I'm afraid of home loans. But here is the answer I found for someone who doesn't want to give up on their dream home

Aren't home loans... scary?

When you start thinking about buying a house,
"Will I really be able to keep paying this amount?"
"What will happen if interest rates go up?"
"Is it okay to buy now?"
"Should I wait a little longer to build a house?"

I think these anxieties all come up at the same time.

Our family is currently in the middle of building a house.
In the midst of that, there is something I have felt anew since starting the home-building process.

It is that buying a house is not just about buying a building,
but buying "what kind of life you want to live there."

What kind of time do you want to spend with your family?
In what kind of environment do you want your children to grow up?
How do you want to spend your days off?
What kind of daily life do we, as a couple, find comfortable?

When you are building a house, you think about these things a great deal.

And at the same time, the topic of money is unavoidable.

I believe that a home has two main axes:
"Dreams" and "Asset Value."

The "Dreams" and "Asset Value" of a home

The dream of a home is, for example,

These are the ideals for life there.

On the other hand, asset value is

This is that perspective.

These two are generally contradictory.

If you think about asset value, places near stations with high convenience that are easy to sell become stronger.

But in such places, the land is expensive and the site tends to be small.

It can become difficult to realize a spacious garden typical of a detached house, a relaxed space, or a life surrounded by nature.

Conversely, if you try to realize the life you envisioned in a detached house with a large garden and nature, it might end up being far from the station, or demand when selling in the future might be limited.

That is why I feel that building a house involves moments where you have to think about
"Choosing the dream"
or "Choosing the asset value."

Our first home was a condo chosen for its asset value

In fact, our family purchased a newly built condo about five years ago.

At that time, we prioritized asset value.

We looked for a location near the station with high convenience, where daily necessities like supermarkets, convenience stores, and drugstores were nearby.

Back then, condo prices hadn't soared as much as they have now, so we were able to buy it at a relatively good price.

We didn't decide that we would definitely sell it at that point, but as one of the criteria for choosing,

we kept the perspective of

a condo that would be easy to sell even if we had to.

As a result, due to my husband's work, we ended up moving after living there for about two and a half years.

Just around that time, condo prices had started to rise, and we realized we could sell it for significantly more than we paid for it.

In the end, we were able to sell it for about 7 million yen more than the purchase price.

After deducting the commission paid to the real estate company and moving expenses, we were left with about 5 million yen.

This was a huge experience for our family.

If we had lived in a rental for the same period, I think the rent money would have just disappeared.

But by choosing a home with an awareness of its asset value, we were able to build assets while living there.

The expenditure of living in a house ultimately expanded our future options.

For our second home, I struggled with whether to choose dreams or asset value

And now, our family has started building our second home.

This time, it's a detached house.

With our child entering elementary school, we want to think of this next place as our permanent home if possible.

That is how I started to feel.

At first, I was looking for apartments again.

However, after my second child was born and they started running around noisily, I began to feel the cramped nature of apartment living.

Instead of a life where I keep saying "be quiet" and "don't run" every day, I wanted to create a place where they could spend their time a bit more freely.

With that in mind, this time I chose to build a detached house.

However, I struggled a lot with this decision.

Until now, our family has only ever lived in highly convenient locations.

Within a 10-minute walk from the station.
Supermarkets, convenience stores, and drugstores are all nearby.
It's flat land and easy to live in.

We were used to that kind of environment.

On the other hand, if you are going to build a detached house, there are dreams that come with it.

A life with a garden.
A house where children can grow freely.
A space where the family can spend more time together.
A house that fulfills things we couldn't do in an apartment.

But if you try to build a detached house in a convenient location near the station, the land is naturally expensive.

The size is also limited.
The budget also goes up.

So we also,

Should we choose asset value?
Or should we choose our dreams?

We thought about it quite a lot.

In the end, we chose to "have it both ways"

Generally, it is sometimes said that it is better not to mix "dreams" and "asset value".

I understand that way of thinking very well.

If you half-heartedly pursue both, you won't satisfy either, making the home-building process difficult, or
in the first place, pursuing both is nearly impossible (though it can be achieved if you have considerable financial leeway).

However, our family chose to have it both ways this time.

We searched for such a plot of land.

Of course, the price is high.

We want asset value.
We also want to fulfill our dream.

When that happens, it inevitably costs money.

But, timing was also important here.

Around the time we sold our apartment, housing prices had started to rise.

And about two years have passed since then, and land prices are remaining high. (*Depends on the region)

Interest rates are rising, prices are rising, but salaries are not rising that much.

When that happens, I felt that the number of people who can afford to buy is decreasing.

In fact, the land we were targeting was listed at a bullish price, but
after gathering various information and negotiating the price, we were able to purchase it for a very reasonable amount.

Furthermore, regarding the building itself, since it was before the price hikes caused by the war,
we were able to bring it closer to a reasonable amount.

I think it would be difficult to build the same house on the same land for the same price now.

In that sense, the timing was really significant.

The timing of buying and selling our first apartment was like that.
The timing of buying the land for our second home was like that.
The timing of being able to negotiate the price was also like that.

I thought that building a house is similar to investing.

I feel that such a sense is very important.

The asset value of the first home supported the dream of the second home

This leads to the story of my first apartment.

By choosing an apartment with asset value in mind for my first home, I ended up with about 5 million yen in hand.

For our family, this money became an option to support our next stage of life.

We could have put this money directly toward a down payment.

However, instead of putting all the money left over from the sale into a down payment, we chose to take out a loan that was almost a full loan while keeping the funds on hand.

We are investing that money into assets that pay dividends, with the goal of eventually using those dividends to cover part of our monthly mortgage payments.

That is the strategy we are considering.

Taking the money gained by focusing on asset value in the first home and turning it into a mechanism to support our dream life in the second home.
This is a concept I have always valued:

This is a concept I have always valued:

"Making your money work for you"

is the way I think about it.

Looking at it in the long term,
I envision a future where we pay off our mortgage with dividends.

Of course, investing carries risks.
Dividends and prices can fluctuate depending on the market.

However, thinking about how to protect our lifestyle by including investments and dividends,
not just labor income, to cover the mortgage.

I believe this perspective is going to be very important in the coming era.

A home is neither just an asset nor just a consumption item.

A home is a very large purchase.

That is why it is important to consider its asset value.

But if you choose based solely on asset value, you may end up sacrificing the life you truly want to live.

On the other hand, if you proceed based only on dreams, your financial anxiety may become too great.

That is why the first important thing is,

to discuss what kind of life you and your family want to live.

I believe this is what you need to talk about.

Do you want to prioritize asset value?
Do you want to prioritize family memories?
Do you want to value convenience?
Do you want to value space and freedom?
How much do you consider the possibility of selling in the future?

If this remains vague, you will get very lost in the home-building process.

Conversely, once this becomes clear, you will gradually see where to spend money and where to cut back.

What I felt again through building my own home this time is that, in the end, the basics of how to use money are the same as daily household budget management.

Spend money properly on things that provide high satisfaction.
On the other hand, review things with low satisfaction or money that just seems to disappear.

I felt that this does not change whether it is a large purchase like a house or your monthly household budget.

That is exactly why the first thing you should do is to separate the money you want to keep from the money you can reduce for yourself.

The [7 Days to Organize Without a Household Account Book] that went on sale the day before yesterday is also based exactly on this way of thinking.
is also based exactly on this way of thinking.

Even if you don't write a strict household account book every day, first just look at the flow of your money for 7 days and separate the money to keep from the money to reduce.

I believe this is the foundation, both before making big financial decisions and for organizing your daily household budget.

If you are interested, it is a limited-time sale until June 30th, so
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