Services: Selling
Selling Property in Fukuoka
Selling an apartment or house in Fukuoka?
When it’s time to move on, or to cash in on your investment, Yes! Fudousan provides you local insight to get the best price.
The Selling Process
“How much will I actually make if I sell my home?”
Yes! Fudousan can assist you by assessing the market price of your property in Fukuoka, for free. We consider your neighborhood, renovations, schools, sales records of similar properties in the area, market trends, and other factors that can impact the sale price.
Apart from the price, we’ll address all your concerns and clear up all the procedures, in English.
“How much does it cost to sell my house? What fees and taxes are involved?”
When selling real estate in Japan, you also have to consider agent commissions, taxes, moving costs, and more. Your net profit is calculated by deducting the various fees and taxes from the sales price.
We can provide a breakdown of the estimated real estate closing costs. With this information, you can ask and check with your local tax office for the taxes incurred.
Fees, taxes, and other expenses when selling your property
- Real estate agent commission: 3% of the sales price + 60,000 yen + consumption tax in accordance with property transaction regulations of Japan.
- Land and house investigator fee: For land surveying to determine the boundaries.
- Judicial scrivener fee and registration fees
- Disposition of mortgage commission: Required if your mortgage has not been paid off. Approximately 15,000 yen per mortgage.
- Document stamp tax: Document stamp tax required for the contract.
- Income tax, residential tax: Your local tax office calculates the tax amount based on the profit of the sales.
- Moving costs: This all depends on what you’re moving and where.
Starting the sale of your property
Settle the price
You must agree to a potential sale price before we put it on the market.
To start listing and advertising your property, you’ll need to agree on the price and make a brokerage service agreement with us, as your rental agent.
Naturally, we’ll clear up any doubts or concerns about this.
3 types of agreements
Non-exclusive brokerage service agreement / 一般媒介契約
- Listing agent: Multiple agents
- Effective period: 3 months
- Selling to a buyer the seller finds independently: OK
- Registration of property on REINS database: Optional
- Reporting client responses: Not required
Exclusive brokerage service agreement / 専任媒介契約 (*recommended)
- Listing agent: Only 1
- Effective period: 3 months
- Selling to a buyer the seller finds independently: OK
- Registration of property on REINS database: Within 7 days of signing mediation contract
- Reporting client responses: At least once every 2 weeks
Privileged and exclusive brokerage service agreement / 専属専任媒介契約
- Listing agent: Only 1
- Effective period: 3 months
- Selling to buyer whom the seller finds independently: Not allowed
- Registration of property on REINS database: Within 5 days of signing mediation contract
- Reporting client responses: 1+ times/week
Making the real estate contract
Working it out with the buyer
Interested buyers will fill out an “Application to Purchase a Property” and pass it to the seller via the real estate agent.
This application states the buyer’s asking price, schedule for signing the contract, terms of payment, schedule to handover the keys, and other such conditions.
After reaching a basic agreement between seller and buyer, the real estate agent will draft a “Purchase and Sale Agreement of Real Estate.” This requires the seller is required to disclose any damage to the property, such as roof leaks or termite damage.
Both seller and buyer sign the final “Purchase and Sale Agreement of Real Estate” and the buyer remits the down payment to the seller. The contract will be legally binding. Once the contract is completed, any violations of the agreement may incur penalties.
The average period of time between accepting an offer and handing over of the keys is 4–5 weeks, when the buyer applies for a mortgage (if necessary).
Items needed for signing the sale contract
- Photocopy of your passport, residence card (zairyu card), and driver’s license
- Original copy of your certificate of residence (juminhyo), issued within the previous 3 months
- Officially registered seal (jitsuin) – If you don’t have one, a signature will be sufficient.
- Stamp duty
Moving out, settlement, and key handover
The final steps
Selling when there’s still a balance on the mortgage is actually quite common. Property settlement is the finalization of a real estate transaction between buyer and seller.
At settlement, the buyer, seller, real estate agents representing the buyer and seller, and the judicial scrivener, will meet at the office of the buyer’s mortgage bank.
- The real estate agents and judicial scrivener ensure:
- All relevant parties have fulfilled their obligations in the lead up to settlement
- All conditions of the O & A have been met to the seller’s and buyer’s satisfaction
- Transfer duty, if applicable, has been paid to the local government
- The former mortgage lender’s lien on the property and restrictions will be removed in time for a transfer of title to be registered
- All documents presented at settlement are correctly signed and registrable
Once the seller confirms the remittance completion of the remaining balance (the purchase price), the judicial scrivener will apply to register within the same day so the title reflects a change of ownership.
Items needed when settling the balance
- Your original passport, residence card (zairyu card), and driver’s license
- Original copy of certificate of residence (juminhyo) issued within the previous 3 months
- Registered personal seal (jitsuin), or a signature
- Tax certificate
- Agent commission
- Keys for the property
- Manuals for any equipment in/on the property
- Documents (manuals for equipment, condominium management bylaw, etc.)
- Registration fee (registration of new address of seller’s residence and mortgage disposition, when necessary)