Absolutely enlightening thread. Thanks guys.

I hope I'm wrong, but I see the Japanese warming up with blankets and sleeping bags and eating cold noodles far before they'll "limit media entertainment".

Btw, speaking of Fukuoka – an interesting city consortium it's a member of, largely funded by Boeing and Microsoft, has some interesting commercial real-estate development projects going there, as the place becomes more and more pronounced as a techy-academic semi-silicon valley type place (check out http://www.internationalregions.org/). S…[Read more]

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/japan-braces-for-severe-power-shortages?utm_campaign=jt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=jt_newsletter_2012-05-08_AMThe nation, meanwhile, seems to be gritting its teeth and preparing to battle the shortages out. We'll see how that one goes.

British Buyer wrote:
So if I don't sell this apartment in Shanghai, I continue to earn zero dollars per month.If I do sell it, I make a little over $2,000 a month. So what should I do? That's what the Yanks call a No-Brainer

This is exactly why I'm now in the process of moving my money from one Melbourne property to 9-12 Japanese ones (that…[Read more]

Freckle wrote:
I’m contrarian.. goes with the neighborhood, however most of the guys here are great to debate with. Funny thing is most of us don’t really disagree with each other in a general sense.

I actually tend to agree with most of what the freckle writes case in point, %100 correcto-mundo- and exactly what the current PM is trying to…[Read more]

C2 – btw – would be very interested to hear your impressions on food/water/air safety in Kyushu, if you've got any? Private measurements seem to be very rare there (which is probably a good sign), but I hate having to rely on those unreliable Jap govt "all is well, send the kids to school and shut up" reports…

From posts here it would seem that Alex Franks of carolinaliquidator.com does a darn decent job

Best of luck to you!

My lurk comment was directed at the fact that after all this time, this is the best you had to say – "stupid you". But whatever gets you off, man. The problem here isn't Richard, it's the shonk who dudded him and countless others. Believing in learning through mistakes and laying all that insult are two wholly different things. But again, whatever…[Read more]

What's blatantly obvious to you, mate (and in hindsight, or at someone else's expense, it's always easy to claim, ain't it?), isn't necessarily to others, particularly in today's climate. Your arrogance and insults, again, aren't helping anyone – Richard's expose' is.As for my hackles, you're welcome to scurtinize them any day of the week. What…[Read more]

Wow – you came out of six years in the lurk just to spit in Richard's face for coming out to warn others? Aren't you a sweetie.I think he's pretty aware by this stage that he could've done things differently. The point (his and that of those encouraging him, at least) wasn't to "run crying" as you so delicately put it, but rather to point out…[Read more]

Great post, Steve, thanks for that. Loved the "fear of black people" – I think as Australians, we're about 40 (if not 70) years behind "the times" in our ingrained xenophobia – give it a few more generations (barring more megapolis terrorist attacks) and we'll get there. Also completely agree about cap gains being speculative. Your attempt to…[Read more]

lawsjs wrote:
ticks along nicely and has massively outperformed my appalling superannuation.

Supers…ugh…don’t get me started :p

“important that the AU investor align themselves with folks they trust, these deals will not waite for your travel or holiday schedule, Retail deals will but not the best deals,, YOu need to buy those first day on the market PERIOD”

Agree 300%, and this is crucial any day of the year and in any economical climate. If you don’t have a person you…[Read more]

lawsjs wrote:

Thanks to posts by Emma, Alex, Jay, Kyler, Tx Cashflow, Ziv etc the scams should be easier to avoid in the future, but a year ago there was no one really around telling ‘the truth’.

Not sure how I was honourably included in this fine list (not having anything to do with the US), but appreciate the association, thank you.

Terry – Chikako just came back from a month or so there, and looks like the next trip for both of us will be late may to early june – will post here before we go and see if you're still around. haven't taken the little one anywhere near Tokyo since last year, but we often land in Osaka then head to Fukui, Fukuoka etc, so should be easy to touch…[Read more]

C2 wrote:
Would be interested to see any links to any 9-12 blocks for 300K in Fukuoka city.

As mentioned, haven't seen the need to delve deeper personally, due to lower returns and no interest in redevelopement – will happily forward the agent's details to you, if you wish, you sound like you've got Japanese speaking feet on the ground there,…[Read more]

‘…shifting its economy from primarily export orientated to a more internal consumerist model. China has significant structural and debt problems to contend with and isn’t as healthy as many think. Growth is slowing and if China is to successfully restructure its economy into a more sustainable model it has to get growth down to around…[Read more]

It’s not really completely Aussie anymore, it’s greatly ranked in google under terms like “global real estate forums”, for example- that’s how I got here initially.

Hats off, I’ve been reading about what you deal with for those returns

I dwell in zero maintenance, maximum occupancy land. We don’t get those returns here, but on the upside, deal with a lot less on a daily basis, and don’t need to rely on capital gain, finance or rehab of any sort. Just different.