Buy a house in Japan? #3
Damned, we were so close…
Last Sunday, we found a house which we liked very much: a little far away from the station, but on a land of more than 70 tsubo (about 233 sq m) with a two-story building of about 165 sq m, which is really huge for a Japanese house. Nice garden, underground car park, a large terrace, quiet neighborhood, with a park and a school close by. Moreover, the style is very special for a Japanese house: besides the dining room and bedrooms with wooden floor, the living room floor is made of marble! Doors and window frames are made of imported materials, not Japanese at all. There is a washitsu, but even this one doesn’t look very Japanese, more kind of a western-style tatami room. Needless to say we were really excited, but…
The real-estate agent told us there was already a potential buyer, and that the contract would be signed on Tuesday, which is… two days later. Not much we can do, they said, except make an offer for the whole price and hope the first buyer was offering less (seen the number of parties involved, it is often difficult to know who offers what). And this is what we did, without much hope. But…
On Tuesday, our real-estate agent calls us to let us know that the contract has not been signed, and asks us when we’d be available in the following days… Well you can imagine how we were: we really thought this was our chance. For two days, at least. Because on Thursday, we get another call telling us the contract has been signed. The house is sold… What happened? We’ll probably never know, but it is likely that the law of supply and demand has been applied. The first buyer probably offered less than the proposed price, and had to revise his offer (which he did because he really wanted the house).
That’s is. I’m sure we’ll never find again a house like this one. But I’m also confident that we will find a nice house for use, when the time comes. But one thing is sure now: we saw a really nice deal, and the way we look at houses from now on will likely never be the same again.