I was talking to a mentor at work and we were chatting about building my "First Home". She was really happy for me and totally related to my situation. "Is this a good deal? Will it have good resale value? Is now the right time? etc..."
She shared the best advice she ever got from an expert on residential and commercial real estate. Basically it was along the lines of "Buy a home which you can afford and recognize that the place you will live in is not a financial decision but an emotional one."
This immediately resonated with me and brought things back into focus. I'm buying a home not an asset. In a perfect world, you can get both...in a perfect world. I cherish these little moments of clarity :)
Hey I love your blog thank you so much for sharing your story this has helped a lot in my investigation, Im making a blog with a compilation of all the information I have found that I think is useful for gaijins in japan and I have recently posted you blog in one of my post here is the link:
ReplyDeletehttp://translationgaijin.tumblr.com/
Im starting by the buying a house subject but later on I will post things like what to do when you get caught by the police , or visas etc. AGAIN THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS BLOG !!!
Ok good luck with your blog. The reason I started this was because there was very little information on building a custom home. I also saw Debito's site but found the information outdated.He also has a very activist perspective whereas I'm just a regular person just trying to share my experience in an objective manner.
ReplyDeleteWe just didn't feel comfortable importing goods and not being sure about maintenance and support. There used to be quite a few import home companies (where the products come from overseas but parts are assembled by japanese workers) but many went our of business.
I have a friend who lives in one of them and he's mentioned that american homes don't take into consideration such things as heat and humidity. But in any it's a personal choice.
Again I'm not an expert, but I have done my homework so people can feel free to disagree based on their own research.
We have a great architect in Sakamoto-san and he really brings out the best of both western and Japanese building concepts.