Tokyo: Rabbit Officer and Her Evil Partner-Chapter 757 - 462: Buying a Home

The real estate agent understood the buyer’s mindset without saying much, maintaining a smile as they took Minamoto Tamako and Fushimi Roku to see another property.

The third property was located in the Setagaya District, a Showa-era house with a garden.

There was a cobblestone path at the entrance, and the doorway was a bit low for Fushimi Roku’s height, forcing him to bend over to enter.

This house was standalone, with the second floor slightly smaller than the first. It included a private tea room, study, and meeting room. The floors were covered in tatami mats, designed in the Showa style but not built during the Showa period, replicating the past style in a modern building, complete with water, electricity, and a bathtub.

The Setagaya District is considered a traditional wealthy area in Tokyo, with expensive land prices but not crowded; almost every house has a walled garden, and it is a popular filming location for major TV stations.

Minamoto Tamako was drawn to this house. The first floor was about 100 square meters, designed in a traditional sukiya-zukuri style, with a cypress frame and earth wall structure. The corridor eaves were laid with tatami, connecting to a dry landscape garden of about 30 tsubo.

The entrance featured a sanwa soil step, past the coal bamboo-crafted low gate, leading to a large area of ten tatami mats, with shoji doors separating the tea room and the eight-tatami master bedroom.

Very nice, really nice.

But the downside was that it was expensive.

The price alone was as high as 30 million yen. The real estate agent mentioned the price was negotiable, but at best only a few hundred thousand yen; there’s not much room for fluctuation on such a good property.

In addition, there’s an annual property tax of over 400,000 yen and a monthly management fee of about 10,000 yen. With inflation not being so exaggerated these days, calculating the numbers means an additional fixed monthly expenditure of about 40,000 yen.

So expensive.

Minamoto Tamako had about 45 million yen, with 25 million yen being Cat Island’s illicit funds that couldn’t be misused, leaving only 20 million yen...

Could only pass.

Fushimi Roku saw that Minamoto Tamako was tempted. To be honest, he also quite liked this house: tranquil amidst the chaos, a nice environment, a park just around the corner, with nearby hospitals, universities, and high schools. The facilities were complete and it even had its own garden—what more could one want?

"This one’s a little over budget, let’s look at others..."

Before Minamoto Tamako could finish her sentence, Fushimi Roku interrupted, "Hold on, I’m going to the bathroom... Where is it in this house?"

Minamoto Tamako was stunned, feeling it wasn’t very courteous. They weren’t buying this house, so how could they use someone else’s bathroom like this? Isn’t that like a dog? Marking territory with excreta—only dogs would do that, right?

She wanted Fushimi Roku to hold it in, but he didn’t give her the chance to stop him, clutching toilet paper as he headed to the bathroom stall.

Minamoto Tamako stood outside, anxiously waiting. Watching the real estate agent’s professional fake smile made her increasingly uncomfortable, with a growing sense of unease.

"Sorry to bother you..." she bowed and said.

"Not at all, it’s perfectly normal," the real estate agent’s smile seemed like a mask. "Perhaps Miss Yuuzi could reconsider? This house has good value retention, the plot is excellent, whether for residence or investment, it’s very worthwhile."

"I don’t think so... it’s mostly over budget," Minamoto Tamako replied with a pained expression.

She had never worried about buying a house before, but now that she really needed to buy one, she found that real estate could be so expensive.

"You can take out a loan!" the agent suggested encouragingly, "Are both of you civil servants with good credit? If you take out a loan to pay the down payment, the bank will definitely approve it. I also have quality lending companies on hand, with an interest rate of only 3% per month... Isn’t that low?"

Minamoto Tamako didn’t have a specific concept of 3% on 10 million yen; her first reaction was to nod, "It actually doesn’t seem high, maybe worth considering..."

However, as she did a quick mental calculation, she realized that 3% of 10 million yen was 300,000 yen, meaning the monthly interest would be 300,000 yen.

Not high my foot!

Minamoto Tamako was shocked and quickly took back her earlier words: "Forget it, forget it, not considering it, the loan pressure is too much."

Compared to buying a house outright, the real estate agent preferred customers to take out loans as they receive higher commissions.

Seeing Minamoto Tamako was tempted earlier, the agent quickly said, "The pressure isn’t actually that high. You don’t have to repay it in full in one month. If it’s difficult, you can take out several loans in installments, with a monthly interest of just 30,000 yen..."

As he spoke, the agent started painting an attractive picture: "This place is for elites, everyone living here is either wealthy or influential. Joining the local ladies club could greatly help expand your network."

An ordinary person would think of class ascent, hot-headedly gritting their teeth and taking out the loan.

But Minamoto Tamako didn’t have a filter for the elite class. To her, no matter which class, everyone has two eyes and a mouth, with strengths and weaknesses, at most, rich people are just good at making money, no different from ordinary people.

In her mind, she calculated the numbers: 30,000 plus 30,000 equals 60,000.

If tied to monthly loan repayments of 60,000 yen, she’d undoubtedly become a bitter-faced corporate drone, just thinking about it made her stressed enough.

Nuts and bolts, while this property is good, there’s no necessity.

Sherlock Holmes rented with his roommate, and there’s no need for a famous detective and police chief to buy a house this big; rumors of embezzlement might follow...

With the spirit of Ah Q, Minamoto Tamako was about to firmly refuse, when luckily, at that moment Fushimi Roku came out of the bathroom with his pants up. She elbowed him to hint him to say the house wasn’t suitable.

"Hmm, it’s nice, we bought it," Fushimi Roku said.

"Eh?" Minamoto Tamako was stunned, quickly tiptoeing and anxiously whispering in his ear: "I don’t have enough money! I only have 20 million yen, plus I’d have to pay property tax in the future, there’s absolutely no way to afford it!"

The real estate agent’s eyes lit up, not allowing them to take back their words, quickly pulling out a contract from his briefcase, biting open a pen, "Which loan plan suits you best? If monthly payment pressure is high, I recommend an extended batch plan, a three-year loan..."

"No loan," Fushimi Roku interrupted, taking out a bank card from his wallet, "We’ll buy it outright."

Minamoto Tamako didn’t think ’Wow, he looks so cool paying,’ instead she wondered where Fushimi Roku got such money.

Didn’t Mr. Fushimi just spend the money?

How did going to the bathroom yield such cash?

Was there a gold mine in the bathroom, or did he do some shady deal?

Minamoto Tamako was puzzled, but knew it was inappropriate to ask such questions in front of outsiders. Fushimi Roku paid a deposit of 10 million yen in front of her, temporarily buying the house, indeed achieving All’s Well That Ends Well.

The real estate agent went to help with the procedures, suggesting they could move in by next week at the latest, or inspect it as early as three days later, and if there were no issues, they could pay the remaining balance.

Japan doesn’t have a property certificate, only real estate registration books, allowing real estate to be owned by multiple people. The most common is ’joint ownership,’ shared among couples or family members, where co-owners have equal rights, requiring joint execution of disposal rights.

But since Fushimi Roku and Minamoto Tamako aren’t married, they chose ’partial ownership,’ where co-owners have ownership according to an agreed ratio, like 50%:50% or 80%:20%, noted in the registration book with each share.

Fushimi Roku contributed 10 million yen, Minamoto Tamako put up 20 million yen, giving the latter a larger share, which Fushimi Roku didn’t mind, as long as his name was on the registration book.

As the real estate agent left, Fushimi Roku held the keys, planning to take another look, when Minamoto Tamako quickly caught up and asked, "Where did you get the money from? Did you make some money from stocks again?"

"No, stocks don’t provide such quick cash out."

Fushimi Roku opened the window, gazing at the cherry blossom tree in the garden, thinking this was the picturesque scenery Japan’s dramas and anime deserved, unlike Sugamo Apartment’s sorry environment, no different from urban villages.

"Then where did you get this 10 million yen from?"