Housing advice in Itako (Ibaraki)

Hi everyone,

I will be moving to Itako in April and I'm struggling a lot to find an apartment.
I've rented a place in Tokyo for the quarantine + 2 extra weeks so I can open a bank account, etc, and look for accommodation. However, I've started to email agencies to enquire them about ads I liked and no one is replying to me. I've also asked hotels about long-term discounts, I got a few replies when I email them in Japanese but once I ring them up and they hear me they say that due to corona they are not hosting people.

I'm worried no one will want to sign a lease with me because I can't speak Japanese well. I couldn't find airbnb's/facebook groups in the area either. My company recommended me a broker company to help me find a place, but they charge me 110% of a month's rent in commissions and don't let me view the place before signing because they are based in another city. I feel like they'll just rip me off my money and throw me in the first hole they find.

Any advice on what could I do? I know this is notably the worst time to move to Japan but I won't be able to do it in the future and I am currently unemployed so I don't have much to lose (besides my money if I can't find a place and have to move back home).

Thanks

「My company recommended me a broker company to help me find a place, but they charge me 110% of a month's rent in commissions and don't let me view the place before signing because they are based in another city. I feel like they'll just rip me off my money and throw me in the first hole they find.」

When looking for an apartment in Japan, most people (including native Japanese) go through a housing agency, and a commission of somewhere around one month's rent is pretty standard. Though there are exceptions, it's rare for the renter to negotiate directly with the landlord. Given the fact that you're looking for an apartment from overseas and don't speak Japanese well, direct negotiation is probably going to be impossible for you, and so you're going to probably need professional help, which will require some sort of extra payment on your part (i.e. a commission paid to a housing agency).

Not letting you see the apartment before you sign the lease, though, is odd. Do you mean they won't even show you pictures, or that they won't let you physically tour the apartment before signing? Especially if it's the latter, it could be that they don't want to et stuck in a position of finding you an apartment, doing all the necessary prep work so you could move in soon after arriving, only for you to tour the apartment and decide you don't want it, and then go look for another apartment with another agency.

To clarify, what specifically are you hoping the agencies will do for you? It sounds like you want them to:
1. Find you apartments that fit your criteria
2. Keep the vacancies open until you arrive in Japan in April
3. Let you decide whether or not you want to actually rent the apartment until after you've toured it
4. Do all this for you while paying a small (or no) commission

From their standpoint, there's not much economic value in that arrangement, since if you're not willing to sign a lease until after you visit the apartment, there's not much point in getting the ball rolling if it's going to be several months until you can visit. Right now, you're not willing to make any commitment over "I might decide that I want this apartment later on," which puts you on the same standing as people just looking at apartment ads, so you probably can't expect agencies to keep multiple apartments on hold for you.

That's not to say there's no value in contacting agencies now. If nothing else, it'll help build dialogue and a relationship with them, which will hopefully make dealing with them easier once you actually are in a position to sign a lease.

Oh, sorry, I just noticed that you said "your company" is who recommended the broker to you. By "your company" You mean your future employer once you arrive in Japan, right? In that case, you might want to have someone from your company contact the broker on your behalf, since it'll be easier for the broker to deal with someone who's actually located in Japan/speaks Japanese. Probably still best not to expect them to keep apartments on hold for you several months in advance, though, unless you're willing to sign a lease soon.

Sorry to hear of your situation. You might try searching for “weekly/monthly” rent apartment in the area? (These come furnished, and available short-term as well.) Also (I don’t know exactly where/which train line you’d use) you could possibly try some stations away on the same train line?