Transcript
Speaker: Welcome back everybody to the Buying a House in Japan podcast. My name is Joey joined by my co -host Take. what Today we have a guest with us, Kendall Barra from Hokkaido. Hello. Hello, Kendall. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you very much for having me. And my first time at Tohama Base Camp. Hey, what are your first impressions? We're actually, let me set the scene of where we are. We're in a, Actually, no, Kendall, first impressions. and all that allll just First impressions? I am really impressed. Really? Take it. We'll take it. It's nice and clean. ah It doesn't feel cramped like some older Japanese houses do. yeah And one thing that I really appreciate is the number of air conditioners. yeah Absolutely. He didn't do anything halfway. He gets it. He Hokkaido boy gets it. We can't be having the Tokyo humidity and heat. We've got two ACs in the room we're so we're sitting in right now. Should we turn the other one on or no?
Speaker: But also, Kendall goes nice and clean as he stares at a pile of boxes and plastic wrap. Setting the scene, we have ah probably a mountain of Amazon boxes on one side of the room. We tried to get some incense, but it didn't come on Amazon, so we have a mosquito coil lit for mood vibes. We just put up this dark curtain. I'm honestly pretty hungover. Joey used to be a little hungover. Kendall's looking real chipper right now. No, not perfect. Subpar, but overall, we're sitting on lawn chairs with these mics attached with a whiteboard. We've got to take a picture of this scene later. Yeah, we threw an Acchiamar party last night at our friend's new restaurant in Nakano, Kuma Cantina. Thank you, Daniel. Thank you, Daniel. Kendall came all the way down from Hokkaido for this party.
Speaker: How was the party, Kendall? was It was really my pleasure to come down to Tokyo. I was exceptionally pleased for the invite. Wow, okay. How was the party itself, though? Give us the vibes. The party itself, it was lively. there were How many people do you say there was 30? 40. 40? I think maybe 30. I didn't count, but I said 40. 40 cents, right? 40, yeah. But there was a lot, and we were packed into the... I'm not gonna call it small. Cozy. was Yeah, cozy. Cozy, but we stay in real estate, right? We're packed in and we were lucky enough to have the AccuMart team shout us the entire Nomi Holdai. So very grateful for that. We threw this party. We had about 40 people that we've mostly met online. So met Kendall for the first time in the flesh, which is cool. So good to see you have legs. You can see you're a real person. It was really amazing, I think, to see everyone.
Speaker: Had a lot of fun, got pretty crunk, honestly. I know I passed you a couple tequila shots at the end of the night. That was a dagger for me as well. um It was fun meeting a few people in real life for the first time. like A lot of internet friends we've had up till this year. E -friends. Yeah, it was nice meeting people in real life. But yeah, I think hopefully we'll we'll do it again. I think it's it's crazy. We got a lot of comments that so many people are doing a lot of Akia adjacent things, a lot of real estate, bilingual things. And a lot of people had not been in the same room and met people. So I think we're hopefully fostering relationships and growing the pies. I think what we kept on saying did seem to be yeah part of the conversation last night was like community building community in the space. And that's a big benefit yeah to to these people. Yeah, it seems like the bilingual or the foreign agents community is a very like small group, right? Up up in Hokkaido, how many other foreigner agents are to you in your office? Are you the only foreigner? and The office is zero, yeah um including me, one. okay Okay, yeah. Just me in in my office. And then in the RE -MAX franchises, also just me. Okay. So yeah. Holding down the fort.
Speaker: And then in the like wider real estate in the area. I know there's, I know there's foreigners working in the Toronto and Niseko, but that's a different, they're in a different section of the market than our company is. We're happy to re -introduce you here. I know we've had a couple podcasts in the past, but Kendall is one of our AccuMart preferred agents in Hokkaido holding down the fort. So as we talk to folks interested in Akiyas or just any real estate, Kendall, we're going to be sending them your way. So we have some questions for you today, just so they can get to know you a little bit better. I know you're our main guy there, so I think if anyone is interested in property, we're going to be sending them this podcast. We're going to be sending them you. Turning back the clock a little bit, Kendall, I know you've introduced yourself once again, but tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and where you're at now.
Speaker: Yeah, I'm from Canada. ah Happy Canada Day, all right? Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. We outnumber you the Americans right now. What do you guys do for Canada Day? That was one of my questions. So yeah, today is July 1st, which the keen Canada aficionados will know is Canada Day. Canada Day. Yeah. Fist bumps. Here we go. And so this year, Canada will be celebrating 157, can you double check me on that? 157 years. Could be right. Well, let's just say 157. Around that time. And yeah, for most candidates, it's just barbecues, hang out with friends, fireworks. Common thing, barbecues. I keep hearing the barbecues with Kendall here. Kendall's a BBQ man. Well, I love barbecues. It's great.
Speaker: eaten outside, lots of meat. can't You can't beat it. Yep. Canada Day, congratulations guys. You guys made it to July 1st, 157, big moment. But yeah, Kendall, does where in Canada are you from? Yeah, so I'm from Eastern Ontario. It's a small town called Cornwall. If anyone knows it, good for you. Thanks for being curious about Canadian geography. And then I came to Japan in 2010. I was on the jet program and I worked as an ALT in a small town called Haboro. Again, another really small town. This is a fishing village in the west of Hokkaido. And when I say small,
Speaker: properly small. it's since i Since I left, the population has continued to decrease like the rest of Japan. I think pretty soon it's gonna break 6 ,000. I feel like we had 6 ,000 people on the train to Tokyo yesterday. And to give you some scale of this decline, this town in the 70s was 32 ,000. Wow. And over the past 50 years, it's lost 80 % of its population. We'll come back to that. Yeah, I hope this provides some context. I'm sure people listening to this podcast have heard a lot about Akiyas, but hearing these numbers lets you know the scope of some of these towns, like where everyone's left, basically. After Haboro, I moved to Asahikawa,
Speaker: or I was teaching English in an Aik, Iowa, hey which is an English conversation school. And I did that for about five years. And then last year, or I guess, yeah, it'll be last year, I made the switch to real estate and started working at this company called Remax QA based on Sahikawa. And yeah, but there now those towns like Haboro, I've never been to a town where the population has decreased so much like that. Is it like I've seen on Instagram, YouTube, you see these towns in the Midwest, the Rust Belt kind of thing and like abandoned homes, the whole street down. Is it like that or what is the situation in a town that's come from 32 ,000 to 6 ,000 people?
Speaker: So if we're going to go to detail in Haboro, I assume that's okay. Sure. Yeah. the years it was It's a fishing town now, but it was a coal mining town. Oh, that seems to be a con. Like there's a lot of, in the US too, like some of the lowest income per capita spots are ex -coal mining towns. The coal mines, if I'm not mistaken, they opened in 1941. And they were big obviously when they were open. You got thousands of people living in these company towns and that they closed in 1972. So you got about a 30 year timeframe there of coal being shoveled out of these mountains. But these company towns, they're not in a prime location. They built them way out deep in the mountains and they built them quickly. yeah there They were mostly wooden houses.
Speaker: tiny, cramped, and then they just shove as many workers in there as they could. So most of the decreased population in Haboro, it would be those company towns just disappearing. Got it. I believe if you add all those like company towns up together, it was 12 ,000 workers, something like that. And now if you go to where these spots were, it's just nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not even farms because it's so hilly. You can't really grow anything productively. Has stuff been abandoned or it's just or or they bulldozed it like the old houses? Like when you say nothing, there's literally nothing there? yeah Literally nothing because most of them is wood. I don't know if they bulldozed them or if they just decayed and then
Speaker: But if you go there now, you won't even see any evidence of these houses. What you will see is evidence of the public facilities that they built. So there's a hospital, there's a fire department. There's infrastructure still there, right? we We could start a new town. Cause those were concrete, right? So they've lasted until now. yeah There's an onsen. I say onsen, but this would be central. This would be a community bath. That's still good. And of course coal fired community bath. Oh, that's sick. When you're mining for coal, you got to use it, right? Coal -fired community bath. there's I watched Spirited Away. They threw the coals in there, the bathhouse, kind of thing. Yeah. There's a school and there's some big apartment blocks, but if you go there now, it's pretty scary.
Speaker: Scary as in dangerous scary or just it's dangerous, too so Really? Yeah. Whoa, so things you got to watch out for in Hokkaido just tips for people who want to go out into the wilderness Wilderness number one bears bears you got to watch out for that because they're the scariest thing. All right, especially Just before and just after hibernation. Oh, it's a real you're being serious here before hibernation they got to need a lot to build up their their energy stores and then after hibernation their Hungry, angry, cranky. Pablo Bears. Yeah. That's all of Hokkaido. All of Hokkaido Bears.
Speaker: And then the next thing you gotta worry about is the wasps. Oh, hey wasps. Oh, how are those Japanese like super mega hornet? Yeah. Oh my God. i making The mega hornets. Oh, those are scary. In Japanese are called susume bachi. Oh my God. But people use the word susume bachi very generally. Okay. Like those normal wasps, the ones that everyone's used to. Then there's these mega hornets. Oh no. Which are, Their bodies are about like two, so two and a half inches. So they're a really big. And if they sting you, there is a chance of death. Oh my God. From just one or you do have to be swarmed still.
Speaker: So it's like an allergic reaction, it's an anaphylaxis, and it just depends on the person, like how bad these things affect you. Just one, I don't know if that'll kill you, but apparently just one is enough to put some people in hospital. I'm pretty allergic to bees, so I hope Guido might be out now for me. I feel like I've seen you got stung on your face once before. No, remember when you did that road trip and it got stung in my arm and it was like swollen for a week? and but You got stung on your arm but your face swelled up too. Maybe, I don't know. It was just a logic reaction. But right kind i' going back to it real estate here, you cover Hokkaido. So Hokkaido, for anyone who's not familiar, is the most northern ireland island, Japan. yeah The AC blasting right now at a good 20 degrees Celsius, which I love too. that's great Feels good. feel it Chilling it out here. but Yeah, definitely is the cooler island. like On average, we're talking like 10 degrees lower than whatever the temperature in Tokyo is.
Speaker: I'll take it. i'm um I like that. Can I ask a culture question about you working in the ah Japanese real estate office? I remember you mentioned this thing. It was funny. I told my family about this too. But you said something about, like oh, I think today's the day where you can switch from like the long sleeve to the short sleeve. And it's interesting. I went to two years of high school in Japan. And there definitely was a day when you were able to switch the uniform over. And I didn't realize that extended into corporate culture in Japan as well. What you're referring to is called cool biz. little bit there' su to co to beoo oh You're rocking a cool biz right now. yeah It looks good. And really it just means short sleeves and no jacket, no suit jacket. It's culturally acceptable. Yes. And there's a date.
Speaker: from when you can. Is this law or it's just a norm? It's a so nor norm. It's a norm, but most companies follow the same day, the same date to start doing this. And it is very much dependent on the company. So my company, they don't really care. some of the bigger corporate places like no, no short sleeves for this day. And then after that, I'm like, Oh, I can have short sleeves. But what's the wind cool biz? And what's the opposite of cool biz? It would just be nothing. Okay. Cool biz and normal. um Okay.
Speaker: Could you ever wear some like Nike Dunk's to work or something like that? Let's talk about street clothing. or well how would that be except How would that be received if you walked in the office with... So my company's pretty chill when it comes to dress code. A lot of the other, especially like the big real estate companies, they want everyone to be suit and tie. And then cool biz only when it's acceptable. But so yeah, my company's pretty cool with that. You can dress basically however you want. Oh, really? Yeah. But I choose to dress mostly like this. Yeah. Cool bits. Cool bits. Yeah. I don't want to, I don't want to be showing up in an old t -shirt to the viewings. I want to have an old t -shirt right now. It's interesting. Yeah. I think a lot of listeners here, Japanese cultural norms, it seems. The nail that sticks up gets hammered down, right?
Speaker: And also, sorry, an interesting segue with you you said like the businesses, they all or they all follow that same norm. They want to do the same thing. And just an interesting segue into a real estate conversation with commission that you mentioned in a previous conversation. I don't think we published that podcast, but it'd be an interesting discussion again. About clients negotiating commission and why that isn't done or why real estate agents will one they make less money but she was an aspect of it that was just everybody does the same thing.
Speaker: Yeah, there definitely is an aspect of that, not even just an aspect. but It's a hard fact in Japanese culture, the sticking to a norm or conforming. And and it's the same thing as the cool biz thing. Like I'm sure there's no, I'm sure you won't get arrested. The cops won't come break down your door if you're wearing cool biz in the winter. Cool biz in like ah March or February. But it's just a ah norm that these big companies follow. I think the day is June 1st, or and maybe it's early. I don't know what is in Tokyo, but yeah, all these companies like now we can wear short sleeves. And when it comes to commission, it's the same kind of thing. So for people listening, I do want you to understand that most Japanese clients do not even ask. And when I say most, I'm talking like 99 .99%.
Speaker: hey in the In my office right now, I've never seen anybody even ask for a discount on commission. So I do want people to understand how rare it is. yeah I've talked to my office owner about it and he said, yeah, it's possible to negotiate, ye but nobody asks and we don't want to. yeah Yeah, we're learning these lessons and I think actually moving forward, Kendall, we've we've taken your thoughts on this and we're having clients we pass over to you know that, hey, this is a document, this is their signing. But yeah, just in general, I think on the flip side in the US, it's like Wild West. You can ask. It's not unheard of or unusual to hear like crazy requests, crazy low balls, crazy out of the box ideas. And it feels like that's just kind more celebrated almost in the US. s And Japan is the exact opposite, right? where it's
Speaker: You're crazy for it. I do want to jump in here. So we're talking about discounting commission. Yep. I also want to cover low ball. Yeah, let's go with and again, my single piece of advice is please don't. Okay. Me and Jerry did. and It didn't go well well. Yeah, we got, we got stung. So when I say low balls, let's say just the Acia property, let's say 8 million that's ah in US dollars. That's 50 ,000. yeah About $50 ,000. $50 ,000 at the current exchange rate. and So $50 ,000. If you come in and say, let's just, this property has been sitting on the market for a long time. 10K. Let's go in, let's go in half. okay Let's offer 25 ,000. 25 ,000 US dollars. yeah
Speaker: You might think, okay, the worst thing and they can say is the worst thing they can do is say no. yeah No, the worst thing and they can do is never talk to you again. ye We learned that. the The seller could be offended ye of even hearing that number and just refuse to do any more business. ah Your buyer's agent can also be extremely put off by it. yeah Be like, okay, I don't want to i don't want to he took the heat for us waste time with these guys. yep yeah um the sellerit's seller himself or herself could be put off by it. So in terms of consequences, it is worse than just saying no, it is like having the door completely shut. Understood. So when it comes to negotiation, I'd say,
Speaker: Even in Japan, a low ball offer would be like 15 % under asking. And yeah, I'm even talking about places that have been sitting on the market for like years and years. um especially in the smaller markets, these people are really not in a hurry to sell. I'm going to go out a little bit on a limb here, but I am new to real estate in general, let alone real estate in Japan. But what if we did want to submit like a crazy low ball for Japan, let's say you see property and for whatever reason, we want to come in at 50 % of asking, can we
Speaker: communicate to our buyer side agent, hey, like we want to do this, but can you let the seller side know that we are expecting them to counter? Could you please, if you feel it's unreasonable, throw out and a number that you're comfortable with? Can you so coax them into this the Western way of negotiating or do you not think that's possible? In Japan, it ends up being the same situation where you give an offer and then the seller comes back with a counter offer. It's just the degree is totally different. Again, we're not talking about 50 % of asking price. We're talking 85, 90%. So you make an offer of 90 % of asking and the seller's like, could you do 93 %? And then you go with that. So it's the same thing. it's it happening It's just happening much closer to the original asking price. Okay. So it's not a foreign thing for a Japanese seller to negotiate. It's just that. Yeah. One thing I will
Speaker: ah some advice that I can give. If you're dealing with the seller's agent directly, they might have a good sense of what the seller is willing to accept. And in this case, you would be doing a double -handed deal. yeah brite But in this case, you do have a bit more like leeway. okay because when you're working with a buyer's agent and a seller's agent, whenever they communicate, like that's the offer, it's more formal. yeah But if you're working with the Ryote, a double -handed transaction, then you can just bring it up in conversation and not go through the like formal yeah hurdle yeah of making this offer. We got, what is it gonna say?
Speaker: and or We were talking to someone yesterday about the Ryote thing. So how often, specifically with Akia places, how often do you represent a buyer? You go to the seller and they want to do the Ryote so you don't get any commission. Is that common? or it' see i didn't really who Who said that to us today? He said it happens like 20 % of the time or something. What you're talking about is called kakoyikomi and it translates to a box out. oh box out okay i've heard I've heard some people use the term sandbag. Yeah. And yeah, it's just trying to block other agents. That's whack. From taking ah your commission. Okay. And just some background, if you're doing a double handed transaction, the agent collects the standard rate from both the buyer and the seller. And that's 3 % plus six month plus tax. Yep. And yeah, if they want more money, they can try and box out buyer agents.
Speaker: If you look, if the buyer's agent is looking on, on rains or any of these property searches, some of them will say we don't do single handed. Really? We're only going to do double handed. So though, especially on rains, like they'll say that. what so what is I guess its there's a monetary incentive, right? But as a buyer agent, like you obviously don't want to deal with those, right? Because you don't get any commission like for your clients. and we If we were a buyer and we were dead set on this property, like what would you do in that situation? You'd charge the client extra for the commission? or
Speaker: what would happen is Let's say it's not written down. I'll call up the seller's agent. And the the first thing I'll ask is, I'll say, i'm ah I'm an agent, I'm representing this person. Will you allow me to bring in a customer? And if the answer is no, that's basically just me walking into a brick wall. So foreigners basically just can't buy those places without, unless the agent's willing to just like. Yeah, that'll have to contact the seller's agent directly. That's a little bit, that's whack. Yeah. I can't give you a like hard number on how often this stuff happens. And my data is skewed by but the market that I work in. So I know my local market. Okay. And for me, it's pretty rare, these kakohikomi. Yeah. I think it's more common in bigger markets. Okay. Okay. Bigger markets, more money. Yeah. There's a lot more.
Speaker: Greed plays a bigger role on it. I was talking to some people at the party last night and they were saying oh That someone was talking about finding off -market deals and they were like, oh the off -market deals It's the deal take that's the sweet spot for a foreigner to buy but obviously you need to be in Japan speak some level of Japanese have some sort of Residency already in place. So for a foreigner trying to buy remotely from abroad it doesn't seem possible most of the stuff advertised is will be either either or, double -handed or single -handed. It is the off -market ones that people want to box out. Got it. Because it's off -market, they are able to hide it, to make a fence around their client and property.
Speaker: Risi, I feel like Hokkaido's got a really big supply of listings. And as we look at there, I think if you were to go for price per square foot of land size and building size, it's it's really up there. Do you see a lot of foreigners coming up or like what has Hokkaido been changing in say over the past couple of years with all this Akiya stuff? It's definitely been changing. So I've lived in Hokkaido for 10 years. And just in the past decade, a huge change in people visiting yeah and foreigners living in Hokkaido. When I started with basically nobody. They're OG. In terms of residents, I don't know numbers on that, but for tourists and people visiting, hey the numbers have gone up 600%.
Speaker: in the past 10 years or past year? 10 years, one year would be. 600%. Wow. that How is that received? We hear a lot about over tourism. Depends on who you ask. led some Some people, not well. Give us the general sentiment of the Japanese public in Hokkaido. I find that the Japanese public, they will accept tourism in certain places, right? yeah
Speaker: they're fine with it as long as it stays doesn only bleed over over there. yeah But then when it comes to like residential, like smaller neighborhoods, then there's a lot more pushback to it. Okay, we're definitely in ah one of those residential neighborhoods. We are Tokyo though. yeah So in Hokkaido, like the biggest like tourism and foreigner zone, yeah zone yeah these zoned areas, Niseko. Oh, Niseko. Niseko, yeah. And Niseko is much more foreigners than Japanese. yeah I think it's four to one. Four to one? Really? That's a different zone. ah A huge overwhelming number of foreigners. yeah um The numbers change a bit in summer, but in winter, like it's overwhelming. It's just all foreigners.
Speaker: And then in other places, Toronto is getting to be more like that, to heavy skewed heavily to foreigners in winter. Downtown Sapporo is a big touristy place. But then places that aren't like that, it's still very much monolithic, all Japanese neighborhoods. And in these places, people are a lot more off -put, wary. I'm i'm curious, this is we get the question a lot of, hey, are we going to be welcome in the neighborhood? And I think overall our our advice isn't something we're we're trying to do is be nice to the neighbors, introduce ourselves, give gifts.
Speaker: Do Japanese people think the solution is to, like obviously you need to have more foreigners or someone moving in, but um I'm curious what what, put yourself in their shoes, what do they think about this whole housing crisis thing? Okay, let me start off with some advice, playing on something you said. Yeah, bring gifts. Yeah, Kendall brought us some sweet gifts. well dog but nowil they Nailed it, Kendall. Luckily in Japan, there's no shortage of gifts. okay You can always buy these little box of cookies or individually wrapped. ye we We're going to pick some up. man's go yeah Mochi, Manju, Senbei, all these Japanese things. And yeah, just go around the neighborhood and say, hello, my name is this. I'm moving in. yep Have a cookie. ye And yeah, just that. They just want to make sure that you're not not a weird yeah had a weird person.
Speaker: I think it'll set people's ideas too that you understand enough about Japan to do that customary reading, bringing a gift. Yeah. The other thing that I would give advice on is speak Japanese. Okay. Yeah. Can't speak Japanese. I've got to work on this one. One of the, probably the biggest thing that people are scared of or one of the biggest things is not being able to communicate with their neighbors. Yeah. Like they think there's going to be some dispute And then you're just not going to understand anything and you're going to be a neighborhood nuisance for the rest of your life, the rest of their life. Yeah. Our neighbors actually came over yesterday. They're like, I didn't understand what he's saying, but he wanted to get the weeds out of our backyard and help us out. And I was like, oh, sweet. So he wrote down a piece of paper. He wrote some English. I had to chat to PT out.
Speaker: yeah I hear you being able not being able to communicate with the person that's living close to you is a concern right now they are they are very worried about that so if you already speak japanese rates if you don't try try all right please try i'ma try i a ah and they most japanese people will appreciate. Even the effort, it doesn't matter if you're, you don't need to have perfect kanji knowledge, perfect grammar, perfect pronunciation, even just a sumimasen or onigai shimasu. I go for the nihongo benkyochu desu. I'm learning in Japanese. Oh, mada mada benkyochu. We got to do that. We got to do some lessons here, yeah.
Speaker: that that's like Poor pronunciation. That's not going to offend them. They're going to be pleased, if anything. It's better than going in English and expecting them, catching them off guard. I hear that. Is there a solution to this housing? What do they think? Again, if they don't love foreigners coming in or whatever, do you think people are just going to magically move to their town? When we're talking about a solution to rapid depopulation of these towns, ice I find that some people still don't approach this rationally. If you're if you know about Japan, the birth rate is plummeting. ye I believe the latest number was 1 .26. And remember, it's 2 .1 to maintain the population. This is babies per woman. So 1 .26, which means we're coming in at half
Speaker: of the replacement. And it seems that some people are just living a fantasy and think, oh, we can get people to double the amount of children they're having yeah youla that hobodo yeah So there are definitely some people who think, oh yeah, we can if we just yeah have government government programs and initiatives, yeah I think the government could have some initiatives, but to double it, and not only to double it, to turn it from decline,
Speaker: double it back. I think that's too much of a hill to climb. We got to move people out of Tokyo. There are so many freaking people in the train and then it's such a sharp contrast to everywhere in Japan. They got to spread out Tokyo. ah Yeah, the contrast from Tokyo and then going down to Beppu is like so nice to get on the train down there and you always have a seat, like no waiting in restaurants. yeah I'm going to get the same thing when I go back to Asahikawa. It's really weird coming to Tokyo and be like, oh yeah, people live in this country. Oh really? because Because I live in Asahikawa and I work a lot on surrounding areas. And yeah, most of it's just dead.
Speaker: You go outside and there's one person on the sidewalk, there's a bus that comes around, there's just one old guy driving it, and there's a couple old people in the back, it's creepy. People gotta leave Tokyo, it's way more crowded than when we were here for college. Over tourism here, for sure, doesn't help, but yeah. And yeah, I think, this is my personal opinion, I think we really need to start moving people's focus away from Tokyo. Cause this over tourism thing, it is a real problem. Yep. All right. Let's places I can't handle. Let's hit us up with advert. Sell us Hokkaido. Yeah. Give us your quick and dirty. Why should we go visit Hokkaido or buy property in Hokkaido? Number one, I love Hokkaido. Okay. It's the best place in Japan for me. And I hope if anyone comes visit, I hope they'll be the same way. We're visiting you next in next time.
Speaker: So like I said before, it's much different than Tokyo. There's no lines and not crowded. yeah A lot of the places you go, it's a very, very relaxed feel. You can chill. here You can sit down. yeah A lot of times in Tokyo, just like I've been walking all day. I just want a place to sit and you just can't find it. Yeah. We paid for a sauna place so we could sit down. That was our solution, which was awesome. but I don't know if this sounds weird to people, but the luxury of sitting down is something that you really granted yeah yeah but if you come to Tokyo sometimes you just want to sit and okay there's all these signs like oh no don't sit here yep there's no chairs don't sit no loitering Hokkaido sitting quality high think that's what I mean that's what I'm hearing yeah so crowds yep it's a bit different in Sapporo Sapporo is a big city capital of Hokkaido Yeah, capital Hokkaido support itself is about 2 million people. And then if you include the suburbs around, it's about 2 .7 million people, I think. okay So that's a big city. And there are crowds, there are lines, there are trains that are full of people. Not as bad as Tokyo, but ye it's more of a city. But then once you get out of that, most of the other cities in Hokkaido are just quiet, chill.
Speaker: Another thing is all the other cities in Hokkaido are okay, which is car dependent. Joey's got the car parking situation down at our house on lock. Yeah. I like having a car in a city. Yep. So yeah, you, these places, a lot of them don't have train access to begin with. Uh, some of them have buses. Especially lately, we've been losing a lot of bus service in Hokkaido, a lot of train service too. Train lines are closing, bus lines are closing, and it is shifting very heavily right now to just car or nothing. Cars are sexy though. Yeah, I love Japanese cars. But if you're in Hokkaido, if you're in Hokkaido outside of Sapporo and you don't have a car,
Speaker: You're in trouble. You're never going to get anywhere and you're not going to be able to do anything. Don't worry. Cars are cheap here. We're most people, I think looking to move to Hokkaido would probably buy a car. yeah I highly recommend it. But if I'm going to keep selling Hokkaido, my next thing is nature. okay It's most places in Hokkaido, very close to nature. So the cities aren't that big to begin with. It's always just a short drive to get out and As soon as you're out of the city, you're right into the countryside. Yep. Just farmland as far as the eye can see. Nice, beautiful mountains, nice rolling hills. There's different, the the scenery changes depending on where you go in Hokkaido. Asahikawa is surrounded by mountains. yeah The tallest mountain in Hokkaido, Asahidake, is about 50k from Asahikawa. Okay. And you can see it on most days,
Speaker: Like it's ah a lot of times in Tokyo, you can see Fuji on a clear day and clear day never happens. True, yeah. In Asahikawa, lots of clear days. he gets Air quality probably is good. Yeah, in Tokyo, it's humidity, air quality. It blocks views a lot and other buildings. okay True. But in Asahikawa, nice, clean, clear air, ah low humidity, and you get to see these lovely this lovely mountain skyline on most days. so I think it's great. It's a great place to be. You can go out for a hike, just a walk, relax in nature. I love it. I feel like you missed the... I think the snow seems to be the... I can't believe you didn't mention that. I was going to say the king crab legs is what I was going to say. All right. Talk to us about snow and the king crab legs. So yeah, nature, being close to nature is great. In summer, you get to go wherever you want. And in winter, that means snow, a lot of snow, mountains of snow. Great snow. The east side of Hokkaido, lower on the snowfall charts, on the west side of Hokkaido, that's the snowy side. So Sapporo, I believe, averages five meters of snow per year. And in feet that is, what, 18?
Speaker: here 18 feet. On average? Five meters of snow per year. yeah or moly And then you get into really snowy regions. So Kuchan, which is the town adjacent to Niseko, I believe averages 11 meters of snow per year. 11 meters? And 11 meters is 35. Taller than the two -story house, I feel like. 35 feet? Or is it more than that? About something like that, like 35, 37 feet.
Speaker: average snow per year. So it's just an insane amount of snow. yeah And also the amount of time that it falls usually starts snowing in November and keeps going until maybe May, depending on where you are. okay So the resorts will open probably late November, like the earliest ones would open late November yeah and they'd close maybe in May, ah depending on the spot. So that's six months right of skiable. Not six months of powder still. Powder comparatively to other places. In ah in April and May, you are skiing with the the remnants. Okay. Slash bowl.
Speaker: but If some, if somebody's, I don't want, I don't want to go in the slushy time. I got to say it can be fun in melty ski conditions. Doesn't sound fun. yeah teachsh way t-shirt does You can wear a you can go down the mountain. The thing that's, the thing that's uncomfortable is like. Hard, icy, scratchy. Yep. Nope. That's not good. But once it starts to melt just a little bit, you can get some nice, smooth turns in. Okay. Yeah, so spring skiing is pretty fun. What about the crab legs? I'm intrigued. Joey mentioned the the food. Hokkaido's famous for seafood, right? Hokkaido's famous for all food. Another big plus of Hokkaido is the food there is great.
Speaker: Like even people in Japan, even the Japanese who live down here in Honshu, they know Hokkaido means delicious food, fresh food. yeah And depending on where you go, their specialty changes. So Joey's talking about crab legs. Up in Wakanai, that's a big thing, crab legs. I believe Hakodate as well is big for their seafood market. Sapporo's got a big seafood market too. Nemuro, that's another place you could find some excellent crab. And then if you move inland, Obihiro, is like the meat capital. Meat capital. Meat capital. Okay. Obihiro's big thing is pork. That's their specialty. Is that where Kurobuta is? Like black pigs? Kurobuta? I don't know about that. Keep going. All right, pork. But butadon is the okay the big thing in Obihiro. They're famous for butadon, which is a pork on rice. So it's just ah it's a real simple food, but it is delicious. If you're in Obihiro, please try the pork on rice on Obutadon. Okay. And then like a sahikawa,
Speaker: We're known for more more of the crops, rice, fruits. There's a town, there's a town next to us, how you call it, that's known for a black watermelon. Black watermelon? Black watermelon, yeah. Is it really that color? Yes, the outside. Okay, okay, it's dark green. Yeah, it's very dark green. But yeah depending on the light, it could look pretty black. The inside is just normal red. Yeah. There's normal color watermelon. I vaguely remember yesterday we were playing Uno at that bar. I'm a little color blind. I kept putting the red on the green and you guys were like, no, that's the wrong color. I forgot about that. It's a black watermelon, the food, the produce. Ice cream too, right? Denske watermelon. Yeah, ice cream is big. So again, Obihiro, they got a lot of cows. okay So they're known for their milk. The ice cream is great.
Speaker: Just yeah, everywhere everywhere you go in Hokkaido there's something good to try. So it sounds like Hokkaido is like the clean nature, less crowded, good snow, good food. Yeah, that's what that's what I want people to take away from this. That's the kind of place Hokkaido is. People that are listening are obviously, now they're intrigued about Hokkaido. I hope so. Let's say they're in the first time, now maybe they visited, they want to invest in Hokkaido. Give us a couple of hot areas. I know Niseko is priced out at this point. like Where do you see opportunities maybe for Let's say, for example, I wanted to live there for part of the year and I wanted to rent it out. I think that seems to be a common customer we have. Yeah, so the hot market is definitely Niseko. That's the highest price in all of provider. We can't get in. Yeah, if you're looking if you're looking in Niseko, be prepared to fork out some money and be prepared to fight. If you've got to move quick, you've got to... Don't low ball Niseko. Really, nobody's interested in your low velocity if you're looking at Niseko.
Speaker: Prudano is also getting very hot, downtown Sapporo, things are really picking up there. Yeah, those are the hot markets, so looking at increased prices. But if you're looking at like cheap properties, then yeah, anywhere outside of that, we'll have a huge selection of Akia cheaper properties, okay where it's really not competitive because most of these places are depopulating, nobody wants to move out here, yeah old people, they can't handle the house anymore and they move into a long -term care facility or they just die. And the kids don't want the house either. So mostly they just want somebody to buy it from them and and don't want to deal with it anymore. And that's the reality of the market in these in these smaller towns. What about like the coastline? When I've seen pictures of the coastline in Hokkaido, it reminds me a little bit of Nova Scotia. Where's like good coastline, affordable houses, any markets that off the top of your head? Okay, good coastline.
Speaker: where I could conceivably get a house on the coast or, you know, within walking distance. I mean, it depends on what you like in terms of coastline. Um, I like the Hidaka coast. Now this is the Southern, yeah, let's call it South East, South Central from Tomokamai down to Erimo. is the Hidaka Coast. And I really like that place. It's nice and quiet, nice rolling hills. They're famous for horses, by the way. Racing horses, are not necessarily eating horses, but they do also eat horses. Sounds like any listeners are thinking about eating horses. Hidaka Coast, any surf. but
Speaker: Yes. Oh, really? Yeah. Probably the most famous surfing spot in Hokkaido is on that Hidaka Coast. Now we're talking. Atsuma is the name of it or Hama Atsuma. Hama means beach. Yeah. It means coast. Yeah. That's a real popular spot for for surfing. And then the Hidaka Coast is just dotted with these little towns. I think the biggest town on the Hidaka Coast is 15 ,000 people. Okay. So yeah, not a big place. And the other ones are even smaller than that, like 5 ,000, 6 ,000.
Speaker: And yeah, there's there's always properties to be had or there's always properties for sale in this spot. One problem is for people trying to search is it is harder to find properties here. and yeah More of the transactions are just people selling to their friends okay and not listed on not listed on the public sites. We're going to work on that one. but Luckily we have you on the ground. I know ah something some advice we give people is there's so many good places. There's so many good towns. like Just to give us a narrow it down, give us three cities or towns to look at that you recommend in Hokkaido. Okay. Ooh, this is tough. Put me on the spot. Yeah. Spicy question here. all right yeahockck Yeah. It sounds like the Hidaka Coast that now I'm intrigued. Yeah. I really like the Hidaka Coast. I suppose the first answer I have to say is Asahikawa. Yep. We heard it. Okay. Asahikawa, Hidaka Coast, last one. What's one more wild card that you would be like, this could be an interesting spot. wild cardd Okay, then I'm gonna go with Obihiro. Obihiro. In the Obihiro area. Yeah, I really like Obihiro too. it's It's a nice town. Yep. It's a food is great. And there's just a lot more space. Yep. And even compared to places in Hokkaido. Okay. Obihiro, you can buy a nice
Speaker: large house, big plot of land for a reasonable price. So yeah, I think that's you can see a great place. Yeah. But Asahiko and Obihiro, those are both rather large cities. Obihiro, 250 ,000 people. Asahiko, 320 ,000 people. yeah I had to pick another small town people want to move into. o Around me, Higashikawa is really popular. yeah yahihala ygashika It's really popular among the Japanese. ah river it's kidding yeah It's getting more popular among the foreign population, and but the market is definitely heating up. like Properties move really fast in Higashikawa, but that's because it's a great place to live. All right, Kendall, we're going to run into the lightning round here, lightning questions. yeah
Speaker: There we go. so hate Lightning round questions. We're gonna shoot you a a rapid rapid fire. right know but All right, Kendall. On average, how long does transaction take in Hokkaido? Like, we're waiving cash, we have a property. ah Yeah. That's a tough question. no There we go. This is lightning round. Just give me the average. All right, month. One month. If you just want a one word answer, one month. Lightning round. How many of your transactions are loans versus just straight cash? Most of my buyers, straight cash. Foreigners, hard to get loans, so just cash. Just cash. How many of your clients are foreigners versus nationals? are you Or exclusively deal with foreigners? So the clients that I work with are foreigners. And then my office, it's a local real estate office, so they handle this as well. Average sales price.
Speaker: Ooh, average sales price. I want to say about 130. Again, it depends very much on the property, but used houses, they're usually below 20 million yen. 20 million. And that works out to about $140 ,000. And then smaller, older, a little bit cheaper. How many days a year do you get to ski or snowboard or hit hit the hit the powder? I try to go as much as I can. Last season, I probably did about 30 days of snowboarding. Cool. When you're going that much, you don't go all day. You just do two or three hours. but and Go back back home. Another lightning round question. Why not Hokkaido? Why not Hokkaido? That is a spicy question. Snow is the pro and the con, right?
Speaker: Yeah. So the snow, it's hard to deal with. We're talking about property management. Snow causes a lot of problems. yeah You got to shovel it. You got to clear you had to clear it off the roof. You got to keep it away from important parts of the house, the exhaust for your heaters. Can't let that get clogged up with snow. And I should mention that number one case number one source of disputes for neighborhoods is snow. That's one thing you got to shovel your snow. That's one thing you got to be careful of if you move into these neighborhoods. You want to stay in good terms with your neighbors and you don't want to get into snow fights. Hey, there we go. See what you did there. And the basic thing is, yeah, you're throwing snow onto my land or you're not doing this enough or the snow on your roof is going to fall and hit my thing.
Speaker: my roof or my car. ye that's That's what people fight about. Biggest frustration in the transaction process or being a real estate agent. Biggest frustration and also biggest opportunity to change. Two -part question here. I guess frustration, dealing with the seller's side. Let's just say the industry in general. surprise big frustration oh i'm but I'm being too general. okay But um the Japanese agents that you deal with, I'm going to be honest, some of them are very hard -headed, set in their ways. okay And arguing with them is it's like arguing with a brick wall. There's really no arguing to to be had. Biggest opportunity.
Speaker: in the real estate industry in Hokkaido. maybe opportunity opportunity to change or yeah. The biggest change, like I mentioned before, tourism numbers have been spiking within the past decade. So I think that's the biggest change that's happening. okay Foreigners are coming in, they want a different experience. yeah So if you can provide that in like a short term rental or some other business inter related to to tourism, I think that's the biggest growth opportunity in Japan and Hokkaido, both of them. Tourism is booming here. Closing out with the i guess ah last question for you. What kind of tips do you have for first time home buyers in looking at Hokkaido? This can be a longer answer too. Okay.
Speaker: My biggest tip would be understand that this is not the market that you're used to. Cool. If you have experience in Western markets or some other country, you're like, Oh yeah, I know how it works. I know how this goes down and you don't. Yep. A lot of times you try and think about things rationally. You're like, oh, house has been sitting on the market for a long time. I'm sure I can sure can come in with a low ball offer or, oh, I'm sure they'll agree if I just say this. No, not necessarily. Sometimes things do not work out rationally or logically.
Speaker: Sometimes it's totally irrational and sometimes it's a cultural norm that people are sticking to and Yeah, your logic could be perfectly sound like yeah, it makes sense, but it won't work Wow, that's frustrating, huh? But to thought yeah, that's what I want people to know. This is a different market. Totally. I think that goes for all of Japan, most mostly too. But yeah, maybe Hokkaido more. It sounds like you you hit that brick wall more frequently than maybe progressive or spots like Tokyo or Kyoto or Osaka. Yeah. Cool. Hey, thank you so much for coming by, man. We're going to try some of these cookies right now. Tell me about these cookies actually before we - They're called Kuranawa Sabure. From Asahikawa specifically, right? From Asahikawa. They're made by a company called Sangurodo.
Speaker: so Okay, and I think it's the most famous most famous omiyage. That's a souvenir. Very good, Joey. Most famous snack in Asahikawa. Here, I'm gonna give you one. you can Oh, they're soft. Yeah, sou they're a delicious soft chewy cookie. nama salde The flavor I bought to white chocolate. um I'm taking a bite on my chair just to give it a quick review. Cool, gang. Oh, this is awesome. They are really soft. One more time, what is this called? Kuranama Sabure. Wow. This is like a soft white chocolate cookie.
Speaker: Hokkaido food game, totally into it. All right, while we finish this, we'll put your details in the comments. Again, Kendall's in one of our Akyomart preferred agents. So if you are doing a console with us and you're looking at Hokkaido, he's our guy. So hopefully listening to this podcast gave a little bit of context on he's a subject matter expert here. and Kendall, we look forward to visiting you in Asaikawa for barbecues and hopefully we'll have another Tokyo party soon. that You can join. Yeah, um'm look I'm looking forward to have some visitors. Cool. Thanks so much for having me on the podcast. oh Thank you so much. Thanks, Kendall.
