This is Japan Realty Wire, a newsletter about Japan residential real estate.
What makes JRW different?
JRW is not a brokerage firm looking for your next property deal. JRW is an educational newsletter that only sells one thing - insight into Japan’s residential real estate market.
Why does JRW exist?
If you don’t speak Japanese, most likely your only source of information about Japan’s residential property market are periodically published articles in the mainstream press or from english speaking agencies.
Both of these sources present two different problems.
The mainstream press presents information that tends to be superficial and offers little in the way of forward guidance.
Agents, on the other hand, want to sell you something. Are you a buyer? Then it is a great time to buy. Are you a seller? Then it is a great time to sell. Lord help you if you’re a renter, especially with a lower budget.
JRW aims to offer insight that will put you on the same plane as the agent you are speaking to.
Is JRW only for retail consumers in Japan’s residential market?
No, institutional investors can benefit from JRW, especially when it comes to rent trends in specific areas as well as learning more about property management in Japan.
Retail consumers, those looking to buy or sell, rent out property or rent property themselves can benefit as well.
Residential agents and property managers can also benefit. The majority of agents serving the international community in Japan are non-native speakers and many times have trouble explaining the finer details of a property to their international clients, especially when it comes to the contract and settlement of trades.
JRW will be able to put both clients and agents on the same page, benefiting both in their endeavours.
How specifically can JRW help me?
Editorial will be created and curated by me, Adam German. I have extensive experience in marketing & selling, renting & property managing Tokyo real estate.
I also have extensive networks throughout Japan I can ask for deeper insights in areas I haven’t brokered deals in.
As an agent, I felt the push and pull between doing what was right for my client and doing what was best for the company. Most times there wasn’t a conflict but more times than you’d imagine, there were.
Since JRW is an army of one, then subscribers are in the driver’s seat for what they want to see published.
Want to see something published? Tell me. Disagree with something I’ve published? Tell me. Like what you see? Please tell your friends.
If you were that good of an agent, then why are you starting a Substack?
Good question. I’m Canadian and have been working in Tokyo’s residential property market for a long time.
However, to be the absolute best residential real estate agent, one has to know their serviceable areas in highly granular detail.
That takes a career’s worth of daily commitment to your portion of the city while making a living on residential brokerage fees alone.
With this Substack, I want to capitalize on my experience while away from Tokyo. If I need to go leave the city for an extended period of time I want to continue working and earning while away; something nearly impossible to do as an agent.
I believe paying a small subscription to JRW will be worth it for consumers to educate themselves on a market where they will spend an order of magnitude more when they find the property they ultimately buy or rent.
So JRW will not be free?
For at least the next 3 months while building out the content and bringing in an audience, JRW will be free.
Once JRW can get past a certain amount of free subscribers, a monthly & annual price will be set for certain content.
While I won’t go into exact pricing now, it will be under ¥5,000 per month for the highest tier subscription.
Most likely JRW will become a tiered subscription service; free for some content, standard pricing for free & other content, and premium pricing for all access to editorial and data.
Subscriptions mean that the platform will be ad free, beholding JRW solely to the subscribers allowing the content to be free from advertiser or other market maker influences.
You’d be amazed how often an agent’s relationships with their counter party agency or developer takes precedence to their client’ needs.
More on this topic in future content.
Speaking of which, what type of content will JRW have?
Articles as well as a heavy reliance on audio content too. Downloadable demographic & price / rental trend excel data paired with accompanying charts will be available in time.
Video content will be limitedly available since I am a staff of one at the moment.
JRW will have a comments section where readers can ask me and each other questions as well as sound off on the article in question.
A warning - comments will be heavily moderated and once we begin charging for subscriptions, only paid subscribers will be allowed to view and participate in the comments.
Any trolling will result in a lifetime ban.
Anyone who has subscribed to the Financial Times knows that a thriving and genuine comment section can greatly enhance the scope & understanding of the topic.
JRW is aiming to curate a similar environment here.
So, now what?
Well, if you read this far then you’re curious so why not drop your email below to subscribe to our newsletter and see what you think?
JRW will start sending our first newsletters from February of 2023 onwards while we spend January publishing seed content.
