Karen Mayer

What do Clients Say?

Karen is incredibly professional and provided very sound guidance throughout the process. She has tremendous experience and knows the Hawaii market exceptionally well. I look forward to working with her again in the future.

Bought a Single Family Home in Kailua

Karen is cool, calm and professional through all aspects of the transaction. In our most recent deal, I was out of the country, and she and her team stayed on every detail, making sure nothing fell through the cracks. When things got sticky -- as they can in real estate -- she calmly and thoroughly ran it to ground and got it back on track, often before I even knew of the hiccup since I was still asleep in another country! I know many, many realtors on Oahu, and I count Karen among the best.

Bought a Condo in Kakaako

Working with Karen was a wonderful experience! She knows the market and is extremely thorough. She provided the expertise and guidance we needed in purchasing our dream vacation home. She truly goes above and beyond for her clients!

Bought a Vacation Home in Kailua

Karen was an outstanding realtor and an invaluable resource for us in the listing, showing and selling of our home in Hawaii (windward Oahu). Her professionalism was without reproach and absolutely first class at every step. She deeply researched the property and the listing, personally managed even the smallest details including the staging, photography, production of brochures, distribution to local and national magazines (including the New York times), and devoted hours of her time to making sure that our house was seen by the right people at the right moments. She kept in touch, provided valuable feedback and honest critiques (it was so helpful to have Karen, as an objective and experienced third party, dispel our misconceptions and occasional unrealistic expectations as first time home sellers). She was tireless in conducting numerous personal "on demand" showings for potential buyers and in following up with their realtors. Everything that one could hope for in a realtor Karen displayed. But she went beyond the call of duty. During several weeks when we were away and the house was uninhabited Karen made sure that the plants were watered (inside and out), the mail was collected and the koi in the pond were fed. Although I knew that she was quite busy with other accounts, I always felt as if she had taken a personal interest in our house and was devoting her entire time and energies to making the sale happen. And when the right buyers showed up, Karen was there every step of the way during the negotiation phase, through the inspection and closing. We got a great price for our house, and I credit her with that success. Karen, thank you!

Sold a Home in Kailua

We loved working with Karen. She is a first-class realtor and without her we would not have been able to purchase the home of our dreams. She was professional, courteous, kind, attentive in addition to being brilliant and incredibly well experienced. We will use Elite and Karen for all of our Hawaiian real estate needs.

Bought a Beachside Home in Kailua

About Karen

Karen Mayer brings to her clients a lifetime of entrepreneurial experience, marketing expertise and fierce competitive dedication to getting the job done and doing it right. A child of New England and a graduate of North Carolina’s Duke University, she’s a blend of the cold winters’ discipline and the southern spirit of cooperation, loyalty and perseverance.  Athletic and competitive, she was one of the first girls to play volleyball on the school teams in middle and high school, then through her college years. When a knee injury benched her volleyball, she simply turned to tennis, where she’s among a competitive group of players on Oahu’s windward side.

Karen’s ability to close the deal is honed through three decades working with her husband, Paul, as they’ve founded, grown, and nurtured businesses together, always focusing on setting a higher bar and being the best in the market. Hawaii’s palm trees and sandy beaches set the back-drop for their current venture, Elite Pacific Properties, building a company considered one of the most highly regarded brokerages in the state.

With over three decades of in-the-trenches marketing expertise, Karen has the finely honed instincts necessary to leverage market knowledge and an almost clairvoyant understanding of the forces motivating buyers and sellers. Among her peers and clients, she is renown for her keen valuation instincts, utmost discretion, and her attention to detail in every aspect of the transaction. 

Besides her Brokers license, Karen also holds certifications as an Accredited Buyers Specialist (ABR), a Military Relocation Professional (MRP), a Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES), a Home Staging Expert (HSE), and a certificate in real estate technology (ePro).

Karen’s clients have said that she is “cool-headed, professional, strategic and patient”. “We believed she had our best interests first.” “She was knowledgeable about the market…kept us fully informed, was organized, and had great ideas on how to present our home”. “She went above and beyond what I have experienced with other realtors!” “Karen went above and beyond in handling all aspects of our home purchase as a military family buying from the mainland!” “I know many, many realtors on Oahu, and I count Karen among the best.” “She really cares about her clients and wants to see them happy”. “Karen’s the best!”

Karen and Paul’s Lanikai home is the fourth project they’ve designed and built together, a testament to their love of real estate and what makes a property a home. While much of Karen’s time is devoted to her clients and her family, she can also be found on the tennis courts, enjoying the sunshine and ocean at the beach or walking the Lanikai loop.