Article published on Vacant House Lab | Roopt (Makigumi)
Makigumi, the company that operates Roopt, is constantly researching case studies and other information on revitalizing vacant houses and publishing them as columns.
This article shares the experience of a teleworker who relocated to a new area and renovated a vacant house themselves. It covers the process of finding a vacant house, the steps involved in the renovation, the costs and time spent, and why self-renovation is recommended.
NoiHello everyone, I'm Noi, the host of this channel. In this video, I've been discussing the investment evaluation of older detached houses in the modern era with Mr. Ueda from GaiaX, but this time, we'll be interviewing Mr. Yoshii, who has actual experience with renovations. Mr. Yoshii, thank you for joining us.
Yoshii: thank you.
YoshiiLet me start with a brief self-introduction. In 2017, I got married and moved from Tokyo to Tottori, where I now live with my wife and child. Both my wife and I work from home, using computers for our jobs. Neither of us has a daily commute, so we use our free time to renovate an empty house ourselves, which is where we live now. Afterwards, we used the empty space in the house to run a short-term rental and share a workspace.
Noi: I heard that your place was actually renovated, but what kind of place do you live in?
YoshiiI live in Shikano-cho, Tottori City, Tottori Prefecture. This area has a large number of people who have moved here, and the utilization of vacant houses has been ongoing for about 20 years now. It's a small town with about 3,400 people. There's a magazine called "Country Living" that people who are considering moving to the countryside read, and in the section for "Country areas where families with children want to live," Tottori City has won first place, making it a very popular area for people looking to relocate.
Among them, Shikano-cho in Tottori City is a particularly active area for utilizing vacant houses, and many migrants have gathered there and are renting and living in these vacant houses. It is an area with many migrants and also many people who have returned to the area after living elsewhere, and as a result, the relationships between people are very good. I also moved here from another place, and I think it is a very livable area, so if you are thinking about moving to a rural area, I hope you will consider Tottori City.
Yoshii: When we first moved here, we lived in a rental property, but then we ended up buying a house, which was a vacant rental property. When we lived in Tokyo, we had always lived in rental properties, so we didn't really think about owning or buying a house. However, after moving to Tottori, the owner of the rental house we were living in decided to sell the house itself. When we asked how much they were willing to sell it for, it was a lot higher than we had imagined, and we were wondering what to do. As I mentioned earlier, it is a very popular area for people to move to, and there were houses being bought and sold nearby at quite high prices, so we thought it would be difficult to continue living there as is. After all, it's hard to live a stable life if you rent, and with our son about to start elementary school, we thought that owning a house would give us a more stable life, so we started considering buying a house.
Noi: So, through various connections, the story of your relocation came about. I've heard about the background of your relocation and renovation, but next, since you used an empty house for the renovation, I'd like to hear a little more about the inner workings of the renovation.
NoiCould you please explain why you chose to renovate an empty house rather than build a new one?
YoshiiThere are two main points to consider. First, there's the cost. I considered building a new house of the size I wanted, but it seemed like it would cost around 30 to 40 million yen, even in the countryside, including the land. However, I thought that if I bought an empty house for a few million yen and did the renovations, it would probably only cost around 10 million yen.
Another point is that, based on my previous experience renting a house that had been vacant, I thought that even if a house is vacant or 40 or 50 years old, it might be livable with some simple renovations. The house I actually lived in had been vacant for several years, so there was some mold and the inside was quite dirty, and the garden was also quite overgrown. However, after about two or three months of cleaning, I hired a company to clean the kitchen and toilet, and also hired a company to change the wallpaper. Although it was a fairly simple renovation, it made the rooms much brighter and changed the atmosphere quite nicely, so I thought it would be fine to live in it.
NoiHow did you find that vacant house?
YoshiiInitially, I searched online using vacant property banks and real estate sales websites. I did search there, but even searching throughout Tottori Prefecture, there were very few properties available. Even when there were listings, they were properties that had been listed for years, and the properties themselves were quite old and in poor condition, yet the asking price was unusually high. That was the only kind of property available.
When I asked various real estate companies about the buying and selling of vacant houses, they said that because vacant houses don't sell for very high prices, the commissions and profits that real estate companies can earn are small, and they don't really want to deal with them. Many of the people who own vacant houses are elderly, and communicating with them is quite difficult. In Tokyo, when it comes to buying and selling apartments, everyone is thinking in terms of selling, so communication is relatively easy, but when it comes to buying and selling rental properties, or single-family homes, people aren't very familiar with it, so real estate companies feel that the effort isn't worth it and don't want to deal with it.
Ultimately, I was introduced to an NPO that promotes the utilization of vacant houses in the area. Coincidentally, I found the vacant house I'm currently living in, about 100 meters from the house I was living in at the time. You might be able to find vacant houses online, but the number is small, and there are a lot of people searching for the limited number of properties available. So, if you have a general idea of the area where you want to live, I think it's a good idea to consult with an organization or company that supports the utilization of vacant houses in that area.
NoiI'd like to hear more details about how you found an empty house and then renovated it yourself. Could you tell me why you chose to do the renovations yourself instead of hiring a professional?
YoshiiFirstly, when we tried to do the renovation we had initially envisioned for our family, we had budgeted 10 million yen, including the purchase price. However, when we saw the estimates from the contractors, it felt like it wasn't nearly enough. Before the renovation, the house we were living in was a 5LDK with four Japanese-style rooms, and now we've changed it to a 3LDK, replaced all the flooring, and completely renovated the plumbing. When we asked for a renovation like that, it seemed like it would cost not just 10 million yen, but maybe 20 million or 30 million yen. At that price, it would practically be like a brand new house, so we felt it was a bit impossible.
After that, I was thinking of giving up on buying a house altogether, but the NPO that introduced us to the house said something like, "If you have the motivation and time, you can do a self-renovation, and if you're okay with the finished product being what you want, then it's not impossible, so why not give it a try?" The NPO itself has a lot of equipment and tools, and they said they'd lend us some of that, so we decided to give it a try.
Noi: I see. So, you initially decided to do the renovation yourself because of the cost, right?
YoshiiYes, that's right. It was quite a bit less than what we had anticipated, as it was short of our budget.
NoiIn terms of actual costs, once you decided to do a self-renovation and finished it, how much did it actually cost you?
YoshiiYes, that's right. We started with a budget of 10 million yen, and initially, when we were looking to buy the vacant house itself, it was offered for around 7.5 million or 8 million yen. However, considering our 10 million yen budget, that wouldn't leave much for renovation costs, so after much discussion, we decided to purchase it for 5.5 million yen. That amount is the total of the land and the building, and we ended up purchasing it at almost the assessed value of the land.
Other expenses included repairing walls and ceilings, replacing flooring and plumbing, installing a new air conditioner, a refrigerator, and since we switched to all-electric, installing an EcoCute water heater. There was also a lot of trash, so including waste disposal and other related costs, it would have normally cost around 7 million yen. However, by utilizing various applicable subsidies, we were able to keep the cost down to around 4.5 million yen. The interior renovation is already complete, but we are considering adding a wooden deck and fence to the exterior, as well as exterior paintwork. Including those costs, if we consider the total cash outlay from myself, it will be a renovation that can be kept down to around 10 million yen.
NoiWow, did it go exactly as planned?
Yoshii: That's right. In the end, if we hadn't had the subsidies, we would have had to compromise and lower the quality in various ways, but because we had the relevant subsidies, we were able to upgrade various equipment, expand the scope of painting, and do things like that.
Noi: I can imagine that doing it yourself must have been quite difficult. How long did it take you?
YoshiiMy wife and I, along with our children, helped out, and I think it took about a year in total. Both my wife and I were working remotely from home, and the distance between our previous house and this new one was only about 100 meters, so after work we would come to our new house and do DIY, or do a little painting during lunchtime, and so on. We also used our mornings, evenings, and weekends to work on it.
It's a long and tiring process, and there's a lot of monotonous time, but during that time, listening to audiobooks like Audible or Voicy helps to distract me. It can get quite long, and sometimes it might feel a bit tedious, but I think it's become a way to pass the time. So, over the past year, I've listened to a considerable number of books, and my DIY knowledge has increased, but I think I've also gained a lot of other knowledge from Audible and Voicy.
Noi: It's being put to great use, that's amazing!
NoiI think there are many things I've learned from your experience with self-renovation, such as the costs involved and how to manage your time. If you were to recommend it, could you tell me why?
YoshiiYes. There are two points. The first is, as I've mentioned several times before, the cost. Even if we add all the equipment we want, starting from a vacant house, we can do it for about a third of the cost of building a new house, and that's definitely appealing.
The second benefit is improving my DIY skills. If my DIY skills improve, I think I'll be able to remodel my room in various ways in the future, adapting to the situation. My child is currently 6 years old and will soon be starting elementary school, so I'm thinking of creating a child's room for him. At that time, I might consider adding another room to one of the existing rooms. I also want to create a place to store my DIY tools, and recently I've started camping, so I'm thinking of creating a small storage space or something to store my outdoor equipment and tents. I think the advantage is that I can do all of these things without spending a lot of money.
NoiCreating a children's room or being able to freely change the house according to your own wishes sounds like a lot of fun.
YoshiiYes, that's right. You can do various things to suit your life stage, so in that respect you'll acquire various skills, and I think it's something I would recommend.
NoiThank you very much. Today, Ms. Yoshii shared her experiences as someone who has gone through a renovation. Personally, I was very surprised at how much the costs could be reduced. In the next video, we'd like to ask Ms. Yoshii again about renovation know-how. Thank you again, Ms. Yoshii.
Yoshii: thank you very much.
source: Vacant House Lab
FIND YOUR STAY
Please feel free to contact us for any inquiries regarding accommodation reservations, move-in consultations, viewing appointments, media inquiries, etc.
inquiry
