All Forum Posts by: Bill Baldwin

Interested in this topic as well, would be very interested in hearing people's feedback.

 In my experience, they offer the same - in one case they actually came in 0.1% lower.

Yeah - the low end of that was with a local co-op bank, high with one of the majors. 

We're awake in Japan!

In my limited experience in the US I've seen low of $2300 and high of $5500. 

Really depends on what exactly "inside the city and outside the city limit" mean...

Totally agree with James and Nnabuenyi - I have a couple colleagues who received loans from the "bank of mom and dad" which a few months later they used as home loan down payments without any questions. It's like my buddy working for a local co-op always says - we (the banks) don't care about much else as long as we're getting paid each month. 

Jumping in having read maybe half of this thread but here goes:

100% financing is available - from banks on some countries, more exotic means in most others.

I know its been discussed before but worth reiterating here - seller financing can be a great option for those who can't afford loan down payments or obtain financing vain usual means (aka bank), but buyers should be careful as *most* people prefer to get paid in full when selling and only offer seller financing if either they can't sell the place otherwise or are getting insanely good terms in return. 

I know a few people who have gotten into real estate with no initial cash by making deals with parents or relatives who are refinancing loans by having the person refinancing max out the LTV of the loan and then taking on the "excess" portion of the loan. They get lower rates but goes without saying if something goes sour you'll lose more than your property/money.

Hey welcome David and good luck. Any idea where you're looking at buying, or will you expect to be placed somewhere?

@Andrew D.

Not that my advice would be early loan repayment, but I think if you do decide to go that route then which loan to pay off early really depends on the rate and remaining life of the loan, and not the overall size of the loan, if you're looking at reducing your monthly debt payments.  Longer life loans with higher interest rates should absolutely be the ones targeted first, all other things being equal (such as early payment penalties, etc).

I'm actually in a somewhat similar situation, but instead of early payment my strategy has been to stagger my loans so that they'll get paid off at different times.  Why I chose this approach is because I've found different banks and financing options have offered preferential rates for different tenors at different points in time, and so I've been targeting the best rates available that fit into my investment strategy and keep me cash flow positive whenever I'm looking to finance a new investment.

For example, I currently have loans with 10, 14.5, 22, 23, and 28.5 years left on them, each one getting me the best rate I could get for any tenor via the financing options I used.  My larger loans have the longer tenors to maximize my cash flow in the interim, and the shorter tenor loans are pretty much cash flow flat, with the idea being when the first loans start getting fully paid off then my cash flow should begin to increase every 5 years or so.  This is also assuming I hold all of these properties for the entire life of the loan, which is absolutely up in the air still at this point.  But with what I do have the plan moving forward on any new investment property loan would be to max out the tenor (30 years) to maximize cash flow in the short term - assuming the 30 year rates available make it a good investment.

@Brian Tafaro totally agree with you that you have to be careful about the types of units you target for rental properties (as opposed to primary residence).  Buying new or upscale units for rentals in Japan are not a good play - very new units lose value at first but the rents level out after around 20 to 25 years as long as you reinvest where needed to keep them in good shape, and upscale units are just overpriced to start.  If you have permanent residency or to a lesser extent are married to a Japanese person your financing options increase big time, however there are a number of financing options for those without either (I have 3 loans from 2 different Japanese banks without either).