The Home Selling Column

A property appraisal can be a desk appraisal (a quick estimate based on data) or an on-site appraisal (a detailed valuation after an in-person visit).

You can research the selling market for a condo or house by combining REINS closed-sale data, asking prices on property listing sites, and posted or benchmark land prices.

How long it takes to sell a condo depends heavily on how much time you allow for each stage — appraisal, the agency agreement, marketing, contract, and settlement/handover.

A checklist of the costs involved in selling a condo, broken down item by item.

Taxes on selling a condo depend on how long you owned it and whether it was your primary residence.

When selling a condo you still live in, how you handle viewings can shape the outcome.

Your asking price is set with reference to the appraisal value, then adjusted based on your preferences and market response.

Selling a condo can go through a brokered sale or a direct purchase (kaitori) by a real estate company.

Even for the same condo, appraisal values can differ from one real estate company to another.

If your property has been listed for a while without selling, there are several points worth reviewing — price, listing photos, the type of listing agreement, and how you handle viewings.

A voluntary sale (nini baikyaku) is a way to sell close to market price with your lender's agreement, avoiding a court auction.

A leaseback lets you sell your home and receive the proceeds while continuing to live there as a tenant.

You can't sell inherited real estate until the title has been transferred through inheritance registration (sōzoku tōki).

A guaranteed purchase (kaitori hoshō) is a system where, if your home doesn't sell through brokered listing within a set period, the real estate company buys it at an agreed price.

A major renovation before selling is generally considered unnecessary.

Many owners aren't sure whether to sell a vacant house (akiya) as-is or demolish it and sell the land as a vacant lot.

Selling a property while a tenant is still living there — an owner-change sale — follows a different process from a regular sale.

Selling land requires preparation that differs from selling a building — a boundary survey (sokuryō) and deciding how to handle an old house on the site.

Selling real estate requires documents such as the title deed, registration identification information, and your property tax notice.

Condos and houses differ in how they're valued and what needs to be checked before selling.

Selling co-owned property (kyōyū meigi) requires the consent of every co-owner.

If a property sale results in a loss (jōto sonshitsu), certain conditions let you offset it against other income and carry the loss forward.

Non-rebuildable lots (saikenchiku fuka) and flagpole lots (hatazao-chi) tend to attract fewer buyers than typical properties.

Agent lock-out (kakoi-komi) is when your listing agent blocks inquiries from other companies to secure a double-sided commission.

Once the sale contract is signed, sellers still have things to take care of before handover — removing the mortgage, moving out, and gathering the right documents.

A viewing's first impression comes down to three things: cleanliness, smell, and brightness.

Deciding whether to rent out or sell a home you're moving out of is rarely simple.

Selling a home fast comes down to three options: a brokered sale with strategic pricing, an instant buyback, or a buyback guarantee.

If your home has a history of pets or smoking, disclosing it honestly is the fundamental rule.

When selling a home with a mortgage still outstanding, the standard flow is to pay it off in full at closing (teitōken masshō, or mortgage removal) using the sale proceeds.

You can't sell an inherited property until title has been sorted out.

Leaving a home vacant risks having it designated a vacant house (tokutei akiya), which can raise your property tax bill.

Home staging is a technique that furnishes a vacant home with furniture and small items to help buyers picture themselves living there.

If you want to sell without your neighbors finding out, you can lower the risk by adjusting how the property is advertised.

It's not unusual to receive a sashine (price-cut) negotiation from a buyer after a viewing.

If your home has a history involving a psychological defect (shinriteki kashi) — such as a death having occurred there — you need to understand disclosure duty before selling.

We look at the practicalities once you've decided to move ahead with a sale-first replacement purchase.

An individual-to-individual (kojin-kan) real estate sale isn't prohibited by law, but it carries risks around the contract paperwork, pricing, and settlement procedures.

An appraisal report (satei-sho) records not just a figure but the method used to calculate it.

Decluttering before you list affects not just the impression made at viewings but also the handover conditions.

Land with no boundary markers, or where you and a neighbor disagree on the boundary, tends to be hard to sell as-is.

Selling activity means listing interior photos on portal sites, but many sellers would rather avoid having identifiable personal details show up in them.

If the buyer's mortgage isn't approved, the loan contingency clause can send the contract back to square one.

Under an exclusive agency or exclusive right-to-sell listing, your agent is required to report on sales activity at regular intervals.

Even after handover is complete, there are still steps for the seller to take — canceling fire insurance, filing a tax return, updating your address, and more.

A house with a built-in rental unit or a ground-floor shop calls for a different appraisal approach and a different buyer search than an ordinary home.

A condo with a building confirmation issued before June 1981 falls under the old seismic standard (kyū-taishin), which can affect mortgage financing and how easily a buyer is found.

Selling a home registered in an elderly parent's name requires the owner's own consent as the fundamental rule.

A sale contract includes clauses that matter greatly to the seller, such as earnest-money cancellation, liability for non-conformity, and the loan contingency.