Home Builders - Who did you go with & how is it going now?

[DerekH]

Looking at building a high-quality home in the next year or so and have started talking to some builders. We've spoken to a number of the big ones now.
Probably looking to build in the Shonan, Chiba (Tokyo side), or possibly Karuizawa area.

Ichijo - Entire house floor heating sounds awesome, but I'm not sure it is worth it. Also, what is maintenace like in 20 years?
Sweden House - Quality seems great but the sales guy was awful. We told him how much we wanted to spend (which was enough for one of their homes), and he told us based on our combined salaries we would have 'too much extra income' （余裕すぎ～）and that we should spend more.
Mitsu - Visited a few houses. They look beautiful but they seem expensive. Central heating seems great.
Sumitomo Fudosan - A little too modern and not really what we were looking for. Decent prices on what seem to be high quality 'fixed' layout houses.
WithEarth - Smaller home builder which focuses on outdoor tiling as their strong point. They did a 3D rendering for us with a very thorough price breakdown which was nice.

I'm wondering what everyone else experience was like. Are you happy with what you got? How much over the initial price did it come in at? Regrets? Recommendations?

[sutebayashi]

Built with Hebel Haus several years ago.

Thought about the central heating stuff, but we like to just open the windows in the hot months, and wear lots of clothes during the cold months, so we passed on the central heating options (actually our Hebel Haus advisor didn’t even suggest it given the way we live).
We did get gas based heated floor in our living room, but so far we haven’t even used that… my spouse is worried in might damage the furniture we have sitting on the floor
So, our energy bills are relatively low, I think circa 10,000 a month during February this year and let’s see about this August…

We looked at Sweden House too, and I have a satisfied friend who has the central heating built in and loves it. They did have some kind of water problem in their kitchen some time back, but otherwise seem satisfied.

Also looked at Mitsui, but yeah they were most expensive.

Sumitomo Ringyo, looked at that too, but meh.

We also had looked at used homes and had seen a Hebel Haus we quite liked in some respects. Then we liked the Hebel Haus show room, went on a tour of some Hebel
Haus in the wild, which were good too.

The thing we liked most was that they emphasize the longevity of their homes. We only want to buy one house ever, so this one is going to be it. We saw some 40 year old house that was still going strong on a tour.

After that, the planning phase is arduous, but basically happy with the outcome here.

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

Mitsui-built home owner here, very impressed with their houses. Going round any housing estate, there definitely is a Mitsui style which you can easily tell. In the same way I think there is a distinct Daiwa style- very plasticky exterior.

We went for the central heating through ventilating shafts, it wasn't cheap, and he we had to cut other things, but well worth it. Even our toilets are heated and cooled.

I wouldn't say Mitsui home are that premium priced, not compared to the other national housebuilders, indeed they came in cheaper than Sekisui.

There were two things that made us choose Mitsui, the sales rep said we have bank so don't worry about mortgages and not having PR that was the clincher. (Mortgage with SMBC, who are somehow affiliated) The second was the sales rep, himself; Yoshida san who was there from when we shook hands at the beginning to handing over of the keys. He was so knowledgeable about the whole building process and my wife's continual changes to interior and exterior designs. 13 years in, still impressed with what Mitsui have built and still in regular contact with Yoshida san.

[AreTheyTheLemmings?]

We built our house with a local komuten, and we have never had cause to regret it, either before, during, or after the build.

Fifteen years later, we're still just as pleased with our place as we were the day we moved in. This is the stage (i.e., age of the house) when you start looking out for things that need replacing/repairing due to general wear and tear, but so far there's nothing that stands out as needing attention.

[Nancy]

We also built with Hebal Haus, since our land is in a very dense area in the city. I'll always remember the photos after the earthquake in Kobe where a large area had burned, but the Hebal home was still standing. (This was also the case when there was flooding in Ibaragi). Both Hebal and Sekisui are built like tinker toys, with steel beams and cement panels, so they go up fast (from planning to the build finishing, it was only 9 months). We also put an apartment in the first floor, so the rental fee from it helped to pay our mortgage.We have been very happy with the house. You need to keep in mind though that building a house is not an investment in Japan. The price of the house itself never increases, although the land might. After 20 years, our Hebal is worth less than half of what we paid for it. We put the gas floor heating in the LDK and love it. Otherwise it is just the aircon in the individual rooms.

[TokyoWart]

We actually went with a small company that is no longer in business when we bought 22 years ago (didn't have a choice since we were buying the new house as they finished it and the area we wanted has extremely limited supply). In retrospect I would have preferred to go with Mitsui if there had been any availability and I think they are worth the premium.

[DerekH]

Built with Hebel Haus several years ago.

Thought about the central heating stuff, but we like to just open the windows in the hot months, and wear lots of clothes during the cold months, so we passed on the central heating options (actually our Hebel Haus advisor didn’t even suggest it given the way we live).
We did get gas based heated floor in our living room, but so far we haven’t even used that… my spouse is worried in might damage the furniture we have sitting on the floor
So, our energy bills are relatively low, I think circa 10,000 a month during February this year and let’s see about this August…

We looked at Sweden House too, and I have a satisfied friend who has the central heating built in and loves it. They did have some kind of water problem in their kitchen some time back, but otherwise seem satisfied.

Also looked at Mitsui, but yeah they were most expensive.

Sumitomo Ringyo, looked at that too, but meh.

We also had looked at used homes and had seen a Hebel Haus we quite liked in some respects. Then we liked the Hebel Haus show room, went on a tour of some Hebel
Haus in the wild, which were good too.

The thing we liked most was that they emphasize the longevity of their homes. We only want to buy one house ever, so this one is going to be it. We saw some 40 year old house that was still going strong on a tour.

After that, the planning phase is arduous, but basically happy with the outcome here.

Thanks for the info! There's a Hebal haus model home at the model home village nearby - I'll talk to them next time. We really want a place that is warm in the winter and cool in the summer, so central heating with thick walls all the way.

[DerekH]

Mitsui-built home owner here, very impressed with their houses. Going round any housing estate, there definitely is a Mitsui style which you can easily tell. In the same way I think there is a distinct Daiwa style- very plasticky exterior.

We went for the central heating through ventilating shafts, it wasn't cheap, and he we had to cut other things, but well worth it. Even our toilets are heated and cooled.

I wouldn't say Mitsui home are that premium priced, not compared to the other national housebuilders, indeed they came in cheaper than Sekisui.

There were two things that made us choose Mitsui, the sales rep said we have bank so don't worry about mortgages and not having PR that was the clincher. (Mortgage with SMBC, who are somehow affiliated) The second was the sales rep, himself; Yoshida san who was there from when we shook hands at the beginning to handing over of the keys. He was so knowledgeable about the whole building process and my wife's continual changes to interior and exterior designs. 13 years in, still impressed with what Mitsui have built and still in regular contact with Yoshida san.

Glad to hear the central heating is working out. Did you get a central heating unit? Or is a large wall mounted AC unit in there? I've seen both with Mitsu

[DerekH]

We also built with Hebal Haus, since our land is in a very dense area in the city. I'll always remember the photos after the earthquake in Kobe where a large area had burned, but the Hebal home was still standing. (This was also the case when there was flooding in Ibaragi). Both Hebal and Sekisui are built like tinker toys, with steel beams and cement panels, so they go up fast (from planning to the build finishing, it was only 9 months). We also put an apartment in the first floor, so the rental fee from it helped to pay our mortgage.We have been very happy with the house. You need to keep in mind though that building a house is not an investment in Japan. The price of the house itself never increases, although the land might. After 20 years, our Hebal is worth less than half of what we paid for it. We put the gas floor heating in the LDK and love it. Otherwise it is just the aircon in the individual rooms.

We're looking for a home - not an investment all good.

[DerekH]

We actually went with a small company that is no longer in business when we bought 22 years ago (didn't have a choice since we were buying the new house as they finished it and the area we wanted has extremely limited supply). In retrospect I would have preferred to go with Mitsui if there had been any availability and I think they are worth the premium.

Ah, pre-fab. Yeah there are a lot of those around and some seem nice. But, as we'll be living there hopefully forever, a little more customization would be nice.