*\[edit: spelling/fixing errors, added some ‘lessons’ at the end\]*
**Preface**
Hello all,
I wanted to share my experience at the start of this year selling real estate in Japan. This is not a solicitation or condemnation of any particular service, and no one is prompting me to write this, but I am making this post merely because I’ve found a lot of helpful posts on JapanFinance and other related subreddits and want to also contribute, so I spent most of my afternoon writing this up. Maybe it’s partly therapeutic for me, but I’d like to give a detailed account.
Some of these lessons will be nothing new to some of you, but might be new to others. Some details will be slightly altered for anonymity’s sake. I will be happy to answer any follow up questions to the best of my ability. tl;dr lessons at the end. **Warning: this is a very long post.**
I recently bought my second property in Japan and sold my first (both are properties I live/have lived in). Though not a complete newbie to the general process (having bought a property already in Japan), I have come to see I was pretty naive and uninformed in many areas of the process and want to share my experience such that you all can benefit.
**Buying**
***First Property***
I bought my first property in Japan about 5 years ago in the a central part of Tokyo (let’s say in the ‘Shibuya area’ generally speaking). I only used one agent (was not from any of the ‘major agencies’) who was English-speaking, and we looked at about 20-30 properties until finding this one, and got a great deal for a 50 square meter 2LDK for about 50M yen. I guess the person selling was trying to get rid of it fast because they had lowered the price from 55M to like 52.5M or something and I put an offer for 50M and they accepted it.
The area was beautiful and I intended to live there for a while, but I bought it partially betting on ‘hey this is a really central popular area and I should be able to sell it easily if I wanted in the future’. As a sidenote, it was also an emotionally important step for me to buy a property as my family is poor, never owned property (or even a car), I have worked since I was 12, paid my own schooling (loans), and saved up everything myself. It was like planting a flag that ‘I am middle class’ for the next generation.
I purchased the property without PR (the most persistent misconception I read is that you need PR to get a loan), and paid a 20% down payment. I think I did a 10 year fixed term interest rate, which, at the time, was maybe 0.7-0.8%? I got the loan through Prestia. With Prestia, the interest rate is the exact same whether you have PR or not. I made savings entirely from my job. My Japanese level is conversational (\~N3 as a rough comparison) and continues to be. I am a male in my thirties from a Western non-US country. I work in international sales.
In the five-ish years that I lived there, I got married and my wife was about to give birth to my first child (baby girl), and we had a cat. All together it just means that the originally roomy 50 meter squared 2LDK was a lot more cramped and it was time to move. I wanted to move before the baby came as I just thought it would be a lot harder once the baby was born. So we decided to move near her parents in Saitama.
***Second Property***
In my home country, the ideal is to raise a family in a house with a yard for kids to run around and that was originally what I was thinking, but given the depreciation of houses here, and us thinking about whether we really want to live in Japan forever, we shifted our thinking to buying another apartment (sorry I still don’t really understand the terminology of apartment vs. mansion vs. condo, even now) *\[later edit: based on a comment below, both my first and second properties were indeed ‘mansions’\]*. We were initially thinking to move in together with her parents to a new property but they were insisting on a second bathroom, and finding a big apartment with two bathrooms for a decent price is near impossible. In hindsight, though I get along swimmingly with her parents, I am super thankful we didn’t move in with them. We just need our own space.
We were then thinking of renting (since we weren’t sure of our long-term plans), but after having owned for about 5 years, I just hated the idea of paying someone else’s mortgage and I just liked owning something that I can sell later. Also, the interest rate in my home country is insane and Japan with sub-1% rates is just a no brainer. Alsox2, there was just plainly better apartments for sale than for rent.
My wife and I looked at maybe 8-9 properties. We found a property near my wife’s parents that was larger (around 80 meters squared, 3LDK) for a bit less than I paid for my original Shibuya apartment. It was built within the last 5 years, 10+ floors, with residents made of about 95% young families, and pet-friendly.
We worked with a few real estate agents this time (about three) including a guy from his own shop who said he’d only charge us 1.5%. In the end, we went with Sumitomo as he was the guy who showed us the above property, and also he had great sales acumen: followed up for responses, set up next steps, was informative and so on. He only spoke Japanese but my wife had a good impression, and I mean I wasn’t all that fussed – he showed us the property we wanted and we went with him.
I originally wanted to get the loan in my wife’s name as I didn’t like the idea of taking on a second loan. I had a good experience with Prestia so I met with them. We spoke for about an hour and we did a mini-check for different scenarios: if my wife got the loan, if we did a ‘pair’ loan, if I got a loan, etc. Seems my wife alone could get a loan to cover the new apartment – great!
The meeting went super well… until the end. At the end of the meeting, as almost an after thought, the loan rep asked my wife ‘oh, by the way, are you pregnant?’ This wasn’t something we were really hiding or concerned about and my wife just basically said ‘yes, I am’. We then got the Japanese air suck (*tssssst… chotto..*). She said my wife will likely not be able to get a loan, at least not with Prestia because they are ‘stricter than other places’. They said a lot of women don’t return to work after giving birth, and thus it’s too big of a risk for the bank as they might not have the ability to pay back the loan. They said we can try other banks but it’s likely the same at other places.
We walked out of the meaning a bit dejected, confused. I mean I have lived in Japan so long that I just got of took it on the chin and was even thinking ‘hmm, yeah I guess that makes sense’. Then I googled it and saw discriminating against pregnant women for housing loans is highly illegal in the US and other countries, and then as I thunk more about it, I started to become infuriated. I mean no wonder women can’t get ahead in Japan, god forbid they are a single mother. Like the entire process derailed despite good income because my wife is pregnant. Hell, it pisses me off to this day. And anyway, it put a point in the ‘move out of Japan eventually’ box for us.
So I had to get the loan, and I got it through Sumitomo. Since the real estate and bank were the same company (kind of? different business function?), it was very easy and smooth. Everything was done in Japanese which was generally fine for me as I went through the process once before. The only thing that I had trouble with on occasion was writing out many addresses in Japanese (and when you’re doing it there are like 2-3 people staring at you filling in the document), but overall no problem.
The couple we bought the property from were super nice, but we had to wait a month or two as they were waiting to sell this property (that they lived in) before they closed on a new place for them to buy. We moved smoothly with a moving company without much hassle – the biggest hassle being my wife could not help with anything as she was very pregnant, so I had to most of the helping (and I think I had COVID at the time – a bit rough but we made it). My wife gave birth a couple months later after we had moved into the new apartment.
**Selling**
***First Listings***
Now this was where I had no experience and could only infer about after having bought a property in Japan before. I should clarify that we were starting the selling process while we still lived in the first apartment, about 2 months before we moved, basically from the time to we put in our ‘intent to buy’ the new apartment letter/made a deposit until we got the loan.
Initially, I was thinking to rent out my property as I liked the idea of having an asset and monthly passive income. I had an English-speaking agent come to my place (coincidentally from Sumitomo, but was from a different branch/not through the guy I bought my second property from), and he did an assessment of my place and broke things down for me, such as: what my loan payment would be like after switching to an ‘investment loan’, 10% payment of the rent to a management company for collecting the rent and field issues, what I would have to renovate (e.g. floors, walls) to make it rentable, etc. Basically after all of this, I would be making maybe 20,000 yen a month after costs if I rented it for around 200,000 a month or something. It wasn’t much.
As an aside, I learned later that some people (people I’ve met) basically just never tell the bank they’re renting out their property and keep the low interest of a personal loan, and that’s how they make bank on renting their property. I think the bank occasionally sends some mail to you that you have to sign for to check in, but they just get their tenant to sign for it. As someone that now has PR and not wanting to take on any legal risk at all and generally respect Japan as a whole, this was absolutely not an option for me.
Back to the story: as a saleman myself, I do always ask myself ‘who benefits’, and I could see this ‘renting will yield you almost nothing’ angle from the new Sumitomo agent was a way to push me to sell the place instead so he could be the agent, make a nice commission, etc. So I took it with a grain of salt, but I mean the costs were not made up and that’s what it would be. Still, I’d have asset at the end of the day.
In the end, it was moot though as my Sumitomo loan rep told me that I have 6 months to sell my first apartment as a stipulation for the loan I got through them. The banks deems it too risky for me to have two personal loans at the same time. I asked if I could turn it into a rental property, they said ‘no’. Sell it. What happens if I can’t sell it within 6 months? Well, they take it. No extensions, no liability. Jesus! OK, but I have six months in a super popular area of Tokyo. And with the 1.5ish months we’d be waiting to close/finalize the new property, gives us a bit over 7 months.
I had a generally good experience with the non-English-speaking Sumitomo guy who sold me my new Saitama property, so my wife and I thought why don’t we work with him again. It is abnormal it seems for an agent of a certain branch to sell a property not within his/her area, but it’s doable, and he wanted to do it ($$) . He also said he’d give me a 50% discount, so his fee would only be 1.5% because he just made 3% from selling us this current property. Sweet!
I learned that when you’re selling a property, most agencies have three types of plans, and I don’t know the exact terms, but I will refer to them as 1) non-exclusive, 2) mostly exclusive, 3) absolutely exclusive. Here is my understanding of them:
1. Non-exclusive: you can work with any other agency, no problem
2. Mostly exclusive: you only work with this agency for the contract period, but if you get a buyer yourself through your own network you don’t necessarily have to use this agency
3. Absolutely exclusive: you only work with this agency, and even if you get a buyer through your own means you send them to this agency and they will take care of it
I didn’t see a merit for signing the third one, and we had a good experience with this guy just recently, so I signed a ‘mostly exclusive’ contract for 3 months for a 1.5% fee. I priced my place 15M above the price I bought it before (65M). I mean I had some time, property value went up, let’s test the market. Also, just to show you the extent of my lack of knowledge in this area, I thought that the real estate listing site ‘suumo’ was owned by Sumitomo, so when he said he’ll list it on suumo I thought awesome, I have the company that operates that site! D’oh! (for those who don’t know, suumo is just an aggregate listing site that most agencies list properties on; it’s not the domain of one specific agency like I stupidly thought).
The agency generally gives you activity reports based on the internet traffic, click rates, people contacting them, etc. The first month there was very little activity: 1-2 viewings overall I think. Agent said ‘market is slow’, ‘not a good season’ etc. He said we should drop the price. I said let’s give it a bit longer. A couple weeks later, no activity. I drop the price 2.5M. Still not much activity. Agent suggest we drop the price. I reluctant drop the price another 2.5M. Still not much activity. Agent suggest we drop the price. ‘Hey buddy, don’t you have any other strategies?’ ‘Drop the price’. ‘How about advertisements, open house, marketing, anything?’ ‘Drop the price.’ I was getting a bit frustrated with this guy, and was adamant to sell the property at least 10M above what I bought it for given my comparison of similar places in the area. Moreover, he also started almost exclusively speaking to my wife in Japanese rather than me, the property owner. Like this guy had no solutions and wasn’t even speaking to me directly.
My time was shrinking, and by the time the 3-month exclusive contract was up, I had maybe 5 months or so to find a buyer and completely close the deal or the bank would seize my property. I had a lot of confidence in the value of my property, but I mean 3 months with barely any bites is pretty scary.
I couldn’t wait to get out of that exclusive agreement, and I contacted many other agencies, ultimately signing up with 3 others: Mitsui Fudosan, Tokyu Livable, and the boutique I used to get my first property. I also re-signed with Sumitomo in a non-exclusive agreement because, well, it couldn’t hurt. Sumitomo changed the fee back to the regular 3% because it was non-exclusive. I also talked to some other small agencies who were a bit hard and fast with rules and even listed my property on REINS (the real estate network database) without me even signing a contract.
Since I had lost some time, dropped the price twice, and was getting eager to get some wins for myself financially, I wanted discounted rates at other agencies. I remembered Sumitomo gave me 1.5% at first, so with the first agency I met with, maybe Mitsui), I told them Sumitomo gave me a 1.5% rate, what can they give me? I was prepared to like take a picture of the agreement, maybe splice the old 1.5% one and new 3% one together to show proof that I got 1.5%. Brother, I didn’t have to go so far. “Sumitomo gave you 1.5%, I guess we have to match”. That was it. They just… believed me. As a saleman, I was astounded, but maybe Japan is just so high on the honor system that that’s how it is? So literally I just saved myself thousands of dollars by saying this.
Now that I had an actual 1.5% non-exclusive contract with the biggest real estate company in Japan, you’re damned right I’m going to get it any and everywhere else. Tokyu Livable, and the original boutique I used before, got 1.5%. Ironically, the only agent I *didn’t* have 1.5% with was Sumitomo (who changed it to 3% after going non-exclusive).
I got a viewing or two from Mitsui and the boutique, but it was Tokyu Liveable that worked their goddamn ass off. I saw their advertisements for my place, they were setting up an open house, they were checking in constantly. The actual agent I was working with didn’t speak English, and he was a young guy in his twenties, but they paired him with a translator for me, set up a LINE group and gave me quick updates in English all the time. He was all over it, and I appreciated his effort.
Tokyu Livable said there was a lady highly interested in my place, she had a viewing already, but wanted to bring in a contractor to see if her ideal renovations could be done. A week later she game with the guy, he OK’ed her plan, and she put in an intent to offer letter. Tokyu Livable got me an offer in *3 weeks*. Coincidentally, literally the day before they got me an offer, Sumitomo contacted me and they got an offer as well from a Japanese couple in their thirties. Tokyu Livable: 3 weeks; Sumitomo: 4 months.
And that’s where it got interesting (or complicated, or heartbreaking)…
***The Two Bids***
So I had an offer, for the same amount, a day after each other, one from Tokyu and one from Sumitomo. The Tokyu team I liked a lot, was fast, delivered results, I can speak directly to them in English; the Sumitomo guy only spoke with my wife, kept telling me to drop the price, and I had come to be annoyed with him (and I felt him with me). But there was one very key salient difference: Sumitomo buyer was pre-approved for a loan and the Tokyu buyer was not yet. Yikes….
The bids came in on Friday (Sumitomo) and Saturday (Tokyu). I mean the timing is so close that I didn’t really care too much about who came first technically, but with the Tokyu bid coming on a Saturday, it means they couldn’t apply for a pre-approval until the Monday, at which it would come in by like Tues/Wed the earliest. Sumitomo’s pre-approved bidder was willing to meet that very Tuesday to close the deal (i.e. transfer an initial 5% deposit, sign some documents, etc until they get the actual loan like a month later). Fuck…
I mulled it over on the Saturday that Tokyu told me about their buyer. I really liked the agent (as much as I came to dislike the Sumitomo agent) but I was getting pretty antsy, especially with the bank telling me I had no recourse or options if I didn’t sell within 6 months. With 5 months to go an a ticking timer, I made the hard decision to go with Sumitomo (even at the higher 3% rate).
I called Tokyu and told them the difficult decision. Almost immediately, he countered with ‘if you wait for our buyer, we will wave our agency fee’. Excuse me, come again? Like 0%? ‘Yes’. I was flabbergasted. I thought 1.5%, maybe 1% was the lowest I could get, but Tokyu was not messing around. They basically said ‘we’ll still get 3% from our buyer, and our buyer *really* wants this property, so we want to do what it takes to get it for them’. I was frickin’ impressed. I mean one, with the quick counter, two the tenacity to make the sale, and three, what I believe was their genuine commitment to fight for their buyer. I did not expect this at all. So I said I will talk to Sumitomo.
I talked to Sumitomo on the Sunday. He said again the buyer wants to meet on Tuesday (2 days from then), can I confirm, etc. I told them I got a 0% fee from Tokyu’s buyer. ‘Oh I see. Well anyway, I have the first buyer and the meeting is ready to be confirmed’. OK, that’s nice, I said, but what would they do in light of this news. This guy… ‘oh we might be able to give you a gift certificate, like 100,000 yen’. Wut. Like dude, I’m telling you that this other agency will wave their entire fee to save me thousands of dollars and you’re talking about a fraction of that in *gift certificates*.
He asked ‘what percentage fee would you definitely go with us?’ Oh by the way this was all to my wife on a speaker call who then translated it to me (though I could probably have done this conversation myself, I don’t think the agent wanted to speak to me directly). ‘0%’ ‘But what is the lowest you would go?’ ‘0%!’ I mean this guy was really starting to piss me off, especially after working with the quick-witted and sales savvy Tokyu agent who immediately countered with a good deal.
‘Ah, I see’. *Japanese air sucking*. “*muzukashisou*…’ etc. He basically said everything but ‘it’s impossible and it can’t be done, but I will speak to my boss tomorrow.’ Again, as a guy in sales, I know you have to make compromises sometimes to close a deal and get it over the line, and this guy had no creativity. This was very shocking because we had a great experience with him when he was our buying agent!
Monday comes around, he calls us, and said ‘well I talked to my boss and we can also do 0%’. Well f\*cking ‘duh!’ I thought. I’m sure he came timidly to his boss asking for an ‘impossible request’ and after explaining the details, his boss who knows sales better than him said ‘well of f\*cking course, do what it takes to close the deal’. I mean, I know this is a zero sum game – getting 3% from a buyer instead of 6% as a whole is better than getting 0%.
Despite not liking this guy much and having my frustration reach its peak, he still had the pre-approved buyer and Tokyu did not. I mulled it over, and I mean I didn’t know if postponing the Tuesday meeting would make that buyer angry, or if they had other properties they were looking at, or what else. And though Tokyu said that their buyer will likely be approved within a couple days, I just had to go with the less risky option. I begrudgingly accepted the Sumitomo buyer’s offer and confirmed the Tuesday schedule.
I made the very hard call to Tokyu again, but this time I said I confirmed with Sumitomo. They did point out that they did in 3 weeks what it took Sumitomo to do in 4 months. I said ‘I know.’ They then said their buyer would probably be willing to pay *over* my asking price (which I didn’t think really happens in Japan). I was a bit shocked by that, but I had already given my word, and at this point it almost felt like I would be gambling and it would bite me in the ass if I went back on my word. It was very hard as I really liked this guy and he put in a lot of effort, but I had to go with the least risk. He looked thoroughly dejected and I could only say that I would refer people to him, but that’s how we left it.
Tuesday comes around and I go and meet Sumitomo at their office (sans wife). After having done everything in English with Tokyu I say I really want to write my address (which you have do like a dozen times) in English. Of course the ‘muri’ he said before becomes ‘ok no problem’ after he checks with his boss. It’s just me and him in the room initially and he offers/insists to speed things along and takes my own hanko and do all the documents. I mean I can stamp a fucking hanko. It made me feel like a child, but at this point I was just kind of exhausted about this process and didn’t care.
I briefly meet the buyer couple, we have exchange some pleasantries and I go back home, feeling better that I sold my property a stressful period.
I didn’t know it’d get more stressful after that.
**Back on The Market**
A month goes by and no word. Hmm.. a bit odd. When I got my first apartment sans PR, it took like 3 weeks maybe (between pre-approval and full approval)? These are Japanese citizens. A month and a half later and we get a call that ‘there are some difficulties’. Uh.. what?
So, it turns out that the woman buying my property (I guess she was the primary loan recipient of the couple?) used to have cancer, which went into remission, but, oh you know it, Japan is Japan and this is a reason that they could legally deny her a loan. Like what the fuck man. To be honest, I can’t articulate it super accurately as the Sumitomo agent told my wife who is not in this business and could only explain her simple understanding of it, but it was something like the bank is closely affiliated with an insurance agency for the loan and that agency said they would not insure it or something.
So yeah, basically 2 months ish later, the pre-approved person that I said yes to over the other buyer was denied a loan and I had no buyer. At this point, I had roughly 2 months to sell my property before the bank took it. FUCK!
I was in panic mode. Was this my fault for going with Sumitomo against my gut (or was it with my gut? I don’t know) over Tokyu? Was I being punished for something? Was it because I had some celebration whisky after I thought I closed the deal? I called Tokyu and quickly updated them and asked if that buyer was still on the market. No, she had found another place in the area. Fuck fuck fuck. I mean I didn’t have high hopes, but fuck anyway.
I had to go back to Sumitomo’s office to sign some paperwork to basically cancel the process. To be fair, the Sumitomo agent did look very sad, sorry, disappointed. He didn’t even ask to continue to work with me as I think he was just like ashamed or felt guilty. I mean I know it wasn’t his fault, and despite being stressed about this whole situation, I did feel a bit bad for him but way more bad for the poor lady who was not approved for a loan because she once had cancer (Japan, Jesus…).
I called Sumitomo loan and explained the situation and pleaded my case. Thankfully, miraculously, they granted me an extension in the time period I would have to sell my place. They gave me 4 extra months, couple with the two months I had left, means another 6 month period. Thank fucking god, like really. In the other scenario, I would have 2 months to find a buy and complete the entire process. It would be impossible, and basically I’d have to sell it via ‘company auction’ for pennies on the dollar.
OK, 6 new months. Despite my poor experience with the exclusive contract before, I knew Tokyu was good, and wanted to work with them exclusively. I told them Sumitomo still wanted to work with me (which may or may not have been true…) and offered me 0% to compensate for the first unsuccessful bid, but I still watned to work with Tokyu, could they match? I think 0% was doable when they had competing offers but from scratch for 0% without a buyer was difficult, but they gave me 1%. I pushed him quite a bit, but overall I liked him a lot and wanted to work with him regardless, so after busting his chops I happily signed a 3 month exclusive agreement.
I decided to list it 3M JPY above the price I got the two buyers for before (reminder: I bought for \~50M, listed 65M initially, eventually dropped it down to 60M and got two buyers, so now I was re-listing at 63M). Part of it was I believed it was worth that much, part of it was to make up for lost time and the loan/apartment fees I’ve been paying in those ‘lost months’, part of it was I got a new lease on life, so to speak, and had 6 months again.
さすが Tokyu that they had 4 viewings within the first week or so it was on the market. No offers, but I mean, damn, good progress. After that, couple viewings, but no material offers. It’s about a month into our 3-month contract when he suggests that it might be a good idea to lower the fee (esp since the offers we got before were at a lower price). I said hmm yeah, that’s probably true, but want to wait a couple more weeks. Those couple weeks were pretty quiet and I was thinking OK, time to drop back down to 60M. The same day I was thinking to call Tokyu to OK the price drop, he LINEs me that he’s got an offer. HELLLLL YEAH!
But, you know, I am not jumping over the moon and I’m pretty calm and neutral because of that experience I just had. I honestly did not feel much emotion or relief and wanted to wait until that money was in my bank account and things were done.
The buyer said that most of his money is tied up in investments so instead of the typical 5% deposit he’d like to just put a 1M JPY in. I asked if we could get something out of that, and we compromise by moving the date that the deposit is ‘locked in’ up (meaning I get to keep it if he pulls out for a reason other than not being approved for a loan). As this differs from the norm, this just got my suspicions up as I was so traumatized from that first bid experience.
But, I’m happy to report that no fuckery went on. He was approved early, even moved the closing date up as he was keen to move in and renovate, we all met in a big room (there’s always at least like 5+ people: you, the buyer, your agent, buyer’s agent, judicial scrivener), money was transferred. He was super happy, I was super happy, agents were super happy. Homerun after some strikeouts.
**Result and Conclusion**
So, overall, over about a 5 year period buying a 2LDK 50 squared meter apartment in central Tokyo, I sold it for 13M JPY more than I bought it for and paid a 1% agent fee. After getting my initial deposit back and the money I had already paid into the mortgage, I walked out of the process with a neat 25M+ JPY.
From here, I’m still not 100% about the taxes. Basically from my understanding, I would have to pay 20% capital gains tax on that 13M-ish JPY BUT I could waive it if I don’t file the ‘1% back of your loan’ rebate for my current apartment on my taxes. The agent told me this too – like you can’t have both, but can have one. I did some calculations and for the ‘1% back’ option to be worth it for me over the ‘no capital gains tax’, it would take about 8 years, at which time I don’t plan to be in Japan, so I forwent filing for the 1% savings this year in hopes to waive capital gains tax next year. The agent said it’s just something I fill out on e-tax but I’m a bit apprehensive about this, so anyone who can advise on this point I’d be grateful.
But yes, thank you for reading this far. I learned a lot of basic things on the way as well as experiencing some very abnormal things in this entire process, and I hope this is helpful to you, maybe especially the part about cutting your agency fees in half and saving thousands of dollars.
Thanks for reading!
**TL;DR Lessons**
(some are basic lessons, other more advanced)
• You don’t need PR or to speak much Japanese to get a housing loan. You probably just need a decent paying job and 20% down payment.
• Most banks that I have spoken to have the same interest rates for PR and non-PR. The only difference is with PR you can get 100% of the loan and without you need a 20% down payment.
• Banks can give ‘pair loans’ which you can apply for together with your spouse. I thought this was just interesting as you can’t have like joint bank accounts here.
• It seems most people sell the property they’re living in before they buy a new property. I did the opposite. It worked out in the end for me but I understand why most people don’t do it.
• Many (most?) banks will not give pregnant women loans because a lot of women don’t return to work after giving birth. This is completely legal discrimination in Japan but illegal in other parts of the world (like the US).
• It seems banks don’t like people to have more than one loan, and if you have more than one personal loan, some banks will give you a timeframe that you have to sell one of the properties so you only have one loan
• If you rent a property you previously lived in, legally you’re supposed to switch your loan type to an investment loan, after which your interest skyrockets. Some people don’t tell the bank (though this is not what I did, and I would never advise it)
• When you sign up to sell a property, many agencies have three types of contracts: two variations of exclusive and a non-exclusive agreement. The term is typically 3 months.
• Suumo is a general listing site that can be used by any agency and not exclusively operated by Sumitomo (ahah, duh)
• When you sign exclusive agreements, you can almost always get a discounted rate, usually half (1.5%).
• If you can negotiate well enough, you can even get 1.5% non-exclusive fees with agencies, even large ones
• Though rare, it is possible to get *over* an asking price. But yes, I think this is pretty rare as ‘bidding wars’ aren’t really a thing
• Though rare, a person pre-approved for a loan could also be denied the actual loan in that 1-2 month-ish application process. I’ve had agents say there’s like 1-5% chance of this with some agents saying they’ve never seen this happen (though it did happen to me).
• Banks can deny you a loan if you’ve had an unfortunate medical history, even if you’ve recovered
• On most documents, you can probably write your address, name, etc in English instead of Japanese. It’s almost never ‘required to write in Japanese’ in my experience except maybe on the final documents on closing day.
• At least in my experience, I would never advise someone to sign an exclusive agreement with any agency unless they have proven experience working with that agent. I believe it best to work with a bunch of agencies, find which one you like and then go exclusive if there are good benefits (not financial advice)
• A potential buyer may want to offer less of a deposit than 5%. A lot of things in real estate are negotiable.
• Selling real estate is a stressful experience, but if you do your research and believe realistically in the value of your property, something should come up, especially if you have a good agent
by JPThrowaway245