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Hi Blog. Sapporo’s free international magazine SAPPORO SOURCE came out on Sunday, and I saw this highly positive advertisement on the back cover (click to expand in browser). Comment afterwards.
COMMENT: Way cool. This should be how real estate agents serve people in Japan, and let’s encourage this as a template by giving it more exposure. I hope Coldwell Bankers nationwide are this open-minded, but even if not, I suggest people in the Sapporo area give this place a try. Arudou Debito in Sapporo
9 comments on “Way cool Coldwell Banker SAPPORO SOURCE advertisement offering assistance with NJ apartment searches”
The contract may be translated but, for legal purposes, the Japanese original is the only one that counts.
The most important thing to know is whether the agent has any affordable properties on the books. Tokyo and Yokohama residents can get the same services from agents like Ken Corporation but they primarily target the expat market where there’s a company picking up the tab. If you have the budget, you don’t face any real problems in Japan’s real estate market. Coldwell doesn’t seem like the kind of outfit interested in sub-100k rentals but I could be wrong.
— You could be. Given the fact that the average rental for an 2DK apartment in Sapporo environs is somewhere in the 5 to 10 man range (you can even rent a whole house for that much in places), if only high-end deals (coupled with a very tiny expat community, if any, in Hokkaido) are all CB is interested in, they aren’t gonna get much business. The market just isn’t that way up here.
That is fantastic. If anyone has anything to do with them please ask them to consider opening an office in Sendai. We have a large foreign population and some positively medieval estate agents/landlords.
On face value this is a very positive development and I hope they do well.
Seeing ads like this makes me very happy. Good on them. I hope they extend this same sentiment throughout the rest of the country as well!
Thanks for raising awareness of the positives when you find them, Debito. Please keep up your good work.
“3. No strange, local customs that make you wonder where your money is going. We’ll explain every last yen.”
I’d move to Sapporo just for that.
They will explain every last yen- doesn’t mean no five or six months pay off money or no 3 months deposit that doesn’t come back because you hung a picture and there is a nail hole in the wall- it just means they will tell you that 9 months of rent is going away and not coming back. Tokyo and Kansai agents already tell me this. However, the improvement is that they will only show places that will rent to you. This is a BIG improvement as I have had a famous Japanese executive guaranteeing me and I have to use social capital each time I apply and they will not tell me until I undergo the whole application process that the landlord only wants company man Japanese anyway. Although this executive guarantees me, I have been turned down almost every place or they want me to pay an extra month “gaijin tax” to guarantee anyway. So thus far, I have withdrawn from looking for a bigger place as I couldn’t handle the bullshit.
“3. No strange, local customs that make you wonder where your money is going. We’ll explain every last yen.”
Strange local customs? I seriously have no idea what that could be… the only thing I can think of is key money, but I’m not so confident with that answer.
Real Estate in Japan seems to be a real racket from the sounds of it, especially when you get into the buying and selling side of things.
I’ve met more than a few NJ landlords who deliberately rent to NJ in order to be able to charge more.
— Well, NJ do have fewer choices…
It seems that real-estate in Japan is pretty horrible… the fact that there needs to be ads like this says a lot. It’s good that there are at least some companies out there trying to do the right thing by all the frustrated overseas people (though I suspect Shintaro never experienced the sort of discrimination that goes on in Japan). Lets hope that this is a sign of things to come.