@revstockton Thanks, that's super useful. TBH I don't know if it was health or property insurance, the bank just said "insurance". Will try and get them to confirm.
@revstockton Because buildings lose value more and faster than land, they may have written off the building (or a major portion of it) and relied more on the land value and decided against the risk. A real estate agent will be able to tell you and will know which bank can help you.
@faithfound Yes I'm aware. But still 15 years is quite new and is unlikely to be the reason (and were it the banks are likely to provide some guidance)
Of course it's possible, but the mention of insurance suggests a medical issue perhaps.
@revstockton True. I think the realtor would know as they can get info from the bank and then help find a different financial institution. I defer to you!
@faithfound Thanks, I didn't think that was old! It is one of the newest buildings in the area. The loan term was 30 years.
The real estate agent has been the least helpful person, other than gifting me COVID after testing positive but keeping it to himself, he's done very little. If there was another agent in the area we'd use them, but he's it.
@skupi If 15 years old is one of the newest buildings in the area, that may be throwing up a flag of the area not very desirable so more risk for the bank. They don’t want to be sitting on a property that they can’t sell if you default.
@devzhere That's a good thought. No pre existing conditions and nothing listed of that nature. We're in very early 40's though so maybe age is coming in to play. We offered to reduce the mortgage term during the application but they seemed reluctant to make it less than 30 years.
@resjudicata Yeah she does, though based on other comments here it may not been seen as stable as it’s not a Japanese owned company and she’s been there for less than 3 years.
@skupi It's probably the 3 year thing. My Japanese husband and I wanted to buy a property before I had my first child. He had a good stable job with a foreign company, we could not get a mortgage as he hadn't been there 3 years at that time. We talked to the bank and the realtor and they said the same.
We waited out the 3 years and ended up moving to a different prefecture than the one he works in. Also we did a no deposit mortgage fixed for 35 years insured. Once he had 3 years at the company the bank was fine and everything was processed in less than 3 months.
@irag8er Is my wife getting the mortgage - she’s 18 months, full time employee, large international tech company with a great reputation (not FAANG). Impression from the people we’ve spoken to is that everything looks well within their approval range, but again they won’t say why it is being declined. They’ve given us estimates on what we can borrow based on this and it’s well above what we need.
I work remotely for an offshore company so am not part of the application. This hasn’t been raised as an issue.
@skupi Hmm.. that could be it. 18 months is not that long and I think some banks require a minimum of 3 years at current company. Also, a domestic major company will always be given favorable treatment even if salary isn’t that large
