Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back to the buying a house in Japan podcast the number one akia podcast in the world today we got the besties back we got eric in the house we got jstocks rocky how you boys doing yeah may b and be beyond um about everyone's back at home i think everybody was ah away for a little bit and now everybody's back where's Where's home, guys? Where's home, Eric?
Speaker: I'm in Minnesota right now. Nova Scotia. and And I'm in California, so the state's boys, American boys, are back in America. We got East, Central, and West Coast.
Speaker: Recording at 8 a.m. I'm taking a page out of Joey's book. I don't usually drink coffee like this crazy early in the morning, but Joey, I have ripped an espresso shot, and we're going we're going for it. That's the crackhead coffee.
Speaker: Shout out to my friend, Chris in New Mexico. he was like listening to a bunch of, maybe it was Huberman, I think the caffeine podcast Huberman did. And one thing that Huberman says is try to push it 90 minutes after waking up. And then that's when you have the caffeine and then you hit that caffeine spike at a more optimal time during the day. And then you don't need a second coffee in the afternoon kind of thing.
Speaker: At that time, I was waking up. I mean, I still do this, but I wake up and I make coffee right away. And Chris called it the crackhead coffee because you you wake up and you just make it right away. So, Taki's 8 a.m. crackhead coffee.
Speaker: I remember, Joe, you were like so into that adenosine, like get sunlight first thing in the morning, and you're following Chris's regimen. And then all of a sudden, Chris was like, hold up, stop the press. That's completely wrong. It took me a long time to get into it was the thing. So Chris was pushing this for months. And then finally, I don't know, at the four or five month mark, I gave it a try. And I was like, you know what? I think he might be right. And then I reached out to Chris and I was like, I think he's right. And he's like, dude, throw that all out the window. Like something better. I got something better. And it was like...
Speaker: It was all about fiber. He was like, drink the coffee whenever you want. doesn't make a difference. He's like you gotta to have fiber at the start of every meal. was Does the oat milk count as fiber? Probably not.
Speaker: Metamucil in the coffee. Do you drink ah noon coffee, Joey? Yeah, I'm on two a day right now. okay One in the morning and then one kind of between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
Speaker: I'll aim for a second espresso shot. Joey's usual routine is he has, I think, the morning coffee, then he goes to the same coffee shop every day, sits in the same spot, and just like grinds out Aki and Marcode. Right, Joey?
Speaker: That's right. If anybody's trying to find me, the bar in Mahone Bay in Nova Scotia, that's where you can find me. regular All right. and We got an exciting episode today. We're going to talk about six things you should know before buying or six things you need to have ready before you buy an Akia in Japan.
Speaker: Before we go into that, Joey, I know there's a couple political changes. There's a lot of current events in Japan. What's happening in Japan ah these days? Yeah. Yeah, by no means an expert, but I've been seeing a lot of chatter on LinkedIn. Japan has some elections coming up. I think there's some elections last week and some more this week for different ah political bodies of Japan. I don't know the exact stuff, but anyways, elections, I think federal elections happening.
Speaker: And one of the parties that has been getting a lot of media mentions is like the far right party modeled in the the modern Republican party image, Japanese people first type rhetoric. So despite but they are winning some seats, it seems, but still quite low numbers. But despite that, seems like they're getting a disproportionate amount of media attention.
Speaker: a lot of it's circling around too many foreigners in Japan seems to be the basic talking point. Ro, Ro. Does that scare you, Eric? No, I think they love us.
Speaker: So who are they doing this for? I think it's media. Someone had a good comment on LinkedIn. Again, it's politics. Maybe it's not rational, but someone, I think he's a writer for Bloomberg reporting out of Tokyo. And he was like, but it's not the same as the United States. It's not the same. Japan doesn't have a ton of illegal immigration.
Speaker: Immigrants aren't replacing the type of jobs that Japanese people are doing. They're doing, again, the jobs that Japanese people don't want to do. Thinking of all the Nepalese people youre seen working at the 7-Elevens, et cetera, in Japan.
Speaker: And again, the housing market is the exact opposite of the United States. So this Bloomberg opinion writer was saying it's, there is a lot of, it is a populist anti-immigration foreigner movement, but the fundamentals of the economy are different from the United States.
Speaker: Is there any fear if you are trying to buy Nokia that things could change soon, maybe in the far future? Any thoughts there? I've certainly had questions from people. like Several people have sent me the same like articles, and I'm like, thanks.
Speaker: It's like fifth time I've seen that one. Thank you. But I don't think that there's a lot of like, I think it's different when you're like an Okinawa and they have the very anti-American sentiment. Please no more bases. That's a very obvious, hey, we do not want American foreigners here. Whereas this is, I feel like cloaked, right? We're just saying no more foreigners, but they don't want actually want to call out the actual group.
Speaker: So they're of foreigners that they don't want so that they don't offend any given government. think that a lot of what I've seen posted online in terms of the real estate market in Japan and our foreigners going to be able to buy anymore.
Speaker: It is aimed at Chinese nationals buying ah condos in Japan and raising the prices there. I see a lot of people that are mentioning that there's, again, i have no idea if this true or not, but the stories online of Chinese nationals saying, oh, it's so easy to immigrate into Japan. You start out, you get the business manager visa.
Speaker: And then you get whatever free health care is not free in Japan, but quite subsidized. Oh, you go to you get this business manager visa and then you can get excellent free Japanese health care. Like I see that story. I believe that's probably a driving motivation here that there is a lot of anger at Chinese nationals buying up property, raising prices, taking advantage of the health care and immigration system. So I really think it's aimed at that, but are all foreign nationals going to get swept up in this movement?
Speaker: It's hard to say. i think like my kind of final thoughts on it is one, like Chinese nationals buying property and raising prices is only happening in Tokyo. The rest of the country is not affected by that at all. There's 9 million abandoned homes, maybe ski resort towns, but that's that could be Australians, not Chinese.
Speaker: But i just feel like there's not the housing market is not the same as Chinese nationals buying property and driving up home prices in Canada, which is like a story we hear on the news here as well. I just think like it's only probably affecting Tokyo where that's happening.
Speaker: And then two, rich people love when housing prices go up. And guess who has a lot of political sway in almost every country in the world? It's rich people. So it's hard to see this like and anything really happening in the real estate market as a result of this, I believe.
Speaker: Yeah, I think they would still really want to promote their rural areas, right? And so maybe they come out with some sort of policy that affects Tokyo and not rural Japan.
Speaker: It's interesting. When I was in Karuizawa, we were at a stop by an outlet mall and oh my gosh, there's just like Chinese tour buses coming through. I think just from like a quote unquote discount or weaker yen perspective, there they definitely are flooding the market.
Speaker: in a different way that I'd say Western tourists are coming into Japan. I saw it in Otaru too. There were signs on, like i remember one house in particular, I think I took a picture on my phone, but there was one house in particular. it was like in a residential zone. It was like an, I think someone maybe a little bit wacky lived there because he had a bunch of like wacky decorations up, but there was a sign on his house in Japanese and Chinese, no English, but it said, this is not a tourist attraction, like tourists go away kind of thing. And it was in like Japanese and Chinese. And I thought that was really telling.
Speaker: Because I had also seen a lot of Chinese tour buses and Chinese tourists in Otaru. I'm actually interested. like With Akiyamar, we don't get any or very little traffic from China. I don't know if maybe that's a Google Analytics thing. But I'm curious, like who who are the big people helping folks buy in China? I think this date, Joey, I don't think we really have encountered any Chinese customers. and I'm curious what real estate agents helping them in Japan.
Speaker: Yeah, I think well I know of one. i think most of his staff is like Chinese speaking in the Kansai area. But yeah, he might be the only one I know of. Okay. All right. That's the quick update on Japanese politics. and Some regulations that may be coming into place. We will keep you guys posted. I'm personally not afraid.
Speaker: I think things take a long time to move. And I don't know. The Akiya problem is so big that even if they were to stop or restrict foreigners from buying it, they're going to have to do something to solve this issue. Yeah. All right.
Speaker: Moving on. Double kill. Oops. Oops. Wrong one. Here we go. Oh man, okay. I got all the wrong music here. Let's maybe use this one.
Speaker: Nope. I remember my first podcast. Okay, okay, okay. This one. Hey, yo, shut up. All right, we are now on to the six things you need to know before you buy Anakia. Six things you need to prepare before buying an Anakia.
Speaker: We're going to go in a round robin here where we're each going to say one. I think we can both all elaborate on that point too. We have not pre-scripted this, so it's going to be putting Eric on the spot a little bit. so I'm pretty nervous.
Speaker: Eric, we'll give you first draft pick. what is What is number one? what is some Sorry, what's the question? Can you repeat? question is, what do you need to have prepared before you buy an Akia? Whether that be physically or mentally or just before you start the purchase process and really move forward with us or someone else, what do you need to have ready?
Speaker: I'm going to take the low-hanging fruit here and just start the party with a wise.com account for transferring funds. as easily as possible to your agent.
Speaker: Okay. Elaborate a little bit more on that. area Elaborate. Yeah. Elaborate. So I just go onto chase.com and send money. You're going to want to use wise.com so that you can input the Katakana characters and Japanese and select the Japanese bank and the branch that goes with that bank.
Speaker: So you can properly easily send funds to Japan. You can probably do a traditional wire at your bank, but all of our agents are set up to invoice and receive via wise.
Speaker: So it's going to make a lot of things easier, go smoother. And from talking to a lot of people, I'd say maybe 50% of my consults have people that already use it. So it is pretty widely used outside of yeah the U S and it's what I think it was created in Australia.
Speaker: Yeah. I like just said, sorry, say one thing about that is like so sometimes some of our clients do go off script and they'll, they prefer to go to their bank or whatever and figure it out in all the times that I've seen where someone doesn't use wise and they figure it out themselves with the bank.
Speaker: It involves like phone calls with their bank. They either have to go in person to their bank. Seems like a lot of hassle to handle that. Although in some cases there may be restrictions, right? On how much money you can move in one transaction on wise. Your bank, they'll flag you for fraud detection and they'll to ask you extra questions.
Speaker: And you're like, it's just unnecessary questions. Yeah. yeah So you recommend getting that up. Sorry to to cut you off. taka You recommend getting that up and running like before you even start your search almost or before you you want to get serious about a property.
Speaker: Yeah, I'd say you're searching and you know you're going to take the next steps. Set it up, right? It's done and out of the way. You've connected it to your respective account. I, for the US side, always suggest an Amex account because it's still a bank account. It's easy. It's also Amex is accepted in a lot of places in Japan.
Speaker: But then also you can, if you're leaving that money in there, it doesn't have to sit with 0% interest. Amex has a high yield savings. So you're at least making 3.8 while it sits there and you're shopping.
Speaker: So I would say one layer ah above that is not only make a wise account, but play around with it. Do maybe a test transfer to Japan, as Eric alluded.
Speaker: Japan's really hardcore on like anti-money laundering laws. So I think i would say if it's like you just made a account, you're doing your first transfer, there's like a 30% chance this maybe gets held up by the Japanese bank.
Speaker: Joey, what do you think?
Speaker: Like it has, we had a lot of transactions held up for some random reason. So initially a lot of the times that we saw that was we opened our own jet. We started a business in Japan. We opened a bank, a business bank account for that. And we try to send money to that account or,
Speaker: I think when we were trying to pay maybe Fumi or other people early on in Beppu, they would get a call. So it's not like the money was like frozen a little bit. I wouldn't say it was like a hard freeze.
Speaker: It was like frozen until the recipient picked up the phone and said, and got a phone call from the bank. And the recipient said, yes, I am expecting this money from abroad. Yeah. And or gave the contract and justified where the expense was coming in for because on the Japan bank side, again, really strict.
Speaker: So. The transfer limits really change often too. I don't actually know. I think right now the transfer limit on Ys per daily transfer is, I'm looking at on Google right now, it says a million dollars per Ys, but another one says ACH or car daily limits, 50,000.
Speaker: This is like a floating number. I think I would say 50,000 sounds more accurate. I haven't, I know people have broken up the transaction over a couple of days. What do you guys think? Yeah. I think it like, yeah I think it gets really hard to predict what the limit is going to be because I think it depends on the currency pair. So USD JPY might have a different transaction limit than say USD to Canadian dollars. so And then as you mentioned, it probably depends on which source the funds are coming from. or Is it coming? Is it ACH or is it some other kind of setup? So I think it's hard to predict, honestly, what the transfer limit is going to be. But I agree, 50,000 sounds right-ish based on what we're seeing with our clients.
Speaker: Okay, great point. Number one, Eric, you nailed it. Get why set up and get familiar with it. Joey, passing off number two to you. Okay. Mine is more about having experience in Japan.
Speaker: So I think that this isn't like a get this set up or do that kind of thing. I think it's more like a lot of people are just excited by cheap property, but really owning property in Japan is like a whole different beast. It's not an English speaking country.
Speaker: They have a lot of societal norms there and rural japan is very different from tokyo if you've gone on a vacation and spent a week in tokyo or something like that and now you're looking at a property in rural gifu prefecture i think it's going to be very different experience and even living in japan and having like japanese neighbors and just having a little bit of a life there, even if it's just a vacation life there with your own home, you're going to experience aspects of Japan that you wouldn't experience just on vacation. And I think it's really important to try to have some sort of experience in Japan. I think it's okay if it's, you went there
Speaker: to Japan once and really loved it and now excited about property. But I think if you only spent time in Tokyo and now you're trying to buy something in a different part of the country, we usually advise against that. yeah I don't believe you're setting yourself up for success here. If you're really just seeing the kind of, oh, it's so cheap, I should just buy it kind of thing because there's highs and lows throughout this journey. So I really think having that experience in Japan and realizing that it's something you like, but you can have that experience in Japan and maybe not like it. But if you have that experience in Japan, hopefully you've spent a good chunk of time in a smaller city outside of Tokyo or even a rural area.
Speaker: I really think that is something important. And I'm not saying that everyone can do this or we won't help you purchase a property in Japan if you don't have this, but I really do think it's important. And our best clients seem to have some sort of experience ah in their life in Japan, outside of Tokyo.
Speaker: What is the best way to transition, like soften that transition? So basically, what is the best? What is your advice on the best intermediary you visited maybe two, three even times or even just one time? And now you want to buy. what do you think that like an extended stay Airbnb or like what is what is what do you do?
Speaker: let Yeah. Extended stay. If you like property property ownership is a big, is a big deal. You're going to have to be dealing with Japanese stuff quite often. And there's a lot of frustrations in that process. And I feel like the best sort of softening that I would say is let's say you do want to buy a house in Japan. It obviously means you want to spend extended time in the country.
Speaker: You can do that without having bought a house in Japan. At least once go to some place in Japan, outside of Tokyo. let's say Shikoku or somewhere else and try to spend some extended time there, either a cheap hotel or Airbnb. Exactly. I think getting a feel for that type of life because that's what you're going to be doing. And that's hopefully you're going to enjoy that. So I do recommend trying to get some experience there.
Speaker: Shameless plug. You can stay at my second house and figure out how to use everything. Just let me Didn't someone do that already? Yeah, but they only stayed a day and then they dipped to Kyoto. So they borrowed your car or something, right? Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. So they were really set on moving to Kyoto. So I think they went to go look at property there. But if that's where you want to buy Kyoto, then it's also like, all right, spend time in Kyoto and see if you like spending time those neighborhoods. Yeah, you're doing the right thing for sure. Yeah, do what you can to really see if this is a project that you want to undertake, I think is my, to sum it up.
Speaker: and and All right. I guess I'm going to go segueing off that, Joey. Point number three, I think it's really having location identified. We have a lot of folks who are just like looking at prefectures like all across Japan and it doesn't I think when they do that, ah it's a signal that they don't know what they want.
Speaker: Stepping off your point, Joey, once someone has spent an extended period of time in, let's say, a certain rural area, and they're like I love this area. I want to buy here. I think that makes a lot of sense. But we also, again, have those folks who are like, hey I'm looking at a Hokkaido. I'm looking at Kyushu. I'm looking at XYZ.
Speaker: I think it's super, super important. to know where you want to be. And I think that stemming off your point, going and spending a month or a couple of weeks in that area and really getting to know, maybe not exactly the neighborhood, but at least the city, the prefecture alone to get the vibe, I think is absolutely crucial.
Speaker: Yeah. What do you guys think? Yeah, I would like to piggyback on that with your location or like kind of stem off that is like climate location. But then also there's some clients that are like, I really want a beach town.
Speaker: They're keyed in on like Kanagawa or not Kanagawa. but they're Basically just a beach life. And you could be in Kamakura or... another area in Japan, completely different areas.
Speaker: How do you suggest that client handle that? Because they're like, hey, both these fit everything that they like. They're both beach surf towns. what do you say to that? I think you got to pick like from the agent's perspective, like a lot of people do ask us like, Hey, can the agents help me?
Speaker: Can they suggest properties? Can they help me find properties to an extent? Yes. And that's much easier if you are like, okay, beach town in Shikoku or like in Kochi prefecture, for example. But if they're if you're just like beach town anywhere in Japan,
Speaker: That's a lot of work for our agents to do. There's over a million homes on the market right now in Japan. You can't expect them to be combing over every beach area in Japan. So again, I do think it's the best if the client can really narrow it down to geographic location, and then you'll be able to work with the agent. The agent can help you much better. If you can do that, they can start because they'll be looking at property online as well on some of the other Japanese real estate sites.
Speaker: And when it is a specific location, they'll be able to help you better by suggesting other properties that you might've missed. Yeah, I think when you spread yourself too thin and and the agent's too thin, it you just get a lower quality, you know i guess, purchase in my mind. If you're like dead set, hey, I want an old tattoo, our agents will start networking and talking to some of the seller's agents. I think that's a much better strategy than going, generally, I want a beach house at this price. So yeah for anyone listening and searching, I'd say we highly recommend know where you want to be or generally one or maybe at maximum two to three different areas to target.
Speaker: Okay, Eric, passing the hot potato back to you, number four. All right. So this one kind of comes from the the builder mindset that I have, and that is it's kind of using a vision board, right, in this whole process, write out and define. It doesn't mean you have to stick to it, right?
Speaker: But if you have a defined ideal home mindset, square footage, room layout, whatever those characteristics that you're like, you know what, this is the most ideal setting.
Speaker: I want a wall around my property. i want space for my dog. I want five bedrooms and I need kitchen with this much space. And if you define the perfect one and then When you're searching, when you're settling, yeah rather than forcing it, right? You're like, okay, I can get away with not having this or eliminating this. And you go, i but you absolutely need a garage. So you don't find a house that doesn't have a garage and go, um man, I wish I had a garage.
Speaker: There's a little bit of gray area there, right? To work. But if you start with a vision board and define that house, I think it makes searching for properties a lot easier. Didn't know you were vision board guy, Eric.
Speaker: Where are you putting this vision board? You drawing this out? You got a little poster next to you or something? I have a graphic of mine. So it's vision board my head. i No, I'm just kidding. Legitimately, yeah, I actually write it down on paper. Oh. On that thought, Kurt Bell's been on this podcast. Softy Papa.
Speaker: Softy Papa, prolific LinkedIn poster. Check him out. He also makes YouTube videos under the username Softy Papa. But that's exactly what he did. So he, him and his wife were looking for a property in Shizuoka and they were combing Akiyamart every day. They were combing other real estate websites every day. And then as soon as a property, I think a property came on the market, it was like right next to his in-laws house or something like that. And it nailed all the things that you had just mentioned for their specific case that they were looking for, all the attributes that they were looking for. They made an offer same day.
Speaker: I think that it came on the market. So you can do that kind of thing. They felt confident about it because Yeah, they felt confident. yeah Yeah. And extending your vision board of the house, I think vision boarding what your life in Japan is ideally going to be like is important. I think whether this be a visa or tourist visa, shout out to Nick over at Japan remotely. I think Eric, you've talked to him as well.
Speaker: But guess as many of you guys probably know, i'm just going to say it again, buying a house in Japan does not give you a path to a visa. There are some ways you can figure it out, but getting, I think both Joey and Eric are pursuing a visa and it's not quick.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. t Tell us a little bit, i guess, high level. what's How long have you been trying to get a visa? What's that process been like for both of you? I stopped counting the days so I wouldn't get discouraged. Bring it back.
Speaker: Yeah. Or the months. 180 days? ah Yeah, I think we're at maybe 120. Okay. okay I've been a bad client. I haven't really been making moves on it recently.
Speaker: But yeah, it's a lot of documentation to undergo this process. And yeah, te kind of temporary expectations on time here. Yeah, I just sent over an email the other day.
Speaker: it was like all the documents that I was missing. So I sent over some and then they were like, hey, you're still missing some. And it was, I think my file folder was like maybe 20 different PDF documents. So before buying, I think it's just really good to have a general understanding. Hey, am I going to be going for a visa? Do I want to permanently live in Japan or will I just be using a tourist visa and using it as a vacation home? Okay, Joey, pass the number five over to you. What do people need to know?
Speaker: ah Okay, this actually a little bit plays on the visa question, but actually this is going to sound a little bit negative and maybe this is an ongoing frustration.
Speaker: actually I've had in Japan a lot and I just want to address it, but temper your expectations on time to have stuff accomplished, the technology that's going to be used to accomplish things.
Speaker: Get ready for unexpected, irrational rules, your mind, irrational rules that pop out. Get ready for a lot of this. I describe it as like a and a no can do attitude. Like I find like in, in the West, a lot of times customers always write and the service provider will find a way to make it work.
Speaker: Whereas in my experience, and I personally get very frustrated when I encounter these types of attitudes, but it does seem like in Japan, they have a certain way of doing things. And if that's not the service you're looking for, they'll just say, no, we can't change anything for you.
Speaker: And so I just want to address that. I personally find this ah very frustrating and I encounter this like almost every trip to Japan. Even when I was a student in Japan, I feel like I was very frustrated this with this, but it's generally in my mind. And again, people might say I'm viewing this through a very negative lens, but It's like and and i can't do attitude when you're trying to work with somebody and you just need to, this is what you're looking for. And the other person is just throwing up no after no after no.
Speaker: So I think get ready for that to an extent. You'll experience this with when you're working with contractors. You'll experience this when you're working with the real estate agents, when you're working with judicial scriveners, get ready for things to not be as you expect them to be in America. Things work on a different timeline, usually much slower. Things work on different technology. Get ready for Excel spreadsheets, get ready for Fax machines get ready for a lot of things need to be done with wet signatures. Sometimes hunkos get ready for a lot of rules that don't seem to make sense to you. And it it can be very frustrating. So I just want to get ahead of that.
Speaker: And sometimes we see clients run into these issues as well. And they'll approach it with a very kind of Western attitude. I'm just asking questions. Like, why is it wrong to ask questions? And it's unfortunately, it can be in Japan.
Speaker: And that's just how it works there. Yeah, you're not going to change it. Yeah. And this is something that I battle with personally. I have that same attitude. I feel like what's wrong with asking questions? But honestly, sometimes it can be.
Speaker: your attitude, not and not just your attitude, but sometimes you just got to follow the rules. Yeah. Delivery is big thing too, right? Like when you deliver that question, try to do it in the most respectful way possible. So you hopefully do get a positive answer.
Speaker: I'm the cooling agent to Joey. We've talked about this example before, but we were at getting parfait and Joey just wanted ice cream and nothing on top of it. And he kept going to the so perfect example. potoni And I'm like, Joey, cool off, cool off. Okay. like Let me tell the story, i elaborate a little bit more. It's parfait, right? It's ice cream plus a bunch of other stuff. And I just said, can I just, just the ice cream? Like, you don't have to do any extra work. And like, they weren't having it. They were like, no, we no, we have to put that stuff on. And yeah, I gave the guy a little bit of attitude back and Take was embarrassed to be there with me.
Speaker: is It's all right. It's all right. But yeah, no, I think Joey, just double clicking on what you said there. Really, if you think you know the US real estate transaction process, throw that throw it out the window, the Japanese real estate transaction process is very different, especially when it comes to timing. Ideally, you settle and you get keys the same day. Stuff like that just doesn't always happen here, especially as we work with really traditional folks out in the countryside. Yeah, not only tempering expectations, but also just like removing what you think you know about real estate and coming with a different open mind, I think, especially when trying to buy is going to be important.
Speaker: I think I asked somebody at a restaurant once, hey, can I, do have a garbage? Can I throw this out? And I cover was there too. I was there. were at Penguin Bakery, dude. I was like, no, Joey, of course I have a trash can. Yeah.
Speaker: Okay. Point number six. We might actually go for a bonus round here. I think we would brace yourself here. All right. I might have a bonus. Yeah. Okay. I think point number six, a thing you need to have ready. I think something that is maybe less tangible, but it's just really having the energy to embark on this journey. I'd say Joey and I, six acus deep, Erica two to maybe come in on three.
Speaker: It takes a lot of energy to do this. I think not only to physically purchase the property, but to think about maintenance, think about coordinating guests, coordinating renovation.
Speaker: I would say if you feel right now that you're cup is your energy cup is not full, this might not be the right time for you. I think a lot of people look at buying property in Japan, maybe as like it from an escapism perspective, but realistically, you still have your life in your home country and you're going to need to allocate some energy per week to purchasing this property and making sure it keeps going.
Speaker: Whether be answering emails or looking for contractors or just moving fast, I'd say I've noticed personally that the more Akias we buy, we're spread thin. And sometimes it's just like you don't want to have to go try to find an installation person or you don't want to have to coordinate a cleaner or text that person. So it is a commitment that I didn't think fully through when every time we buy an Akiya.
Speaker: So have the energy ready. I totally agree. that Think of your day-to-day right now, and then where can you find, maybe it's an hour, maybe it's two hours a day that you're going to have to allocate to this project.
Speaker: It's usually at end the night. you have that? Yeah. Yeah. Usually at the end of the night or early in the morning, receiving like WhatsApp messages or emails because of the time difference, especially if you're in the US. That's a great point. the time The time difference, a lot of this work happens late at night or early in the morning.
Speaker: So then it goes slower if you don't answer it. i and You answer it. Yeah. All right. We on to the bonus round, Eric. I think we have a little bit more time. We're going to nine points. Number seven, Eric. What is your – what's a seven point someone needs to have ready? yeah it i My bonus is going to be like piggybacks on that.
Speaker: You have to have the energy, but be prepared. For some lulls, right? Yep. Anticipate that you, there will be some moments in the transaction or after the transaction when you're doing other things, anything where you're waiting And everybody does their very best so that it's transparent what you're waiting on.
Speaker: But sometimes they're the description of what you're waiting on might be a Scrivener talking to another Scrivener about recording your title and deed and And you're just like, wait, how long is this going to take?
Speaker: The Scrivener knows and only he knows. That's how it feels. I think sometimes depending on the seller sided Scrivener and that seller side of the transaction, we lose some of that control in the sales process of timeline when you're waiting on that more traditional Scrivener on the other side.
Speaker: For those of you that don't know what a Scriven is, we're actually going to have one on the podcast next week, but think of it basically as a legal paralegal that's helping you do the transaction and all the paperwork. So get ready for slow, unexpected slowdowns. Is that what you're saying, Eric? Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Like when it happens, don't think that, don't think the worst, just understand that there's paperwork being passed around. on the back end and being recorded. Just imagine somebody I like to use my graphic mind to imagine somebody in a Kominka or and they have a really big kanji brush and they're doing their traditional Japanese calligraphy art.
Speaker: And that's how they're recording your title indeed. And that's why it takes to three weeks. If you have that image, then you're like, oh, okay, they're making a work of art out of my title. Cool. Done. All right. Just wait for Satoshi San to finish his calligraphy.
Speaker: and then you're And then you can justify why it's taking so long. I want to see Eric's mood board. Calligraphy? All right. There are slowdowns, though. It happens. Usually on the seller's side or the scrivener's side. Usually document-related, I would say.
Speaker: it's Usually the slowdown is waiting for documents, waiting for signatures, waiting for stamps, that kind of thing. yeah I think for my second property, because it had to be re-registered out of agricultural land into residential land, I waited anywhere between six and nine months for that.
Speaker: The best thing you can do, i would say, as the client is when the ball is in your court to to move quickly. Like, for example, one one main slowdown we see is getting documents notarized. There's a point in time where you'll have to print off a document on a printer and physically sign it with a pen.
Speaker: and then get it notarized. If you're in the US, that's much easier than if you're in Canada, I actually have to go find ah pay it for a lawyer's time to notarize here in Canada. Is that your number eight, find your notary ahead of time? No, I'm still on the slowdown. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. So all I'm saying is there are slowdowns, but sometimes that slowdown can be on the client's, the client's responsibility. So I'm just saying when the agent does ask you to do something, particularly around documents, like try to do it quickly.
Speaker: Okay. I think the emotional rollercoaster purchasing in Japan is very different than in the US. In the US, once you get your offer accepted, you're like, oh yeah, everything is going really fast. In Japan, once you get your offer accepted, that's really when it begins.
Speaker: And that's where unfortunately the slowdown happens. We tell customers like, we can get you an offer and offer accepted very quickly, but and the contract, the settlement and all the transfers take a long time, where I'd say that takes up ah honestly the majority of the, what we say, two to three months of the transaction time.
Speaker: I think we had one of our early clients bought the udon shop in oh yeah Osaka. I had his offer accepted and then the seller like disappeared. Yeah, we'll get him on we get them on the pod. We got the udon shop. yeah I saw a video. so Yeah. Oh, nice.
Speaker: Okay. Okay. Bonus rounds. yeah bonus Number eight, I think just having extra cash on hand. So we do get a lot of people reaching out to us like, Hey, I saw this $17,000 house in Fukuoka. I'd like to move on this.
Speaker: And then after exchanging a few emails or talking with the client a little bit more, they just they only have $17,000. And so they're not really thinking about closing costs, which say you did this on your own without our services, it's still going to be five to $7,000 just to close on a property. And then if you work with us, we have an additional fee that we charge as well. You you do need a buffer of money just to put the house in your name.
Speaker: And then on top of that, you're going to maybe want to do some renovations, obviously fill it with furniture, get internet and utilities and all those other things. The $17,000 house, it the price of the house is $17,000, but real estate is a highly bureaucratic process and everybody in that chain of events is trying to extract fees from you. So there are closing costs associated with purchasing property. So be aware that $17,000 is the sticker price, but there's additional fees that you're going to need to pay a good buffer. I would say ballpark $15,000 on top of the price of the property, at least
Speaker: damn it, Joey, that was my last one I was going to go for. Just add to it then. Just add to it. Yeah, but I totally agree. If you don't have, let's say, Double, I would say, yeah, you should be able, I think Shu says this lot. You should be able to do the purchase twice.
Speaker: but You should be ready with the finances. So if you are buying, let's say yeah a $15,000 place, you should have, i think at least $30,000 ready. First off, if you're buying a $15,000 place, I assume you're going to be putting quite a bit in renovation, but I think, yeah, good rule of thumb, as Joey mentioned, having an additional $15,000 ready, in addition to having the energy, the time and the flexibility,
Speaker: to go through the process is going to be important. But yeah, that's the number one point, honestly. You got to have the money ready. We've had some customers who, again, midway through realize, okay, this is going to cost a little bit more.
Speaker: If you are curious about the real breakdown, we do have consultations. We have webinars with Eric here. ah We go over the process. We go over what to expect. Yeah.
Speaker: All right. ah Great points, guys. Turns out it was only eight, but I think they they are helpful. Any final tips from any of you guys for someone who is looking for an Akia in Japan and just starting out?
Speaker: I think believe it's possible. Like it's totally possible. Like we're on sick. I don't like, honestly, it was Otaru six or seven. Like I'm not quite sure. Eric is on his third one. It's totally possible. And once you do it once you realize that it's not so scary. Again, there's lots of slowdowns and stuff you need to be aware of, but totally doable.
Speaker: Everybody. it It is fun process. Yeah. I think you can count it as nine. and We'll count. and Joey did too, because he did the one with get your notary ahead of time. Okay, here we go. it's Eric with the number nine. well no i was Yeah, Joey said it. You're going to need a notary, and if it's in your court, to act quick.
Speaker: So when you're setting up your wise, you could already be setting up, okay, who am I going to use as my notary? but just go to UPS. Yeah, UPS. If you're in the U.S., if you're in Canada and stuff like that, oh yeah if you already know where to go and who to use, that's good.
Speaker: Pretty messy in Canada. Actually, if I had to guess, I think the U.S. is the exception yes here and probably the rest of the world. You likely need to find a lawyer. I'm not 100% sure how it works in the rest of the world, but at least in Canada, that's, there's a few different places that claim to be able to do it. But I, so I went to the courthouse, which claims to be able to be able to notarize documents. And I had to submit a very long form and it was like a two to three month turnaround. And I'm like, oh, this is crazy.
Speaker: I went to the RCMP, our provincial police here in Canada, which says online they notarize documents. And then they laughed at me and said, no, we don't do that. And I'm like, well how did I get this thing notarized?
Speaker: And then so I had to go to the found a legal office and the first legal office actually turned me down. though I don't know what I'm signing here. i don't know what I'm notarizing. And I'm like documents in English. I'm purchasing property in Japan, but they're like, I don't know what this is.
Speaker: So like it it was a mess for me to get stuff notarized. So maybe Eric is right. you're outside of the U you're try to find someone that will notarize documents for you. Yeah. I think it's, I think Canada is like the majority of the rest of the world from everybody that I've talked to where it's, yeah, you have to use a lawyer. It's a lot more official and it's not just show up to your bank. Cause I showed it my, my aunt is a notary. So I literally just pulled up in my truck.
Speaker: She hopped in, stamped it. And I left. Nice. That's funny. Joey, just close it out on that last point. You had, talked about is this is definitely doable. We've helped about 80, close to a hundred people through this process. We are very confident that we can get you a house, but we also want to make sure that you are ready.
Speaker: You know, you are set up for success here. So again, please book a consultation with us. We're happy to connect you with one of our agents. It's crazy. Over this past year, Joey and Eric, we've gained a lot of confidence in that. we We can pretty much help people buy almost any property anywhere at any price. We can do it.
Speaker: But now you as a listener, if you will want to buy, you need to be ready. And yeah, just know it's, Joey makes it easy, but it's also not easy once you do get the house. Both are easy and hard, highs and lows, I would say.
Speaker: Excellent adventure. Okay. Cool, guys. Great episode. And if yeah anyone curious, please book a webinar, consult, or just shoot us an email at contact at akiamart.com.
Speaker: All right.
