Condo Photo Album

1. Understand your own and family's current situation
2. Picture your own and family's future
3. Set priorities based on images about your future and situation.
4. Compare images about your future and current property market.
5. Consult on actual purchase of real-estate, mortgage, etc.
6. View condominiums and check their overviews and reputations about their developers.
7. Apply to intention of puchase
8. Submit pre-application to a condo unit and obtain a pre-approval for mortgage to puchase it.
9. Prepare for conclusion of a purchase contract.
10. Conclude a purchase contract.
11. Contract for mortgage.
12. Realize mortgage and delivery of a condo unit.

1．　Understand your own and family's situation

Please understand your own and your family's situation before you start searching for real estate on flyers in newspapers and/or viewing properties randomly. And you will be required to set priorities to make decisions for a purchase of real-estate.
You may want real estate to be 'reasonably cheap, sunny, new, close to a train station or on 3rd floor or higher...'. We understand that you have a set of desired conditions for real estate. However, we strongly encourage that you check those conditions one by one and decide whether or not they are requisite for your life. So, understanding your own and family's situation is very important. Let's check the followings first.

1. Will there be change in your job and/or workplace? If yes, what kind of change will there be?
2. Will such change as mentioned in 1 affect your income and/or expense？
3. Will the change affect the structure of your family? If so, what may cause the change to influence the structure?
   （e.g. marriage, child birth, and cohabitation with parents)
4. If you have a child or children, how about school? How about workplace(s) of your family members?
5. Where do your parents and your wife's ones live? How about their health?

2．　Picture your own and family's future

Let's foresee your a-bit-far future from your current situation and near future which we have just talked about in 1．It may be helpful to make after-5-year-later, after-10-year-later simulations. Buying a house or an apartment is like designing your own life. That is, you need to work on it while predicting your life in future.

3.　Set priorities based on images about your future and situation.

Know the most and 2nd most important goals for your near future and far future.

Setting priority is important.  Single people may not find sunny-ness as so important because they don't come home before 9 p.m.  Still, they may find proximity to work the most important thing for searching for home because they get tired when home and work are greatly remote from each other and when it takes a long time to commute.  Yet, they may regard security as important above all.

Let's take a single female worker whose work is in Tokyo for example.  Her order of priorities for searching home may be as follows:

1. Within 5-min walk from a station of a train line which she uses for commuting

2. Home with good security in a safe neighborhood

3. Convenient location for her daily life, in particular, purchases of daily necessities, due to her busyness with work.  (Grocery stores, laundries, and/or other stores or shops which stay open till late. )

4. Affordable price.  In particular, loan can be paid all by herself.

5. A spacious bathroom for relaxation

6. Quiet at night.  Double-pane windows will be ideal.

7. ・
8. ・
9. ・
10. Facing southeast

Let's take another case in which you have a spouse and children for example.   Education for your children may be the most important priority.  Your order of priorities may be as follows:

1. Convenient access to an elementary school which is affiliated with a famous university or college. 
   No entertainments or high-crime zones on the way to school

2. Sunny bedrooms exclusive for children

3. Parking space because you will have to use your own car to drive the kids to a cram school and back home

4. Parking space because you will have to use your own car to drive the kids to a cram school and back home

5. Large living room for relaxation
   An island kitchen

6. ・
7. ・
8. ・

9. Nice-looking entrance

10. Promising location in terms of speculation

Let's take another case in which you have a spouse and grown-up children and are concerned about the health of your parents.  Your order of priorities may be as follows:

1. Two apartments standing next to the other for your parents and family

2. Barrier-free for your parents

3. Location which your parents are used to live in

4. A low-rise home for your parents

5. Large living-dining area for your relatives

6. ・
7. ・
8. ・
9. ・

10. Proximity to a train station

As shown above, priotize your needs and consider what is really needed in your life.

4．　Collect and check information about real estate from the Internet and magazines after carefully priotizing needs of your family and yourself.

Keep calling agencies till you find an agent you find trustworthy because not all information about real estate on the Internet or in magazines is new.
Visit real-estate agencies and check not only whether they are experienced and/or knowledgeable but also whether they are sincere.  We recommend that you consider the seriousness of an agency to be the most important criteria in choosing agencies. 

Distrust an agency which tries to impress you, saying that they have special information.  The reason for distrust is as follows.  A single real-estate agency can’t monopolize information about real estate.  Among the real estate industry in Japan, there is a database shared among agencies called 'REINS'.  Information about real estate is registered into the database so that it can be shared among real-estate agencies as wide as possible.  That is, those agencies who claim to have 'special information' unfairly monopolize such information although sellers ask them to disclose it to other agencies. (Monopolizing such information will not be beneficial for sellers.  This suggests that there will be high chances that you will be treated unfairly by such agencies. Also, Japan's real-estate industry is more advanced than any other industries in terms of monopoly or oligopoly.  Please understand that the industry is advanced that information is distributed and shared widely and evenly.

5．　Consulting For Purchase & Mortgage

After choosing one or two reliable agencies, talk to them about your priorities which you have come up with in 3.  Those agencies will search for real estate which satisfies your needs and give you information of it.

6．　Visiting and inspecting condo unit and checking reputations of developers

If you wish to view real estate on weekend, we recommend that you make an appointment for viewing at least a day before because a seller often sacrifies her/his holiday for your viewing.  (We recommend that you make an appointment for viewing at least by Thursday, if you wish to view real estate on Saturday or Sunday.)

Also, understand that a seller will probably be upset with you, when you are late for a scheduled meeting time or cancell it; and that it may jeorpardize your future negotiation with a seller.  Behaving with common sense will help you carry out negotiations with a seller in your favor.

If you wish to examine interiors of real-estate, we recommend that you bring your relatives and/or experts, if possible. They can tell you about how much it will cost to renovate real-estate or how much renovation it will need.
Concerning appearance of real-estate, we recommend that you avoid those with obvious cracks and/or rust.  But you may overlook those issues, if real estate has a repair plan.

When you like real estate, confirm about reputations of its developer and/or management company as quick as possible.  Talking to residents and/or superintendents of the real-estate will help you understand its atmosphere.

7.　Purchase application

Submit an 'intent of purchase' form, if you don't find anything particulary wrong about real estate after checking it based on the afore-mentioned criteria for checking.

The 'intent of purchase' form is legally unbinding.  But we suggest that you don't submit it unless you have intention to buy real estate.  Put a desired price in the form and submit, if you have intention to buy real estate.  Also, don't put an unreasonably low price because it will offend the seller, making s/he think that you are not serious.  Firstly, consult and confirm about how much is appropriate to offer and will be accepted by the seller with real-estate agencies. 

If you wish to assure that your form has been submitted, you may request for a document stating that a seller has received your 'interest of purchase' form and that s/he has agreed on the price you offer in the form.  This document is called an 'acknowledgement of sellout'.  Also, it will make the seller difficult to sell real estate to other people ethically and psychologically.

8．　Pre-Application and internal approval of mortgage

Prepare required documents in advance for pre application to mortgage.  In general, the following documents are requested.

1. a certificate of tax deducted for recent 3 years

2. a statement of tax returns for recent 3 years (if you are a self-employed individual and/or high-income earner)

3. documents showing remaining amounts of other loans (e.g. auto loan)

4. a business card, a copy of driver’s license, and documents of your self-introduction

5. a chart of your family history (a bank may request for it in order to confirm about your legal successors)

You will be asked to submit the above-mentioned documents.  Make a package of these documents and be prepared to submit it to financial institutions.  Ask a real-estate agency to prepare documents detailing the subject real-estate.

9.　Prepare for conclusion of a purchase contract

Result of your pre application for loan will decide whether or not you can acquire real estate.  That is, if your pre application is approved, it will mean that chances that you can obtain real estate are high.

Let a real-estate agency know of result of your pre application as soon as it is approved.  Your agency will schedule your contract and other things necessary to implement the contract.

The amount of deposit is normally presented when an ‘intent of purchase’ form is submitted. We advise that you use one bank account to keep cash equivalent of the amount of deposit.  Keeping needed money in one bank account will eliminate trouble because you are asked to show that you have the amount of deposit ready in cash or bank notes in most cases.  If possible, open an account with the bank which has approved of loan to you as early as possible.

Also, obtain a draft of your contract and a copy of a statement of important facts about real estate beforehand.  If you have any questions and/or concerns about them, ask your real-estate agency about them.  Because a purchase of real estate will probably make you consult with public authorities (e.g. ward office), we advise that you raise as many questions as possible about your purchase during a day so that you can get as many answers as possible from the public authorities.

10．　Signing contract for purchase of a condo unit

All you have to bring are your seal and deposit when you conclude contract for real estate.

Bring a copy of contract and/or a statement of important facts about real estate which you have obtained in advance because final documents presented during conclusion may be different from what you have seen in content.

Ask as early as possible when you are through with hearings of a statement of important facts about real estate and have any questions about it.  It is best that you clarify everything about your contract before concluding it.

A read-through of your contract will be carried out next.  A real estate agency will read it through and explain and confirm about its content with the seller.  Ask questions, just like you raise questions during explanation of a statement of important facts. A read-through will take only 10 or 20 minutes.  So, get it done thoroughly.

When you understand everything about your contract, put your name and address in the contract and put your seal on it.  Then, the seller receives deposit after putting their name and address in the contract and putting their seal on it.  Make sure to receive a receipt for deposit as soon as you give deposit to the seller.  This is actually important because not all sellers are saints.

Lastly, you share information about settlement days and time with the seller.  It will be the last part of conclusion of your contract.

11．　Conclude contract for mortgage

Submit copies of contract documents to a bank and/or banks which has approved of loan to you.  Without them, a bank and/or banks can’t internally approve of your loan.  So, remember to get this done.

A bank and/or banks will get back to you in 3 or 4 days, if their approval process goes well, or in about a week normally, in saying that your loan has officially been approved.  After hearing of a bank’s final confirmation about your loan, all you will have to do is to conclude contract for loan with a bank and/or banks. This will be the last part of dealing with housing loan with a bank.

Around the time during which transactions for housing loan are processed, a judicial scrivener joins to secure rights concerning real estate after your purchase of it.  Consult with your own judicial scrivener, if you have one, although a bank introduces you a judicial scrivener designated by the bank in most cases. Using your own judicial scrivener will not cause any trouble so long as a bank approves of it.

A judicial scrivener researches on rights concerning subject real estate and verifies whether or not rights of real estate unrelated to a new owner, such as, lien and foreclosure, can be managed for sure.  One of the reasons why a bank designates a judicial scrivener is because a bank will be concerned about whether or not a buyer can surely transfer rights.