Well it seems we are going to start house hunting sooner rather than later.
Up until now no firm decision had been made for 2 reasons- 1. We didn`t have quite enough saved up for a down payment and 2. We were not 100% sure we would still be in Japan in 5-10 years time. Shun had I did a lot of talking a couple weeks back about his career, what he wanted to do, whether he wanted to stay in Japan or think about going to Australia and also about what I wanted which was a place of our own. Either in Japan or Australia. When I married Shun I already knew that there was a 95% chance we would be in Japan forever and I was okay with this. I have good friends here, a nice life and I like my life here most of the time. I am far away from my family and this is hard but I can visit and they can also visit us here.
We have decided that living here is probably better for us financially if I don`t want to return to full-time work while Noah, or our next child, is young. I can do part-time work and earn decent money. Shun would also be unable to get work in his desired field in Australia with his current English language skills.
As for the down payment- we had about 1-2% saved but recently found out there is a chunk of money in Shun`s name for when he decided to buy property (him and his brother, and his three cousins all had these “trust funds” i guess you could call them which were set up by Shun`s grandma when they were born or very young) and we now have 5-10% of the down payment saved (it depends on the price of the house we decide on and the loan) and while we are in no hurry to find a place we have decided to start doing some research and looking around.
This Saturday we are going to look at some model homes in this area. We have also spoken with Shun`s parents and they really want us to live closer to them (at the moment it is only about 12km but it is a 30 min or more drive), like within a bike ride distance and I am happy with this. I have always maintained with Shun that living close to his parents would not be a problem for me. But that living with them or next door might be. I would be happy to be close though. They see Noah currently about once a fortnight but I would be happy if it was more often than this especially since Noah is so far from his other grandparents. So this weekend we are looking at some model houses in Funabashi but my MIL plans to keep any info she gets about property in Moto Yawata or Ichikawa and give us when she sees us next time (things show up in letterboxes, newspapers etc).
We are not 100% set on a new house although I think it would be my choice since houses here only have a 25 year shelf life anyway ( I read that somewhere? Shun`s parents house was built before he was born so it is at least 30 years old though and is still standing although there has been recent talk of reforms now that it is just Shun`s parents that live there so I am not sure if this figure means that after that time you are just paying for the land and not the house)
We have got some other wants and of course the list just keeps growing although until we start looking around some more none of these are definites.
We would prefer to be on the JR sobu line within a 30 minute walk of one of the stations between Ichikawa-Tsudanuma. We are looking for 38 tsubo or more (I think 1 tsubo is about 3m2? Sounds tiny right? But yeah, that is the norm in this area or even a bit bigger than the norm for a new place. My PILs land though is 79 Tsubo) of land, there must be a small garden or enough space outside for kids to play, within a 15 minute walk to the local elementary school (This is Shun`s requirement- he lived a 1 minute walk from his elementary school and his brother, father and grandfather went to the same one), the house needs to be 100m2 or bigger (4LDK or more) (This is my requirement) and there must be room for one car at least. Pretty loose guidelines at the moment- we have a maximum price in mind too although will have to wait and see what sort of loan we would be eligible from the bank.
Again, like I said, we are in no hurry (although paying rent each month is looking less and less appealing especially when our mortgage would be the same or less a month than what we pay in rent. The timeline is to have bought and be living in a place within 2 years and I doubt anything of interest will happen until I get back from Australia in January but for now we are having fun looking online and around and crunching some numbers.
So any advice?
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I am just a twenty something Aussie girl living in Chiba, Japan with my Japanese husband trying to make sense of the crazy Japanese world we live in! We welcomed our first son in December 2009 (Noah) and a second son in January 2011, 2 months premature (Shion). I am working hard at raising them to be confident, bilingual, happy kids!
Wow! How exciting! Great that you have the down-payment, and I’m so with you on the staying here to be more financially secure. Not sure that it will be helpful, but here is my experience anyway. We had a 400 tsubo plot of land, but after several attempts (and expensive solicitor fees), we were denied. In a way, I was relieved. To be honest, the location was not the best, too far and too many busy roads away from the local primary school. As our children will spend around 5 years at primary school, I thought close proximity was a must. Also, we were intent on living in a relatively new area. Old areas (lots of old houses, people, etc.) have lots of community rules, which although are not governed by law, are pretty much obligatory. Unfortunately, our area, although having quite a few new properties, is pretty old. We have to pay a monthly amount to the area fund until it reaches 7 man…then we are done (currently we agreed on only 1000). But we also have to pay around 5000 annually. While this money doesn’t exactly break the bank, it pisses me off to have to pay it. There is a hierarchical system with presidents, vice-presidents and the like (collecting monies, organising street cleaning, events), which no doubt we will have to be more active in in the future.
ANYWAY…we primarily wanted to buy land and build on it, but of course this is usually a pricier option. To keep our options open, we looked at repossessed properties, other “second-hand” housing, and already built new properties . With the new builds the common factor seemed to be that they were way too tiny…34 tsubo land plots with 30 tsubo houses. I wanted enough space for a garden, and although we didn’t get the big secluded back garden that I wanted, we DO have a garden! I’m not sure how big our land is..maybe about 55-60 tsubo? And the house is 35 tsubo, which is a comfortable size. We have three bedrooms upstairs, a 3 or 4 mat storage room and a tatami room leading off from the living room, so it’s technically a 4LDK. We have three parking spaces, which I think is excessive, but hey, it’s Gunma, and the average is 2 cars per household. Plus it means that when students come, there is an extra parking space for them too.
Our house was built two years ago, and the price greatly reduced because they were having trouble finding buyers. My MIL is an expert haggler, so managed to get even more of a discount for us (by saying stuff like, “oh no, 8 is my unlucky number, please bring it down to 7″ O_O ).
The good thing about these new built streets is that they tend to be cul-de-sacs, so relatively safe for the children to play outside. Plus all of my neighbours have young children around the same age as Hannah and Luka, so great for making friends. So I think there are (as anything) advantages and disadvantages to building your own or buying already built.
I DO know, that the quality in housing materials varies greatly between companies, so it’s best to shop around and gather information. Good insulation is a big factor. Most houses do have that 25 year shelf life, although Hebel Haus are apparently built to last, so of course their prices reflect it.
Good luck and I look forward to hearing more about your experience!
Congrats on the step! It’s a big one, that we are also considering at the moment!
Rent money seems so pointless when you start investigating buying eh!
It’s good that you can take it slow and find the house that will fit you all perfectly, no rush or pressure.
I think I’ve gotten used to the tiny houses, I like the fact that there isn’t that much space to lose things or clean! I think I’d go crazy if I lived in my house in Australia now, way too many rooms, pool to clean and massive garden to keep tidy!
Not much advice I’m afraid as we’re rookies too but good luck, looking forward to seeing how you go!
Good luck, finding your own place is so exciting (and stressful!!) There are lots of optons out there and you’ll find lots of things on offer while your looking. We started with a list too, tried to fulfil it but settled with what was best at the time. I am happy in our house, it is a second hand house, was 9 years old when we bought it (empty for 3 of those), built by a good company, (designed and paid for by a doctor), passed earthquake testing, 200 tsubo of land and 50 tsubo house and room for obachan to come when she’s ready. I would have liked to be closer to the primary school and would have loved a NEW house but $$$ vs wish list meant there needs to be compromise somewhere.
Sounds like there are lots of people out in blogging land (in japan) going through this now so you’ll be able to get lots of advise and suggestions
The 25 year shelf life thing applies to newer kit-house style houses. Ours was 32 years old when we bought it! However, getting a loan on a second hand house can be problematic. Different things will influence what loan you can get and for how much- age of house, location of loan, how long Shun has been working at his current company, how much interest you want to pay, the terms of the loan you want (bonus payment or not, 10 year, 20 year, 35 year etc etc) that said even the impossible can be possible- we got a pay-the-interest-first loan (loan payments decrease each month until they are 10,000 yen a month at the end) on a very old house only 3 months after K started at his company. It took trying three banks but we did it!
House-hunting is an adventure. You’ll learn lots, pull your hair out, shake your head in wonder and disbelief, consider just buying a caravan and calling the whole thing off but in the end it’s so worth it!
Laura A- Thanks for your input. When you say you had a 400 Tsubo plot of land do you mean you bought it and THEN tried to build on it or was it yours, as in, in the family? That is a big block!
There seems to be all sorts of crazy rules here.
Your current place always looks lovely in all the pictures- if we lived further out in Chiba we would be able to afford more land (or at least find it!) but Shun is never going to drive into Tokyo for work and will always commute by train so we need to be somewhat close to the city still. I don`t mind this- but it does mean giving up on the idea of a big garden like what I had growing up. The good thing about this area and around this area though is there are lot of parks and I am hoping when we move there will still be a nice park within walking distance!!
I think my MIL would be a good haggler too. That is great about the “8 is an unlucky number please bring it 7″ going to have to remember that one!
Size of the house itself here is obviously dependent on land size so i doubt we could ever get a house as big as yours but our current apartment is 76m2 and I am hoping we can find a house with 100m2 or more…..Would mean an extra room (we live in a 3LDK currently) and probably a bigger main room plus built in storage.
I am not against a house that is a couple years old- I wish we could buy land and build a house to our specifications but the price would go up a lot meaning we would have to give up on most of the things on our wish list like size, sobu line and possibly the garden.
I look forward to getting more advice on this topic in the future.
Corrine- We are definitely starting to feel that with rent. We will never “OWN” this apartment but we could of spent the last year paying off a house or something but of course we didn`t quite have the downpayment then.
I wish I was getting used to the tiny houses. I do agree though they are much easier to clean. I do like a bit of space though as I HATE clutter…..and have lived in some tiny apartments when I was in Tokyo. That said, the size we are hoping for is still so much smaller than what I would want if we lived in Australia.
Achan- Yes, we are trying to be realistic about our wish list but we are just starting in our search so we may revise it as we go along. I personally think to get the size we want within our price range we will have to move off this train line- but am not sure Shun would ever go for it as he has been on this train line his entire life (and so have I, my entire Japan life!)…..I could leave it and be on a private line or subway line but he is not so sure. It makes his commute to work- even if he is on assignment somewhere else, pretty easy. He will always be sent back to his honsha eventually too which is 25 mins by train from our stop currently (and less if we move towards the in-laws)
I am not against an older house. Especially one that was well made and designed. We will probably be looking at a mix of both..
I love the sound of the size of your land and house. Very jealous! Just impossible for us on this side of Chiba!
Heather- Yeah I have heard pre-war homes are amazing (I realize yours is not quite pre-war but still!). But that houses built in the last 20-30 years not so much. Something to do with insulation and also earthquake standards. I have heard also, as you said, that getting a loan on older houses is a pain in the bum and that a lot of rules stand in the way- even silly things like the gate is too narrow etc etc.
You guys are lucky that your loan came through in the end- it shows that persistence was the key!
Oooooh, exciting times – and stressful times, but mostly exciting and all worth it. Having your own home is just so much easier. Living close to the inlays is good – within a couple of km and the kids could work their after school or the weekends when they get bigger!! God, anything not under the same roof would be nice!!
Like others said I think some of the newer kitset homes are stronger and will last longer. My only piece of advice (and I know its too early but nevermind) if you think you will get a house built, and get a garden and perhaps solar panels – get them all at the same time. We did them ALL a year apart and fucked up big time. a lot cheaper doing it all together and now there is all sorts of eco points and what not that no doubt makes it a bit more interesting, if not a lot more choosing and umming and arrrggghhhh-ing. exciting though. Good luck.
WOW! That is so exciting… definitely a big change from the ambiguous 5~10 years down the line. I hope that you can find some good properties on the Sobu line that meet all (or most) of your requirements. Seems like house building/buying fever is in the air in blog land (although I suppose that its not surprising considering most of us are young families
)
Best of luck and I look forward to hearing lots of future updates IRL.
Good luck!
My only advice is that if you are interested in buying a year from now, go to different fudosans so that they won`t put the pressure on you. We`ve looked 3 weekends in a row with the one we`ve been using and they are now bringing out the senpai so that there are now 2 people pressuring us to buy now.
We have also found that when looking around if they bring you to 3 places, the first 2 will be really bad (condemed by American standards) and then they will bring you to one really nice looking one (although definitely go through opening and closing doors and windows, Taka`s done this to a few places only to find broken windows and doors). They want you to buy whatever the last place is.
Ours keeps telling us “Oh this is the only thing in your price range” They also like to do the “Someone else just put a contract on this house but if you put one on it today, I think yours will go through first” type of thing if they think you are even slightly interested.
I think we are going to expand our search up through Saitama and down toward Kamakura (Taka says he has always wanted to live in Kamakura).
As for 100 meters worth of space!!! wow!!!!! Our apartment is 47 and we are definitely wanting 70+. The house we liked was 76 but Mizoho wouldn`t give us a loan for it (we checked it out, on our own, not through the realtor) because the base level of the house is 3 meters too big.
Wow, what fun! We’re a five minute drive from in-laws, it’s perfect! and a five minute walk from school, that’s very convenient! We also found his job opportunities and my ability to work part-time for a decent wage kept us in Japan!
Congratulations! What an exciting time! I’m so envious! I would love to start building our home, but we are sooooo far away from having a down payment, it’s ridiculous. When you talk to banks about a loan though you have 2 very important things working to your advantage, 1. You and Shun are both young! Under 30 in fact, which makes it SO much easier to get a loan! 2. You have a son. Banks are happier to lend to people with male heirs so that they can inherit any debts you guys leave behind. Nice thought, huh? But it does work to your advantage.
And as Heather said, if you purchase a pre-designed kit style home, where you can rearrange the layout of the rooms and what you find inside, but not building materials, you are looking at a shelf life of 25-35 years. My husband is in construction and can talk your ear off about what adds and detracts from a home’s lifespan. Feel free to message me privately if you have any construction questions!
Good luck and happy hunting!
Sounds as if you should totally message Brenda and grill her hubby on the building tips! There is really so much to think about. For me, there were always things coming up out of the blue, housing tax, insurance, sewage treatment, fitting the aerial, etc. etc. The rent may be the same, but the extras that come with having your “own home” are not
Yes, that land is family land! Although it’s much cheaper to buy “farmland” and then convert it to residential land and build on it I think a minimum of two years later. Although in our case, it obviously didn’t happen..the land is surrounded by farmland, so the farmers don’t want a house there (even though there are three new ones less than 100 metres away across the road) because it will change what they are able to do pesticide wise, house blocking the sun, etc. etc. But I do think that you always have to make a compromise on a house, whatever the case. For us, location was key, and it sounds as if it might be for you too. Best of luck again!
Lulu, it sounds like a wonderful plan. We’ve been in our house 8 years now, and are very happy but learned a lot along the way when we were planning it. What I didn’t realize is that a house is not really an investment in Japan… only the land is. The reason that they put the 20 year limit on the house is that a wooden house depreciates steadily over a 20 year period, so that in the end, it is worth 0 yen.. something like this, so basically the value is only in the land. The problem would be if you want to sell in the future, and the price you get for the sale of the house and the land is worth less than the left-over loan in some cases. (in the US we always think of a house as an investment which will increase in value.. but this isn’t the case for a wooden house in Japan). Also if your husband is getting some help from the company now for housing, I think that is general the company will not give a housing allowance if you own the house. (which seems very unfair!)
We are living in a very congested neighborhood in Tokyo (there are 9 other houses within touching distance), so we decided to build a 3 story Hebal House (steel frame and cement type panels) which holds up well for fire. No garden, but they put an apartment in on the first floor, which we rent out, and which helped pay off the loan. We were lucky to buy land in a semi commercial zoning area, so that we were able to build up to 3 floors, and to use almost all the land. (depending on the zoning, there are requirements for blocking the sunlight to surrounding houses etc., which we didn’t have (can’t remember the terms now.. kenpei ritsu etc..)
I was surprised at the money that we had to pay to the real estate agent, just for the sale of the land. (it’s a set fee like 5% of the price of the land?) Then we had to pay a land registration fee (which was expensive… like 30 man), then a house registration fee, which was less but wasn’t expecting this), then a special tax for the first year, besides the yearly taxes. When they went to put in the foundation, they found a septic tank, which we had to pay to remove. When they did the land study, that found that land was too soft, so we had to pay extra fees make the foundation support deeper. We had to pay for the sewage and water pipes up to the road, since the one that was in was too small. (all of these things came after we had already signed the agreement, so it was a bit stressful and overwhelming at times.) But we are really enjoying the house and happy to have our own. I know that this may not be new info… just wanted to throw it out there.
With the loan, when we asked ourselves at the bank, they were not very friendly, so the builder arranged the loan for us with the bank on very good terms. (interest was very low). They require you to take out a life insurance policy, so that if the borrower dies before the loan is paid off, that the insurance will pay for off the loan. We were also able to arrange an extra insurance (which we paid monthly) that if my husband became ill and couldn’t work, that the insurance would pay the monthly loan fees for up to 3 years. (this was a special insurance through tokyo mitsubishi UFJ bank that isn’t available everywhere.)
Nancy Tsurumaki
Exciting news! As a new home buyer, feel free to ask me any questions anytime!
Lulu, congratulations on making this decision! I LOVED house-hunting, and I still visit the newer model houses that go up in my development every 6 months or so.
We bought a model house because we didn’t want the hassle of figuring out what we wanted in a made-to-order house.
And, we also wanted to move in asap because our 2DK apartment was getting crowded with a walking toddler.
My piece of advice is about paying for the house. The house is owned by the person whose name is on the cash paid as downpayment, or on the loan. There is no joint-ownership. We made all the cash payments for the house in my name and I also took out a small loan; DH’s name is on the other loan, which makes our ownership somewhere around 49-51. If you aren’t working, you won’t be able to get a loan, however, I would definitely recommend that you make cash payments using your own name so that you are recorded as having paid into the house for whatever percentage that is.
Wang Yao and I calculated today how much we’ve spent on rent since we moved to Beijing and it is more than enough for a down payment on a house, which is sort of depressing. We are in the same boat you guys were in, not quite positive we want to settle down here and not enough money saved for a down payment. At some point we’re going to need to bite the bullet though because I don’t want to rent forever and it is really such a waste of money …
I read, I think on FWC, that you always end up losing money buying property in Japan, losing in the sense that houses only depreciate in value rather than appreciate. Is that true? The real estate market in Japan seems to be a bit of an anomaly. It’ll be interesting to read about your house-buying journey from start to finish!
Advice is make sure you buy the land!!!! Land is the only thing of value in Japan. The houses tend to be depreciable assets – similar to a car. I know as Australians that goes against the grain but as you said, they have a short life span and Japanese people don’t like to buy second hand houses. When you buy the land, you can pass that onto your son and he can build a house on it when he gets married.
If you are building, there are plenty of alternatives to the bog standard Seikusei house rip offs if you take the time and do your homework.
Also, if you are building from a model home company – do your homework on things like insulation and heating/cooling as a little bit of extra planning and perhaps investment at the start will save you a packet in on-going heating/cooling costs. Look into underfloor heating and get insulation bats put into the walls and ceiling. These are not standard in Japan which is why everything is so damn cold in winter and hot in summer. The wall mounted aircons that are standard here are so environmentally unfriendly, inefficient and expensive to run so look at alternatives. Solar water heaters are just starting to come into vogue as are other eco alternatives so look into them. Sometimes hiring an architect/construction company might be a better long term option but that might be a bit harder on you.
Also if you are building make sure you plan for extra electrical outlets and lots of storage space. Look at the kitchen design and go for function, accessible storage (eg a pantry) and bench space. I think most kitchen designers in Japan have never cooked a meal in their lives. The sad thing is that Japanese women put up with this sort of nonsense.
Look at building a deck or patio or somewhere you can have some outdoor living area that will increase your “floor space” both visually and mentally. Put a BBQ out there and make a little patch of Brisbane in Chiba. (Then invite me over for BBQ’s – I make awesome salads)
Main thing is to not rush and don’t be pressured by fudosans or even parents. Be firm and don’t let the builders do what is convenient for them but rather what is best for the long term for you and your family. Visit the building site daily to make sure they are not taking short cuts.
Good luck!!
p.s. Sensational news about the trust funds!! What a wonderful gift. My parents did that for me and I used it when I bought my first house too.
Thanks to EVERYONE for advice and comments and hints.
I am sorry I can`t reply to them all but I have taken notes and will keep updating our progress!
Cheers!
Hey there – congrats on the windfall! I don`t have Japan-specific advice. However I am married to an accountant and have lived in numerous different places of numerous different sizes arount the world. And I own a house in Brisbane that a) I have never lived in b) have never even lived in Brisbane since I owned it and c) now want to sell because investment properties just arent for me!
heres my two cents:
- dont look for the `perfect` place – remember you can always sell and grow into a new place
- emotionally detach yourself and look for investment potential, even if you plan to live there. Its always safer to purchase a place that you can rent out or sell if you need to (e.g if circumstances required you to move back to Australia in a hurry), despite not planning to
- dont be worried about renting. Australians are brought up to think that we need to own house and land, but the reality is that depending on your circumstances it may make sense to rent long term and invest in something other than property. Remember that its easy for you to purchase in Australia, and if that proves to be a better financial investment, then it may make sense for you to continue renting in Tokyo. we own a place and have rented every place weve ever lived in. we arent plannign to purchase where we live now because, even though we would live in a place we purchased, it doesnt present good long term investment value.
Good luck!
PS we went through funabashi en route from Narita yesterday and I wondered if you ever craved Tim Tams. Just a random thought in your honour!
Wow that is exciting news. Congratulations.
My piece of advice might not make you so happy though. Before you start house shopping please find out about the tax situation regarding the use of this money.
My DH had two housing funds set up One was a saving program for housing that he set up when he started working. The other is a fund like your husband’s, set up by his family years ago. The family contributed to it, so legally speaking it is not actually his money for tax purposes. We found out that if we used this money it would be considered a gift and therefore tax would be due on it. As a gift the tax would have taken a HUGE chunk of it. If we used it while just pretending it was actually all our money then it might go through unnoticed, but we were told that if our down payment exceeded the amount that we could have reasonably been expected to save given our ages and income then it would more than likely be red flagged. We would have to account for where all the money had come from and who had earned it. We could have gotten ourselves into a very sticky situation.
In the end we used DH’s house fund which we could easily account for if need be since it’s always been taken directly out of his check. The other fund is our emergency housing fund. If something should happen and we can’t make the monthly payment or a twice a year bonus payment we will dip into this money. (Yes, I think doing that could still cause some tax trouble, but it’s unlikely anyone would notice or question where we got a small amount whereas they would question a huge amount like a down payment . Also nothing is up for review or investigated if we are just making payments as usual, yk?) If we don’t use it for that then we will use it later for education fees.
This may not be the situation for your DH at all as I don’t know the specifics regarding his money and the tax code is very complicated, but I thought I would mention it as something youminght want to check on.
PS There were actually some legal ways we could have gotten around this though, but it would have involved having the PIL’s cooperation and name on some stuff. MIL wouldn’t cooperate though as she was against us living where we wanted to live and is an insane control freak who wants to dictate everything. Our only option was to not use the money, or take the risk of pretending DH earned it all, or pay the huge tax on it.
If your PIL are more cooperative then you might be able to work it out better than we could.
Pps. It doesn’t matter whose name is one the account. What matters is where the money orginally came from. My husband’s suggestions was that you use this money to make monthly payments as it raises no questions, but you want to use it for the downpayment, right? Please check into the situation carefully. Also, as a banker he said you might have to look around a lot for the loan as many banks won’t loan to people unless they’ve been at their current job for at least three years. Has your husband been at his job that long. There might be some that will though. When you buy a house or condo there is often a particular bank that is associated with a builder or housing company. Ask about that particular banks policy.
Sor
Little Miss Moi- Sometimes I crave timtams but luckily it is pretty easy to buy them here.
The property market in Japan is definitely not an investment opportunity unfortunately- but we really want our own place and buying a house is the only way to do that really. That said, we are not in a huge rush or anything so we can look around a bit.
Sherry- Will chat with you tomorrow about this more but spoke with Shun`s mum this weekend. Him, his brother and his three cousins all have this money and his three cousins have already purchased places without any issue. Apparently the funds have been added to over the years and they can prove how much was put in each year and under a certain amount is fine and tax free. Something like 100man a year or something can be given as a “gift” to your children. I don`t really get it but my MIL said that the three cousins did it without issue so hopefully we won`t have problems with this.
MIL is pretty helpful with this sort of stuff actually.
We have more than half of the down payment saved ourselves probably so we could save the other money and use it to make monthly payments probably. By the time we actually buy we might have the entire down payment together? who knows!
THanks for all the advice though- it made me ask MIL more about it and try and get an understanding on it.
Hello!! After reading your blog for a long time, this is the first time commenting. Congratulations!! It’s so excited to get a new home.
I’ll tell you my situation. After many years looking for a house(old , new), we decided to build it and we did it. The company we use is Sturdy Style. We liked them so much, they listen to you and they made the house of your dreams. They ask you so many questions to make sure that the house has all the things that you want. about the ¥¥¥¥, you tell them how much you want to spent and they make a plan within your budget. they are pretty young people and very open minded. please check
http://www.sturdy-style.com
they have an office in Saitama and one in Chiba(04-7142-7570)
we moved to our house almost 6 years ago. the quality is high, we have a built in garage, real sakura floors and a big kitchen. the desing is great. the boss is so nice to us and to our kids. very friendly. if we have any problem they take care right away.
they find the land for us too.
good luck
Congrats on your decision to start house hunting, and please enjoy the ride!
As someone who just purchased a condo, I would tell you to be prepared for a very eye-opening experience. As Kuri wrote above, the idea of joint ownership is really not the norm here, and as a result I had to fight tooth and nail to make sure that the bank, the real estate company, the attorney handling the papers, etc., etc. all made sure that half of it was mine!! And even though I am half owner, it still makes my blood boil that almost all of the condo-related documents are sent to my husband’s name only – ARGH.
We did two loans in order to establish the joint ownership – one in each of our names. This was a nightmare because even though I make more money than my husband and work for an extremely large and well-known company here, almost none of the banks would even look at our application because I don’t have permanent residence. There are a couple of banks that will loan to foreigners without permanent residence, but they charge higher interest rates and you have to be able to show very steady income.
Of course the easiest way around this is to have the entire loan in Shun’s name, but that depends on what you are comfortable with. I personally didn’t want to do that (maybe out of pride?!? I don’t know) because I definitely wanted my name on the records, but that is up to you.
I hope you have fun hunting!! Looking at houses is always fun! Enjoy it.