Older house/Renovation/purchase

[Bubblegun]

An update on pre-mortgage applications.

The first place said yes. They'll give us a 25 year mortgage, flexible rate, and we can borrow 9 million yen+ We add out deposit on top. This offer is good for 6 months.

The second place and I quote "we can't give a pre-mortgage to a foreigner", but the wife says they'll consider it afterwards. (which is their euphemism for "NO". But since they just weren't polite enough to say "NO" we might just apply again, when we find a place and see what happens.

The third place just gave us an outright. Naaaaaaah.

So its just look for something, now that we have a concrete figure to work with.

What fixed rate did they quote you? Was the assessment based purely on income and not existing assets?

The assessment was purely based on income on both of us.( self employed) and no other assets we taken into account. Although we did say how much we would like to put down as a deposit. I initially said 5 million yen, but after second thoughts we decided to say 4 million.

I spoke to the wife and she hasn't got the actual interest rate.

So we could buy up to 13 million yen, or more if we just increase the cash on our side, but the loan will be 9 million if we so wish to use it all.

It is possible that the income from the UK house rental could almost cover the mortgage payments here. ( depending on the tax in Japan, I suppose! )

[captainspoke]

Browsing older houses, one divide that seems to mark an era or generation of things is whether or not a place has a toilet upstairs (ours doesn't). Pinning down a date for the change is not important, just that this is something that is not reformable--adding one to the second floor of a house that doesn't already have one would not be practical.

This isn't the end of the world, and we've lived with just one for years. But this is one of those things that could ease retiree life as much or more than common reforms like new wallpaper, lighting, and so on.

[RetireJapan]

Browsing older houses, one divide that seems to mark an era or generation of things is whether or not a place has a toilet upstairs (ours doesn't). Pinning down a date for the change is not important, just that this is something that is not reformable--adding one to the second floor of a house that doesn't already have one would not be practical.

When we renovated our in-laws' place a few years ago, we put in a toilet and shower booth upstairs

This was a pretty extensive renovation though, I'm sure it would be a hassle as a stand-alone project.

[Bubblegun]

Browsing older houses, one divide that seems to mark an era or generation of things is whether or not a place has a toilet upstairs (ours doesn't). Pinning down a date for the change is not important, just that this is something that is not reformable--adding one to the second floor of a house that doesn't already have one would not be practical.

When we renovated our in-laws' place a few years ago, we put in a toilet and shower booth upstairs

This was a pretty extensive renovation though, I'm sure it would be a hassle as a stand-alone project.

It would be nice to have a toilet upstairs and down but its not a deal breaker. Working in the NHS as a nurse has shown it is certainly useful to have a toilet downstairs. So many old people find the stars difficult or, depending on the condition, exhausting, and that's one reason he inlays built a bungalow. In fact I mentioned to the wife that if we lived to the ripe old again where the stair are difficult, we could turn one room down stairs in to a bedroom.
Blimey! you know you're getting old when we start considering stuff like that. MY brother just bought a new house and he thought exactly the same thing.

Anyway I went back to the UK a few years ago, and I noticed how WIDE the internal doors are compared to Japan. Clearly a good way to pre build in barrier free living at the beginning of any new build and to NOT place that extra cost onto the NHS system.

How much was the renovation?

[RetireJapan]

How much was the renovation?

I've mostly blanked it out, but I think in the region of 27m or so (wife's parent's paid 10m towards what started out as a 20m estimate for the job, we paid the rest)

This was most certainly a 'happy wife' type of investment, not something I particularly wanted to do!

[captainspoke]

How much was the renovation?

I've mostly blanked it out, but I think in the region of 27m or so (wife's parent's paid 10m towards what started out as a 20m estimate for the job, we paid the rest)

This was most certainly a 'happy wife' type of investment, not something I particularly wanted to do!

IIRC, wasn't the reform due to conditions that limited rebuilding?

[RetireJapan]

IIRC, wasn't the reform due to conditions that limited rebuilding?

Yes, the house was too near a cliff so can't be rebuilt. Doing a full reform/rebuild was fine though. For reference, a new house similar to what we ended up with would have been around 40m.

[Bubblegun]

How much was the renovation?

I've mostly blanked it out, but I think in the region of 27m or so (wife's parent's paid 10m towards what started out as a 20m estimate for the job, we paid the rest)

This was most certainly a 'happy wife' type of investment, not something I particularly wanted to do!

As you said. Happy wife...Happy Life.
But ouch. Seems like a new build than a renovation.
So long as everyone is happy.. that's the important thing.

[RetireJapan]

This was most certainly a 'happy wife' type of investment, not something I particularly wanted to do!

As you said. Happy wife...Happy wife.
But ouch. Seems like a new build than a renovation.
So long as everyone is happy.. that's the important thing.

Yep, wife is happy. Father in law is very happy. MIL might be happy, can't really tell

Our finances have pretty much recovered too (we paid cash).

All good!

[beanhead]

Browsing older houses, one divide that seems to mark an era or generation of things is whether or not a place has a toilet upstairs (ours doesn't).

It's a deal-breaker for me. Need 2 toilets.