Transcript
Speaker: Come by. Come by. No, no, it's not open it. There we go. Before it foams out. Come by. Come by. Come by. Thanks for being our first guest here, Dale. Thank you for joining me. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the show here. Thank you. Shout out to my family. My family listens to every podcast.
Speaker: It was going to be Bill and Christina Andrektrick. They helped me with the cabin in Nova Scotia. Some shout outs today. We're drinking some Masahi's super dry way. Like they have the cap where you pop it off and it has the foam on it. Yeah. One of the best. Pretty awesome, right?
Speaker: It's like a draft beer in a can is the design you rip for anyone not familiar, you rip the whole top off the can and supposedly foams up like a draft beer and kind of the drinking experience. It's more of a cup at that point. 10 out of 10 recommend.
Speaker: All right. Welcome to the buying a house in Japan podcast. We are recording today from our Tama base camp house in Tokyo. Really excited. This is our day. What day, Joey? Are we on the day of our trip of being in the house?
Speaker: Day four. Day four. We've made a little recording studio and we're really excited today. We have a special guest and our first visitor ever to the house since we've been here. Ryosuke Takemoto. Ryosuke Takemoto. Takemoto. There we go. Ryosuke is one of our Akimart preferred agents. So today we're going to have a little bit of an interview series with him. Talk to him about real estate, how he got into it. Ryosuke, we're really happy to have you today. Do you mind giving us a quick intro? Who are you? Yeah.
Speaker: Thank you, Takei. It's my pleasure to speak with you today on this podcast. I was fun of this podcast. Yeah, we're... And listen to, yeah, super episodes. Thanks for listening. Yeah. Long time listener, first time caller.
Speaker: Yeah. I mean, introduce myself a little bit. I'm Ryo Atakemato. Yes. I'm originally from Osaka, Japan. It's countryside of Osaka. So it was, I always wanted to escape from that town. It's pretty countryside. It was my dream to do my business internationally, working with international people.
Speaker: Yeah, I ended up with the real estate industry with working with international people. So I support international buyers who want to buy a house in Japan and start Airbnb business with that house. Cool. Yeah. We got introduced. I think you actually cold emailed us or you got introduced on LinkedIn or how did, how did we get in touch actually? It wasn't too long ago. Yeah. Right. So I mean.
Speaker: I knew Akiya Mart and I was very impressed by the concept and I thought it's great if I can connect you and I found a mutual connection with one of my friends.
Speaker: This guy is connected to Takei. I asked him to make introductions. I think you were in Palo Alto or something. Yeah, at that time I was in Palo Alto. Awesome. I saw your message and I was like, you're really close to me. I was visiting my parents in Saratoga, so not too far. I think we were trying to meet up a person, but unfortunately we didn't make it through.
Speaker: We did connect and now a couple months later, we're excited that we're starting to pass folks off from AccuMart Studio. I think we actually maybe had a first success case soon, right? Coming up, fingers crossed. Yes. An exciting success case too. This is $6 ,000 property that we were able to see from first meeting the individual involved to actually closing on the deal. I think that's such a crazy number to buy a property for $6 ,000. What do you think?
Speaker: Yeah, that's right. 6 ,000 is a crazy number. Yeah, but I'm really excited to close that deal. Yeah, I think it's coming in a few days.
Speaker: Cool. Yeah. It's one of the few agents that we've worked with that are open to working with any price range. I think, thank you for that. We know one of the things we mentioned on the podcast pretty often is it's hard to convince folks to work on some of these cheaper properties. So let's say for a $6 ,000 house with the current commission laws, it was only making maybe like $500 off of it. Something around that. Yes. I'm thinking like, yeah, I'm thinking like that.
Speaker: As we talk to more people, we are figuring out a system to how to compensate for these deals on average. I'm just going to start blasting questions. Hope you're with that on average. How much time does it take from start to finish? Let's say we introduce you to someone from two keys in hand. How much work is it on your end as a real estate agent?
Speaker: Yeah, thank you for the question. It takes a long time. Yeah, I expect 30 to 40 hours. It depends on whether you have decided which property you want to buy or not. If you haven't, it might take time to pick up. Let's say they find the property on Acuemart. This is the one. Yeah. It's, for example,
Speaker: Sorry, 30 hours. Yeah. What about like days from first introduction to you until closing? I think it was within the months. Within a month. Yeah. We started talking in the middle of May. I think that's pretty fast actually. Like you're working very hard, 30 hours.
Speaker: during that time, but I don't know, a month to close. Our first property in Bepu took us six months. So that's a, that's amazing. And then yeah, again, thank you for being transparent and talking to these clients for 30 hours for $600. That's not a lot of money. That's 20 bucks an hour or something.
Speaker: Yeah, that's right. And I expect the virus to start Airbnb business. Okay. So I'd like to have the longer long -term relationship with the virus, only if they want. Got it.
Speaker: Yeah, let's talk about that. I think most of our people, a good majority of people are interested in like, how do I Airbnb this property? We've talked about it a little bit on the podcast, but let's say I'm a customer, I want to buy something, I want to run an Airbnb, but I don't want to be hands -on. Do you do the full service from A to Z or what's your kind of scope right now?
Speaker: Yeah, thank you. So yeah, I provide services from the A to Z, basically. So I support you get a license from the government, like local government, as well as the management after you started your own baby business. What's the application process? So let's say I got the house, you help us close, you help me, I'm the client, close the house. How long does that take? What are some of the steps?
Speaker: Yeah, I think so. We have three types of licenses for Airbnb in Japan. The most, like a simpler, easier one. It takes two or three weeks to complete the application and it's all online. And if you try that, yeah.
Speaker: But we have couple, we have three types of licenses. Easier one is like three to four weeks. The harder two takes a month or a couple of months. So is that Minpaku license? Yes, the easier one is Minpaku license. Minpaku and that's for 180 days a year you can rent it out, right? Exactly. And then what are the two harder ones? What are they called?
Speaker: So two harder ones. The one is like a special zone license, like Tokku Minpaku. Special Minpaku. Special Minpaku, yes. Special Minpaku. The last one is like a Ryokan license. Basically like a hotel. The Ryokan, yes.
Speaker: Got it. So what's the special meme Pakku do? Is that 365 days a year? Yes, it's 365 days a year. Okay. So is that only in Osaka? That's the way it was explained to me. That's only Osaka or? Yeah, Osaka is the one. And in Tokyo, Ota world is selected as part of a special zone.
Speaker: And I think Niigata city is also a product. So a couple of places in Japan are selected by a special Minpaku zone by the Japanese government. And then you, yourself, you host, you're an Airbnb owner or you've done this process before, right? Oh, yes. I do my own Airbnb in Osaka. Yes. Got it. And then, sorry, I'm jumping around here. When I'm a client, I'm looking at buying a property. Do you help do that research to figure out is this an Airbnb zone or
Speaker: I'm assuming yes, right? Yes. We do have to check the eligibility for Airbnb. So if we can share the listing, for example, from Akiyamart, I can access the original real estate website, then check the zoning and check the local regulations for that property. I can let you know this is eligible or not. Maybe we should take a little bit of time to explain. Opening an Airbnb in Japan is not like opening an Airbnb in America. There are a ton more
Speaker: regulations, you can't just do it. And that's why you need someone like Ryo here to help you navigate the process. Me and Take thought we could do it ourselves at first. And very quickly, we even went on like a website and it was like, here's how you do it in Japan. And the website was long and didn't understand any of it kind of thing. Like it's not like opening an Airbnb in America. And that's why we're discussing all these different like regulations, the different types of meme Pakku or Airbnb's. Right.
Speaker: Yeah, that's a good point and that all of applications are in Japanese. Yeah. No English translated. No translated. And they thought, yeah, all like a P, like a PDF in Japanese. Oh, no. Oh, no. Yeah. I've seen a lot of Japanese. So we tried to find condos in Tokyo at one point and see if we could find units in them. And it's all Japanese PDFs that you download from websites. It's messy.
Speaker: to find any information about running these businesses. Yeah, it's messy. Yeah. TLDR, it's a lot of work. We're outsourcing it to someone. If you're working with your, he can help you out with that. I think that's a really big value add. Do you also help do the property management and aftercare if you want to buy a place and I want to rent it out when I'm not there for 180 days?
Speaker: Yes, we can support the Airbnb management as well. So yeah, we can basically coordinate the cleaning process and finding someone who can clean the place or the company who can in charge of that.
Speaker: And then I guess people probably listening to this are like, what are your fees roughly? I know it's probably case by case, a little bit from the Airbnb manager. Do you have any, anything you want to share there? If not, it's totally up to you. Yeah. Thank you so much. So I'd like to be transparent. Yeah. And then I currently charge 20 % of the profit of the Airbnb of the clients.
Speaker: So I don't want to make this like a percentage from the revenue from the net. Wow. That's really good. That's really good for the client. Totally. Yeah. Just for context in Hawaii, where I run Airbnb's, I think most property management companies take 20 to 30 % off the gross.
Speaker: which is a much larger chunk. That's much larger. So I'd like to be a true partner of a client. But yeah, it might be changing some in the future. But for now, it's 20 % of the
Speaker: Totally. I know this is like you're doing both a real estate company, but also a little bit of a startup. So can you talk to us a little bit about your nostril homes, I guess, or your bigger project here? Oh, thank you so much. So yes, I do behave like a real estate agent who is familiar with Airbnb process.
Speaker: But I started my journey as a startup when I was in the States, San Francisco. So my dream is to start a big company, which is like a Zillow, Redfin. Hey, that's where we're joined forces here. Yeah.
Speaker: So yeah, for now, the real estate, the purchase process is very complicated, especially in Japan, for people overseas. So I like to make it as simple as possible, as easy as possible for the clients.
Speaker: Yeah, that's definitely something. We're mission aligned on that, where we find that, especially compared to California or the West, the real estate transactions here in Japan are very slow and frustrating. I'm curious, what has surprised you or what is most frustrating for you in the Japanese real estate transaction process?
Speaker: It could be a lot of things if you want. Yeah, a lot of things to be honest. For example, the payment and the contract should be done at the same day, for example, at the bank or at the agent's place.
Speaker: Doesn't make sense. Yeah. We heard sometimes you have to be in a room for four hours and you're waiting for the money to land and everyone's just sitting there looking at their phone for four hours. That's right. That is really, really surprising to me. Anything else? What area is the most ripe for innovation? Like with our current tech, with maybe AI or automation, what do you feel can get better?
Speaker: Yeah. So I think that property sourcing and researching those, for example, eligibility for Airbnb, that can be, yeah, it can easily be automated. For example, if you put the link of a camera, we can just put data from the database and show the result. This property is eligible or not. Yeah. We've thought about that. I think that would be a really great feature that we could somehow put in, but right now,
Speaker: When you check eligibility, is it checking every municipality site or how do you check eligibility? First of all, I should check the zoning, which zoning this property. Then basically, Japan government has a bigger regulation, so it's easy to understand that. But sometimes each municipal has their own regulation on top of that.
Speaker: Yeah. So I need to make a call to the like a local city office and tell them the location. Then is this very manual, right? This is why you need your hotel, but I think this is why we don't want to do it ourselves. I really hope it can be automated, but for now it seems difficult. I have a question. I feel like you're actually the first Japanese person we've interviewed on the podcast. We've interviewed Ziv so far, Kendall.
Speaker: But I think you are the first Japanese national we've interviewed. So we actually asked Ziv this question, but Ziv is not Japanese either. But what do you think? And I get this question a lot. I run the Instagram account for Akiyima and I get this question a lot. And I honestly struggle to answer this question myself. I try the best I can, but what do you think with all these Akiyas that are in Japan, cheaper housing?
Speaker: and foreigners buying them, what do you think that the domestic population, how do Japanese people see that, right? The yen is very weak right now. They see foreigners coming, buying up their properties, their land. Do you think that they see this as a negative thing, a positive thing? What are your thoughts and what do you think that the larger Japanese population thinks of this? Yeah, thank you so much. I personally, I'm really, I love for international people buying a house in Japan.
Speaker: Because if we prohibit free ban, let me people buy house in Japan for more proceeds, maybe in the future, Japan will not be chosen, will not be selected as a destination, like for tourists or for place to invest. So I think it's really important for the economy.
Speaker: But I understand some people are already worried about people outside of Japan buying houses. I personally think that...
Speaker: So I'm from Osaka. So in Japan, the Osaka and Tokyo, well, different country, 100 years ago. So maybe people are worried about, oh, people from Tokyo buying a house in Osaka. But nobody does that right now. It's not the same problem anymore, right? Yeah. I believe the future will be like that. And I want to realize that kind of future in Japan. Cool.
Speaker: Great answer. Yeah. I think we hope that more people share that view, but unfortunately I think with maybe younger than the average person, I don't actually, what's the average age in Japan now? I think it's like.
Speaker: Pretty high, right? I think one in 10 people are above 80, I think is the stat. One in 10 is above 80. I don't know where that puts the average, but yeah, that's a great answer. I hope everyone in Japan embraces that because it's a population decline and a lot of these things that we want Japan to thrive.
Speaker: That's right. A little bit of a spicy question. How do you feel about the tourism? We just got here to Tokyo. We were in the trains yesterday and it was so crowded and Shibuya and Shinjuku Station were like, holy crap, this is overwhelming. How do you see the tourism and over -tourism maybe of Japan right now? Yeah, that's a great question. I know some people are worried about over -tourism, especially older people.
Speaker: But I've heard that New York completes the band Airbnb. But what happened after they banned is they're like appearing illegal, like Airbnb. Can't stop them. Can't stop them. The New York way. The New York way. I've also seen that Madrido, not Barcelona, is playing also. They submitted a plan to ban Airbnb until 2035 or things like that. But yeah, I think.
Speaker: And personally, if people can't find the hotel when they travel, they will not choose that place. So it will be really hard for the travel industry. I heard a stat actually that hotel prices in New York have skyrocketed because of the lack of Airbnbs. Do you feel Tokyo might ever ban Airbnbs? I don't know if you can't see in the future, but is that a worry for you at all?
Speaker: or Japan as a whole, do you think they're... I know the Minpaku law is pretty new, 2018, 2017 or something, but are you concerned about that at all? Yeah, I'm sometimes concerned. But for example, Ota word in Tokyo selected as one of the special zone, like special in Pakku area. It means that the government is promoting Airbnb. Which area is that? Ota. Ota. Ota -ku goes to Haneda airport.
Speaker: We should, we should, we should try to find some Airbnb. Let's do it. The news, yeah, also another news that the, for example, the Minpaku manager license was very strict. It was hard to get, but the government changed their policy. They basically, they made it easier to get Minpaku manager license, basically there as a country rebel trying to promote Airbnb.
Speaker: I think a common question we get from customers or clients we talk to is like, how do you pick the area? I think a lot of people want to optimize for profit. We typically send them AR DNA. There's a couple of tools. And how do you answer that question? Hey, how do I maximize my ROI maybe? Or where do I invest? Yeah, that's a great question. So what I do is to check the average property price of that area.
Speaker: And then maybe we can compare like 23 words in Tokyo. So we list the property prices to buy. We also list the Airbnb, like the ADR, for example, average daily rate. So we can compare which word has a higher IADR and a cheaper property price.
Speaker: So if we can find that it's sometimes it's not very popular for local Japanese people, but it's really popular for like tourists. I think that's a good market to come in. Interesting. I think another curveball question here, if we gave you a million dollars and you needed to set up an Airbnb, maybe a million dollars too much, let's say a hundred, 300 ,000.
Speaker: dollars, where would you invest in for a maximum profitable Airbnb? Oh, selfish question here. Yeah. If you were to invest, I know you again, you're from Osaka, so they say invest in your backyard, but curious, you've obviously dealt with a lot of people. Yeah. I think I would choose Osaka for some reasons.
Speaker: So 365 days a year in Osaka. Big plus, huh? That's a big plus. And the property prices are cheaper than Tokyo.
Speaker: And there are other factors like expo. Okay. Yeah, that's big. A few years. And the casino will also be opening for the first time in Japan. Casino? Casino is opening in Osaka? Yes. Yes. Oh, not pachinko, but a real pachinko. That's real gambling. You're actually like, really? The first time in Japan. Yeah. Wow. I've never heard of that. When is that opening? 20, 30, yes. Whoa. We should front -run that, Jerry. That's really smart, actually.
Speaker: I know a bunch of during COVID, I started playing a little online poker and I got a poker network. So Osaka would be your spot. Yeah.
Speaker: Where is the casino or part of Osaka? Bay Area of Osaka, Bayside. It's close to the Universal Studio, Seaside. Interesting. That's really good to know. For anyone, can you describe your hometown, Osaka? If people listening maybe have never been to Osaka, what are some of the good points?
Speaker: Oh, good. Yeah. You said it used to be a different country back in the days, right? Yeah. We are joking sometimes, like local Japanese friends. You need to have passport when you come to Osaka. Yeah. I think it's a little bit different. It's like a city, but not as big as Tokyo. But people are a little more friendly. Everything is less organized. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker: When I went to Osaka, I don't know why. When I was a student in Tokyo, I would get the kushikatsu every time I went to Osaka. Is that an Osaka food? Or did I just make that up? That's kushikatsu's Osaka food. Okay, great. I love kushikatsu. Kushikatsu. Osaka is also famous for food. Eat until you drop. It's famous for restaurants. Yeah, namba or tema or places.
Speaker: For people that don't know what Kushi Katsu is, think of like yakitori, but then deep fried. That's really good. Fried. Another Airbnb question here. Again, going back to that, we gave you some money. What, from a property age perspective, or I guess maybe even property size perspective, if we gave you, let's say again, $300 ,000, would you rather buy three, once two bedroom houses or I don't know, like what, how would you divide that up? Would you just put that in one bigger property?
Speaker: All right. Yeah, that's a great question. If we do it in Osaka, I think I would buy like a single family house. If we have 300 ,000 US, yeah, we can buy one. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, very close to the center of Osaka. So you'd go for one big house versus a whole bunch of smaller, cheaper houses. I think so. Maybe we have options to buy some like condos, like smaller houses, like for five or six units. But I think in Japan, like those business hotels, such as Appa Hotel, Osaka Hotel, some of the listeners might know, they're really cheap and they're really competitive. I stayed in Appa Hotel two times down.
Speaker: I think it's very hard to compete with them, but when we talk about the family main place, family hotel, we don't have lots of options in Japan. Getting a bigger house. That's interesting. So something that Tracy Northcott says all the time, she runs Tokyo Family Stays, a great business based out of Tokyo.
Speaker: She says that the one bedroom Airbnb's, she says that market is totally saturated. She's always encouraging people to go after the two or three bedroom or the single family home market for Airbnb's. Do you agree with that? I agree with that. Yeah.
Speaker: It's about the supply demand. We have fewer supply for the family, bigger places. At the same time, Airbnb players in Japan, like local players, they do it like a side project. Basically, businessmen working in a Japanese company, they don't have much amount of investment. They just pick up the cheaper, I would say, so cheaper condos.
Speaker: And it's interesting in Hawaii, again, I can't afford a single family home, but.
Speaker: I think the data shows like pound for pound studios make the most money per dollar is what I from air DNA. So that's why I usually have been investing in studios, but it seems like you mentioned some of the, there's a lot of budget hotels here that make it very difficult. And, um, interesting thing is we went to, we actually presented today at Yoko to air base. And one of the big missing pieces of rentals here is finding rentals with that allowed dogs.
Speaker: rentals that allow big backyards. I'm not sure if that's an Airbnb thing, but do people ever request that actually from like, uh, your clients, like, Hey, I need to have a yard and how often, what are some of the weird requirements people ask you for when looking for properties? Yeah. Specifically the Airbnb tricky question. I don't know. Yeah. Maybe some people ask.
Speaker: It's not like a tricky, but people like a stroller stroller, like a stroller stroller. So baby. Yeah. They can't wait. They're like a baby newborn babies, but they can't bring their stroller from their own country. So they ask.
Speaker: Yeah, that makes sense. You just had a kid too, right? Yeah. Congratulations. Yeah. Thank you so much. I have my six months old. I totally understand that request. Okay. So you're from Osaka, but I know you live somewhere else now. Where do you live currently? Currently, I live in Tokushima, which is a part of the Shikoku. Okay. So a little bit geographically, do you consider that Southern Japan or East or West?
Speaker: Yeah, it's a southern between Kyushu and Osaka. Yeah, it's three or four roads from Osaka by car. It's an island. So it sounds like you specialize more in that region, but will you help anyone with, let's say, if someone wants Hokkaido? Is that an area you would support or is there any limitation for it? Let's say Yakushima. We really like Yakushima. What are your thoughts on where geographically you would support in Japan? Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker: So I don't have any limitation for the areas, but it seems like if that's the Yakushima Hokkaido, it's not easy for me to come with you. For example, if I can schedule the date, yeah, I think you can come with you. But in Osaka, in the west part of Japan, I can easily come with you. Yeah, easier for me. Got it. I think there's a big plus, right? You've seen so many properties and you can be seeing in a person with you is probably much more valuable, right?
Speaker: I got to start another question, but, and the, and sorry, again, I'm asking the questions just because you're Japanese here and we haven't had any. We always say in the consultations that we run, we say there's no dangerous part of Japan. You don't worry about it. There's no ghettos and no like by house anywhere. You don't have to worry about safety. Do you agree with that statement?
Speaker: I agree with that. That's good. Yeah, I agree with that. I lived in India when I was... You lived in India? Yeah, I lived in India. I also lived in San Francisco. Just as dangerous. Might be the most dangerous though. Yeah, if I compare Japan to those two places, no worries. Some local Japanese might have their opinion. This area is safe. This area is dangerous. But if I compare it,
Speaker: through the other countries, it's like totally safe. Oh, that's really interesting. What are some negatives of Japan? And just to follow up on that, the one thing our contractor mentioned, burglary, people breaking into homes and stealing items, not like violent crime, but while you're not there, people stealing from your house, petty theft.
Speaker: So not a safety concern, but I personally don't believe that's a thing, but do you think that is a concern in Japan for homeowners that specifically vacation homeowners that may be here for two or three months a year? Two or three months for a year.
Speaker: They will not, nobody will be that house, right? Another nine. Yeah. Let's pretend no one uses it for nine months. Yeah. I think it's better to have some kind of security if we have security services. So if someone like break the door, break the window, security guy will come. You might have that service even in Beppu.
Speaker: So yeah, might be an option, but I personally don't, don't worry about it. I'm not concerned either, but good to hear you as well. If you are worried about that, yeah, you can, maybe you can subscribe with those services.
Speaker: Or maybe what kind of people should not invest in Japan? So people expect lots of appreciation from the property, like the States. Except for some areas like the center of Tokyo or center of Kyoto. What about broader Tokyo, like where we are? Tama -based camp. Could hold retained value, right? All right, fingers crossed there. I think so. Yeah, I think that's the one thing. Got it.
Speaker: And so what about, you said central Osaka, you think retains value? Yes, central Osaka, yes. Especially next to casino. I want to invest next to the casino. I had a casino follow -up question.
Speaker: So for people not familiar with how gambling currently works in Japan, the pachinko, you win like a prize at the pachinko in Japan and then you take that down the street to a shop that buys prizes and that's how you actually turn your winnings into cash. Is the casino going to be straight to cash? Is that the idea or is it still going to follow this? You win prizes and then you convert the prizes to cash.
Speaker: Sorry, you're not a Kifsino expert. I'm not really familiar with Kifsino, but I think it's one of the strategy of the Japanese government on the Osaka city office. So I think they go direct cash because they focus on international players or tourists.
Speaker: You don't want to do it. Like that's always that I love the Pachinko system. I think it's funny. Geez. Pachinko is a crazy thing. If you've never, if you're listening to this and you've never been a Pachinko parlor or whatever it's called, it's a trip. It's like you walk in and it smells like cigarettes and there's so many lights and sounds and.
Speaker: It's, it's sadder than it is in the end of the day. I feel like it's, you've lining up Sunday morning to get in kind of thing. It's an addiction. The casino, casino is going to be crazy. You know, it's like, I'm, I'm all over that. I don't know. Yeah. Broader questions for you. Just real estate in Japan kind of trends. What are you seeing over the past year? Are you seeing a lot more foreigners buying? Are you seeing? Yeah. What are you kind of, you're some of your observations. Yeah. I think.
Speaker: Since I work with international players, I see more people overseas. With the yen. With a week yen. I think real estate investment, including Airbnb, isn't a big thing for local Japanese people. The investment itself is not part of our culture. We just save money in the bank. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: I think it's good for Japan as well. If someone who want to invest in Japan can come to Japan. Yeah. What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out looking or thinking about buying in Japan? Yeah, that's a great question. Maybe set up priorities. Like what do you want to
Speaker: Project to that investment. Do you expect cash flow? Or you might just want to have a vacation house in Japan. I think that's really important. Totally. I think that's really important. I think a lot of people see, you know, we kind of bait people to see cheap houses and they're like, oh, I just want to buy it without really thinking like, what am I going to do with it? Stuff like that. How you going to turn on utilities? How are you going to get there?
Speaker: For clients, do you help manage renovation? I know that's a hot topic. Yeah, I do support the renovation process. I don't know how to fix walls and the rooftops, but I can work with local contractors who can work on that.
Speaker: So I support you to get a quote from those contractors to compare. I can behave like your project manager for the renovation. That's great. That's actually a question I would feel like for post purchase services, that seems to be the most important one for people.
Speaker: Utilities, they'd be like, somehow it'll be figured out, but it's the finding a contractor and renovating. People ask us a lot, will you be able to support us there? So that's great that you're able to handle that. Yeah. I think it's really hard because most of the contractors can't speak English.
Speaker: And then sometime like rough, they just give the final price without any like breakdown. Yeah, we felt that. How are you making? All right. Yeah. Overall, I think, I don't know if you're doing construction in the US, the price is very reasonable. I think here in Japan, I feel like the quality work is also quite good. Any thoughts on just construction work here? Is it pretty straightforward? Are they tricky or?
Speaker: Yeah, I think it's straightforward. Like those contractors are like, usually they're like, most of them are honest. Okay. They are honest for the price and they're honest for their work. Yeah. Well, yeah. Sometimes we have a really like scammy, like. Oh, they said there are some scammy. There are in Japan as well. So we should definitely be careful about this person can be trustworthy. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Interesting. All right. I have a proposition for you here. We're going to, we're going to find some money. We're going to buy near. What's the near the casino? What's honestly, we don't have a lot of money, but what's the cheapest property near the casino? You think, what, give us a budget here. If we wanted to run an Airbnb near the casino, that is profitable. But give us that, give, give us the outlined maybe budget you think or steps or what do we got to be doing? I'm interested. We're aiming for like 4 % returns.
Speaker: 6 % plus returns. 6%. I don't know. What do you consider success from a ROI? I don't know what you pitch clients or what I'm sure you get that question once in a while. Yeah, that's a great question. So we can find houses in Osaka and close to the coming casino. Close train ride even. Close train.
Speaker: Walking to the best, though, would be awesome to go gamble, get a little drunk, walk home, wake up and go back. Yeah, the casino itself is a little bit remote. Okay. Perfect. Yeah, part of the island. Yeah, perfect for local neighborhoods, but it's hard to like somewhere we can walk from. Short train. Short train. Short train might be, yeah, differentially less than 10 million yen. 10 million. So in dollars, that's. Dollars, the thousand.
Speaker: Yeah, 160 ,000. Exchange rate right now, $1 .61. Let's go. Yeah, that's right. Sorry to your question. So that's the purchase price of the house. That's the purchase price for the house. 10 million yen, 60K US. 10 million yen. Yeah. Assuming probably renovation is needed.
Speaker: Uh -huh, with maybe not. Really? Yeah. 10 million? Yeah, I close a deal with a buyer from Spain. We bought like a 5 .4 million for a house. 5 .4 million? 5 .4 million yen. That's cheap? That's cheap. In that area? Not specific, not pretty close to the casino, but it's also a city and locations.
Speaker: But for that property, we have to do renovation. Our budget is like $2 million. It's going to be $7 million, $7 .4 million, including like brokerage fee and everything. It's going to be $8 million. It's like a $50 ,000 US.
Speaker: So going back to casino, you think 10 million yen. Again, I know this off the top of your head here. We could maybe find for 10 million yen or 60 ,000 US, something that is turnkey or livable without rentable, without renovating. For 10 million. Yeah. Yes. Wow. Furnishing. Furnished. Yes. Furnished. Furnished for 10 million yen. Oh, how much? Furnished means like the areas that apply in shoes. Maybe another million, two million yen.
Speaker: couple of million, 12 million. Okay. Yeah. An Airbnb set up costs. Hmm. Airbnb set up isn't that much. We just submit the application. But we pay you for that fee. Yeah. I don't want to have to really handle anything. Yeah. I want to be a hands off investor here. Hands off. Hands off. Take my money and just, I want a casino. Okay. Get away. Get away. Yeah. Escape. Casino get away.
Speaker: Yeah, what we have to pay is for the registration fee for the government. It's 20 ,000 yen. That's 120 or 130 US. But it's more the time that you spend to do it and get that. So right now I charge like 100 ,000 yen to get a permit from the government. It's going to be like 600, 600 to 700 US.
Speaker: That's cheap. You should charge more. That's very affordable. So roughly maybe under 15 million yen is a very safe number if you wanted to do this project. It's a very safe number. 100 ,000 US dollars is less than that now. 90 ,000 US dollars. Yeah, 90 ,000.
Speaker: Yeah, lower, but we want to over, we want to overestimate just to make sure we have budget. But, and then timeline, let's say we had the 15 million yen in cash. We found a property in the area. Like, you know, we want to go for it. How quickly do you think we get it up and running on Airbnb?
Speaker: So after you purchase or from? Let's say right now we're like, you know, we found this casino property. We have $15 million in cash. On Akiemara. On Akiemara, yep. And you were in Japan. And we're sitting right next to you and we have the cash in a briefcase. Let's do this, which we learned we can buy in cash.
Speaker: Then we can buy the house within a week. We can just go to Osaka, then just talk to the seller, the seller agent, just pay by cash. You do the briefcase open, the dramatic open of the briefcase. Yeah, maybe possible. I don't want that. So one week close with those situations is possible. If we can find the house that you like. And we'd buy probably no home inspection, we just go for it.
Speaker: It also depends. If you do a home inspection, it might require another... No home inspection yet. We're firing. We're just going for it. Aggressive. Gambler. High risk. Yeah, yeah. High risk in return. It could be a week within 10 days. Okay. But to get a permit for Airbnb, it takes time because it's more like a government, like a bureaucratic process. Conservatively, what do you think? Conservatively, two months for special zone license.
Speaker: 90k two months. That sounds like the conservative very safe three months, three months. It sounds like from now, right now it's what it's July 1st, especially if renovation is required. Oh, but for the price, he said we could probably find it without renovating. Yeah. And while we're applying, we could do whatever touch up or paint and stuff. Yeah. All right. So you think three months.
Speaker: Like we gave you money right now, October. Yeah. Three months, three months. Yeah. I think it's not possible. Yeah. It's doable.
Speaker: All right. High rollers. High rollers. This is a bad signal. Anyone listening who wants to come in on this deal, we should consider, I'm right after this, I'm going to look it up. So casino 2030 in Osaka, special zone Airbnb, you can rent 365 days a year. If you have 90K, I would assume that area is going to appreciate assuming the casino does well.
Speaker: Yeah, I... Or at least hold value. On this whole value. And have high occupancy rate. Yeah. The casino is going to have hotels in it though, right? Is it going to be like a hotel casino? Probably. I'm not really sure about that, but the land, the property is huge. Casino also, they might have some hotels, but it's not going to be like... The casino area is like this area. It's casino, so...
Speaker: Is there any chance of the casino like buying your land or kicking you out of the land? Let's say we're like, we think this is where the casino is going to be. We bought really close and like for some reason they want to put a hotel there. Yeah. They're like, no, we're taking this over. Is that something that could happen? I don't think so right now because the location is as I mentioned remote from the city side. Yep.
Speaker: Yeah, it's not an island. It's like an island called Yumishima. It's not the center of Osaka. Island of dreams.
Speaker: Island of dreams. Umeshima is such a good name. Maybe if you're Japanese, yes. Umeshima. Okay. Wow. Dream of hitting the jackpot. I'm convinced on this one, Jerry. I've all of a sudden switched. We were thinking about Shizuoka or maybe Nagano, but now 2030, that's in five years.
Speaker: Six years. I know Japanese people love gambling too. Yeah. And I've never heard of this either. So a little bit, we're not ahead of the game, but like ahead of 90 % of the game, I would say. Anyways. How many people are thinking about purchasing an Airbnb and know about the casino? Also, we were talking about the Hokkaido, Niseko, Shinkansen, like pro tips like that, I think are really.
Speaker: smart investments because they're going to happen. Yeah, I think so. So yeah, and the prices are already skyrocketing. Yeah. Yeah. Pro tip. Here we go. Casino Osaka. If anyone's listening, shoot us an email. If you're interested, we should try to do something there. Yeah, the free tree is excited. Cool. Well, I think that was mostly questions that we got a pretty good sense. Anything we missed that you want to say to the audience here or anything we might have questions we might have missed you wanted us to ask you?
Speaker: Oh, not really. Again, I thank you for inviting to this podcast. And to the listeners, I'm always open to have like a video call or I'm able to text you and answer your questions. Awesome. So again, just to remind everyone, you're always one of our Akima preferred agents. If you talk to us, you find a property, we will, depending on what you want, if you want an Airbnb or you're looking specifically Osaka or some of these areas.
Speaker: We could very well pass you off to Dio. As we go in our consoles, we'll talk to you a little bit about the process. Obviously, Dio does a little bit more than the average agent, so there is some charges that we tried to do and compensate him for, and we'll talk about that in our call.
Speaker: Leo, I really appreciate you coming by as our first guest here. We're literally sitting in an empty room. Actually, before we let you go, what do you think about our house? You're the first guest to see this. The house is amazing. Wow. Are you just saying that? Are you saying that to be nice right now? I can enjoy having a really amazing deal. We're drinking some beers and we have a
Speaker: cardboard box that's holding the podcast record. We have a lot of cardboard right there. We have we're on lawn chairs right now in the room. We had to deal help to set up some lights. It's we got to take. I'm going to take a photo of this right after and use the podcast cover. But cool. Thank you so much for being here. I think we're going to drink some whiskey now and maybe get some dinner. But yeah. All right.
