Step 1 - Mortgage Presecreening

[Silversurfer]

There is no Japanese language requirement that I have ever encountered in order to get a loan or a mortgage. Maybe that’s just me.

I have had three vehicle loans, one renovation loan and five property loans. The most important factor was financial: could I pay back the loan? In no case did I have a father- or mother-in-law as a guarantor. I have been a guarantor myself for loans.

And I usually laid down big down-payments.

It’s good to have an honest face, too.

[entdark]

SMCB Plaza Update

1. You cannot sign with SMBC unless you can read the contract natively with no translation. PR and Spousal were fine.
(I cannot read Japanese at this level).

2. If one is on maternity leave they need 3 years of tax withholding slips

3. They will give you a rough number on the phone before you come in for prescreening.

4. I am not 100% sure if they will offer a formal prescreening, without selecting a property. But it seems so. Not all banks offer this.

We are going ahead with the meeting for now. They say they can offer us the amount we are looking for my partner's salary alone. We will see. I could use a senpai here, lol. This is unknown territory.

SBMC does not have the best rates? -> https://kakaku.com/housing-loan/compan ... panyCD=010

At what point do they ask you to go read the contract in person? I went through the pre-screening and was told to open a bank account with them, spoke with them on the phone so far no problems.

If I had to read a contract then I'd be obliterated, most likely. Guess I will have to learn to read them.

[Tsumitate Wrestler]

SMCB Plaza Update

1. You cannot sign with SMBC unless you can read the contract natively with no translation. PR and Spousal were fine.
(I cannot read Japanese at this level).

2. If one is on maternity leave they need 3 years of tax withholding slips

3. They will give you a rough number on the phone before you come in for prescreening.

4. I am not 100% sure if they will offer a formal prescreening, without selecting a property. But it seems so. Not all banks offer this.

We are going ahead with the meeting for now. They say they can offer us the amount we are looking for my partner's salary alone. We will see. I could use a senpai here, lol. This is unknown territory.

SBMC does not have the best rates? -> https://kakaku.com/housing-loan/compan ... panyCD=010

At what point do they ask you to go read the contract in person? I went through the pre-screening and was told to open a bank account with them, spoke with them on the phone so far no problems.

If I had to read a contract then I'd be obliterated, most likely. Guess I will have to learn to read them.

This was SMBC, in person at their loan plaza. They are a bit old fashioned. You could probably do it online and avoid this.

[entdark]

SMCB Plaza Update

1. You cannot sign with SMBC unless you can read the contract natively with no translation. PR and Spousal were fine.
(I cannot read Japanese at this level).

2. If one is on maternity leave they need 3 years of tax withholding slips

3. They will give you a rough number on the phone before you come in for prescreening.

4. I am not 100% sure if they will offer a formal prescreening, without selecting a property. But it seems so. Not all banks offer this.

We are going ahead with the meeting for now. They say they can offer us the amount we are looking for my partner's salary alone. We will see. I could use a senpai here, lol. This is unknown territory.

SBMC does not have the best rates? -> https://kakaku.com/housing-loan/compan ... panyCD=010

At what point do they ask you to go read the contract in person? I went through the pre-screening and was told to open a bank account with them, spoke with them on the phone so far no problems.

If I had to read a contract then I'd be obliterated, most likely. Guess I will have to learn to read them.

This was SMBC, in person at their loan plaza. They are a bit old fashioned. You could probably do it online and avoid this.

Yeah asked because I went online, did the pre-screening and got the OK and the next is the real application. Did the whole call in Japanese and no word of the test to read the mortgage contract.

But anyways one of the steps is creating an account with them and the automated system failed, so I will have to go to a physical branch anyway

[igzem]

Many good recommendations, anyone knows banks which do not penalize for extra repayments? In general which ones are good/best (noted and AU and Paypay)? I am planning to put 20% cash, the rest to finance.

[Tkydon]

Many good recommendations, anyone knows banks which do not penalize for extra repayments? In general which ones are good/best (noted and AU and Paypay)? I am planning to put 20% cash, the rest to finance.

If you repay early, you are paying yourself a return equal to the rate of interest you are paying on the mortgage.

If you are paying a higher rate than you can earn by investing the money somewhere else, then it is a good use of your funds. If not, invest the money somewhere else in NISA or iDeCo, etc..

You would definitely want to pay of credit card debt or high interest debt.

If you were in the US right now, with a mortgage at 7%, it would probably be a good idea to pay it down...

I wrote this up somewhere else.

https://www.retirejapan.com/forum/viewt ... 540#p35540

https://www.retirejapan.com/forum/viewt ... ief#p34083

and there are many videos on youtube by many Financial Planners other than Dave Ramsey

[TokyoWart]

Many good recommendations, anyone knows banks which do not penalize for extra repayments? In general which ones are good/best (noted and AU and Paypay)? I am planning to put 20% cash, the rest to finance.

My experience is a bit dated because we finished our mortgage payments many years ago, but we used Resona bank for our mortage and there was no penalty for early payments to principal but they asked me to limit the frequency of making them so I wound up doing it once a year at summer bonus time.

[Wales4rugbyWC23]

Many good recommendations, anyone knows banks which do not penalize for extra repayments? In general which ones are good/best (noted and AU and Paypay)? I am planning to put 20% cash, the rest to finance.

SMBC have no penalties if you repay early by internet banking. However, if you pay at the physical bank's front desk you have to pay a 5000 yen fee each time.

[RetireJapan]

Shonai Bank has no penalties for early repayment, but...

https://youtu.be/EedWDRcqBVI?si=8gU1s3NZjQAPLz7J