time, we've collected a few things and research about like the original

[00:24:07] people who built the home. And I hope that when we eventually move on, that we could give it to the

[00:24:13] next people. Well, I think that's a good point. You know, buying or selling a home is both analytical

[00:24:19] and emotional. And sometimes by the end of a transaction, you're just so beat down and you

[00:24:24] really hate the other party for, you know, whatever reason, whether it was repair negotiations or

[00:24:29] issues with the appraisal or, you know, closing got delayed, you're just sort of grumpy about things.

[00:24:34] But when you can step back and think somebody else is, you know, taking ownership of this place that

[00:24:39] was really good to me and my family. I love it when people like leave a bottle of champagne and a

[00:24:44] handwritten note or just just something to say like, welcome and thank you.

[00:24:48] I had to sell or leave my buyer clients lasagna.

[00:24:51] Oh my gosh, that's so sweet.

[00:24:53] I know, the lasagna in the refrigerator, freezer, whatever.

[00:24:56] That's cute.

[00:24:56] Yeah, it was really sweet.

[00:24:57] I actually really, I really like that. Especially if it's somewhere that you raised a family in.

[00:25:03] And, you know, in some ways I'm not the most sentimental person, but I'm sentimental about

[00:25:08] things like that. And I think that's just kind of a nice and it's very sweet in this story that

[00:25:14] somebody had written this and he had, you know, kept it. And yeah, just kind of sad.

[00:25:19] I had a fun experience this week. I have a client who, they built a new house, but kept their old

[00:25:25] house and they leased it out and they've had the same tenants for 12 years. And so the tenants have

[00:25:31] just now moved out of the property. And so they're doing a walkthrough just, you know, like it needs

[00:25:34] new paint. Like, you know, it's 12 years. It's time to, you know, freshen things up for the new person.

[00:25:39] And so we were walking through and the nursery was still painted like exactly the same way the

[00:25:45] nursery was painted when her daughter lived there, who's now in high school.

[00:25:49] You know, so she was like, you have to come and see your nursery. And I got all the feels about

[00:25:53] that. I thought, you know, just, I don't know, it's so sweet.

[00:25:57] It's really sweet.

[00:25:58] All right. But back to Gary's house and the lovely note that was passed on to him.

[00:26:05] You know, his realtor Heidi went on and put the house on the market and she employed a traditional

[00:26:11] Hawaiian custom of having the house blessed by Hawaiian priest who used tea leaves to bless the

[00:26:16] property. And this seems to have worked. The home was on the market less than a month and received

[00:26:21] multiple offers selling $80,000 over its list price.

[00:26:25] That's wild.

[00:26:26] I mean, that's really the opposite of so many of these stories that we talk about.

[00:26:31] Exact opposite.

[00:26:32] Location, location, location.

[00:26:34] So in another article on KTV Island News, Bertucci said that she received multiple offers from local

[00:26:39] and mainland buyers that were all aware of what happened in the home.

[00:26:43] The buyer lived in Hawaii already and will be an owner occupant, she said.

[00:26:47] They love the home just like Gary and the previous owners did because of its architecture view and

[00:26:52] location. They are the perfect new owners.

[00:26:55] And then she goes on to say, I thought this was really interesting.

[00:26:58] I didn't know what to expect when listing the home and how buyers would react.

[00:27:01] But shortly after going on the market, I realized there's a lot of interest and still lots of

[00:27:05] buyers in this price range, even more than when I sold the home two years ago.

[00:27:09] There were obviously some buyers that weren't interested when they knew what happened in

[00:27:12] the home, but lots of buyers weren't bothered by it.

[00:27:15] She says presenting the home the right way and making it look stunning with staging and

[00:27:18] amazing pictures made people see its real beauty and took away from what happened.

[00:27:21] Yes, go Heidi.

[00:27:22] I love that.

[00:27:23] And ultimately, it helped me sell this stunning home to a great new owner that will get to enjoy

[00:27:27] it, Pertucci said.

[00:27:28] Smart lady.

[00:27:29] Yeah.

[00:27:30] You know, I kind of like this realtor.

[00:27:32] I do too.

[00:27:33] And look, I think she has a point.

[00:27:35] This is, we said the homes in that neighborhood range from $2 million to $27 million.

[00:27:39] So this is a smaller home in a very affluent neighborhood that has a great view.

[00:27:46] I mean, it doesn't seem expensive to me that that sold, I mean, $2.5 million is a lot of

[00:27:52] money.

[00:27:52] Don't get me wrong.

[00:27:53] But for what this is, it sort of sounds like a deal.

[00:27:56] I mean, and it was a remodeled home.

[00:27:59] No, I mean, but like it's supposed to have a spacious kitchen, vaulted ceilings.

[00:28:03] It had a two-car garage.

[00:28:05] Honestly, it seemed like, I mean, a good price for what, you know, I mean, very, very expensive,

[00:28:11] but a good price for what you're getting with that view.

[00:28:14] And at that time, the market was exploding everywhere.

[00:28:17] Yeah.

[00:28:18] So that probably helped a little bit too.

[00:28:19] Yeah.

[00:28:20] All right.

[00:28:20] Well, it's time for the question of each episode.

[00:28:22] Would you live there or would you list it?

[00:28:24] Alana, what do you think?

[00:28:26] I think I would.

[00:28:28] Oh, that's a tough one.

[00:28:30] I want to say I would live there.

[00:28:32] I want to say I would.

[00:28:33] Because it seems like it came from a lot of love.

[00:28:36] I'd appreciate that.

[00:28:37] And she did the ceremonial thing.

[00:28:39] Mm-hmm.

[00:28:40] So.

[00:28:41] I'd remodel the master bathroom.

[00:28:43] Oh, certainly.

[00:28:44] Excuse me.

[00:28:44] The primary bathroom.

[00:28:45] Certainly.

[00:28:46] Yeah.

[00:28:47] Yeah.

[00:28:49] I'm betting she did that too.

[00:28:51] But if not, yes, absolutely.

[00:28:52] But yeah, no, I guess maybe because he seemed like such a nice person with a strong family.

[00:28:59] The realtor said such loving things about it.

[00:29:02] I mean, and let's be honest now.

[00:29:04] It's why?

[00:29:05] Yeah.

[00:29:06] I think so.

[00:29:07] All right.

[00:29:07] We're all on the same page.

[00:29:08] We live there.

[00:29:09] I'd list it.

[00:29:10] I'd do exactly what Heidi did.

[00:29:12] So you would not have an eerie feeling about selling it to him and then that person was killed in there and then selling it again?

[00:29:19] Because I kind of, I'm thinking that's why I don't know if I'd list it because if I were in her situation and I sold it to him as well.

[00:29:25] So like I knew him personally and someone killed him.

[00:29:28] I think but who better to tell the story of how much he loved the home than her?

[00:29:31] Yeah.

[00:29:32] You know, and so much of selling a home is telling the story of it.

[00:29:35] Mm-hmm.

[00:29:36] So yeah.

[00:29:37] She obviously did a good job.

[00:29:39] Yeah.

[00:29:39] It sold in a month.

[00:29:40] Totally.

[00:29:41] All right.

[00:29:42] Well, that's it for today's Crime Estate.

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