Transcript
Speaker: Hey everyone. Today we're joined by Aki Mark consultant, Jay Horta, who's really been through it all mold problems, high renovation bills, and a tricky, tricky van registration process.
Speaker: We talked to Jay about budgeting, planning, and why smaller towns could offer a warmer welcome than some of these bigger cities. Thanks for tuning in and we hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker: Welcome back to the buying a house in Japan podcast. We got a special episode for you coming today. Today joined by my cohost Jay Stocks Rocky, as well as Jay Horta.
Speaker: Jay is one of our Akiya Mart consultants who has joined the team a couple months ago. Jay, welcome to the show. Yeah. Thank you for having me. It's been, uh, you've been working with us for what the past three, four months?
Speaker: It's been about four months. Time flies. Okay. How many consultations have you done since since you started working with us? It's got to be close to like 30, 40, maybe plus.
Speaker: I think you've done like 100. think it's more than that. I think like 102, yeah. I'm trying to be a little bit more like, you know, underestimate a little bit. Yeah, yeah. All right. It's got to be more than that.
Speaker: It's probably close to 100. You're right. and ah Jay, you're also owner of two homes in Japan, and I heard a van that's not ah registered in there. But you own it. um So, like, I think there's a couple scenarios you can be in on that.
Speaker: that and And the one I'm in is the least that you want to be in. Like, you want to be the situation. The situation I'm in is the one you want to be in the least. I do own two homes, although I would say one of those is probably less of a home.
Speaker: i'm I bought a project, Akea, which I think a lot of people dream of owning. They're like, oh cheap houses. it comes with problems. And I don't think you really know those problems until you get in there and you're like, wow, what did I get myself into?
Speaker: Because you you basically had to abandon that first house project. Is that correct? Or where did where did we leave off um last time we spoke about that? I did not abandon it. um i We're not there yet.
Speaker: I don't think that will be the case. There's hope. Yeah, there's there is hope. I think there is hope. Expensive hope. But, um you know, I come from a background of construction, very much DIY, whether it's cars or homes. I own a construction company, right?
Speaker: And so I'm very confident in my ability to do things. That being said... I don't care how confident you are. i always tell people fixing things is not about your knowledge. It's about your time, right? You can always learn how to swing a hammer. or You can learn how to build something, but you can only buy so much of your time, right?
Speaker: Whether that's how long do you have in Japan? Do you want to spend it enjoying Japan or do you want to spend it fixing a home? So that's the problem we're running into is the time you can pay somebody to do it and save your time, but it costs you a lot of money.
Speaker: And so that's where we kind of ran into issues is I didn't have enough time, definitely don't have enough money. So what we've learned over the years is it's a lot more wise to spend as much money as you can up front to get the best condition you can.
Speaker: because Speaking of time, Jay, want to rewind the clock. I know we just jumped straight in here. ah So as I mentioned, Jay is one of our Akiyamark consultants. If you do book a call with us, there's a 50% chance it's going to be Jay on the other side of the line.
Speaker: ah Before, yeah again, jumping too far into Jay, who are you? Where do you live? you know And how how did you get to this this this position you are right now? Yeah, good question.
Speaker: So I live in Austin, Texas. Beautiful, hot Austin, Texas. ha I love it here. I love the nature. It's like the only place I feel like in the country I would live in because it's got a mix of big cities. But if you haven't been to Austin...
Speaker: It's weird. It's like you could be in the middle of the city and there's this place we have called Zilker Park and you can be in like a forest. There's trails that you wouldn't even know you're in a city. So that's the city I live in. i own a construction company and I have a crazy friend named Eric that a lot of you might know.
Speaker: And Eric and i are have done business together in the U.S. and he grew up in Japan for 20 years. He's the one that got me into Japan. And so just being a DIY person, and I've always loved the culture. I just never had the courage to go out on my own and buy an Akiya.
Speaker: And so meeting Eric, eventually when someone's annoying enough, you finally give in And um yeah, I broke and I bought it. And it's honestly, I feel like the best decision i could have made.
Speaker: have a baby on the way. Congrats. Yeah, that's something that nobody knows until now. um Going out to the podcast community. her heard it here first.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Kiyomart exclusive. And so I've watched a lot of people that have raised families in Japan and have come from America and said that's the best thing they ever did.
Speaker: And they've, they're 40, 50 years old and they've been in Japan for 20 years or even have just moved there there over the past couple years and And, you know, ive I don't think I've ever heard anybody say it was a bad decision. I've only heard good things and not to say that nobody has bad experiences.
Speaker: But yeah, I think it's the best decision I could have made. And we're going to move there full time in a year and a half. How did Eric convince you? Like, I mean, obviously you had had some interest in Japan before. Did you go on a trip with him or like what was your prior experience to Japan before Eric maybe be peer pressured you into buying an Akio?
Speaker: So I have a friend that actually also lives in Taiwan. And I've always loved Asian culture and just the respect and the, i don't know, maybe I'm off on this. Whenever I tell people, i feel like anything about that, they always say I'm wrong.
Speaker: And so I feel like there is a love for other people there and a passion for other people and more selflessness.
Speaker: The people are kinder. And ah yeah, so I've always wanted to buy ah house in a country that just has a better culture. I feel like. And the best thing I could afford was not Taiwan, ah but possibly Puerto Rico. I'm Mexican or Hispanic.
Speaker: And so that was a close thing. But ah you still have a lot of American values of greed and stuff like that. I don't know if I'm going too much off the rails, but ah I don't know. I've just always loved the culture.
Speaker: And so i was already on the edge of buying something. And I feel like he just eventually convinced me. And it's always easier when you do it with somebody. It's definite definitely been a game changer knowing that Eric's doing 99% of the work and I just have to watch.
Speaker: But no, he's helped figure out a lot of stuff and and so have I. But yeah, he he's just kind of yeah figured out some of those things and laid out plans and been like, hey, here's the idea of what we're going to do and I already know this and that. He's kind of made that easier.
Speaker: I'm amazed with your and yours and Eric's scrappiness in Japan. You guys are getting stuff done over there and don't, I mean, don't take this as insult, but like, I don't think your Japanese language ability is, is oh no me it probably not even conversational. I would guess. Right. But like, you're getting quotes from contractors, you're getting appliances delivered. Like you're really making it work, which I do think is very, I'm very impressed with the amount of stuff that you guys getting done without that language ability.
Speaker: I feel like Eric and I are both crazy. Like we, I feel like it takes a crazy person to do these things and not in a bad way. Like I'm crazy a battle, but like very conversational, very love people.
Speaker: And we have a lot of friends now. I can tell you right now. We have a lot of friends that like message me on Instagram, car people, construction people. Like we've gone out and we've met a lot. And I feel like we've made,
Speaker: what possibly could have taken years, you know, of, of going there and, and, or other people years we've done in, Even the first month we were there, we've met yeah nonstop.
Speaker: Just met bunch of think that's a a huge asset you guys have is that friendliness and like ability to kind of make friends with, with yeah and you know, whoever. you know and Say a little bit like we do know some Japanese words, you know, i go in, kyutoki is like water heater.
Speaker: So I'll be like, kyutoki, you know, and I i always go to the same musashi. Nailed it. And it's always like, you know, the same person there. Actually, they did Eric's install on his shower room. So I walk in, I just go, cutoky and they're like, oh, so you know, and so they show me where the water heaters are.
Speaker: But yeah, and then as you make friends, it just becomes easier. I'm I will admit I have been bad about my Japanese studying. It's probably been minimal 15, 20 minutes a day.
Speaker: And so I'm getting where I can get around a little bit, but it's definitely not where if somebody responds to me, I understand. Um, so I feel like you have to have a good smile and a good attitude. And even when you feel lost, you just have to keep that smile on your face and know that, you know, you know, people will come along and Be kind.
Speaker: It goes a long way. I think like, yeah, Eric's always texting us like, hey, I just made, ah met this awesome gas guy or hey, I just met this, you know, had barbecue with like my gas guy. Yeah. We like joke with Eric, like Eric, you should just run for mayor, man. Like Terra Domari or something like that. Eric Domari is what we joke with him. um But Jay, let's talk about your first Akia. So i know, did you buy, where where is it? How much did it cost? what You know, what give us the lowdown.
Speaker: Yeah, so um my first Akiya is in a tiny little town called Bunsui. It's a little branch off of Tsubame Sanjo area, which has about 80 to 90,000 people.
Speaker: I make videos online and I get roasted that it's in the middle of nowhere. But people just, if they assume that Tokyo or or Osaka or whatever, it's like, if it's not there, it's middle of nowhere, countryside. But there's these beautiful towns with 100,000 people. They'll have everything you need within a three-minute drive, sometimes a walk.
Speaker: Yeah, Bunsui is great. I'm a three-minute walk from the train station there. How far from Tokyo? Like, where in Japan for someone who doesn't understand Japan? If you land in Hanada airport, you can get there in the small amount of time of about four hours.
Speaker: o Now, to be fair, when you land in the airport, it probably takes you about two and a half to three hours to get into Tokyo anyways. Right. Depending on where you're going. So if I was to get on a Shinkansen and go to Tokyo, it'd be like an hour, 50 minutes or so, maybe two hours. It is on the other side of the country.
Speaker: Right. Laterally. um But yeah, it's a perfect place for me. And I think there's a lot of value in towns like that. This is Niigata, right? just said this is Oh, yes. This is Niigata Prefecture.
Speaker: So it's on the west side of island. Yeah, you got to look that up. it's it's yeah i I tell people, i mean, I'm biased and that's what I mostly know. But I say that's that's you know where you want to be.
Speaker: So what what type of work have you been doing on it? I've seen pictures you've sent, like the whole floor has been ripped up. And like, so what what kind of work have you been doing on it? Yeah. So on that specific property, here's the thing. I think I didn't do...
Speaker: I think I got too excited. and I think a lot of people do, right? They think a property is going to get sold and not another one's going to come along. And i it's an expensive lesson to learn. Rookie mistake, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. You know, it's not a big deal. When I showed Eric, We were kind of like, it's a three-minute walk from the train station. Worst case is, we unfortunately have to knock the building down for about 12,000 US. We already got a quote.
Speaker: And we use it as a parking spot because we live far from the train station, like a 30-minute drive. So instead of taking a taxi, you could just go there and drive. ah So we'd use it as a parking spot. That being said, I had very high hopes to renovate it.
Speaker: ah When I got there, it was infested with mold. No. I didn't realize... um It had siding that was broken on the side that I didn't realize. And that's my own optimism to fix it. Right. I saw these things and I was like oh, it's an easy fix. It's this and that.
Speaker: But I'm starting to learn that when you have a house that's 40 years old, ah you can't really match the siding. So now you got to do the entire house. They don't sell it anymore, whatever it was. Yeah, like the same pattern or whatever it may be. So you have to re-side the whole house. Well, my neighbor's afoot from me.
Speaker: So I got to put scaffolding up to reach the second story. I can't just put ladders up. If it was the U.S. or if it was anywhere... if If this house was anywhere else where I had more than five feet of room between me and my neighbor, I could definitely do it myself.
Speaker: But now you talk about scaffolding. I can't just get scaffolding put up. My road in front of my house is like three feet wide. So you got to probably get permits and do all sorts of stuff. Well, now you got a pay people to do it.
Speaker: So I got a quote. was $25,000. And to redo the siding. and so to redo the siding to redo the siding. Now I'm trying to patch it and do other things now. You guys had mentioned this and I thought it was a great idea was trying to get like a zestimate, right? On what the houses are worth around it.
Speaker: There's a killer house next to mine that just, it looks insanely beautiful. And I'm like, well, if I put 23,000 in the siding and I renovated the inside myself and put maybe 40,000 in the property, would it be worth $40,000 at least?
Speaker: Right. And so that's the internal battle I think that I'm having is like, is it going to be worth the money when it's all said and done? And then when I ran into that was, well, if you drive 30 minutes south to Kashiwazaki and you're along the coast, I found a property that was listed for sale for 32,000.
Speaker: And then I ended up with my second property. So it's sometimes you'll have these battles. Well, if I'm going to put that much into it, it just makes sense to get something that's in better condition. So sometimes it's better to put more money up front. i was being cheap and I was being overly optimistic.
Speaker: And not to say that it can't be done, but again, going back to it takes a lot of time. How much was that first property? And like how give us the specs on it. How much was it? How big was it? And and what year was it built in?
Speaker: For sure. It was built in 1981. It's a surprisingly like a three, one, two, three, four, and two, three, four, five. It's a five room property. It's got one bathroom, ah one toilet room, one shower room.
Speaker: It's got no yard and it was listed for 2,500 US. Oh, okay. Which is like cool. Of course, there's other fixed costs to come along with that on top of that. you're like yeah yeah two thousand five hundred bucks pretty good yeah and so i think it was a risk that was whatever you you uh take it as an adventure and i'm getting into youtube videos and stuff now so for me it's like a content machine that i'm hopefully gonna start running soon yep and so that's what i find more value and i find passion and working on things
Speaker: I know you bought this a while ago, right? And so I'm curious, how did you find it? And did you see it in person or did you do the the viewing remotely? I think Yoshi was your agent, right? Yeah. And I did the viewing remotely. We subbed out another agent or another person.
Speaker: They showed me the inside and he did say like, oh, this is kind of weird. And this is so they gave me the warning signs. Okay. And did you just find it on, on one of the a banks or? It was on Akia Mart.
Speaker: Oh, here we go. Let's go. Let's go. Yeah, so I found it on KMR, and I mean, the location is just awesome. But yeah, Yoshisi was my um agent, and... ah Yeah, Taki and I talk about that. Like, I think our but some of our properties, too, like...
Speaker: I think initially when you're just getting into the market and you're buying your first property, it's going to be a B or a C grade property. It is really hard to know. Like, like for example, our Betbu property, there's some different neighborhoods I would probably choose a second time around if we were buying in Betbu or.
Speaker: you know, finding a a nice neighborhood or what we are also advice we give people is if you're going to put, you know, if you're going to buy a $40,000 house and then put 40 K budget in renovation, you might as well just buy an 80 K house as well. So like, you know, there's, there's theres definitely things that we would do differently a second time around, but just to get boots on ground and get your first house, like a B grade property is great.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree. it It is definitely, it has taught me a lot. and I think everybody should see their own risks, right? Like if it's, if you're spending your last dollar, try not to do something like that. I think it's not going to turn out the way you think it is. Save up some more money, wait a year or two and buy something a little bit better. Cause you, again, if you put buy a property for 20,000 and put another 20 or 30 into it, what could you have got for $50,000? Probably something that's way better.
Speaker: Um, or it would have been in that same condition, but possibly 30,000. So sometimes it's worth waiting. All right. I teased it at the start, but can we hear the van story? but what's What's going on with the van?
Speaker: Okay. So this is a, I don't know how open I can be about this. The saga. and Don't say that. Use a different name for the person maybe. Okay. Okay. Okay.
Speaker: um You would think it's harder to buy a home than it is to buy a car. And I can tell you right now, if you want a car in Japan, it is not going to go as smooth as you think it is.
Speaker: Now, as you guys know, Eric and I are working on processes to make it smooth for everybody. But with that comes our own losses. So I bought a van. I'm a K-van lover, or I'm a van lover in general, because I like to travel the country or do whatever and sleep in the back of my van or vehicle. That's just the way I am.
Speaker: I don't like paying for hotels because I'm stingy. I bought a K-van and used a service of ah somebody who promised me that they could get the van in my name. I wired them a beautiful, very small number of 5,000 US, which, you know, who doesn't want to.
Speaker: Yeah. Who doesn't love just throwing $5,000 in the garbage? Into the ether. Yeah. Sending it to know random person you met online. For sure. i could have done a quarter of my sighting. have Had you met this person and in IRL before or not? ah We had. He's actually helped us. He was in the process of helping us with some other things.
Speaker: We probably should have seen how those things went. we were very optimistic. And so we threw this project on them and they're like, hey, no problem. We'll do it. We'll do it great. We know how to do it. And so we went with them and um it's kind of Eric. I don't know who Eric went with, but he also had a similar I guess, experience, but he ended up with a car in the end, uh, with a title. I guess I ended up with a car without the title, but his experience was very much like four months. I don't even know if my car exists. Like, I don't know what's going on.
Speaker: And I guess it was more like lack of communication on the company's end. Like they didn't set the expectations, which is fine. However long it took, if that's how long it takes. But, um, on are on When I got my van, I was told that it would be quick, easy, simple.
Speaker: We already learned from Eric's experience and what he needed. But I essentially got ghosted, guess. I got the van, um and they were supposed to sign the title over. Yeah, I'm writing dirty right now.
Speaker: I got a van with no title and they were supposed to sign the title over and it was just taking months. You know, they took give me excuse after excuse. I'm going to go here. I'm going to do that. I'm going to meet you at this place and we're going to the title over. and it just wasn't working out.
Speaker: And it might be my fault because at the end I kind of broke. Here's my problem. I'm a very forgiving and patient person. So I let it go on for months and months. And at the end, I mean, I think I handled it okay. I was basically like, hey, either give me the $4,000, $5,000, $6,000, whatever it was, the multi-thousands dollars I gave you, and take the van back because it's already in your name.
Speaker: They had bought it, put it under their name, we're to transfer it to mine. I said, either buy the van back for me or do the damn, sorry, or do the title. Yeah.
Speaker: I never heard from him again. um... um It's crazy to think you think like there is that impression that Japanese are so trustworthy and like it's so you know society works you know a lot on trust there, but you know there there are some scammers out there.
Speaker: Yeah, I think, you know, and there were signs, I think, beforehand, and we kind of ignored them and we were like, how what are the chances this happens? Probably not. Do you think this person is a scammer or just that they have a complicated other life and that other complicated part just kind of took over?
Speaker: It's hard to not say they're a scammer. Because i've I sent that text, didn't hear from ah back from them again. Actually, I had our agent, Yoshitsani-san, reach out to them.
Speaker: And he also didn't hear back from this individual. And they've talked in the past. So he didn't answer them. Eric reached out to them, didn't respond. And Eric had them do another project that did not go smoothly at all. It was supposed to be a one-week affair.
Speaker: emptying trash out of his home and it turned into like, Oh, same person, huh? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. If you guys didn't know that, yes, it's the same person. Now connecting the dots. Okay. so that person took like what, four or five months. I don't even think they ever finished taking the trash out. And he also paid like,
Speaker: $5,000 to get the trash emptied out of his house and it was like it's gonna be done next week and then a guy would show up and take like ton a little bit yeah and it's like a whole house of stuff at the end of the day they ended up making like 20 trips and they'd only fill up they take a box drop they only put like three things in it and they'd leave I think just to create the illusion and he paid him up front you know no So moral of the story cannot trust everyone in Japan, even though it is a very trustworthy society, right?
Speaker: Yeah, it's unfortunate. And I wouldn't put a bad name on the culture because of this person. I think this person is very actually Americanized. ah He lived in Detroit for a long time. Okay. so japanese Or it was something like that. Some big city that you're known to get scammed.
Speaker: And so like, you know, sometimes it rubs off on you. Detroit. Got it. Do you have insurance on the car or like, what's the deal? You just have the title. you i mean, what you're just driving this car that you don't own or.
Speaker: I don't own it. And I would not condone, I would not suggest anybody to do this. Right. And I would definitely not suggest anybody to do what I'm about to say, but I was like, I got the van and there's speed cameras in Japan. So I'm like,
Speaker: I might just have an Autobahn on the tollway, you know? oh don't do it. I'm like, those cameras are going to send the ticket to somebody. But no, maybe that's not a good idea.
Speaker: Especially if you're trying to apply for a visa. But I'm like, play clean how could I get this person to contact me? You know, to be like, oh all right, you win. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get this van out of my name.
Speaker: What do I get? Like, just park it somewhere and get parking tickets like crazy? yeah All right. Switching gears a little bit. what um but What advice would you give somebody starting out on this journey? If someone is coming to you, you know what what advice do give in your consults to someone? come but say Say yourself.
Speaker: You see yourself in a consult. What kind of advice you give? For somebody to buy a vehicle? no, no. Or just in general. Buy a house in Japan. Yeah. Yeah. I would say if anybody's going to buy a house, if you...
Speaker: Again, if you i can if you can, wait and save up as much money as you can to pay more up front because it's not going to be as cheap as you think it is to fix it.
Speaker: And it's not going to be as fast as you think as it it is to fix it, even if you do it yourself. That would be my biggest advice. and There's no diamonds in the rough in the $3,000 range? There's not. there's not i i mean I do so many consults and people send me properties and they're like,
Speaker: it's it's, you know, only need a couple things. And I'm just like, eh, that, that. It's got a tile bathroom. Tile's really expensive because you're going to have somebody go and, like, jackhammer out all the tile because it's really stuck to that concrete.
Speaker: And then, you know, they still got to put a new restroom. um What price range would you people should save up to? Is it, like, the $30, the $50, you know, in your in your opinion? How much should they save before they so start pursuing it?
Speaker: I live in a less common area. It's not Tokyo. It's not where houses are $50,000, $60,000 starting off. ah You know, Kashiwazaki, that house was listed for $26,000. And sorry, it was listed for $32,000. And we negotiated down to $26,000. It was built in 2008. It's got brand new siding. It was renovated 2020. Oh, that's a 2008 house? Really? 2008. Yeah. Whoa. if you haven't seen that, I put a tour on YouTube.
Speaker: Actually, funny enough. ah We filmed the tour not knowing that I was going to buy it. And then I'd already filmed an intro like we're going to tour this random house. And then at the end, I filmed a new intro that was like, this is my house, you know, because I was like, I'm buying it.
Speaker: But yeah, 20, we negotiated down to 27 because it had trash and some stuff. um But yeah, it's like a, don't even know, maybe like a half an acre or so. pretty big still car garage yeah it's it's got a lot of land um and i got a straight through property like i got two major roads in the front and back and you can drive straight through my entire property but that's kind of sweet i like that yeah and i'm a car guy so i'm like pull up you know and then you can drive out the other way or if you got i want to buy jet skis or a boat or something it's like when you pull into your lot you can just pull out the other way
Speaker: um Yeah, anyways, it was built in 2008. It was renovated in 2020. It's got brand new siding. It's got a metal roof, so it's going last a while. That one truly... No, no, finish it finishs what you're going to say.
Speaker: I was going to say that home truly does not need any work done. I think I've seen enough properties at this point to understand what does and doesn't need work. It's got a system bath. like That's a big thing. If you have a system bath, if you ever want to update it, that's easy peasy.
Speaker: first What's the system bath? Is that just the you unit? sha unit and okay Yeah, exactly. So like the plastic panels that it's very modular and they just cut the plastic panels and kind of stick them to the wall.
Speaker: That's a lot easier to get replaced than a tile ah tile restroom or shower. People don't realize that trash is really hard to get rid of and tile is on the top of that list.
Speaker: yeah So given going back to Taki's question, someone comes in a consult and they want not Tokyo, not Osaka, but like somewhere else city or town, a hundred thousand people kind of similar situation as you.
Speaker: What's a serious budget? $50,000. fifty thousand dollars I got lucky with that $26,000. I think an out-the-door budget, like $50,000. And that's yeah pretty much like your cost. Obviously not if you have to make changes or renovate the house. That's like your closing costs and all that involved.
Speaker: I'd say $50,000 is going to get you something pretty nice. I've seen a lot of properties and kasha's in Kashiwazaki, Tsubame area. that that 50,000 they're nice. They're very nice properties and and they come and go. Sometimes they're not available, but if you wait long enough, you'll see them come and go. 50,000, very nice.
Speaker: Quick plug for our Akiya Mart Direct program. We can help people buy. And actually one thing that Joey pulled some data, we've helped about 100 people across the finish line. And I think most people come into these consultations looking for the $20,000 to $30,000. But funny enough, by the time they do purchase, I think the average purchase price is closer to $80,000, I'd say. like I'm not sure if it's the agent guiding them, but also like you come into this whole, hey, going buy an Akiya with looking at something $20,000, but then maybe you see something 60 K that's, that's turnkey. So I do say, I agree with you that 50 K budget, I agree is like a good starting point. If you're going much lower than that, you gotta be the DIY and have that time as you mentioned, uh, which is the limited resource.
Speaker: But, uh, yeah, Joey, what do you think? 50 K does that sound about right to start? I think 50 K too, based on and what I'm seeing as well, I think lower than that. And it's kind of,
Speaker: Yeah, especially when you think like you got to put for buy furniture, like all that kind of stuff adds up to. Yeah, I agree with the 50k. Anything less than that's pretty risky. I feel like in the sense of you don't know what it takes to renovate it.
Speaker: Jay, what's the story? Like someone selling their 2008 house that was renovated in 2020. What's the story behind that house? Like, is it vacation home or you know? You're saying the story behind the person that sold it or for me? i let let Let's say the the person, the previous owner. I'm just curious. Do you have info on that?
Speaker: I don't. And and it's pretty... Unfortunately, would like to meet the previous owner. I unfortunately think that their parent had passed away and that's how they inherited the property. It's your common case of how somebody ends up with an Akeya, feel like. um But yeah, I haven't met them yet. They did give me a free piece of land.
Speaker: We were actually working on closing. They gave me a like 1500 or 2000 square foot piece of land right next to my property. Oh, it wasn't even part of my property.
Speaker: when I first got you got to be, you got to be friendly out there. You got to go to barbecue with the gas guy. Like, Oh, that's how you get these free properties. Hold on. Actually, it wasn't free.
Speaker: um i paid like 10,000 yen. Um, Okay, close to free. It was close to free. As close to free as you can get 3,000 square feet or something. um Yeah, it was a not that bad.
Speaker: It was 60 bucks for a piece of land. i think they just didn't want to deal with it, and they had already sold me the property, and they're like, I'm just going to give this guy. But yeah, we want to move there full time. guess the story behind why we bought it...
Speaker: Funny enough, we had always said we were going to wait to buy a bigger piece of property till we had a kid because we wanted in land. But, you know, your play set and have your dog and to whatever. And so I saw that property go up for sale. actually had been up for sale for a while. And on a whim, I was just like, let me go look at it because the siding is going to cost me X amount and I still got to renovate the inside of this other house.
Speaker: why not go look at this other property? ended up buying it. And funny enough, I guess, uh, as karma would have it, I mean, not in a bad way, but when I bought the property, we found out that we were having a baby.
Speaker: So kind of a good thing, that that happened, but yeah, so now we're trying to move there full time. Ooh. How's your wife feel about all this? Is this a you driving? Is this a mutual thing? is it Eric pulling both you guys along? Like, well, explain that dynamic. So,
Speaker: I think a lot of people that look into into Japan, sorry, let me say that again. I think a lot of people that look into Japan do know this, that statistically they are like 300 times, not percent, times.
Speaker: So 30,000% safer in any statistic that comes with any type of violence, right? Whether it's having your car broken into or assaulted or whatever, you are 300 times safer. Right.
Speaker: safer Okay, let me put it the other way. You're 300 times more likely to have something bad happen to you in the US. So safety is like a big thing in Japan. yeah So having ah partner and just living a life and wanting kids to be in Japan is a big sales, I guess, driver for me when I was talking to her about it, as well as the food and the culture.
Speaker: So she was not very happy when I had said I wanted to move there full time. And I'm going to tell you right now, she went for about, we went for two months and she said, I'm going to see how this goes. And I'm going to tell you what I think if we're going to move here or not.
Speaker: And it was a very strong tension between us because I wanted to go and she didn't want to. She was there one week and she said, when are we packing our bags? Cool. So yeah. got Yeah, so those of who want to move to Japan, I think safety is a big thing. And that's where you hear like people with kids that I mentioned earlier was like,
Speaker: You know, well how can you deny that safety when you have children's or wives? I mean, she went for ah hike the other day here in Texas and I didn't hear from her for like 30 minutes and completely slipped my mind that she was gone.
Speaker: I panicked because I called her and she didn't answer. and i was like, oh my gosh, but what happened to her? Did something happen? Her location wasn't updating. i was about to get in my truck and leave. So I'm going to my truck.
Speaker: Her car's in the driveway. She was in the shower. oh no But I think there's like there's also like a peace of mind, I think, when you're there, is knowing that it's safe for your family.
Speaker: know if that answers your question. ah Especially for kids. It's like so cool to see kids with their like little yellow hat, just like taking the train themselves and stuff. and like I think the health ah daycares are subsidized or free or completely covered by the government for some ages at this point, which is like such a big cost in the u right? It is It's like month a month U.S. s here,
Speaker: which is like Some people barely make, not even half, or sorry, they bare they their income is only enough to barely cover that sometimes. So it is kind of sad to see you know here in the States how expensive it is.
Speaker: Hey, there you're blazing the path here. It's an option. I think you're going to be the first of ah our peer group here who have bought these Akias to bring a kid over. So yeah you'll'll you'll let us know how it goes, but I'm curious. So what again what's your timeline again? You said you're going to have the kid.
Speaker: Wait a little bit and then move there? For sure. and that that actually pushed our timeline sooner. We were looking at like three or four years to move. Of course, Eric, i don't know if I've mentioned this. We have a company called Japan Unlocked.
Speaker: Eric was really pushing for me to move within the next year or so. And I said, no, we're going to wait four years. Yeah, so having a baby push that to next winter. So about a year and a half from now, that's our timeline. About one year and a couple months.
Speaker: Hopefully, fingers crossed, that happens. Okay, so you'll have a house, you'll have a kid, you guys are moving to Kashiwazaki. What's the visa situation? you know you mentioned the company, like kind of what's that path look like? I know there's been a couple new announcements on the business manager visa. like What's your general plan to get to Japan with your wife and kid?
Speaker: Yeah, so funny enough, in consuls, I get a lot of visa questions and I'm like, I'm not a visa specialist. So you always got to fact check whatever I say. A lot of people have this dream of having a business visa, it is not easy.
Speaker: One, it is financially very heavy upfront, at least I think like 30 or $40,000 just to have in your bank account um to start. And then you got to pay a visa specialist, which is another seven to 10,000 possibly.
Speaker: You have to open a bank account. Well, you have to have these long interviews with them because they might not even let you bank with them. So you got to do that over and over and over again. When you bank with them, they want to audit you. So business visas are very difficult to get. That being said, we are lucky to have one.
Speaker: And hopefully, so Eric has our business visa and I'm hoping to jump on that. Now, that being said, the plan that I usually give most people is start a student visa or go on a student visa.
Speaker: And that requires you to have a savings of, I think, a little over $10,000 in your bank account. If you don't have that in your bank account, you can have your parents or a relative write a letter saying that you they you're like backing and they can have the money on your behalf.
Speaker: um So that's our plan is to get a student visa. And that lasts about a year year or two. I have my wife do that. And then that gives us a timeline to either get a work visa or get on Eric's business visa.
Speaker: Yeah. I just, I know it's extremely complicated. i think long story short, you got to work with a professional here. yeah yeah Yeah. This is not a process you can do yourself. No, yeah, I'm not a licensed visa specialist or whatever. You have to be for that.
Speaker: So take it with grain salt. We are going talk to someone soon about it. I know the businessman, Javisa, I don't know if you saw that news, Jay. Like you need to have a capital requirement of 200K US now.
Speaker: to insane or Maybe not now, but it's coming. So I think that's big news. Hopefully we're grandfathered in. Yeah, it's hefty. hefty All right, Jay, I have some actually construction specific stuff for you. You mentioned siding a couple of times. I know you work a lot on roofs. So let's say I'm putting the Akiya searcher hat on. I'm on Akiya Mart. I'm looking around here.
Speaker: What are some like big red flags to look for? Like big costs when looking at properties on Akiya Mart that may seem like a good deal that you have an opinion on? um I like to say siding and roofs are very expensive, especially roofs. Nobody knows how to do roofs, right? In relatively speaking... But I love the traditional Japanese roofs, Jay. Like I love the blue tiles. You're not going to figure it out, right? Like if you're buying an IKEA and you don't know how swing a hammer, you're not going to figure out their roof system.
Speaker: Now I'm a roofer in the States and I'm even like, I don't know if i want to do that. They're similar to like tile, clay tile roofs here in the U.S. um So roofs is a big thing. Make sure the roof is in good condition. Even if it has a couple breaks, it could be expensive to fix and maybe you might not even find somebody who can fix it.
Speaker: That's a big thing, right? Depending on where you buy, can you even find the labor to do it? And if you can, it might be a weight or it's expensive. ah Siding is also very expensive. So make sure your siding is in good condition.
Speaker: Make sure it have holes, right? Mine's metal and it's rusted out, at least on the Bunsui property. So you got to replace it. When you touch it, it basically falls apart. And that can be very expensive. If you have a one-story smaller home, you can probably figure it out. But there's things like electrical that run on the outside of the property that you have to have taken off and put on.
Speaker: So you probably have to pay somebody to do it regardless. Exterior is a big thing. And avoid tile. Tile, even if you want to DIY, even if you want to dii Tile is very hard to dispose of. You have to have industrial waste facilities around you or break it up into like tiny pieces and put it in these specialized bags and it's extremely expensive.
Speaker: So avoid that. Yeah. And if you can have a system bath already in it, that's a big plus. System shower um and a not tile restroom, like toilet room.
Speaker: Dang, I think like all the nineteen eighty s houses have a blue or pink tile which suck but it's not too much at least i think so yeah it's interesting what you said like i don't know much about renovating tile but our contractor in bepu he didn't even bother taking down the tile he just like put something new right on top of it and like waterproofed he's what he told us they put a system they put a system over it right like a system bath just the panels right over No, we did something a little bit different. We put we actually can it move made it like a concrete box, but I thought he was going to take the tile down, waterproof, and then put like a fa a faux, like some sort of concrete look on top of it, but he just concreted right on top of the tiles. Wow.
Speaker: Yeah, that... If I could find somebody to do that, that would be great, you know, in the Bunsui property. The problem is Japanese are very perfectionist, right? Especially bigger companies, like, you know, the people that work with Masashi, they have a reputation to hold.
Speaker: So actually what's funny enough is when they came to look at my shower room and my Bounsui property, they walked away. They said, we can't do that. They looked at my shower room. They looked at my kitchen, another beam that I had across. They looked at my siding.
Speaker: i had a separate siding contractor look at it. They looked at a bunch of things. And at the end of the day, they said, Hey, we're just not going to touch your property because we think it's too hot of a mess, right? That they're not going to be able to get it in the condition that they would love to see it in.
Speaker: So that is the one thing. If you have something that's in too bad of a condition, like nobody's probably going to want to touch it. Yeah. Yeah. they They want to be proud of their work and know they can't do it. We, we had a little bit of a cowboy in, uh, for our property, just kind of quick and dirty.
Speaker: he's ah He's a, he's a fan guy though, too. We didn't, we didn't see him for a long time. I haven't heard from him, you know, At least you got it. You got what you you paid for, right? like took It took two years and a lot of money, but we oh have Oh, wow. Yeah, but... All right, Jay, but with a couple more questions before we wrap up here, you know i'm going to see we're gonna send this castle or this podcast interview to people who are going to be booking consoles with you.
Speaker: What kind of things do you want them to come prepared into the conversation? Or like how do they make the most of that consult? Again, usually it's only 30 minutes, but yeah. Any advice for someone who's got time scheduled for you and and wants to get the most out of that conversation?
Speaker: Yeah, this should be a clip on its own. When you buy a property, you should have an idea of where what the purpose of it is. Do you want to rent it out or do you want it as your vacation home? Because it can't be both. Generally, if you want a vacation home, you don't want to spend a lot of money.
Speaker: And if you want to rent it out, nobody's going to want to go to your vacation home that's far from train stations or whatever it may be. And sometimes, yeah, you don't have the money to buy something that's close to a train station. So if you're going to do either of those, you're better off buying it as a rental and getting in a prime location, although it's going more expensive.
Speaker: So know what your purpose is because it shouldn't, it can't be both most the time. Give me a second to think. I guess you could buy a property, even if you want to rent it out in any part of the country, like know your climate.
Speaker: The surprisingly you could drive 30 minutes and be in 10, 15 feet of snow. And on the other side of that 30 minutes, there could be six inches of snow. So just know your climate. Do you want to be in colder or warmer snow, whatever it may be?
Speaker: Yeah. No joke in Niigata. No, yeah, no. i And what I just said, I can drive 30 minutes and be in 10, 15 feet of snow. So, yeah, if you can just give me a second.
Speaker: I'm trying to think. I feel like there's another big question that I get a lot, which is know your out-the-door budget, right? Like, renovations are going to cost a lot more than you think.
Speaker: So again, try and spend more upfront and try and plan for that. If you're going to renovate a property, expect to spend probably an extra 20 or 30 K. If you got to, if you can't do it yourself and you got to pay somebody to do it, it's probably what it's going to come out to.
Speaker: Absolutely. Totally agree with all those points. Again, Jay, we really appreciate that you've been taking on the consoles after me and Joey. And I think we we felt the same, like having those conversations where someone comes in going like, Hey Jay, where should I buy? You just flip the question back to them. Like, Hey, what what do you want, man? Like what is your purpose?
Speaker: Yeah, exactly. um So, yeah, go ahead What do you like about Japan? like Exactly. And and like this might be a controversial statement. I don't know. But I just always tell people Tokyo isn't Japan.
Speaker: And it is. And it's got its own things. But there's more to Japan than the big city. There's plenty of gratification of being in a smaller town where people almost value you more.
Speaker: In Tokyo, like it's like being in New York. You're around people all the time. You really aren't happy to be around people. It doesn't matter who they are. You're like, I'm sick of people. I mean, this is just my experience. It's like Tokyo is too crowded for me. And I think it's there's a little bit of a stigma of like it's an overpopulated.
Speaker: It's overpopulated with tourists. So maybe Japanese people are popular. Yeah. And so like you might not be as welcomed as you think you're going to be. But when you go to these countryside towns, they're so loving and welcome.
Speaker: You know, and you can be in a big city that has 100,000 people, a million people and still be, you know, have everything you need, but have the gratification of like, I guess, more closeness to the culture and the people.
Speaker: That's my opinion. Awesome, Jay. That's really great point to end on. You know, Jay, we really appreciate you again doing these consultations with us, being part of the team and being on the podcast.
Speaker: If you see another 30,000, 2008 house, please let us know. But we are excited to come visit you in Kashiwazaki soon. Yeah. Anytime you always you guys want to go, I have ah a home there and a van that you can very easily use.
Speaker: No way. It's not yours.
