RetireJapan

Has anyone had a profession appraisal done of a Japanese single family residence?

I am talking to one appraiser. He wants to charge me 125,000 yen. Seems a bit high. But he does speak English...Maybe it's the price I have to pay.

My motivation: I bought a house with a 10 year warranty that will come up in August. I am hping the appraiser finds stuff that I am missing and I get it fixed while still under warranty. So maybe worth the 125,000 appraisal fee.

Also I am genuinely interested in the value of the house. I have a chunk of extra cash flow this year and am trying to decide between paying down the mortgage (%0.9) or investing the extra money.

When I was considering selling my home a couple of years ago I found that real estate firms would perform an appraisal for free. I used two firms, who both produced fancy booklets on the appraisals, and came up with completely different figures (a 40%+ difference). Based on my experience I would recommend avoiding KEN corporation for your real estate needs

Given your motivation, it sounds like you're seeking an inspection rather than an appraisal per se (an appraisal being purely a monetary value).

Different situation, but I commissioned an inspection prior to buying a used house. It cost me 160,000yen, but it turned out to be well worth the price, as I used the things pointed out by the inspector to negotiate the price of the house down (by over 50x the price of the inspection). I thought the inspector was excellent, I used Sakura Jimusho, which is the most reputable company in this field, apparently.

However, getting back to your primary motivation, as you're seeking things to get fixed while under warranty, I'd caution to read the fine print in the warranty first. The inspector will likely point out several things that should be taken care of from a maintenance perspective, while the warranty likely covers only defects, rather than normal wear and tear.