Hello, Everyone! Today, I want to review
Yokohama Rent Life, a Yokohama and Kawasaki City based real estate agency. I was mainly attracted to Rent Life due to their English support, but I continued to use them to acquire my first ever apartment in Japan due to their ability and willingness to accommodate my needs. So, please keep reading if you're interested in hearing about my awesome experience with the agency.
Although the Rent Life website promotes their own fully furnished apartments, you may be surprised to know that they also provide services for general apartment hunting in Yokohama and surrounding areas. I quickly realized that pre-furnished apartments have lower upfront fees, but they often cost more in the long run. So, I opted to search for apartments through traditional real estate sites, such as Athome, Suumo, Homes,and RealEstateJapan (English).
What's great about Japan, though, is that there is a central rental property database. This means that all real estate agencies can access the same listings of available apartments. Therefore, it's great to know that English language real estate sites have the same listings found on Japanese real estate sites!
And with that knowledge, I began looking for apartments in Japan for the very first time!
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| This blog post is not sponsored |
I began searching for apartments in January, 2019. I wanted to move out from a company provided LeoPalace. My only criteria was that my new apartment be less than 45 minutes commute from my job in northern Yokohama, had a loft, and cost around the same amount monthly as the LeoPalace. Of course, there are more important things to consider, which I'll realize later, but as a first time apartment hunter, that's all the criteria I cared about.
I came across Rent Life through a listing they sponsored on the RealEstateJapan website. I contacted them through e-mail about said listing. Rent Life's offices are closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I received a prompt response on Thursday from real estate agent Robert Sorensen about the lack of availability of the units I inquired about.
Don't be discouraged if the apartments you inquire about online are unavailable. It often happens! Listings are not updated in real time, so some of them might be old. Also, unfortunately, some listings are also just bait to get you to inquire to the real estate office.
Nevertheless, in the very same e-mail, Robert asked about my requirements and quickly sent me a few more listings that I might be interested in. I was impressed because he found apartments that were in my budget, my commute limitation, and had a loft! The apartments he found were not listed on the RealEstateJapan website, so he provided links to the apartments on Japanese real estate sites.
In the e-mail, I was able to look at the photos and move-in costs. He also provided a PDF document with all of the identification/documentation that would be needed to submit an initial apartment application. This was very helpful because I had a rough idea of what I still needed to obtain, such as pay stubs, copies of bankbook, hanko, etc. You can find out what I needed by reading my Apartment Series blogs
HERE!
What was really impressive was that he had already inquired whether the landlords or management companies would rent the units to foreigners before sending me a listing! This was a great time saver because it would have sucked to take a day off of work to look for apartments that wouldn't be rented to me!Once I saw a few apartments I was interested in, he scheduled the viewings. We unfortunately had some miscommunication about when to meet (I hadn't seen his e-mail in time to confirm an earlier scheduled time), but he was understanding and waited for me at a coffee shop until I arrived.
Robert was really personable and knowledgeable about the real estate market. He picked out both the negatives and positives about the properties we were viewing. He also explained to me some of the things to look out for when moving in Japan, such as the busy season and how applications work.
Another tip to remember is that you will be working with essentially FOUR companies, the management company you are currently with, the English speaking real estate agency, the Japanese real estate agency, and the new management company. The English speaking agency is pretty much acting as a middle man/translator, so you need to give yourself ample time to move because you will be waiting on a lot of responses and with agencies having different days off, you could be waiting some time.Luckily for Robert and myself, I was not entirely picky and really liked one of the apartments he showed me. This apartment was brand new, had a loft, was not terribly far from the station, and also only a 30 minute commute door-to-door from my job. So, I asked him if it was possible to apply as soon as possible.
Remember that the moving season begins in February/March in Japan, so properties get snatched up soon! You can only apply to one apartment at a time, so be picky, but not too picky!
Robert replied that I could apply today and he took photos of my identification and took some of my documents right there in the train station! I was glad because I did not want to make a separate trip to his office. Also, Robert told me that if I didn't have a hanko or emergency contact, he could assist me with those things too!
Although the PDF that Robert had gave me had a lot of the requirements that I needed to apply, it is important to note that each management company and guarantor company can have different and additional requirements. Luckily, the only thing I needed help with was an emergency contact because the new management company required two Japanese emergency contacts (most usually only require one). Therefore, they provided the contacts of someone who could act as my emergency contact.
Robert also accompanied me to the Ward office to obtain a recent Juminhyo (Residency Certificate), and he could also help you file a "Leaving of Residence" notification if needed!
Robert also told me that I needed to hanko the application in person , so, I did need to make one trip to his office. Unfortunately, I worked late and wasn't sure if I would be able to make it to the office before closing, but Robert offered to stay late in order for me to hanko the application as soon as possible!
After he obtained all of the information for an initial application, Robert sent it off to the management company. Less than a week later, he sent an e-mail saying that my application was approved!
The only problem was that they couldn't hold the apartment for as long as I needed them to. That wasn't such a big problem though, so I agreed to start my lease a few weeks sooner than I planned.
The next step was scheduling the contract signing. Robert had sent me a detailed invoice that needed to be paid by bank transfer (Which he also offered to help me with if I didn't know how). He also provided some additional information/payment that would be needed the day of.
We met at the Japanese real estate office, and he facilitated the entire contract signing. It was a long and grueling day, about 3-4 hours, but it was painless due to his support and knowledge!
After that, I was left on my own to get my key and arrange my actual move-in. Once I told him when I would be moving in, Robert got all of my utilities turned on, except internet (some companies only correspond with the contract holder). That was a huge life-saver because I was completely lost about how to do these things!
Once I officially moved in, Robert also accompanied me to the new ward office (needs to be done within 14 days of moving in) to register myself under my new address and obtain more residence certificates (needed for his files and my work's files).
All of this took about one month 19 days to get everything squared away! I think this was facilitated mostly by my preparation and organization (I really wanted to move), but I would suggest giving yourself a full two months if you have a lot of other obligations!
After moving in, I didn't need to contact Rent-Life for anything until I decided to move out one year later. At this point, I wasn't really sure how to proceed, and even though I didn't know if they provided move-out services, I reached out to Robert anyway.
Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, I received a prompt reply from Robert about him helping to facilitate contact between myself and the management company. I needed to obtain a moving out form. I was so grateful and relieved that he sent an e-mail explaining the situation and getting the moving out notification form for me. It was all up to me to turn off utilities and communicate further with the management company (pay final fees, schedule apartment inspection, etc.).
Overall, I am so pleased and would definitely recommend renting through Rent Life. It's worth the agency fee because they go over and beyond to help you get settled into your new residence (Rent Life's property or not).
I always felt like I had someone in my corner if I happened to get into a pickle due to language barriers or lack of knowledge on how to proceed with moving/moving out.
Robert always replied professionally, swiftly, and thoroughly, even a year later! So, if you are considering moving to Yokohama or Kawasaki, don't hesitate to contact Rent Life!
