[Chelly] Mansion de écrasée Vol. 1

From now on, I'm going to document the rejuvenation of a new property we just acquired in March. From its extremely horrible condition, we shall name it Mansion de écrasée––the crushed mansion 😂😂😂 (玉砕館 in Japanese)

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Vol. 1: The pre-history of Mansion de écrasée

I think I first met Mansion de écrasée in mid-February this year. The seller is a real estate agency I worked with in the past. So I got detailed information about the property promptly. FYI, in Japan, if the seller is a real estate agency, you don't have to pay the brokerage fee. (kinda like a realtor's commission in the US) It's not a huge sum (about 150,000 yen/$1,000 on this one), since it depends on the sales price of the house, but saving money is never a bad thing, right?🤷‍♀️

Sales price (not including consumption tax)	Brokerage fee (included consumption tax)
2 million below	Sales price (not included consumption tax)× 5% + consumption tax
2 million or more and less than 4 million	Sales price (not included consumption tax)× 4% + 20,000JPY + consumption tax
4 million or over	Sales price (not included consumption tax)× 3% + 60,000JPY + consumption tax

Anywho, Ms. Mansion de écrasée was listed for 3.56 million yen (≈$23,000), a bit high compared to the properties I usually acquire. However, Ms. Mansion de écrasée has her unique potential. Though in extremely poor condition, which I will show in a bit, she has three separate units with different entrances, which makes her capable of accommodating a maximum of 3 tenants. However, since one of the units is seriously crushed, given the cost of renovation, two separate tenants would be more realistic. Even so, 3.56 million for essentially two properties. Not bad at all.

Below is the floor plan of Ms. Mansion de écrasée:

The left side is a main road over 2 meters wide, which makes Mansion de écrasée rebuildable. In Japan, due to fire-related safety concerns, old houses that are not directly accessible from a road over 2 meters wide cannot be rebuilt. BTW, most of my properties are not rebuildable. However, since I don't plan to ever tear her down and rebuild her, re-buildability is a pain in the 🍑, because higher land value equals high land acquirement tax. Oh well🤷‍♀️

Back to the floor plan, Ms. de écrasée has 3 connected units, each consisting of one kitchen, dining room, one bathroom, one toilet, and three bedrooms (one on 1F, two on 2F). In short, each unit is great for a single renter but can hold up to a family of four.

Unit ① is in the best condition of the three👇

Still pretty horrific for usual investors. But I'm used to properties in this kind of condition. All you need is the contact information of a low-cost renovation company, or, if you don't, a real estate agency to trust to fix you with one.

Unit ① was occupied by the original owner before being sold to the seller. It underwent a renovation to improve QOL in 1993-ish, which explains why it has a relatively modern bathroom and toilet. If we fix the moldy spots and the sunken floor (not obvious in the pictures but pretty serious if you step on it, said the seller), a low-income individual or family should be able to live relatively comfortably in this unit. Since my usual renters, people who are on social welfare or disability, are usually humble souls and care very little about floor color not matching, the unit should be ready for rental advertisement after a minor floor replacement and light house cleaning under 200,000 yen ($1,300).

Compared to Unit ① the other two units are far more interesting. I will write about them in my next post. Stay tuned🍃