Don Ho house sells in $6.05M deal

The sale of the Lanikai site goes through after a dispute is resolved

Don Ho's Lanikai home, which was at the center of a family dispute after the late entertainer's death, has been sold to a California buyer.

Real estate agents involved in the transaction said the home sold for $6.05 million, and closed on Friday morning after a legal dispute was cleared.

Robin Rohr of Rohr Pacific Properties and Carl Smigielski of Sandwich Isles Realty were co-listers of the Lanikai home on behalf of the Don Ho Revocable Living Trust.

Bob Vieira of Bob Vieira Realty LLC in Kailua was the buyer's agent.

At the end of February, media reports surfaced saying that Ho's daughter Dondi Ho-Costa had filed a petition to stop the trust from selling the home.

She said her father had made a verbal agreement with her mother, Melva Ho, that the home would be left to her and her five siblings.

But the trustees of the state decided to put the home on the market. The eight-bedroom, five-bath Lanikai home originally was listed for $6.8 million last October.

The California buyer's offer initially was made in December, and the home sat in escrow for four months before closing.

Attorneys for both the trust and Ho-Costa issued a jointly written statement saying they are now working together to resolve those issues, and requested privacy in the matter to respect Don Ho.

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STAR-BULLETIN Don Ho's Lanikai home at Mokulua Drive, the center of a family dispute, has been sold to a California buyer for $6.1 million.

Don Ho's Lanikai home, the center of a family dispute after the late entertainer's death, has been sold to a California buyer.

The sale of the eight-bedroom, five-bath home at 1018 Mokulua Drive closed Friday morning for $6.05 million, according to real estate brokers, after being in escrow for four months.

The property was first listed in October for $6.8 million.

Robin Rohr of Rohr Pacific Properties and Carl Smigielski of Sandwich Isles Realty were co-listers of the Lanikai home on behalf of the Don Ho Revocable Living Trust.

"It's a magnificent piece of property, front row, center of the Mokulua Islands," Rohr said. "It's breathtaking. It just has so much history. There were many memorable gatherings there. ... It was filled with music, food, family and fun."

Bob Vieira of Bob Vieira Realty LLC in Kailua was the buyer's agent.

"I'm very happy for my client," said Vieira, who declined to disclose his client's name.

The Lanikai home first went into escrow in December, when Vieira's client first made his offer, but had been delayed, in part, because of efforts to block the sale by Dondi Ho-Costa, Ho's daughter from his first marriage.

Ho-Costa, the fourth eldest of Ho's 10 children, attempted to block the sale of the home by the trust because she said her father had verbally promised the home to her and her five siblings.

Ho-Costa is the daughter of Melvamay Ho, Don Ho's first wife, and one of six children from that first marriage.

In a petition filed in state Circuit Court, Ho-Costa said her father had made a verbal agreement with her mother the day before her mother died in 1999, to put the property in a trust for the benefit of her and her children.

Melva Ho had been ill and had inquired about divorcing her husband to secure an inheritance for her children. By then the two had lived apart for several years.

But Don Ho opposed a divorce and was planning to refinance the home. Melva Ho agreed to sign a deed transferring sole ownership of the home to her husband, with the understanding he eventually would transfer the title to a trust for her and her children.

Don Ho did eventually transfer title of the Lanikai home to a trust, but the beneficiaries listed were not exclusive to Melva Ho's children.

The most recent deed was recorded in April 2005, according to state Bureau of Conveyances records.

Ho had wanted to sell the Lanikai property several months before he died on April 14, according to papers filed by the trust, and was seeking $10 million, but had not had it officially listed with a real estate agent.

Ho died last April of heart failure. He was 76.

The home was first purchased by Don and Melva Ho in 1971 and was a longtime gathering place for the family.

The home, built in 1955, was featured in Homes & Land magazine as Don Ho's Lanikai beach house, with more than 17,000 square feet of land and 75 feet of beach frontage. The property was to be sold as is, in its current condition.

Crystal Rose of Bays Deaver Hiatt Lung & Rose represented the Don Ho Trust. Attorney Douglas C. Smith of Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert represented Dondi Ho-Costa.

Both declined to comment on the case, opting instead to issue a joint written statement saying they were working together to resolve the issues, and requested privacy in the matters to respect the name and reputation of Don Ho.

"We are hopeful that any potential issues will soon be resolved among the family," the statement said.

Property tax records assessed the value of the property at about $4.5 million, and the two-story home at $588,700.