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We were warned buying a home in Japan as foreigners staying on a work visa would be difficult. Well, difficult may have been a mild description. The real trouble comes when you go to the bank to apply for a housing loan. Our situation was a little more challenging than just the lack of permanent residency.

• Half of our income is paid from a source outside of Japan and cannot be used in any calculations for a loan.
• And, well, we’re ministry workers, so our total income isn’t that high to begin with.
• Both in our 40’s, giving us less time to work than the standard Japanese 35-year-loan period allows.
• Can read Japanese at a level equivalent to Japanese 4th grader who “ain’t doing so well.”

Miracle #1: Our Realtor

Our pastor recommended Mr. Shirakawa as a former church member who moved to another area of Tokyo who helped many of our members with real estate transactions. The importance of having a realtor whom you can trust completely, who prays for you, and who works tirelessly when the odds are against you cannot be understated. There were times in the process we were so frustrated we wanted to give up. But Mr. Shirakawa never gave up; he just kept looking for ways for us to get a loan. And from dozens of phone calls to banks and lending companies, he did find us two options for loans. And though we ended up not using either one, without them, we would have given up hope much earlier and missed our opportunity to buy the property we finally did.

Miracle #2: The Right House

It’s no secret that Japanese houses are very different from American houses. A large house in our area is 1,000 square feet, the footprint of which can probably fit in some people’s living/dining room area. Storage is often the trade off to allow people more living space, but storage is a pretty important feature to Americans. We looked at about 20 different houses recommended by our realtor and dozens of others browsing the internet real estate websites almost daily. No house was perfect and we were resigned to “settling” for a decent home. In fact, we had settled on a less than perfect house when the house we really wanted appeared in my Facebook feed as an advertisement! Yes, something wonderful came from a Facebook ad! I had browsed the real estate site every day and somehow this listing had eluded me until God put it right in my feed! The layout of the house is pretty much everything we wanted and the fact that building has only just started means that we get to choose the colors and materials used in the house, making it truly our own.

Miracle #3: The Right Location

One thing our family was not going to compromise on was location. It was quite a tug of war in our house because many of the houses that were larger or had better layouts were less convenient for getting to school or the train station by bike or foot. This is the real reason we settled on the less-than-perfect house. The location was fantastic: a little closer to school and much closer to the main train station and to the road we use to get to church. So when the link appeared in my feed for our house, the thing that caught my eye first was that it was in the same neighborhood as the less-than-perfect house. In fact, the location was slightly better, only a few meters from the river path that could take Jayne and the kids almost all the way to school without worrying about dangerous traffic on narrow streets.

Miracle #4: The Right Price

Our price limit varied based on the interest rate and down payment we would need by tens of thousands of dollars, but there was definitely a limit which we could not afford to go over. Because the seller helped us with the process of getting a loan through their preferred bank, we got a much better interest rate than what would normally be offered to people in our situation, which gave us a little more room in the pricing. As it turned out, the price we paid was right in the middle of our target, but with the lower interest rate and the 33-year term of the loan, the monthly payments came in lower than expected. Perfect timing as we determine how much money Jeremy will need our help with when he goes to college next year.

The whole experience reminds us of two important things that have been a theme since we began this journey. One, if you let the Lord lead (and at times, we did so only because we had no idea what we were doing), He’s going to lead you exactly where you need to go. And second, the Lord’s blessings are better than anything we could imagine. When we arrived in Japan, the idea we could purchase a new home here in an ideal location, basically custom built for us and with a mortgage lower than our current rent would have been laughable. Even six months ago, it seemed like only a dream. Yet today, it’s our reality.

So yes, it is possible for non-permanent residents to buy their dream home in Japan. But we had a Big Guy working on our behalf.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23