Here in Los Angeles, I have a lot of Japanese friends that send USD to Japan. Those that used SWIFT have now switched to WISE. I've yet to find a place, to buy, so haven't used it but heard it's the best for transferring money to Japan.
Do you have an agent that you can recommend? I'll be there in October.
-Kazu W
Hi Kazu,
I have been talking with a subscriber from the US. Just like me, he wanted to go through the "normal" Japanese estate agent rather than paying extra fees to one of the several foreigner oriented Akiya brokers that have sprung up that can charge huge extra fees.
He is quite advanced now with his purchase, he found an agent that speaks English too.
He paid for a few invoices via Wise bank transfer to his agent such as inspection fees etc
He told me the first payment he sent arrived nearly immediately , withing a couple hours.
Second payment he sent took about a day, but the estate agent received both.
I will ask him he would like to help with his knowledge on this forum. The purpose of this forum is to help each other and slowly create a community of like minded people. Help not just with the purchase but all the daily issues that start once you have the house!
When we bought our house in Honjo City, Saitama, we used a Japan realtor agent that a friend of ours knew. The friend helped us translate between Japanese and English. We did 2 international bank transfers to the realtor’s Japan bank acct. 1st was for the initial 10% deposit payment and then the 2nd was for estimated final house costs plus fees. We also include a little more just in case. The agent paid all the fees etc. They helped us start the electricity, gas and water. We sent them a power of attorney to handle the house things. The realtor’s fee was the standard minimum 330,000 yen for the house purchase
Hi Tim
Very similar process here, my Japanese friends Asahi and Yuji volunteered to help, which was essential as it would have been very difficult otherwise - though not impossible -to handle it all on my own. Language barrier was the biggest issue, I am working hard on my Japanese but still struggle with more "advanced" conversations.
One of my subscribers did it all on his own , and from US! He found an agent who speaks English, it took him a few months to get here but he is nearing contract signing and flying over to Tokyo to finish the process. I asked him to post here to share his experiences, hopefully he will comment at some point.
I used Wise and a wire transfer for my recent house purchase and sent it to my real estate agent.
Wise for the smaller fees including broker fee, judiciail scrivener, deposit, etc. Obviously I tested to the process to make sure everything worked with an initial small payment to ensure I had the right bank details and understand the process.
For the remaining house balance I used Wire in USD and also sent it directly to my real estate agent. The agent's bank gave me a very favorable exchange rate with minimal spread (around 1 yen or even less), so essentially I got almost the same exchange rate as you get on Wise. I don't recommend holding large sums of money in foreign currency on Wise as they may not be protected against risk from insolvency.
In reply to Main Administrator
Hi all, I'm the subscriber in question and just also posted my comment on the process. There are definitely different ways to do things, but mine was more involved with peace of mind. I sourced and paid for an inspection and did research on the very rare escrow companies with trust accounts. Will be happy to share more details.
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