Japan House: Remote [Property] Management

TL;DR

Everything takes longer than you expect or want when you're communicating over email in a language that you're, at best, a first-year student of. 

• Relax, take a breath.
• Don't reply immediately if you don't have to; consider it for a moment first.
• The process works in its own time. Just go with it.

To make my life easier, I asked my real estate agent in Japan for a recommendation for a vacation property manager. They connected me with my current property manager, Tokunaga-san, from SR Real Estate.

The Story:

To help me get my place in Daito sorted out, I'm working with a remote property manager, Tokunaga-san. She's pretty great! However, she speaks English as well as I speak Japanese. Words, phrases, and a basic foundation in grammar. That makes things slow.

My main goal over the next few weeks is to establish a good working relationship with Tokunaga-san so that we can check the following boxes.

• Arrange gas, electricity, and water service.
• Arrange a home inspection.
• Arrange re-installation of AC/Heating units.
• Arrange painting/wallpaper contractors.

Why so slow?

1. Time Zones are a Pain. 8:18AM this morning in San Jose is 12:18AM tomorrow in Osaka. (+16 hour time difference)
2. Language is a pain. I speak Japanese at the level of a first-year student learning Japanese as a second language. I'm learning more, but I'm not conversational yet. I have to rely on translation tools, as does Tokunaga-san. It's workable, but it's slow; I really have to think about my replies and write them as concisely as I can. Then I run them through one translation tool to obtain the Japanese version, which I then run through a different translation tool to see if any of the meaning has changed significantly. This usually takes one or two iterations per email message.
3. Tone is important. I'm an American. We don't consider ourselves rude, but we are fairly to-the-point and somewhat abrupt in transactional conversations. That's a little rude in Japanese business culture, which tends to be a little more nuanced. At least one of my translation passes ensures that my tone is more polite than direct.
4. We are both dealing with the same issues. Tokunaga-san and I are in the same boat. We're both learning as we go.

Currently, we're shipping contracts back and forth via snail mail to formally establish the necessary legal relationships for her to act on my behalf regarding the property and services. (Paying utilities, taxes, checking on the house, scheduling services, etc...)

I'll chat more about services and go over some numbers in a later post.