Transcript
Speaker: Location, location, location, money aside, you can't invest in Nagoya. Where would your dream home in Japan be? not yeah You don't care about investment. You want to just have an awesome home somewhere. Where would that be?
Speaker: shigaki and the yo kinawa okay i love scuba diving
Speaker: Welcome back everybody to another episode of Buying a House in Japan podcast. My name is Joey joined by my co -host Take. We have a very special episode today. We are sitting in Nagoya in the newborn real estate company headquarters joined by two very special people. We have Hide -san in charge of newborn here. He has a very interesting background. We'll get into it later in the show and he's joined by Ron, modern -day gladiator and real estate agent here. So I'm very excited to hear both of their backgrounds. Thank you guys for being here. We're in like this very fancy conference room. It's pouring outside. This is the fanciest, I think, room we've been in to record a podcast. Yes, both are very fancy. The hotel that we're staying in across the street and this building. Great good recommendation. It's your first day in Japan. Not first day, but we drove down from Tokyo today. But anyways, how are you guys doing? Who who are you guys?
Speaker: We are so glad to have you two guides here in Nagoya. Thanks for having us. yeah And I am the pat president of the Real Estate Company in Nagoya. And I've been in this real estate business over almost 30 years. Wow. Yeah. But we got the real estate license just years ago. I've been the professional real estate investor. Okay. Yeah. Cool. 30 years in real estate, Ron. How many years in real estate?
Speaker: About two now. He's been doing investment and owns some apartment buildings for a long time. so He just recently, like I said, got his real estate license but has a lot of experience on the other side being an investor himself. so i met heday About a year ago now yeah i was working with another real estate company and i connected with him because it's hard to find places that allow foreigners to rent so he had a website in english i called him and actually met him for the first time right in the same room. And we became friends pretty much immediately and just started hanging out and you know go out having drinks and dinner together and.
Speaker: started getting customers into his properties and then it just seemed like a good fit for me to come over to to help foreigners because he wanted to focus more on helping foreigners buy and and rent here. so Right on. Ron, where are you originally from?
Speaker: i'm from kansas kansas yeah smalltown kansas How did you end up in Nagoya? I was in Kansas, then I went to Baltimore and then Boston, Phoenix, Arizona, Portland, Oregon. all over the place And then I ended up, I started fighting MMA in Portland. And then long story short, I wanted to fight abroad and I chose Japan and I moved here. I was going to be here for about a year and a half was my plan. And now it's been over 11. So. Whoa. Okay. We're coming back to the MMA side in a second here. How long, where are you from? Are you from Nagoya originally?
Speaker: Yes i am from nagoya originally but i spent my college days in tokyo and i got a job in there and i was assigned to the branches in new york city oh then i moved to the field of here and washington dc too then I quit my job. Nice. I moved to San Francisco, West Coast. I was born living in india or yeah yeah East Coast for five years, then I moved to West Coast. That was a paradise. I think the the Californians have it so good over there. yeah Anyway, I got a job in San Francisco, but my family visits here in Newgorn. At that time, and my father and my brother was taking care of this company, but the first thing that happened, the company almost bankrupted.
Speaker: Then bankers call me, why don't you come back to Nagoya to take care of this? Anyway, I came back to Nagoya to take care of their family business. But actually the family business was not related to anything about their estate. That was a Japanese restaurant and a coffee chain store. But we got a big debt at the time, a huge debt.
Speaker: okay I and you turn it around I heard somehow sitting recited in the headquarters right it took me fifteen years it's about the debt okay that's got you you're you're out yeah okay and then so you said ah rewinding a little bit so as a restaurant and coffee business is that what it was yeah is this office the old office or Was this office already here before? Yeah, office right here. okay yeah but i council yeah Actually, I sold all the such kind of business, the Japanese restaurant and the coffee restaurant, and I fired 30 people at that time. yeah I have no choice. choice laid laid off yeah I laid off
Speaker: and Did you just switch over to real estate from there? You went from a coffee restaurant business to now you're in the real estate. My grandfather was a pretty smart guy and he saved the money and i put that money into the rental apartment business, invested on the real estate. And he he purchased, out I think maybe more than five apartments and the out of Nagoya. But my father made a big dent. And I sold most of it. Only I kept was had three very old apartment, over 50 years of history. And that was my start point. okay He did.
Speaker: being in debt, like inheriting debt like that from a fan. Do you have any advice? We're starting a business. If I ever end up in a similar place, like do you have any advice for someone that maybe ends up in ah in a bad position like that? What did you tell yourself when you got in that situation? Oh.
Speaker: It depends on the person, but I have no choice because there are so many people depending on our family business. But ah if I am all i myself, just get out from there. Just forget about the debt. Just escape from there. Do whatever you can. Yes, right. on Stay in California. Right. And how long have you been back in Nagria?
Speaker: more Almost 30 years. 30 years? Yes. Okay, so last time you were in you were living in California it was 30 years ago? Yes. Wow, okay. Things have changed. When is the last time you come back to San Francisco? It's a little bit of kind of a scary city at times now. 10 years ago, maybe. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker: but at the time, has still not, you know, very at the time, but yeah, I had, I have had so many things not really good about San Francisco. or that Still good things, but also some scary things. I think I had some Japanese friends come and visit and been like shocked at some of the sites they see in some of the neighborhoods.
Speaker: But he's been held up by at gunpoint before when he was living in America. In America? Yeah. okay okay Why in San Francisco and why New York City subway and why DC? I've never been held up at gunpoint. Neither have I. There's a perception that Americans, everyone owns a gun, but he did it three times? but what What caused that?
Speaker: Okay. At that time, yeah I was not so cautious about ah you know hanging out at night. I was so young. I was a a yeah mid -20s. So at night, I just went to smoke, and i um my my cigarette was shot. And I had to go to the Safeway to get my yeah new cigarette. yeah Then I just walked down. had just Just a hundred meters from my apartment to save Safeway.
Speaker: And on the middle, a guy had just shouted to me, what do you have a right? I said, no, no, I don't have a right. I'm going to buy the cigarette. And I have a right, and you can buy the cigarette. And yeah he calls to me, and he pointed to me like, you have a worry, right? Because yeah, maybe I have a worry. But I don't have much cash. And I just gave him the $20, and he said,
Speaker: This is okay, you can keep it. And he took my wallet. It's in the 100 bucks there. Oh, no. Okay. I see why you hired Ron now. You got the bodyguard, right? You got the muscle behind that. We don't really need it in Japan, though.
Speaker: All right, Ron, I want to want to shift over to you. MMA, so you were oh you moved over here to be an MMA fighter, right? That's correct, yeah. Tell me a little bit about that. I don't know any MMA fighters in Japan. You're the only one I know. I was fighting in Portland. I luckily found jujitsu there with my roommate, and that's a whole other story. It kind of pulled me out of ah a hole. and and turned my life around at that point. And I immediately got addicted to jujitsu from day one and and then started doing mui tai. And then I was like, I want to do MMA. And my coach is like, let's do it. And I couldn't believe it, you know, cause everyone's like, he's like, if you want to do MMA, you gotta this, this, this, like, yeah, whatever. i I don't want to do MMA until I was like, okay, I'm trained. Let's do it. And then.
Speaker: Had a few fights in America and then I wanted to live abroad. You know, I loved Portland, Oregon. That's the first time I actually felt like I found a home in America and I knew I was always going to come back, but I wanted to live abroad, especially in Asia. So I moved to Japan and started fighting here.
Speaker: Do you still train anything? yeah I still do jujitsu. I've been kind of out of it a bit recently. I almost have my black belt. I should have my black belt by now, but i'm I'm brown belt, but I need to get back into training more regularly. But yeah, I still train. ah Gee, no gee. I love the gee. It's just more technical and it's a lot more fun. I love the train.
Speaker: We have a customer that actually we just talked to. He wants to set up a jujitsu kind of studio or I guess gym with a Fujisan view. If that's ever something you guys want to work with him on, I can introduce you. But that's one of our current searches right now. I used to teach jujitsu in my house actually. I had a house and my roommate just kind of left during COVID, I need to pay rent. So it was just enough room where I could train like six people max. And I was teaching in my house, which was great. It was is fun. Okay. I want to ask you guys about Nagoya. So this is Joey's first time. What keeps you here versus moving to somewhere else, some other city in Japan? Nagoya is just big enough. And it's not as, you know, if I was younger, maybe I'd want to live in Osaka. Tokyo is a little too much for me to be honest, but
Speaker: I feel like Nagoya is the perfect balance where it's safe, it's easy, it's affordable. You can get to Osaka easy. You can get to Tokyo and get to other places. You know, we do have an international airport. It's just, you know, suniya sui like very easy to live here. and Yeah, I don't know. I just never left. Like, you know, about 10 years goes by like that. This is the first place you lived when you moved to Japan? I only lived in Nagoya, which is kind of crazy. But yeah, it's really easy to live. People are nice. There's a really good foreign community here. There's lots of music. You know, Nagoya always say if you want to do something, it's here. You have to go find it. Where other cities, that you it'll find you kind of thing. But whatever you want to do here, it's out there.
Speaker: right on yeah i mean i was I agree with you. like i I went to college in Tokyo and and coming back now 12 years later, it's so busy. It's not really the city I want to be in anymore, but I had a great experience in Fukuoka. Definitely the other cities in Japan, I definitely see that's where I would want to be as well.
Speaker: Yeah, Tokyo is just like walking in mud all day long. You know it's just there's so big you get off the Shinkansen and it's just a river of people. It's overwhelming, the hair, tear mortgage. I don't complain about it. I complain about it a lot. Don't tire, complain about it. But yeah, it's like the commute from Thomas City where we bought the house to like downtown Tokyo to you know do anything. It's just an hour of of yeah painful sardine. Especially if it's just hot and sweaty. and What about you, Hide? What do you like, Nagoya? When I came back from the States for ah taking care of my family business, I felt like I'm stuck in this city. Because Tokyo, Osaka, New York City, Philadelphia, so many places, I stayed. And I'm so excited in my younger days. But now, I feel like yeah this is a home.
Speaker: Actually, this is not a country size. It's a local Japanese city, but it's still big. It has two million population here. Two million population? Yeah, two million population, over two million. So it means we can find anything we want. Like you can find it in Tokyo or Osaka, but the options are not limited.
Speaker: not like Got it. Is the population growing here, or is it shrinking here? I don't know if city person. It stays the same. It stays the same. OK, so that's a good thing. Yeah, right. It seems like it's booming. Both of you guys have been here for a long time. I'm looking out this window, and it looks like Tokyo from a... Have these buildings always been here? Have they been rising up a lot faster recently? Yes. Actually, there are over 10 elite redevelopment of the city project here, in especially in Sakaya area. And i were I'm involved in some of the believe development projects.
Speaker: You've been part of some of these, a lot of the redevelopment projects, right? Yes. Right. Right. Absolutely. This building also the part of it. This building going to be demolished and might be rebuilt. This one we're in right now? Yeah, but it's not sure. It's not sure. What happens if you own, say you own this office and they're like, we want to demolish and redo it. Do they pay, are they going to buy you out or how does that typically work? I know it's a commercial. We get a lot of questions on the apartment side, but on the commercial side, how does that work?
Speaker: Usually, of course, the owners of the building involved in that kind of project, and it depends on this owner, how they think about their future. If they want to leave this building to their children or the grandchildren, and they want to give the rights to the ownership. But if they want to just get a cash on hand, and they might be just sell it to the maybe big developers. Yeah, the developers. Yeah, right. Got it. Interesting. but Let's shift gears a little bit. I want to talk about real estate. I think Hideya -san, you reached out to me on LinkedIn and I saw your title. it's like You deal with foreigners specifically or you know do you deal with everyone or you are you focusing on foreigners for your real estate agency?
Speaker: yeah the The reason I started my own real company last year had to get a license is I really want to support the foreigners. and ah Before the COVID around 2017 to 2019, I have a friend in the States and he asked me why he want to buy the property in Tokyo, actually a high price condo or something. At that time, I myself was investing on that kind of a property in Tokyo and Osaka.
Speaker: But I really look carefree when I choose the property. They don't know much about the property in Tokyo or in Japan. So and they they just ask me which one is be better for them, ah for the investment. But I cannot take such kind of responsibility for them, for such a be big amount of money. So I just introduced some of the directors in Tokyo, I knew.
Speaker: Then after that, I found out what kind of properties they bought. They just got a big trap or something. ah no So I thought I cannot use my friend to introduce some other realtors. So I think maybe I can be the realtor for them. Then I took ah my license and I began to start my support for winners.
Speaker: ah I've got maybe a little bit of a spicier question, but we have an Instagram page, we have a YouTube, and there's always troll comments you know about like, oh, properties are cheap in Japan, you're you know you're selling them to foreigners, foreigners are buying up the country. Do you have any thoughts on and what you think of those kind of troll comments?
Speaker: And as a Japanese, I can be honest. This is what we want. I'll be honest. I'd love to hear from both of you myself. I myself welcome the foreigner buying the property in ja Japan. I always say that to the other Japanese, even they purchase the property of land, they have a property of land. They cannot take it back to their home country. They just owe the land to stay here and they pay the property tax.
Speaker: So yeah what's wrong about it? If nobody buys the property, nobody pays the tax. So I think nothing's wrong about it.
Speaker: I know some people really care that the round, the ownership is really important for some people. So I understand that. But if you don't like to sell the property to anybody else, it's your choice. Some people really want to sell it. So I really welcome. Got it. Have you had people, you know, give you negative comments before about? Of course, all the time. yeah sometimes I really use the bad words and it all to the foreigner, they can be kind of the invader. Yeah. Ron, what are your thoughts? I support people buying properties in Japan, whether you're you know Chinese, American, Canadian, or whatever it might be. so But yeah, I think you know just today we're looking into a property for a customer and
Speaker: their local community is kind of worried that they can't speak Japanese and they're not going to understand and they're not, can't be a part of the committee to talk about the weekly trash pickup or whatever they talk about, right? So there's some apprehension from the Japanese side because this lack of communication.
Speaker: Was that the seller that had those concerns? I guess it's the seller's agent. Yeah, seller's agent. Actually, the seller's agent in the Niigata. One of the the customers we're working with with you guys actually. Yeah, they are really worried about to having the foreigner in neighborhood. Actually, kind of surprised for me, even for me. has They really sound so nervous over the phone.
Speaker: What kind of a point are there? Who are they where I had come from? And I said, they are American guys. Okay, they are American guys. So what's the purpose of their purchasing the property in Niigata, in countryside? They are so scared. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and it's fine. Again, I've lived here for 11 years, so I really, I'm not going to say i I know Japanese people and culture perfectly because that's probably not true. I don't speak the language well enough to really get that deep, but I've been here 11 years and I know it. And yeah, sometimes Japanese people are shy and they're kind of nervous about communications, right? This, Oh, I don't speak English well. And it's not like other countries where I'm just going to try to communicate with you if there is a barrier.
Speaker: And I can understand that. But yeah, it makes people nervous and makes people not want to sell their property sometimes. Yeah, we feel a lot of that friction. It's tough, right? Sometimes if the seller doesn't want to deal, sometimes they just don't want to deal with a foreigner and they'll almost kind of find excuses to be like, no, we can't, we can't work with you guys. And I think, you know, thank you guys both for fighting that battle. And I know we'll come across a couple of those issues, but curious, what do you think the What can we do or what can a customer do who wants to buy Niigata? Anything they should they can do to help their chances or anything you guys think you guys can do to increase their chances of letting the seller sell that house to them.
Speaker: what I mean, I think he day does a really good job. Like he says, you know, when he's purchasing for himself, he wants to make sure he's making a good decision. So he has the background of an investor and a buyer. So when he's looking at a property, he knows what to ask and he knows what to look for. Right. Oh, I see this online. It's, you know, $5 ,000 and I want to buy it. Okay. Well, let's take a look at it.
Speaker: Oh yes five thousand dollars but it's really complicated you're gonna have to put another you know fifteen thousand into it before you can even buy it he does that due diligence and it's a lot of work actually you know checking every single apartment so that's what i really appreciate about him cuz he's really.
Speaker: doing the best for the customer. It's not about making a quick buck at all. It's about, okay, let's make the best choice for... for Is there... So in the States, who you know when we extend an offer in real estate in California, you typically recommend people write a cover letter a little bit like, hey, this is who we are. They'll put a picture with their family. Do you think stuff like that... I didn't even know that. I mean, when I bought my home in Santa Cruz, I did this whole like, This is my first home. My parents are going to be helping me. I love surfing. and i sent photo amation out there They're like, really? That's how we recommend people to stand out. When a seller is selling to a foreigner, they feel that discomfort of like, is this person just buying it because it's it's cheap or this area? So I think maybe is that something you think would help convince people?
Speaker: Yes, I think so because yeah I was a yeah maker, some kind of deep description about who gonna be the seller and who gonna be the buyer. And I sent a letter to the both side and they really liked that opening. But ah that have it doesn't close that deal. Doesn't close it, yeah. Yeah, because of that they just had a big difference between the price and negotiation. right Yeah, maybe something we we should consider might be helpful. just Even the letter helps us 1 % open up the seller. and One of the things Joey and I screened for in our first calls is what connection do they have to Japan? you know We aren't just going to let people who've never been to Japan come and try to buy a cheap house here. We're trying to figure out
Speaker: know why japan what connection you know do they have they been here a lot to their family here stuff like that so could be something we pilot with you guys sure and i mean just if if you don't mind me saying so that's why i really appreciate working with you guys because i can tell you're doing your work you're doing your background your,
Speaker: connecting with people who actually want to buy and who are serious about buying and kind of setting up the expectations for the buyers to know what to expect, which makes our job a lot easier. you know it's It's tough when someone says, oh, but find me a house. you know Or you know here's 20 properties to look at.
Speaker: I want to see them all next weekend. Yeah, that makes our our life hard. And I think you guys do a really good job of this is the 20, let's get it down to 10, let's get it down to five and then come to us and then we can give our opinion and do our background on the the four or five left and instead of all 20 of them, which we can't do, of course. Yeah, you're welcome. I think the other thing too is like, yeah, there are $5 ,000 properties in Japan and you can buy them, but it's really not for everybody. And so people that are just Coming because they happen to have five thousand dollars and want to buy a house. We don't want to set them up for failure It really takes a certain type of person that can pull that off successfully and have a good time doing it Yeah and and a lot of you the customers that you guys are introducing are connected to Japan and want to be here for a reason and have traveled here and have experienced it's not just like
Speaker: Oh, I've got an extra you know million bucks in the bank. I want to buy a property in Japan just for the fun of it. There are people, like you said, who are connected. Building off Joey's statement there, who do you think is the right person to buy a cheap Akia? Let's say a $5 ,000. I know there's additional closing costs, but like what type of personality would do well?
Speaker: I think if that person is really interested in the community of the house they have placed and also if they can communicate with them, yeah it's much easier and to mingle in there.
Speaker: yeah They're going to have to find a contractor or you're going to have to you know figure out what to buy in the hardware store because the billing materials are different here, right? So there's a a ton of challenges. There's no Home Depot here. They have a Japanese version of the Home Depot. So I do agree that you're going to need some Japanese language ability to to pull it off. It's different to help you to be comfortable staying there.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't think you necessarily need to have a grasp of Japanese language because it is a tough language, right? But just to be willing to accept the culture in Japan and kind of understand it a little bit. And like they said, that's a really good point. If you're buying a $5 ,000 home somewhere, it's probably going to be in the middle of the country. And to be honest, in my experience, the more you get in the country, the friendlier blur, people will say, people don't say hello in Nagoya.
Speaker: And that took, as an American who's very talkative and loves to talk to people, that was a hard thing for me to get used to. And it's not even just with foreigners, it's within Japanese people as well, right? I'm not saying Nagoya is bad. It's just kind of the culture here. It's a city culture. But when you go to the country, people are, if you have buy a house in one of those communities, yeah, you should try to connect with them, right? Even in Bepu, in our little neighborhood in Bepu, everyone comes to, you know,
Speaker: everyone's saying hello to everybody else on the street and there's like signs like like iat to I can't remember the exact Japanese but like Aisatsu builds strong community. to my brain That is like so not Nagoya.
Speaker: It's not. It's like, again, people just don't... When you walk down the street, if you say hello to someone, it's like, whoa, what is this weirdo doing? Nagoya is a big city then. Yeah, it feels more like Tokyo where everyone's just kind of doing their own thing. But that's great that this you guys are just... People are coming up and saying hello to you in bed. But I love that. Curious. Nagoya, what are the areas of opportunity around here? Nagakute.
Speaker: Yeah, in that area. and yeah This is a big city, so there are so many big companies like Toyota or the Mitsubishi electric company or the heavy industry and many foreigners working for that company.
Speaker: Foreigners usually buy or do they rent? I think they probably get a subsidy on rent or something. Yeah, a previous company i helped a lot of those people out and they are living well in Japan. But they're not really buying their renting, but it's all paid for from the company. They've got 500 ,000, 800 ,000 yen a month apartment and houses. so But they're not really buying. Can they use that money to buy if they wanted to?
Speaker: And part of their, you know, the money they're getting from their companies. So. So back to here is on, you know, there's around those areas. You think there are kind of the hotspots still around some of the bigger companies? Yes.
Speaker: more and more foreigners are getting interested in the international school. and So it means they want their children to go to the international school. So that kind of the international school is ah usually located in the kind of the suburb area, now like maybe 30, 40 minutes from the center of Nagoya. And that kind of phrase is you can buy the pretty cheap house and also you can enjoy the natures.
Speaker: I think this earlier actually getting popular for even the younger generation was Japanese. I went to kind of an international high school in Shizuoka. Highly recommend if anybody's listening. Going to high school in Japan I think was one of the best experiences of of my life. Not what I hear. so It wasn't an international school. It was a Japanese high school and they taught the international baccalaureate program there. So maybe a little bit different.
Speaker: um But still, just growing up in Japan in high school, I had a great time. Cool. Oh, so you speak Japanese. I'll try. I'll bust it out later. I'll try later. Don't bust it out. You're going to make me feel bad. What about Airbnb in Nagoya? Are there any, like, I've i've heard Osaka has preferential rules. Are there any things exciting, meme -paku -wise for Nagoya?
Speaker: Oh, Minpaku -wise, in many big cities like Tokyo or Osaka, there are only some areas you can do the Minpaku business. Some part of the Japanese is restricted to do the Minpaku business. So you got to be very careful which part you're going to purchase the house. Otherwise, after you purchase the house, you will find out, oh, we cannot do the Minpaku business here. So especially the residential zone, you cannot do the Minpaku.
Speaker: not many people in fora that lose. So it's a good program. yes yeah we are All our houses, we kind of bought without checking and we got lucky. They they are in me in Pakistan, but yeah, and we we got lucky there. You do need to check because you can't end up in this situation. Right. And again, that's what he is really good at is doing that background check and making sure not just trying to make a ah quick sale and be like, well, he should have done more research. He does all the the research, which takes time and effort.
Speaker: Thank you. Thank you. What would you guys say your specialty asset classes? Is it investment condos? Is it EcoDate, Akias? Is there something you feel like you're really good at or specialized in or you're generalist? My specialty is rental apartments. Rental apartments, okay. Yes, yes. I really love it. So buying apartments and then renting it out? Yes, I usually buy that maybe less than 10 years history apartment and I buy it and if feel it tear with a tenant tenant yeah and I keep it for five years. Then I sell it. Oh, had this is my day. We're interested. Are you seeing appreciation gains you sell for a higher price? Yes. really horse you yeah e go know Okay. We're going to talk to you. or' because they figure this out So many people say not possible, and not possible to, you know, they're saying prices are going down.
Speaker: you need to choose the property very carefully. The location, location, location. Okay, interesting. Are you finding that rents are going up, rents are going down in Algria? Up, but mostly it stays the same. It's not it it's not crazy. you know Since I've been here, there hasn't been a lot of increase in prices. you know There hasn't been a big increase increase in the economy either. It's been quite stagnant. So you kind of see that with the prices of everything you know even just going to the store the produce you know real estate but you know like he said it's location when it comes to real estate speaking of like in prices and inflation i heard like starting october 1st they raised some prices is that true i don't know too much about inflation in japan but here it's present and it's kind of slowly creeping up on the population you know the price of the property getting increased yeah what what have you guys noticed matzia or garigariku and they raised the price stuff and what are you guys seeing
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, when I first moved here, everything was it was pretty cheap, you know, and I remember there's a hundred yen for broccoli or a hundred yen for an avocado and then there was a 3 % tax increase and okay, 3%. And then avocado and broccoli went from a hundred yen to 200 yen.
Speaker: I'm like, that's more than 3%. But it's just been so stagnant and there has been no inflation basically since the 80s that they're like, okay, this is an opportunity to raise prices. So there has been a price increase in in everything, especially you know food. But I still don't think it's as bad as it is in America. America just seems crazy. now Sorry Hidi, going back to the department. so i actually I'm actually really interested. For the most part, I thought buying investment condos and anywhere outside of certain areas. And I guess Nagoya is one of those areas now typically depreciates. But for condos here, let's say I wanted to buy a condo. I'm a client listening to this. If I buy a condo, how does the property management work? Do you guys help find a tenant? Is that something you guys are capable of? Or do you kind of outsource to another company? We usually outsource the management to other companies. but yeah
Speaker: We have now a six to eight apartments in our own area and we just ask ourselves only two apartments and less of others we take care of ah by ourselves. yeah So it means ah yeah if we're we can reach to the property in distance,
Speaker: Yeah, we can take care of the management by ourselves. Yeah, we can we can help them. Got it. You know, the problem with buying these kind of apartments is if you don't live in Japan, it's going to be hard to get a loan, right? And all the going back to our customers and the people that you guys are also introducing us, it's this group of people that has cash in hand. I have up to 100 ,000, 200 ,000, but if you're going to buy an apartment building, that's going to be more than 100 ,000 yen. So it's being able to get the the funding from the bank, which is nearly impossible yeah and unless you live in Japan and are working paying taxes here. This is a big problem. We've been trying. We might be breaking through with a couple US -based lenders that might be open to giving us loan in the US for property in Japan. I'm excited about that. Be huge yeah for everybody. Absolutely. Good things would go crazy if we could get loans. That's ah that's the the biggest hurdle in purchasing in Japan, as you guys know. you know
Speaker: customers, there's not a lot of people that have $100 ,000 cash on hand to buy a property in Japan, but there are a lot of people who would take a loan to ah get a property in Japan. Typically, how much are property management fees? Let's say you go into an investment condo with this company, you outsource it. Is it like a 5 % or 10 %? What have you guys been seeing or or charging?
Speaker: 5 % to 15 % sometime. Do you know people that manage like monthly monthly rentals as well or monthly furnished apartments? Is that something you guys have experienced with? those are and The short -term rentals for the monthly, it's hard in Japan. And we get a lot of those requests actually because they see, okay, there's a $60 ,000 a month apartment, I want to rent it for two months.
Speaker: Well, we can't really do that. They're called service departments, right in Japan. And those are typically going to be twice as much or even two and a half, three times more than you would pay for a normal apartment. The short term rentals, again, since the Airbnb thing kind of popped.
Speaker: That got even harder, right? So people don't want to pay 300 ,000 yen a month for an apartment, but that's what a lot of people have to do sometimes. And we don't actually, we'll do short term, but only special like certain cases if we can vet the the customer and they're kind of okay with the agreement, even then it's like six months, usually minimum.
Speaker: We've been seeing like a lot of those digital nomads. I know Japan just opened the digital nomad visa, so I think that's the reason we ask. of kind of That monthly rental kind of furnished place i think is something that's growing. We're maybe even trying it for a Tokyo place, but still struggling a little bit.
Speaker: Yeah, that's that's a tough one trying to get those short term rentals for people because I want to help people out too, right? I was just talking to a woman who was trying to get a place for her daughter and just can't help her. Yeah, because you know, it's not a mean park. If you want to lend a house more than one month, it's going to be the general risk contract you have to make it. So it means we have to make the contract. So it takes time on the effort to grow. Do you need a real estate like so for our Tokyo property where hoping to find a digital nomad to come maybe for two months at a time, three months, et cetera. Do we need a real estate agent to create that contract for us? Can we just chat GPT something? or or question good You got to have the license. We have to make a contract. okay yeah A licensed agent needs to make a contract. be license okay and that's Yeah, that's what we've done in the short term. It's usually you know a contract, but then
Speaker: It doesn't always make sense for the customer because they got to pay the cleaning fee and they got to pay the deposit sometimes. And then there should be a guarantor fee and all these other things. That's a whole other conversation when it comes to renting and in Japan.
Speaker: But if the person is looking for the place to stay, go directly to the owner of the property, you don't need to make a contract. So I'm talking about our specific case, right? So we're the owners of the property. They don't need to, we don't need to, they can just pass cash really, I guess. Don't need any contract. and If you're listening to this, we you have a suite apartment or house in Tama. Also you guys do if you guys want to come up to Tokyo for a little bit. I said we don't need a proper rental agreement for that kind of, okay.
Speaker: that's That's maybe off record. Yeah, I don't even I'm unclear on these kind of things, too. So I'm like, really? I need to learn more about all this stuff. Japan gets a little convoluted. and Yeah. She shows. she's Yeah. What? So speaking of Japan being convoluted, especially in real estate, what kind of advice or common pitfalls do you see foreigners on their first home purchase? Like what things do you see them struggle with or what things do you wish you could tell them before they even start the purchase? First of all,
Speaker: even they can find property information on the internet you cannot go to the realar you can try try and they have us we are the japanese realtor And we find the property information on the internet and our customer interested in that properties, particular property, and we make a call to them. Then they say, sorry, yeah and this is under negotiation. And of course, as they want to get both hand fee. They have a big hot topic. yeah for sometimes ah Sometimes they lie to us. They'll say like, oh, it's under negotiation already, but it's not. They just don't want us to.
Speaker: Interesting. do you think So with our Tokyo property, that that didn't happen, but they said, oh, it's under negotiation. But this person, maybe they can't get the loan approved by the bank. You're second in line. Do you think that they were could have they could have been lying to us just so that we didn't negotiate? Actually, we don't have the custom for bidding the property over the price. So when they say it's under the negotiation, it means you have no chance.
Speaker: Really? Yeah, usually first come first serve. And even if you're, you know, it's under negotiation, you're saying, hey, I'll pay, you know, a million yen or five million yen on top. It doesn't matter. We try that didn't work. But I will say just today we were looking at a property and then he days like, I don't think this is real.
Speaker: It's not a real property. I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, I think it's just kind of a bait property to get people in and then say it's not available. Why don't you check out that these properties? That's interesting. And that usually doesn't happen in Japan that I know of, but evidently it does because he's like, it doesn't exist. I cannot find this property. They're telling me to go directly with the owner and they're not going to work with us. But anyways, like too good to be true property. like It's not even too good to be true. It's just the normal property. Yeah, it was kind of weird. and I still don't almost believe it, but I have to because he's like, it's not a real property. I can't find it anywhere. It's a real, but it's not for sale by anybody. So as a foreigner, we have a lot of people, obviously. On Akiemara, we put the Japanese Realtors website. A lot of people will try to chat GBT and send a message and obviously doesn't doesn't work, right? It's really a phone call from one of you guys is is the best route. Is that what you're saying?
Speaker: basically the only route, I think, i mean because we've talked to, you know, we've We finally get somebody that's, okay, I'm interested interested in this property, and then we call them. They're like, oh yeah, some foreigner with this name is trying to talk to us, and we don't want to work with them because it's Mendoza. It's too much of a pain in the butt. And that's the person coming to us. So they try, they'll try to do it first by themselves. And then it's almost impossible because if you don't speak Japanese and there's just, there's so much information and all these details or contracts, you know, even in Japanese, it's complicated. So if you don't,
Speaker: can't read kanji then it's it's almost a i don't know if any realtor that doesn't you know focus on english speakers or foreigners i don't think they will work with you at all you know I think the best way for foreigners at first contact to the Japanese realtor is to send an email in Japanese. So yeah, you can write that in ja English and translate it to the Japanese using the AI translator. So it might work okay for them. We've had a couple of crazy customers who are just like, in English, and and then we're like, no, no, no, you just ruined your chances, man. you can But that that only tricked them for so long. They'll eventually be like, okay, this person is not Japanese. and then
Speaker: you'll eventually have to go to a realtor that that's in Japan, almost guaranteed. know But so if, let's say I'm a customer and I've found, I found this perfect property in Nagoya and I want to maximize my chances. I think what I would, from our experience, what I would recommend is going with your Japanese speaker from the first step versus emailing with chat GPT to what do you think about that? Oh, for sure. yeah Yeah. Because a lot of it's again, first come first serve. And I'm even surprised, you know, how,
Speaker: this person wants this property and then the the next day it's gone. And that happens a lot. And I'm like, is this just right now? Is there a boom going on? And he's like, that's the way it's always been. That's the way it always is. It's like, if you want a property,
Speaker: If you really want something, then go with the quickest route from A to B and that is to go through a realtor because it could be literally it could be gone tomorrow. It happens too, too often to be honest. Totally. um And putting myself in the seller side is saying like, Hey, I'm here from this real estate agency. All of a sudden the seller knows like, okay, this person knows how things work. They're Japanese. I think that's the psychological, like I would not respond to a whole bunch of spam yeah from from a random person I'd say.
Speaker: him What about timing the market? We were just at a real estate conference in Tokyo, and someone asked, we gave a short talk, and someone asked me and Taki this question, if prices are going down, which maybe they're not, Hide, but if prices in Japan are trending downwards over time, which was kind of the general sentiment at this conference, why buy now? Why not just wait 10 years? Do you have any thoughts? 10 years? Or five years? or Okay. If you can buy after 10 years,
Speaker: you shouldn't buy that one. But ah usually that property is only one. The one you choose is already gone when you want to buy it. So if you want to buy the property right now, you should you should better up buy it. And ah you don't need to think about the depreciation of the property, because I always think about the income gain.
Speaker: yeah instead of that capital gain. Of course, I expect a capital gain when I buy that house, ye but ah usually I first think about a how much income gain I can get. So in that case, I don't need to take a much risk to buying the house.
Speaker: A lot of our customers are looking to buy a house and it's almost an emotional decision, lifestyle decision, enjoying myself included. We're like, we want to buy this because we just want to own it. I'm curious from that perspective. Yeah. I guess the argument is like, there's more and more Akios coming in up every year. They're trying to figure out, okay, the yen's at this rate. There's going to be more supply. Is the price going to go down even more, you think? But also at the same time, we're seeing from our site a huge boom of people interested in this space. So there's all these different variables. I guess, Ron, what's what's your take on it?
Speaker: You know, like he said before, it's all about location. if I was literally offered a free house, and you hear this a lot, right? It was my my wife's dad's friend, and it's in the middle of Nagano, and I'm looking where it's at, and it's like an hour and a half from the nearest train station, you know? So you have to drive, and it's dilapidated, and it's got a lot of work. I'm like, no way would I ever buy that, right? And those that property is not gonna,
Speaker: gain any value at all, right? So if you're looking more in the city, especially in Sakai, you were talking about development and things that have changed over the last 10 years that I've been here. It's been crazy. It's just like this new building, this new building, this new building. So the way I see it, just from what I'm seeing with my eyes, it's got to be appreciating, you know? And it slowly is, but yeah, I think it's just buying in the right place. The the people we deal with are more want a second home you know they want a place that you know they have a part of their heart is in japan and that's why they want to make a second home and be here fifth more investment than that's you know probably have to think about that more but you know just buying the right location yeah and also i wanna say that that that buyer she did not put too much money on the old house to improve the innovation some foreigners invest too much probably in the house we're learning we're learning this
Speaker: So even if you api put a bunch of money and to the property, you cannot expect the appreciation of the property with that money. yu Yeah, the values in the land here, you know, it's like, oh, the house the house from what I've learned from work with heat A is like the house is almost worth nothing.
Speaker: a lot of times, right? The value is all in the land. So when we're looking at prices compared to other you know land being sold, it's like you look at the land per you know square meters or whatever, and then do your values at undervalued or overvalued or just about right. but you know, from what he says, the house doesn't actually have a lot of value. I mean, it's got to have some value, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I always, when the customer doesn't have any specific property they want to buy, I just ask them to choose the several property and I look at the land value, the other area. Then if the land value is undervalued, so in that case, ah this is a buy.
Speaker: Okay, that's ah that's awesome. And I think you're one of the first agents that really focuses on that land value and in giving that insight to customers. So I think that's really important. He does all this work and people understand like the kind of the background work that he does and I do and I appreciate I'm like,
Speaker: the customers, you're not going to be able to find this information on your own. you know As a foreign customer who's coming in and trying to buy, you don't know how to get this information. Even if you're Japanese, you probably don't know how to get this information, but he does it for every single property that we look at. okay Location, location, location, money aside, you can't invest in Nagoya. Where would your dream home in Japan be? not yeah You don't care about investment. You want to just have an awesome home somewhere. Where would that be?
Speaker: I love scuba diving. That's why I would be, you know, if it was my wife, she would say the same thing. I want to go to, I'm a cold weather mountain guy who loves the rivers now. I love the ocean too, but I love cold weather. Even today, my shirt was soaking wet. It's October 7th. And it's like the middle of summer still. I need cold weather, so I'm going to Hokkaido. We're in Hokkaido, curious. Anywhere specific? What's that town, that mountain town west of Sapporo? It's like this famous kind of ski area. There's tons of... Niseko? Yes, that area. Niseko's expensive. I know. Both expensive choice, yeah. I mean, that's good. It's going to appreciate, right? Well, I had a job kind of semi offer in that town, so I was kind of looking into it and I was like, Dang, this is expensive, you know? But somewhere that's like, you know, I like that. He's shaking his head now. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Okay. Money aside. Okay. Money aside. Okay. Money aside. Okay. Money aside. Okay. Money aside. Okay. Money aside. Okay. Money aside. Okay. Money aside. Okay. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside. Money aside
Speaker: like yakshi was my my top okay sorry what about you i'm curious hi has san do you know anything about those islands they're part of tokyo prefecture by chitijima and like hahajima do you know anything i don't i know um' curious they're like next to guam or like Yeah, but it takes how many hours to get there? like Yeah, like two day ferry or something. Yeah, right. and no had No airport. No airport. Yeah. Oh, wow. I don't even know about that. So if the typhoon come, you cannot get out. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: I'm not getting on a ferry in the middle of the typhoon. I'll try to survive on the island, yeah but it's going to be a fun day. Cool. Well, thank you guys so much for being here. Again, both Hida and Ron are one of our Akimar preferred agents. So we're going to be sending this podcast over to folks. ah How can people reach you or would you have a website or, uh, we're going to have the website up or email is probably the best. We're on LinkedIn, but yeah, just email that that gets to us easy enough. Where are we going for dinner?
Speaker: for Unagi. okay Actually, it's not that general Unagi. It's called Hitsumabushi. It's a kind of the local excellent. Excellent. You were of it. Kind of a famous place. They're here in Nagoya. I've been there a couple of times. So yeah, you'll you're going to like it. We're going to drive like so. Oh, yeah. We're driving. Thank you guys so much. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Yeah, it's been a pleasure to to get to know you guys and having you here in the headquarters. Headquarter? All right. Thank you, guys. Thank you very much.
