Google image Obamas may be buying 'Magnum, P.I.' home in Hawaii The three-acre beachfront estate was purchased this week in a mysterious transaction involving a prominent Obama friend and one of his major donors.

When he’s done being president, could Barack Obama grow a mustache, don a Hawaiian shirt, and start driving a red Ferrari?

Obama loves Hawaii – the land of his childhood, the place where he can retreat to spectacular beaches and shaved ice — and his presidential vacations there have become a ritual. But now, Hawaii residents are wondering if they could see him actually taking up residence there again, and in one of the island’s most famous properties, no less: the “Magnum, P.I.” house.


The luxurious beachfront Hawaiian home made famous by the ’80s television series — the backdrop for Tom Selleck’s adventures as a skirt-chasing, freeloading private investigator — was sold this week in a mysterious transaction that involves a prominent Obama friend and one of his major donors.

And there’s a lot of talk among residents of Waimanalo, the beachfront area near Honolulu where the property is located, that they‘re expecting to see Obama and his family hanging out there once he’s done with the White House.

The White House is trying to play the story down, insisting the Obamas weren’t behind the sale. When asked at a Friday press briefing, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said simply, “they are not.”

That’s a day after the people who bought the house said that Obama wasn’t a party to the transaction — but sidestepped questions about their plans for the house.

According to a report from Fox affiliate KHON, a group called Waimanalo Paradise LLC purchased the property, located along the southeast coast of Oahu, on Monday for $8.7 million. Waimanalo Paradise’s contact is reportedly Seth Madorsky, a lawyer in Chicago and Obama donor. The property was then sold to another limited liability corporation based in Colorado, according to a report from ABC affiliate KITV.

The deed and the mortgage are both signed by Judy Grimanis, KHON reported. Grimanis is an executive assistant at The Vistria Group, a private-equity firm in Chicago run by Marty Nesbitt, a frequent Obama golf and travel partner in Hawaii. Nesbitt is one of Obama’s top 10 golf partners, having played with him 18 times during his presidency, according to records compiled by POLITICO.

A receptionist at the firm said Grimanis is Nesbitt’s assistant. Her name is also the same as that of a person who worked for Obama fundraiser and current Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker’s companies.

None of the documents mention Obama, and the search for clues to confirm the home’s real purpose has turned into a sleuthing exercise worthy of … well, a private investigator.

The White House declined to comment and referred all questions about the sale to Nesbitt. A senior administration official told POLITICO only that “the president is not a party to this transaction.”

A receptionist at the Vistria Group said Nesbitt was out of the office Thursday, and referred questions to Grimanis, who passed them along to Madorsky, the donor.

In a statement late Thursday, Madorsky suggested that Nesbitt was the buyer of the home — but didn’t address what might happen to it in the future.

“Marty Nesbitt has authorized me to advise you that I represented him in connection with the purchase. Marty did not have any partners or co-investors in the transaction,” Madorsky said.

The home — dubbed “Robin’s Nest” on the ‘80s hit TV show — is the fictional abode of novelist Robin Masters, who allows private investigator Thomas Magnum, played by Tom Selleck, to live on the property and drive his Ferrari.

In real life, the three-acre oceanfront property, named “Pahonu,” was built in 1933 and features five bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, a gatehouse, a boat house, a four-car garage, a men’s and women’s bath house, tennis courts, 500 feet of beach frontage and a turtle pond, according to Zillow.

There’s a chance that Obama — or whoever actually moves in — could be disappointed. According to the website “Magnum Mania!,” the estate itself is “much smaller than it appears in the show” and has fallen into disrepair. Most of the indoor scenes that were supposed to take place at the estate were actually filmed in a studio; the real estate listing features pictures of the beach and the grounds but not the house.

Still, for the scenery, Obama could do a lot worse than “Robin’s Nest.” It’s right next to Kalanianaole Highway, and it sits between Waimanalo Beach and Sea Life Park with a view of picturesque Rabbit Island. And unlike Magnum — who just lived in the guest house — Obama would presumably be able to use the whole estate.

There’s always a certain amount of mystery around the purchase of a post-presidential home, and the purchase is often handled by the president’s personal friends. When George W. Bush and Laura Bush bought their Dallas home at the end of his presidency, the purchase was made by a longtime friend from Midland, Texas, who was the president’s personal accountant. The friend, Robert McCleskey, took out the mortgage from a Midland bank.

In that case, though, the purchase didn’t happen until the final months of the Bush presidency — and while the Bush White House wouldn’t say where his new home was, they did confirm that he had bought one.

Obama might be able to relax at the beach home when his presidency is over, and put headaches like the Republican Congress and awkward phone calls with Benjamin Netanyahu out of his mind. But his move might bring headaches to his new neighbors; some locals aren’t happy with the possibility of living next to a former president.

“He’s going to be protected by the Secret Service all the time; there will be all kinds of traffic woes,” resident Uncle Nawai told KITV.

Sarah Wheaton and Tarini Parti contributed to this report.