Greetings everyone. This is my first post on this subreddit. I have just relocated to Japan on the “J-Find” visa which is valid for a year and renewable once for another year. I do not have a job in Japan yet (and the “J-Find” visa scheme is specifically intended to allow people like me to look for jobs and attend interviews in Japan), so in the meantime I have to rely on my savings (which I think is more than sufficient to sustain myself for the foreseeable future). I speak Japanese (N1 level but not fluent).
The first thing I have to do in Japan is to find a long-term residence. Things happened and I have started to lose trust in my current real estate agent. I have checked the wiki of this subreddit and did some basic research elsewhere online (links to that below), and I am more-or-less sure that this agent is not trust-worthy, but I still have some doubts. I would be grateful if you could share your experience and insight.
**\[Warning: Long post\]**
Before I came to Japan, I have tried to search for properties on Suumo and eventually made an appointment in advance to view a particular property (“A”) with my current real estate agent. After I landed in Japan and before the said appointment, I went to check the surrounding environment of property A on my own and found funeral parlors right next to property A. For this reason, I decided not to rent it and contacted the agent. I invited him to introduce other properties to me and we can go view them.
When I met with the agent, he had already had a few recommendations at hand. Before we went out to see them, I explained to him my personal situation (i.e. I am a foreign national who has just come to Japan with no job yet). Since each of the property shortlisted by him nominated a specific guarantor company which the tenant must use, he made a few phone calls to those guarantor companies to check whether the guarantor company would accept applications from someone in my situation.
In the end the agent told me that many guarantor companies would not even entertain my application (let alone approving it) so he had to find some other properties for me. This went on for another 5 to 10 minutes or so and he came up with 3 new recommendations which he assured that the guarantor company would accept my application.
I thought that it was only normal for someone like me to encounter difficulties in the apartment-hunting process, but what happened later made me re-think whether this was an artificial hurdle created by the agent to rush me into signing the lease for the first property that I find tolerable.
So we went to see the said 3 properties and I expressed interest in renting one of them (“B”). As I was not sure whether the guarantor company for property B would actually approve my application, I also chose a second property (“C”) as a fallback. I submitted all the necessary documents to the guarantor companies for both properties B and C through the agent for screening purpose. The agnet told me that the screening process would usually take about one week.
One or two days later, the agent told me that my application for property B was approved but my other application for property C was rejected. Both the approval for property B and the rejection for property C came extremely fast compared to what the agent told me at first. This also goes towards whether all the hassle about “guarantor companies not accepting my application and he had to find ones that do” was manufactured by the agent.
I met the agent again and he presented an invoice (請求書) to me for the initial costs:
* First of all, I was charged an agency fee (仲介手数料) and an administrative fee (事務手数料), the total of which exceeded 1 month’s rent plus tax. This directly contradicts what I saw in this online article (link: [https://shikakutimes.jp/takken/429#3](https://shikakutimes.jp/takken/429#3)), which states that the maximum remuneration (whatever name it is called) received by the agency cannot exceed 1 month’s rent and the agent can only get 50% from the tenant (and the remaining 50% is payable by the owner). If this article is correct, it means that I am charged more than double by the agent. This triggered my suspicion of the agent, but I do not want to accuse him of any wrongdoing unless I am 100% certain.
* Secondly, I was charged “cleaning fee” and “24-hour support fee”. I saw from this video (link: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY1ZLOjIkCk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY1ZLOjIkCk)) these items should be optional, but when I asked the agent, he told me that these items cannot be opted out from. During the discussion, he had a slip of the tongue and said that these items are “options (オプション)”, but when I pushed further, he said that these are “mandatory options”.
* Thirdly, I was charged “Hoshokin” (保証金) *on top of* “Shikikin” (敷金) and “Hoshogaisha fee” (保証会社利用料). I fully understand the purpose of “Shikikin” and “Hoshogaisha fee” but what I do not understand is why I am required to pay “Hoshokin” additionally. When I asked the agent about the “Hoshokin”, he said that this would be paid to the owner and would not be refunded, similar to “Reikin” (礼金). The problem is that when he first recommended the property to me, the promotional materials clearly stated that “Reikin” would not be required. It surprised me that I was required to pay “Reikin” albeit under a different name.
So I told the agent that the total initial costs exceeded my budget and I have to re-do my calculations and get back to him afterwards. This morning (less than 24 hours after the said meeting), he sent an email to me urging me to make up my mind because it would be difficult for me to find any other property whose initial costs are within my budget.
At this point I am almost certain that I cannot trust this agent anymore and I should find a property elsewhere. I guess I just need someone to reassure that I am making the correct decision here. Thank you for reading this long post and here is a potato 🥔 Please feel free to leave a comment to share your thoughts.
**TL;DR** I think that my real estate agent is fishy because I suspect that:
1. I am being rushed into signing the lease for the first property
2. I am overcharged on agency fees
3. I am tricked into not opting out from optional services
4. I was lied to in respect of “Reikin”
2 comments
This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.
—
**Can I still trust my current real estate agent?**
Greetings everyone. This is my first post on this subreddit. I have just relocated to Japan on the “J-Find” visa which is valid for a year and renewable once for another year. I do not have a job in Japan yet (and the “J-Find” visa scheme is specifically intended to allow people like me to look for jobs and attend interviews in Japan), so in the meantime I have to rely on my savings (which I think is more than sufficient to sustain myself for the foreseeable future). I speak Japanese (N1 level but not fluent).
The first thing I have to do in Japan is to find a long-term residence. Things happened and I have started to lose trust in my current real estate agent. I have checked the wiki of this subreddit and did some basic research elsewhere online (links to that below), and I am more-or-less sure that this agent is not trust-worthy, but I still have some doubts. I would be grateful if you could share your experience and insight.
**[Warning: Long post]**
Before I came to Japan, I have tried to search for properties on Suumo and eventually made an appointment in advance to view a particular property (“A”) with my current real estate agent. After I landed in Japan and before the said appointment, I went to check the surrounding environment of property A on my own and found funeral parlors right next to property A. For this reason, I decided not to rent it and contacted the agent. I invited him to introduce other properties to me and we can go view them.
When I met with the agent, he had already had a few recommendations at hand. Before we went out to see them, I explained to him my personal situation (i.e. I am a foreign national who has just come to Japan with no job yet). Since each of the property shortlisted by him nominated a specific guarantor company which the tenant must use, he made a few phone calls to those guarantor companies to check whether the guarantor company would accept applications from someone in my situation.
In the end the agent told me that many guarantor companies would not even entertain my application (let alone approving it) so he had to find some other properties for me. This went on for another 5 to 10 minutes or so and he came up with 3 new recommendations which he assured that the guarantor company would accept my application.
I thought that it was only normal for someone like me to encounter difficulties in the apartment-hunting process, but what happened later made me re-think whether this was an artificial hurdle created by the agent to rush me into signing the lease for the first property that I find tolerable.
So we went to see the said 3 properties and I expressed interest in renting one of them (“B”). As I was not sure whether the guarantor company for property B would actually approve my application, I also chose a second property (“C”) as a fallback. I submitted all the necessary documents to the guarantor companies for both properties B and C through the agent for screening purpose. The agnet told me that the screening process would usually take about one week.
One or two days later, the agent told me that my application for property B was approved but my other application for property C was rejected. Both the approval for property B and the rejection for property C came extremely fast compared to what the agent told me at first. This also goes towards whether all the hassle about “guarantor companies not accepting my application and he had to find ones that do” was manufactured by the agent.
I met the agent again and he presented an invoice (請求書) to me for the initial costs:
* First of all, I was charged an agency fee (仲介手数料) and an administrative fee (事務手数料), the total of which exceeded 1 month’s rent plus tax. This directly contradicts what I saw in this online article (link: [https://shikakutimes.jp/takken/429#3](https://shikakutimes.jp/takken/429#3)), which states that the maximum remuneration (whatever name it is called) received by the agency cannot exceed 1 month’s rent and the agent can only get 50% from the tenant (and the remaining 50% is payable by the owner). If this article is correct, it means that I am charged more than double by the agent. This triggered my suspicion of the agent, but I do not want to accuse him of any wrongdoing unless I am 100% certain.
* Secondly, I was charged “cleaning fee” and “24-hour support fee”. I saw from this video (link: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY1ZLOjIkCk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY1ZLOjIkCk)) these items should be optional, but when I asked the agent, he told me that these items cannot be opted out from. During the discussion, he had a slip of the tongue and said that these items are “options (オプション)”, but when I pushed further, he said that these are “mandatory options”.
* Thirdly, I was charged “Hoshokin” (保証金) *on top of* “Shikikin” (敷金) and “Hoshogaisha fee” (保証会社利用料). I fully understand the purpose of “Shikikin” and “Hoshogaisha fee” but what I do not understand is why I am required to pay “Hoshokin” additionally. When I asked the agent about the “Hoshokin”, he said that this would be paid to the owner and would not be refunded, similar to “Reikin” (礼金). The problem is that when he first recommended the property to me, the promotional materials clearly stated that “Reikin” would not be required. It surprised me that I was required to pay “Reikin” albeit under a different name.
So I told the agent that the total initial costs exceeded my budget and I have to re-do my calculations and get back to him afterwards. This morning (less than 24 hours after the said meeting), he sent an email to me urging me to make up my mind because it would be difficult for me to find any other property whose initial costs are within my budget.
At this point I am almost certain that I cannot trust this agent anymore and I should find a property elsewhere. I guess I just need someone to reassure that I am making the correct decision here. Thank you for reading this long post and here is a potato 🥔 Please feel free to leave a comment to share your thoughts.
**TL;DR** I think that my real estate agent is fishy because I suspect that:
1. I am being rushed into signing the lease for the first property
2. I am overcharged on agency fees
3. I am tricked into not opting out from optional services
4. I was lied to in respect of “Reikin”
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This sounds fishy. [Here’s a beautiful video from Suumo on what is “normal”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=OzdHqetnI8Y&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fsuumo.jp%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title).
Honestly, I can imagine it would be very hard for you to find a place, simply because of your visa length and unemployment. Still doesn’t justify these costs.