apartment listing magazines question...

[WarlocK]

I'm currently shopping around for decent apartments around Osaka. I've been looking at those apartment magazines (Chintai and such) and have found some that looked ok to me. The problem is that my J-girlfriend says I shouldn't be looking at the magazines because they is always something "wrong" with them, or else they wouldn't be listed there. She says she got this "gem" of information from a real estate agent when she was looking for an apartment earlier this year.

I find this incredibly hard to believe. I think it's just the real estate agents trying to scam potential renters into paying more money for an apartment. So, my question is, who is right? Are there really "problems" with these apartments (such as someone was murdered, bad pest problem, not in a good area), or is this all just a load of crap propagated by greedy real estate agents?

[kamome]

I'm inclined to think the real estate agent's "advice" is crap. These guys are at least as bad as used car salesmen. If you visit the place, you'll be able to identify most of the problems (noise, water pressure, lighting, storage space, cleanliness, etc.). Try both magazine listings and one or real estate companies and see what happens.

[Captain Japan]

I'm inclined to think the real estate agent's "advice" is crap. These guys are at least as bad as used car salesmen. If you visit the place, you'll be able to identify most of the problems (noise, water pressure, lighting, storage space, cleanliness, etc.). Try both magazine listings and one or real estate companies and see what happens.

If you can read a bit of Japanese I'd go with the Internet to do the searching. It is easier because you can input your own criteria (area, budget, size, etc.) and have that all come up. It beats turning loads of b/w pages in a book. And many times you can see pictures and floorplans (usually not available in a magazine). Here are a few sites (and I believe they are nationwide and many times have the same properties as the magazines of the same name):

http://www.chintai.co.jp
http://www.able.co.jp
http://athome.co.jp
http://www.ensen-homes.jp/
http://www.forrent.jp/

I'm not endorsing any of them, but give 'em a shot; they are easy to use.

As for the advice from the real estate agent, that doesn't make sense at all as a general rule. Though I will say that the better properties get snapped up real quick. So if you catch an ad within a week of its posting, it'd be best.

[WarlocK]

ah-ha! i knew (pretty much sorta) that i was right! i can't wait for the girlfriend to come over so i can show her these posts.

anyway, thanks for the suggestions guys. i'll try the internet, and if worse comes to worse, i'll have my girlfriend fill out the paper work for the apartment if i happen to find a nice apartment with a racist bastard of a landlord.