We started a website to help foreigners buy cheap homes in Japan. We've bought 6 homes ourselves, but it's not the money-maker you'd expect.

"Our original plan was to make a website to help people search for homes in Japan. But people would start messaging us like, "Hey, I want to buy this property." We were just like, "We don't know how to do that." So we kind of just started faking it until we made it, to some degree, and putting the pieces together."

"Now, Take and I - out of the foreigners - are probably in the top 0.1% of people who understand the Japanese real estate process in the English-speaking world. We know this process almost inside and out at this point. We've seen so many deals, and not only seen so many deals, but seen so many complications. And every time there's a complication, you dig in, and you learn more about the real estate laws in Japan. You learn more about how the process works."

AkiyaMart launched in 2023 to help foreigners search for homes in Japan and evolved to also facilitate purchases. Founders learned the Japanese real estate process through repeated transactions and resolving complications, building deep practical knowledge. The platform handles deal coordination and addresses friction points that foreign buyers face. Customer intents split roughly into 20% permanent movers, 50% vacation-home seekers, and 30% investors. Founders own properties in Japan but have not obtained Airbnb licenses for them. The founders prioritized understanding legal and procedural complexities rather than immediately monetizing property holdings.

Read at Business Insider