That gets worse as you get farther out of the cityTLDR: values depreciate, inflation has gone basically nowhere in Japan for a long time, the supply of housing is pretty good compared to demand (unlike the US) and that's because of flexibility with rezoning and development, taxes on rental income are high. 

If you kept the property, and accumulated the CF/yr, it would take you 25 years to get that same equity that's sitting, frozen in your property.Also, if you cashed out and used that same equity as a DP on different RE, at 20% DP, that equity would buy you $2M in PV, not just $700k,...and, I'd be willing to bet, you could find new RE that would have a yearly CF well over $20k/year.On top of that (remembering my initial statement above), any appreciation applied would be applied to $2M, not just $700k. 

Look for properties where you can add value with smart, targeted renovations rather than going overboard.Financing Strategy: Since you're aware of the leverage risks, keep your financing options flexible and conservative.

Owning a home also gives you stability (ie your landlord can't decide to sell your home), flexibility to do what you want to with the home and the money you are paying is paying down your mortgage, not your landlord's.One other question is do you plan on moving anytime soon? 

I think making it more generic and less custom is the safer bet.

You can talk to the bank about a loan; however, my bet is they will want some form of contract and scope of work and will only pay him at set milestones.

You could certainly reach this demographic, but it could also cost you substantially more than the return.For the money, your best bet is probably a dedicated website for your property with the key words that you want to convey.

It offers flexibility as a landlord to be able to offer more or less rooms as needed, protection to the landlord in that you can hedge with adding LTR or STR to the mix, and simplification to the business as your only dealing with one address.

There's no shortage of deals like this here, but I lack the flexible capital to move on them.

That’s the best bet.