Are you in the market for a house in Japan? Is the process of searching endless Japanese real estate sites a little too daunting? Interested in purchasing an abandoned house, and bringing it back to life? You’re not the only one! It seems I’m contacted by someone asking these questions just about every week.
Real estate and translation assistance has been (by far) our biggest request. So after a lot of thought and careful planning, we’ve come up with a number of services that you can mix and match, based on your needs. If you need help finding a property within certain criteria, we can dig through websites and listings for you. If you’ve already found a property, but don’t speak Japanese, we can help you communicate. If you found a property, but the pictures on the listing leave you with a lot of questions, we can go take a look more closely.
While I try to share as much information as I can via our Photo Journal and YouTube channel, there are still inevitably many questions unique to each person’s situation. The first place to start would be with a video consultation, so we can answer your questions, give you a general overview of the process, take a look at properties you’re interested in, and offer guidance about various difficulties. After that, you can determine which additional services would be most helpful for you:
- Base Fee + Complimentary Video Consultation: $200
- Answer your initial questions (up to 90 minutes)
- Discuss general Japanese real estate logistics
- Discuss the properties they’re interested in
- Discuss any specific difficulties (farmland, inheritance, etc.)
- Discuss what additional documentation they may need, based on residency
- Create strategy for what we can help with, based on their unique situation
- House-Hunting: Rate negotiable
- Searching 20+ real estate sites, based on your specifications
- Provide you with links to all listings that meet your criteria
- Please note: Most of the websites are in Japanese
- Live Video Tour + Photography: $250
- Live video tour (up to 60 minutes)
- Photo gallery delivered within 48 hours
- Clients can view, share, and download high-resolution images
- Representation and Translation (for the complete process): $750
- Emails and Phone Calls with Realtor or other Japanese professional
- May include 1 or 2 in-person meetings (initial site tour and/or closing)
- Representation and Translation (in-person meeting): $250
- Meeting a Realtor or other Japanese professional on your behalf, or along with you
- May include email and/or phone calls to arrange the meeting time
Rates listed are for locations within the Shimanami Kaido area. Tolls and travel time are included between Onomichi, Hiroshima and Imabari, Ehime. For travel outside of this area, our rate is negotiable, based on distance and availability.
Rates are listed in US Dollar amount for your reference. If paying in Japanese Yen, which is preferred, but not obligatory, the rate would be based on the exchange rate at that time.
Note about purchasing property in Japan: Foreigners can purchase property in Japan, with or without Japanese residency. We purchased our first ‘akiya’ house while in Japan as tourists, and our second ‘akiya’ house after receiving Japanese visas and residency, so we’re familiar with both situations.
For those of you looking to buy a home in the Shimanami Kaido area: We’re happy to work alongside local realtor Shimanami Property, to assist his English-speaking foreign buyers. We’d love to have you as a new neighbor in the Shimanami Kaido area!
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