Investors looking to make real estate investments in Japan need knowledge. Knowledge impacts how well they do. All real estate investors will generally fall into one of three categories, those who make some money, those who lose money and those who make more money than they ever thought they could.   Today we see the Japanese real estate market ramping up and this site's job is to support investors wanting to be in wealthy group. This article discusses the single most important factor in joining the group making money. Knowledge and how a successful real estate investor actually got started. 

Most good real estate investment books will have a section on self education. They will also outline the importance of knowledge in investment decisions. Emphasis will normally also be placed on using logic rather than emotion in every investment purchase. What these books don’t seem to show is the actual how one actually goes about getting this knowledge with which to make logical rather than emotional decisions.  Today I want to offer one mans approach to getting knowledge.

When I started out it all seems so confusing. Now, several years on and after building my own real estate investment portfolio to size that I can safely retire as a wealthy man and look after the needs of those I care about in the manner to which they have become accustomed, I can tell you the acquisition of knowledge does have a start for all of us. It is and should always be very, very simple. It will in most cases be a mixture of book reading, seminars, investment forums and manual slog.

I believe that the study of any subject never ends unless you want it to. Real estate is the same but what I feel many books still do not cover well and we all need to know is where to actually start. In this article I will share how I picked up my first round of knowledge.  Real estate knowledge

To begin the story we need to agree on some basics. There is good real estate and real estate you would never want to end up owning. There are pathways to get finance and yet whilst we see some folk accessing that finance we see people of exactly the same standing in life being rejected by financial institutions. These contrasts can go and on and  of course include topics such as obtaining city approval on proposed investment projects or not, professional taxation minimization or paying too much , inheritance concerns and decisions on matters such as whether or not to incorporate your invest real estate portfolio or leave it in your private asset. These are the contrasts that split those who do well and those who don’t. To stay on the right side of these contracts we need real estate knowledge. I was asked recently why I felt these contrast existed between individuals. To me the simple reply is some folk get knowledge and others don’t. To be on the winning side of these contrasts is all about knowledge.

I started my quest for real estate knowledge back in 1995.   I recall reading the words of an investment guru, perhaps John Reed who I hold in high respect for his straight talking approach, not sure, the advice was very good and that was that before you buy one decent piece of real estate you will probably do the numbers and go out viewing hundreds. Moreover this is what you should do! Never just jump in the deep end without first doing these hundreds of dry runs. I took these words to heart and set out to buy my first investment property. I chose a city to start building my real estate portfolio, Brisbane Australia. I chose it because it seemed to be on the move up from what the newspaper where saying and in the worst case I wouldn’t mind living there if the investment turned out to be less than profitable. I chose a set of specific goals that would satisfy me as an investor, how much, loan to value ratio, style, vintage, yield (a word I had just read up on) and proximity to the Central Brisbane post office.  I bought the Saturday Brisbane courier mail and got going. The first fence I hit was that the real estate listings were alphabetic and as I looked at the descriptions I had no idea if they were in areas close to the city or not. So I set a new goal to memorize all the areas within a 5 kilometer radius of the Central Brisbane post office and be able to quote within which quadrant of the compass that area lay. This took me several days but I did it. I grabbed the paper again and now as I scanned the alphabetic listings I was able to quickly circle all those within five kilometers of the city and assign compass quadrants to them. I grouped them by compass quadrant with a view to viewing as many as I could in one area before driving to the next. Of course I was also able to and disregard the hundreds of listings that fell outside my desired area.  From there things really sped things up. Next I set a goal to ring 50 listings each weekend and keep going till I found one that met my parameters. I started calling and at the end of my first Saturday and fifty calls I was very disappointed. I had not found one listing that met my criteria. Moreover most agents had something clever to say like “If you find one of those let me know and I will race you for it!”  Next weekend I picked up myself up and went at it again, same result. Next weekend the same again. It was Sunday afternoon of the 3^rd week. I had called 150 listings with not even a sign of hope and was sitting in an outside coffee shop licking my wounds when the telephone rang.  It was an agent and said he had found a property that met my criteria. He asked if I could I be there to view it immediately. I jumped in the car, drove for and hour and had the deposit down within two hours of that call.  My property (well the property that met my criteria) was there, it was a great buy.

The knowledge part of this story started prior to that actual search. It started by studying what are good criteria are regards investment real estate. I quickly found that real estate is very broad and I had to specialize. I sort help to determine which area of real estate would best suit my needs. I sort that help in reading books and asking as many agents and investors as I could find.  I couldn’t believe how closely these folk held the information I needed to their chests. Eventually I found my group and this group was then and remains today to be residential apartments. The knowledge acquisition then moved on to area. Next we backed up this knowledge with straight out manual slog, the hack work if you will.  Laborious calls to over one hundred and fifty listings.  But knowledge and work won out. The property was there for me.

For me the search for knowledge worked out. I know for many others it is not working out and I want to help. Last week I received a lovely letter from a fellow who had been trying in vain for five years to get a hold of finance to purchase a home for his family in Japan. He worked with the American military and as such had no evidence of local income. He gave me a call via this web site and I suggested a bank that may be able to help him. That’s all I did. His letter said he had secured a loan through the suggested bank and the builders were on his site! I was so happy that my knowledge was now able to help others and so proud of this man who took the time to seek out knowledge on Investing in real estate in Japan from someone with experience.

Cheers.

Mark Smith.