Martha Rush at a glance

Martha Rush works with clients from the first call through closing

On the team, Martha Rush carries the client relationship: the first conversation, the questions along the way and the paperwork through closing. Her line is (808) 283-3952, and her email is martha@martharush.com.

“Martha’s Message” is the team’s newsletter series on its blog: ten posts from January 18 to October 20, 2026, the monthly Maui Newsletter from January to July and the August, September and October market reports for Wailea and Makena. Each opens with a short personal note.

Working in Spanish and Italian inside an English-language Hawaii transaction

Martha Rush explains each step and each document of a Hawaii sale or purchase in Spanish or Italian, while the documents themselves stay in English and are reviewed by the client’s own advisors.

In a Hawaii transaction, the purchase contract, the seller’s disclosure statement, a condominium association’s documents, the escrow instructions and the closing papers are customarily prepared in English, and the deadlines run from them. Under Hawaii Revised Statutes section 508D-5, the seller delivers the disclosure statement within 10 calendar days of an accepted contract, and the buyer then has 15 calendar days to examine it and decide whether to rescind, unless both agree in writing to a different period. Those dates apply in any language.

International and off-island sellers face withholding and a signing abroad

A seller who does not live in Hawaii usually has state tax withheld at closing, a foreign seller has federal tax withheld as well, and a seller signing outside the United States needs an acknowledgment Hawaii will record. Martha explains each in the seller’s language and works with escrow and the seller’s tax advisor on timing.

Under Hawaii’s HARPTA rule, HRS section 235-68, when the seller is a nonresident of Hawaii the buyer generally withholds 7.25 percent of the amount realized and reports and pays it to the Hawaii Department of Taxation within 20 days after the transfer date, unless an exemption applies. Under FIRPTA, the IRS requires the buyer to withhold 15 percent of the amount realized when the seller is a foreign person, subject to its exceptions. Both can apply to the same sale. The team’s guide to HARPTA and FIRPTA when you sell Maui property sets out the forms, exemptions and refunds.

For a seller abroad, HRS section 502-47 lets a deed signed outside the United States be acknowledged before a United States consular officer, or before a person authorized by the foreign country’s law when a certificate of that person’s authority accompanies it, as the statute sets out. Confirm with escrow which form it will accept before scheduling the signing. The rest of an off-island sale, from pricing to remote closing, is in the team’s guide to selling a luxury home or condo in Wailea and Makena.

Second-home owners start with the tax class and the zoning

Maui County taxes a home by how it is used and allows vacation rentals only where zoning or a County permit allows them, so a second-home owner’s first two questions are the property tax class and the zoning.

The County defines owner-occupied property as “real property owned and occupied as a principal home and for which a home exemption was filed and granted”. A second home that is not rented long term or as a vacation rental generally falls in the non-owner-occupied class. The rates for July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 are in the team’s guide to Maui property tax for second homes.

For condominium owners, the key date is set by Ordinance 5909 (Bill 9 of 2025), signed December 15, 2025. It ends transient vacation rental use in Maui’s apartment districts on January 1, 2031 in South Maui and the rest of the County, and on January 1, 2029 in the West Maui community plan area. Vacation rentals permitted in the hotel districts are not phased out. How to tell which side a condominium sits on is in the team’s guide to hotel-zoned and apartment-zoned condos on Maui. These rules are stated as of October 21, 2026, and this page is updated when the County acts.

Martha Rush’s memberships

Martha Rush’s Compass profile lists three memberships: the Compass Sports & Entertainment Division, REALM Global and the Compass Luxury Division. REALM Global is a real estate membership network that Martha Rush and Dennis Rush both list on their Compass profiles.

Compass Sports & Entertainment Division

The Compass Sports & Entertainment Division describes itself as a national network of Compass agents who work with professional athletes, entertainers and their advisors, with an emphasis on discretion. Its site lists Maui among its markets and carries a member profile of Martha Rush.

Compass Luxury Division

The Compass Luxury Division is Compass’s marketing program for luxury listings. It runs its own editorial site, Compass Luxury, and publications including Curated magazine and an Ultra-Luxury Report.

Martha Rush is from Trujillo, Peru, and has made Maui home

Martha Rush was born and raised in Trujillo, Peru. In her words, that journey “eventually brought me to Maui, the place I now proudly call home.” She and Dennis Rush are married.

Martha Rush and Dennis Rush work as one team

The team’s published sales history lists 73 closed sales in the Maui MLS from January 2021 to October 2026, $259.7 million in all. Thirty-one of them, $157.4 million, are in Wailea-Makena, including 10 of the 14 sales at $5 million or more. Dennis represented the seller on 48 of the 73.

Dennis Rush is the agent of record on these sales, and his profile lists the largest of them.

How to reach Martha Rush

Call Martha Rush at (808) 283-3952 or email martha@martharush.com. Her office is Compass, 116 Wailea Ike Drive, Suite 2108, Wailea, HI 96753, and the office line is (808) 875-8888. Calls and messages in Spanish or Italian are welcome.

Frequently asked questions