Hi all,
The time has come where I’ll be moving out of a university housing into more independent living conditions. I’ve been looking at apartment listings in the west side of Tokyo near my university for a few months now and think I have a basic gist of finding a good rental agreement:
* Go through english speaking companies (I have a less-than fluent Japanese level).
* Find listings close to stations and stores.
* Rent not to exceed 1/3 of monthly income.
* Ideally commute has minimal line changes or can easily access greater city.
I was wondering if anyone had any tips or tricks that they wish they had known before or after they started apartment hunting? Are there any landlord red flags I should be on the lookout for, or any building types or neighborhoods I should probably avoid? Sorry if the questions seem open ended, but I’d appreciate any discussions below.
17 comments
Start from your work/school and look at stations that seem interesting along lines with direct access.
Reinforced concrete is best for soundproofing
Probably shouldn’t consider anything older than mid to late ’80’s for earthquake safety.
Avoid first floors: less bugs, if you really value privacy etc.
Personally I think 1/3 benchmark for rent is a little high, I personally adhere to 25-30% (pre-tax monthly income)
Consider laundry: do you need washer/dryer in the building? Or is laundromat nearby okay?
Tips:
1. Take a Japanese friend (or speaker) with you to the rental agency.
2. Don’t feel like you have to sign for a place after they show you their “only” options. If you aren’t really happy with any of them, give it a couple days and contact other agencies. Chances are they’ll come back with more places for you to consider.
(My Japanese is decent so I went on my own and showed all these listings that I liked on their website, but the agent said they weren’t sure if the landlords would rent to a foreigner… I ended up getting the agent to give the landlord a call and she described me as “日本人っぽい”… which was half-nice but also just repainting the fact that they are wary against renting to foreigners.)
Meth dens, while attractive in their pricing, are best avoided.
Visit the area at night and see how quiet or noisy it is!
Actually go and look at the bathroom.
Signed, no seriously why the fuck does the bathroom door not reach the floor.
If you find a great apartment in a good location, check if the building has other units available. Twice now I got apartments which I really liked only to find there was another unit available which was slightly better.
If you’re a single lady don’t live on the first floor.
If you can just go through UR, it has the least amount of bullshit (eg: key money).
If you’re at home during the day check if there’s a daycare centre nearby because they’re noisy af.
* learning to not adhere to the 1/3 rule since soundproofing, insulation, and minimizing commute are mutually exclusive to keeping rent below 1/3 of income.
* getting curtains first day of move-in.
* floorspace calculations here are a scam, so go bigger than what you need.
* be picky about what you want, but know where and how far you can compromise.
After you decide on a place the realtor will try to upsell you on extra special cleaning of pipes or wallpaper coatings and mention cockroaches and stuff, tell them to fuck off. When you move in, take pictures of any damage and report it to the realtor so they don’t try to fuck you when you move out. Some places won’t come with Aircon (or any appliances) so you’ll have to pay for it and installation and removal, so factor it in. The rest is more or less down to preference. It costs quite a lot of money and hassle to move, so make sure you pick a good place.
1. Go to different agencies
2. Never propane gas
3. Don’t listen to the time estimates of your real estate agent. Walk the distances to the supermarket and the station.
4. Take pictures of the place before you move in. especially of defects/minor scratches and send them to your landlord.
Ask the realtor upfront to only show you properties where the owner is willing to rent to foreigners. I heard of so many people finding nice places and being told the owner rejected them, so I requested to only be shown foreigner friendly places. Found someplace cheap, comfy, spacious, no key money and the landlord is lending me appliances for free. Couldn’t be happier.
Also be upfront if you don’t have a guarantor. Sometimes even if you have one, they’ll insist you use a guarantor company anyway, but it’s good to get that info right away so it’s included in all initial cost calculations.
Go to the estate agent for the first visit looking respectable (suit and tie if you can); have business cards if possible. They are the ones selling you to the landlord and things will go smoother if you make a good impression.
Look at where your work is and where your hobbies / interests are (so if you go to the gym or like partying, the locations you usually go to).
Try to find something without transferring for either of those.
Also, ask yourself if you want to live there for five years and if you would feel good taking your partner or parents there. The answer will help you to understand whether the place is good for you or not.
“Go through english speaking companies (I have a less-than fluent Japanese level).”
This is going to vastly reduce your options and boost the prices hugely. Start off with a friend / partner / co-worker to help until you can find an estate agent who speaks passable English. Get the email address of that agent. Contact them with any listings you find. Also, if you’re worried about Japanese, use email for the day to day messaging (and translate).
Like the other poster said, look at the area at different times of day and throughout the week. Is it crazy loud on weekends? Neighbors fighting on the balconies? Conbini/juku/bar on the first floor? Is it on a main road to a hospital so you’ll be hearing ambulances all night every night? People reenacting Akira at 2AM?
Don’t be afraid to walk out. We got pretty far into a place having been promised it would be renovated. First viewing it was it was in bad shape (torn up tatami/flooring/wallpaper, markers/crayons all over the walls, kitchen looked like it’d seen a few gas fires).
They said come back in a month to see it after renovations and do the signing. We came back and literally nothing had been done. “Whoopsydoodle, must be a scheduling error but here pay the deposit and sign this we pinky-swear it will be renovated before move-in!” Haha, yeah, no…nooo. We walked out even though it was a time crunch to find somewhere else.
Don’t do LP gas, go with city gas because it is cheaper.
Take your time when looking for an apartment is the one I would give.
While I don’t dislike my one, I wish I would have had a bit more time to find one but my circumstances back then didn’t allow more search time. Now I keep on finding nicer + cheaper apartments