Older house/Renovation/purchase

[captainspoke]

The metal siding seems to stay in decent shape. There's negligible rust (surprisingly little for its age) but in some spots there is some other corrosion (whitish)--not enough to do anything about. Painting it would be stupid (to be frank about it). I've seen that done and IMO it's a waste of time and money, and is ugly. Some outfits will try to sell you siding that completely covers what's there, but that adds about 2cm of thickness all over and unless it's a disaster in the first place, doesn't really improve things much--and apart from slightly better sealing, does nothing for insulation. And having it done is not cheap. I'm sure it's weather-tight, but siding added on like this is easy to spot since it has a unique look around the windows.

I built a short wall behind our parking spots using a new version of metal siding, galvanium (old version is just painted metal), which has a zinc-aluminum coating. There are different versions (and names) of this stuff, and it's also used/made for roofing. One trick when installing it is to insure you don't damage/scratch thru the otherwise impervious coating (same with cheaper painted metal). I'd probably choose a galvanium roof, next in line after the traditional tiles and before other roofing, would be nervous and picky about the installers being careful about its surface.

**

Certainly do the termite/white ant inspection.

[Bubblegun]

Some outfits will try to sell you siding that completely covers what's there, but that adds about 2cm of thickness all over and unless it's a disaster in the first place, doesn't really improve things much--and apart from slightly better sealing, does nothing for insulation.

I have noticed this on some Youtube videos, where they seem to be overlaying a new roof on top of the old one. I imagine the owner decided its just cheaper to leave the old one on. Unless I'm misunderstanding what they are doing. Thankfully there are a lot of videos from the USA about this material and they seem to be using some insulation there.
I wonder why not here in Japan?

The metal siding seems to stay in decent shape. siding added on like this is easy to spot since it has a unique look around the windows.

I was wondering , by putting on a new wall on the old one, we can't see the walls properly and and end up just hiding problems underneath, etc etc
As the karate kid said, Wax on Wax off. I think its probably a good way with the old stuff too. Old OFF, New ON.!

Certainly do the termite/white ant inspection.

Sounds a good thing to do.

[Ori]

Unless you are into DIY thing, I wouldn't recommend it. And even then I wouldn't recommend it, unless you have no choice budget-wise.
You won't be enjoying life in a building which is freezing cold in winter and steaming hot in summer for all those years until you redo the insulation and replace the windows.
Life in poorly insulated old wooden house in nothing like life in old brick house.
Add to that a likely mold in walls, especially around windows frames due to condensation, and you might also get health problems as well.

And you probably won't save that much comparing to buying or building new or slightly used.

Anyway, keep in mind, that if you hire a contractor when doing energy saving related renovation (replacing windows etc), then you can get some subsidy from the government, which you won't get in case of DIY.

[Ori]

Any advice anyone on making offers, and if you managed to negotiate a price?
We noticed how ( as seems the norm here) they have the selling price, then they all start to add on, Tax for A, Insurance for B, home loan insurance for C, and something else for D. It turned out to be around an extra million yen on top.

You should generally add 6-10% to the selling price for taxes etc.

You can and should negotiate.
My advice is to do that before doing house inspection.
We deed the opposite (because realtor insisted on that), and it made our position weak when negotiating, because we've already spent 10万 on the house inspection and couldn't really go away.

[Bubblegun]

Any advice anyone on making offers, and if you managed to negotiate a price?
We noticed how ( as seems the norm here) they have the selling price, then they all start to add on, Tax for A, Insurance for B, home loan insurance for C, and something else for D. It turned out to be around an extra million yen on top.

You should generally add 6-10% to the selling price for taxes etc.

You can and should negotiate.
My advice is to do that before doing house inspection.
We deed the opposite (because realtor insisted on that), and it made our position weak when negotiating, because we've already spent 10万 on the house inspection and couldn't really go away.

Some good advice.
Thanks. I was wondering if a 15% offer under the asking price is too much?

[Gareth]

Any advice anyone on making offers, and if you managed to negotiate a price?

We recently put an offer in on a house in Tokyo. Our offer was one million under the asking price. Another couple put in an offer of the exact asking price on the same day. The couple selling the house liked us more so they asked us to increase our offer by 500,000 and they would go with us. We did and they chose us.

So don’t underestimate the power of rapport and charm!

[Bubblegun]

Any advice anyone on making offers, and if you managed to negotiate a price?

We recently put an offer in on a house in Tokyo. Our offer was one million under the asking price. Another couple put in an offer of the exact asking price on the same day. The couple selling the house liked us more so they asked us to increase our offer by 500,000 and they would go with us. We did and they chose us.

So don’t underestimate the power of rapport and charm!

Excellent. It's nice when someone does that.

The wife was looking at some really old properties which really surprised me. So these aren't Tokyo prices. 6 million, 7 million, up to 10 million yen.
So I thought, is asking for a million yen discount, being too cheeky? What are your thoughts?

[Ori]

We recently put an offer in on a house in Tokyo. Our offer was one million under the asking price. Another couple put in an offer of the exact asking price on the same day. The couple selling the house liked us more so they asked us to increase our offer by 500,000 and they would go with us. We did and they chose us.

So don’t underestimate the power of rapport and charm!

Did they told you so personally or the realtor told you that?

[Ori]

Some good advice.
Thanks. I was wondering if a 15% offer under the asking price is too much?

Internet say that expected discount on used properties is 10-20%, so I'd say you can go even 20% or less, unless it is a highly desirable property.
Realtor might say something "Oh, you will offend seller with such a low offer", but I thinks it's all bullshit. Realtors are so full of it.

[Bubblegun]

And you probably won't save that much comparing to buying or building new or slightly used.

Anyway, keep in mind, that if you hire a contractor when doing energy saving related renovation (replacing windows etc), then you can get some subsidy from the government, which you won't get in case of DIY.

I often wonder what the definition is Slightly used means in Japan.
For me around 20 years is slightly used.LOL although in Japan I expect its, last week.LOL.
And I do wonder why nearly new house is coming onto the market. Usually I think of two or three things.
1) death
2) suicide
3) divorce)
4).. somethings wrong with the building. I expect 1,2, and 3 to be the most likely . So I always ask why they are selling.
Some of the houses we have seen have been already renovated by company A and are selling it.
Anyway most of the decisions will be left to the wife while I do the money side of things.
Happy wife= a Happy life= less strife.
Or maybe that should be the other way round. Happy life= get married= strife.