Visit the Suburb (1)

We visited 4 locations.

The real estate people drove around the heated day.

1. New house development in the quiet residential area (480 man yen) 12 min walk from the station

2. 5 year old home with 3 cars garage and backyard. Reformed in this year. Price was lowered due to the history of owners natural death in the house. (360 man yen)  15min walk from the station
3. 3 year old home with moderate size. Right next to local river. 15min walk from the station. (360 man yen)
4. New house development right next to the project residential. 20min walk from the station
 (400 man yen)
We have our dog-hter, we immediately called back to them we are curious for 2.
But buyer received application in that night. So, we were too late to get the deal. Darn.

Pre-approval of loan from Bank

We pre-applied for the application of the loan, using approximate sudo house application. According to the real estate people, it would be easier and shorten to get approved by bank when we are previously approved by the other banks.
This required the following documents.

- Drivers licence, and for my husband, Foreign registration card.
- Gensen-Choshu (Tax report given from your employee)
- Employee-issued proof letter of employment
- Work history letter
- Seal (A stamp with your name)

My husband wanted to live closer to metropolitan Tokyo, outskirt of capital area. He preferred new house, closer to the station than current apartment (approx 18 min walk) Those approximate price were no lower than 5000 man yen. (a half million USD)

On the other hand, I tend to like living in quiet area, while I need to commute to Tokyo more frequently than my husband.
I found an suburban area currently under urbanization plan, expanding to be railroad intersection.
I decided that location as an idea of counter offering idea of suburb area.

It is challenging to write down in forms and stamp the seal for my husband, since the form follows quite a local rule in Japan. So, I asked the copy of the forms previously, so that my husband can expect what should be filled in each square of the form.

But timing was not so great. My husband was getting Japanese test in the beginning of July. So, we decided put the process in hiatus in order for him to concentrate to the test, without getting bothered by collecting documentation/paperwork stuff.

Buying or Keep Renting?

In the beginning of May, we start to consider getting out of the current apartment.
The apartment is in Kawasaki, Japan. The location is not too far from my work, however, due to the local traffic trying to avoid main road, thus trucks running through in front of our apartment, the noise level is getting intolerable for both of us who work frequently from home. My husband work from home everyday.
Since our rent renewal will be next year, my husband started to wonder around real estate office around station area, and caught by sales people in front of stations. Considering trust level of catch-sales people, I started to be serious.

Starting from Facebook. I casually asked around my friend "Who knows well about real estate?" And surprisingly I had a sort of related distant relative who work as a real estate agent. The agency is well known, a bit too prestigious for us and their service might possibly be overkill, but I prefer to give handling fee to my relatives rather than total strangers.
I gave my relative my number, and briefly talked over phone, and made appointment to their office at the end of the May 2018.

I visited to real estate office and talked about our situation. One young lady other than my relative are in charge of our case. Our apartment lease will expire in May, 2019. And I was wondering if I should keep renting or purchase house. Since we have a dog, it is getting harder to find apartment for our family. Also because of my husband preference we have standard American furniture such as living room couch and full size family table and big TV. Also, I have electric piano. The both of us have many many computers coming with our professions/curiosity directions.

The real estate people are open for our consideration. They showed some possibilities. Most of the deals are much much cheaper to purchase, than keep renting. Also, the tax deduction from owning house is high, and interest rate is low, so we decided to start this endeavor of buying house.

• Example of WTH price 3LDK condo in Tokyo.
• Example of 4LDK house around the area where I grew up