Hello, My name is Tim, I am an E6 in the Navy with 12 years of active duty servie. I've been married for almost 6 years and we currently have one small dog (pug). We were recently informed that I will be getting orders to Yokosuka Japan as a hot fill so the move might be a little on the "speedy process" than typical. I should be getting more information in the next couple days with more details.

2 years ago, we tried everything to get orders ANYWHERE overseas but at the time the Navy wasn't sending too many people overseas. Unfortunately, this move to Japan comes at a very bad time as we just bought a house here in San Diego so we are jumping through hoops to get things moving as best as we can. 

I have been navigating through the forums and reading as much information as I possibly can before I post my questions that have already been addressed somewhere else in the forum so basically this is just an introduction My wife currently works in the Hotel field here in San Diego and will definatley be interested in any possible employment once settled into Japan. We are excited about the fact that we will be given the opportunity to live overseas but we are obviously stressed with everything that needs to be done prior.

We are more than likely going to look for off-base housing that will accept 1 small dog and be decent size too accomodate the possibility of us expanding our family.

If anyone has any helpful info that they would like to share it would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thank you in andvance and I look forward to chatting with anyone.

Welcome to the forum. It's great that you've read up first, and then posted; so many first-timers read nothing at all, and post every basic question that's been answered a million times.

I hope you're not too stressed by the fact that you just bought a home and now have to leave. In the long run, this will probably work out very well for you. You've bought somewhere close to the bottom of the market and if you keep the house for like 10 years it ought to work out very nicely for you. I rode the last SD real estate wave from '98 - '05, sold at the top, and came out really good on the deal.

The trick is to find a good tenant: Responsible & stable. You'll also need to hire a trustworthy management company. Interview several; don't just take the first one you stumble across. By California law, if the owner isn't the manager then it needs to be a licensed agent. You can't just have a friend do it for you. The house will also be a big tax-write off since it becomes a rental; you'll claim not only your actual expenses which include PITI, but also depreciation. This means even if the house makes a profit each month, it may well show up on your taxes as a loss and it will reduce your income taxes. I got away with paying zero income taxes for about 10 years because of this this.

As far as the whole Japan thing, I'm sure others will welcome you aboard & give advice about living in Yokosuka.

That's a very professional introduction all the stresses of moving will work themselves out. The easiest solution with your recent home purchase may be to find good tenants and rent it out if you are unable to sell it quickly. I was tossing around the idea of trying to sell on a short notice or rent when I came here, I ended up renting it to great tenants and put over 30K in my pocket last year from just leasing it of course that is based on the rent and if you have a mortgage etc. Even if you break even because of a mortgage you can depreciate the home on taxes which will give you a huge tax advantage resulting in a larger net profit when you get around to filing taxes.

You need orders to do anything, but you can get the tourist (blue) passports now if needed.

Thank you so much for the quick "welcome" messages. Seriously my eyes are going blurry from all the reading and emailing i have been doing to educate myself the best I possibly can. Obviously our house here is the biggest stress. One thing we are trying to figure out is that we purchased the house during the $8,000 tax bonus. Stipulations require we live at the residence for a minimum of 3 years and sadly the 3 year mark will not be met and we will be required to pay back the bonus. UNLESS- do military orders protect the service member in this event?

Aside from that, we live in a neighborhood where all the houses are very similar. We constatly see houses that are up for sale for LONG periods of time granted we don't know the full story behind them but just makes us very uneasy. Renting is a possibility and we are scheduled to meet with our realtor tomorrow that we purchased the house from (Great realtor) we trust him 100% I'm sure we will learn alot tomorrow.

So how much "reserch" on this site and the rest of the internet must I endure before I can ask some questions that I don't seem to be finding the answer to? LOL

Thank you so much again.
Excited but stressed!!!!

Wow, I would be stressed as well. Everything will work out. We are in Yokosuka right now. We came here from San Diego. HUGE difference in weather as you already know I am sure. I definitely miss that warm San Diego winter right about now. However, Japan is great. I have no advice to offer on living off base; however, I am sure that you can find a place that would accommodate you and your wife and pup. Best of luck getting things in order to come here. That is the most stressful part.

Welcome and I hope your tour in Japan is great for you and your family. In regards to your question for the First Time Homeowners Credit, I read on this website that there was a legislation passed by the president in November 2009, allowing military exemptions to repay this credit if the 3 year requirement was not met, you might still have to consult with a tax consulting office to make sure that you are covered under this exemption. I had to do paperwork for a member about 2 years ago, so its worth checking into it. http://moaablogs.org/financial/2009...xemptions/

In regards to renting your home, its a great choice I have been a homeowner for the past 6 years, have gone through horrible tenants and property managers to great ones, I think you learn with the process, and is nice to get a little bit extra of money every month to help with the mortgage payment. And I will say ask anything even if it has been answered before, sometimes situations can be very similiar but slighly different, every family coming to Japan is a different story, Private message some people if you want to ask questions, as for me I am here to help, wish I had done this before coming to Japan that wouldnt have been such a shock for me to transfer here.

Thank you La Familia Guevarasolorzano..... I will definatley look into that. I'm sure our meeting with the realtor will fill us with a bunch of valuable information along with cover the First time homeowners Credit issue.

~ With PCS orders, if we decide to put some house hold goods in storage here in San Diego, obviously that will be at our own expense correct?
~ Trying to figure out what price range we can look at for housing in Japan. I mean I have read all of the COLA and OHA calculators but an average E6 would be comfortable with a monthly rent of what ammount? Just because the calculators say one ammount, it's hard to guess until it's actually being deposited! 
~We are planning on selling wifes car, 2005 Jetta and putting my car 2011 Lancer in storage. Will GOVT cover the shipping expense to ship vehicle to my home of record in Ohio or would GOVT cover to expenses to store here in San Diego area?

  
Thank you again!

You have the option to ship or store some or all of your HHG's at GOV expense (they will store them in the SD area, it costs money to move them) The GOV will pay to store your vehicle (They won't ship it) you could drive it to another state to store it there. I would strongly consider selling it too, in the end it will cost you plenty to keep it and it will be a few years old when you return. If you had access to use it when you travel to the states it would be another story but if the GOV stores it, you won't. There are many people that store vehicles, you just have to pay a little insurance (Storage insurance is reasonable a few hundred a year) I'm not sure if you have to maintain registration for your state but that could add up. The gov will normally only store one vehicle per sponsor.

Tim, we also just moved here to Yokosuka from San Diego. We had some of our household stuff put in storage...it is somewhere out in El Cajon. Once you schedule your pack out you will get all that figured out. We had the movers come 3 different days...once for storage, once for express shipment and then finally the HHG. Everything is still pretty fresh in my mind so if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask or send private a message.

Thanks Yokota...... My car is brand new so not really sure if selling is gonna be best option. We have family in Ohio so we can store it there free or charge but just curious if GOVT would cover shipping cost to get vehicle from SD to Ohio. If not, no big deal.

We sold one car and stored the other; however we didn't even decide to store the car until the VERY last minute. We figured it would be nice to come home to a car so then we would only have to purchase one. It was no problem getting the car set up for storage even a week before PCSing out. We had already checked out of SD and were home in Louisiana visiting family. They set it up and sent us to New Orleans where the car was eventually shipped to South Carolina for storage. So head up if you change your mind about the GOV'T storing the vehicle. I don't think they will ship it to Ohio for you to store there though.

Posted By Tim on 01-23-2012 11:28 AM

I'm sure our meeting with the realtor will fill us with a bunch of valuable information along with cover the First time homeowners Credit issue.

Just remember -- the realtor is not an unbiased party.  His/her interest is to get you to sign a sales contract, not to compare selling vs renting.  If they say anything along the lines of "There has never been a better time to sell a home!" show them quickly to the door. 

@ ThaiGuy.....Hence the reason why I trust this guy 100%. when I spoke with him on the phone and told him the situation, his first response was I think you guys would highly benefit from renting. i would love to see you guys keep the house....So I know he has our best intrest at heart and not just about making his money. He really saved us when we got our house in the first place. Great guy.

Having had a real-estate license once upon a time, they are all personable or they won't get any business. The more likable they are the more you want to trust them.

It's a tough gig and normally the only way they make money is if something sells or rents and they manage it. They make more money if it's their listing and they make more money if you buy from their companies listing so that means there is an incentive to only show you internal properties. In the end though if you don't buy, sell or rent they don't make any money.

By the response he gave you, I read that to imply you won't be able to sell it and get out from under it with the current market, which isn't the end of the world because you can make money through leasing. Ask him about securing a corporate lease, that is also a very attractive option if you can get it and your rents are backed by a corporation not an individual.

Just a heads up on the subject of your dog. It is a tedious process to bring a pet into Japan. Must be up on all shots, be microchipped, and rabies and a FAVN antibody titer done...if you will be staying in the Navy Lodge upon your arrival I'm pretty sure they don't allow pets, and (from what I've heard) you don't want to board them at the base kennel. You might be able to find a "foster family" that will keep him/her until you find a house offbase...although the pet must be "quarrentined" for 6 mos. upon entering Japan and must be done on base...in base housing is acceptable. We started the process before we moved here as we had plenty of notice about coming. So if you plan to live off base here you might need to find somewhere to keep your dog for the 6 mos.

http://www.maff.go.jp/aqs/english/a...120120.pdf
Hopefully this can answer some "pet" questions you may have to bring them into Japan

As for the dog, check with the airlines and for their breed limitations. I know some won't take pugs.

Good advice to start the dog process ASAP. Also, when looking for a house in Japan, even if the house is listed as a "no pets" house, you can offer to pay a pet deposit, and they might be willing to rent to you (that's what happened with us.) Good luck!

For questions concerning your home go to Navy Legal and see if the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act can help. Legal would be your best place to get the right answers.
Also you can make an appointment and talk to a financial counslor at FFSC about other options that may be available to help you with questions you have with your home. They have a great list of resources there.

Just want to pipe up regarding the Kennel. It is being rennovated and there are temporary kennels in a trailer type bldg.

I have my dog there for about 30 days. Even though she lost weight (I think that was from a bit of stress and the fact she was not getting table scraps) she was fine for the experience. Of course, her being a Labrador Retriever probably helped.

Your best bet on getting everything ready for the dog is to go thru the Vet Office at Miramar Base. and then try to fly here on the AMC flight out of Seattle then you don't have to worry about going through customs with the dog at Narita.

We are reading alot and also have a past co-worker that my wife worked with is now in Yokosuka, she is giving us some great information. We got basically everything for our dog and we can do the FAVN here and she told us the 6 mo quarantie was waived. I know it's all different from case to case.

@ Tricia: Great info, yes they always do have great information there and i will be sure to contact them.

@ ALock92- Great info as well, same thing was told to us by my wifes friend.

**************************UPDATE*********************
Okay, so I haven't been on here as much as I should and getting online JB.com the night before we fly to Japan isn't the most responsible thing to do! hahaha. anyway, in the past 3 months, it has been a complete whilwind but in the end, EVERYTHING has worked out great so far.

After 10 days on the market, our house sold! yay! did very good on that. All shipments were picked up, wifes car sold, my car put into long term storage. Good to go. Our little pug had a couple of hicups with her Favan but after a 2nd visit, she was good to go. We ended up getting a commercial flight so we will be going through customs at the airport but everything is good to go.

it is 1150pm Sunday night and we are enjoying our last night in the San Diego Navy lodge. We will be flying to San Francisco then to Tokyo. Looking forward to this new chapter. Have no idea where to start when we finally get there...Definately looking forward to some good food!
Look forward to hearing from everyone and I will definately be more active on this site now. For anyone else that has newly recieved orders and about to begin the entire process, feel free to PM me or ask anthing as all the info is fresh! thanks again to everyone.

Wow, this sounds like a huge success story. It's for reasons like this that Adam created JB in the first place. Glad it all worked out. :-)

From someone who is about to leave Japan to someone who is about to begin their adventure, welcome to Japan. It is an experience that you will never forget, and never regret.

Sounds good. the flight was a little stressful. San diego to San Fran started off rough as they wanted to re-route due to fog in San Fran. Well, the flight out of san diego got delayed which wouldn't allow us to catch our connecting to Tokyo in time. we decided to go ahead and just go to san Fran and deal with it once we got there since we already checked all of our luggage in and our pet. *For anyone traveling commercial with pets, no matter what pet safe tells you, you CANNOT check your pet in at the desk you check your luggage in. you will have to check them in at cargo so please allow yourself an additional 1hr to acomplish this.

anyway, just before we boarded our 1.5hr delayed flight to San Fran, we found out our flight to Tokyo got delayed as well! THANK YOU!
we still had to husltle as our arrival gate and departing gate were pretty far from each other. we get to the gate for our final flight only to find out that in our "run" they switched the gate! lol so we back tracked....made it to the gate and found out the flight was delayed an additional 30 min! so we had some time to sit and relax!

Took a while to take off, flight was good. Got our luggage and went through customs no problem. with picking up pets, this was different from what my sponsor had to do. we had to go to Cargo again to pick up our dog, go through customs there and quarentine area. whole process to find the area and do paper work was about 1.5hrs. Sponsor brought us on base (11pm) he took our dog for the night since navy lodge doesn't allow pets. Checked into the lodge, had a nice welcome basket of snacks from the Navy lodge and another large basket of goodies from a local friend! unpacked, skyped with family back home and ready to get some sleep. Up earlly for the housing brief!

Oh and by the way, each flight we got on, we asked the flight attendant if she could let us know if our pet made it on board and they kindly did. it was a great peace of mind to have. So far so good! can't wait for tomorrow to learn everything, get out and experience some things, try some great food etc!

Crazy hectic, but still a success. I'd bet your Tokyo flight got delayed because all the inbound connecting flights were delayed. Glad it worked out. It sounds like you had a great sponsor.

A sponsor who actually took care of you? This is a huge success story! You always hear about the bad sponsors who have no idea who you are until you check in to the command. But you almost never hear about the success stories. This makes me very glad to hear that between your sponsor and JB.com, you were able to figure out most of what you needed to do to get over here. You still have several weeks of craziness ahead of you, but once you get past the jet lag and get into a place, things will be okay. In any case, Welcome to Japan!

Glad to see you made it and especially glad to hear your sponsor was a "SPONSOR".  It is rare to hear lately and it is always a welcome story.  Thanks for sharing.

If you're ever stuck on something and need an oldtimer in Yokosuka to help...feel free to PM me.

yea, the Sponser was good. Kinda got nervous cuz I would email him and wouldn't hear back for like 2 months. Basically my wife and I did everything on our own due to the "lack of communication" All in all, he was at the airport to pick us up and he stuck with us during the run around at the airport so it could have been worse. I'm looking forward to learning the area and being a sponsor to someone else. I feel there is so much more sponsors can do to aid in the transition.

I'm glad to hear you sold your home! That is a stressor in itself! Glad you made it safely

Posted By Tim4 on 04-25-2012 12:35 PM
yea, the Sponser was good. Kinda got nervous cuz I would email him and wouldn't hear back for like 2 months. Basically my wife and I did everything on our own due to the "lack of communication" All in all, he was at the airport to pick us up and he stuck with us during the run around at the airport so it could have been worse. I'm looking forward to learning the area and being a sponsor to someone else. I feel there is so much more sponsors can do to aid in the transition.

BTW, there is a sponsor class, or at least there is here in Iwakuni.  Try to take it someday to learn the tips & tricks of being a great sponsor.

Posted By ThaiGuy on 04-25-2012 5:26 PM

Posted By Tim4 on 04-25-2012 12:35 PM
yea, the Sponser was good. Kinda got nervous cuz I would email him and wouldn't hear back for like 2 months. Basically my wife and I did everything on our own due to the "lack of communication" All in all, he was at the airport to pick us up and he stuck with us during the run around at the airport so it could have been worse. I'm looking forward to learning the area and being a sponsor to someone else. I feel there is so much more sponsors can do to aid in the transition.

BTW, there is a sponsor class, or at least there is here in Iwakuni.  Try to take it someday to learn the tips & tricks of being a great sponsor.

Definately will look into that. Had a friend that we lived near in Virginia a few years back took us for a great tour of Yokosuka area and overloaded us with some great information! Tomorrow's agenda is to obtain cell phones and starting browsing through the binders for off base housing.  

   Anyone have recommendations on phones? wife and i are not Iphone people, we are more Android or anything other than Iphone! LOL heard the Aquos phones are really good and to get softbank but to sign the contract through the NEX rather than out in town since the contracts out in town could have some tricks hidden in them.

Getting a phone & a car is a huge boost to your quality of life. Then the house.

Roger that on the phones. Just don't forget... the iPhone 4GS 16 GB is FREE at Softbank on a 2-year contract. Check out the photos I posted of its GPS maps here: http://www.japanbases.com/forums/aft/8436.aspx (scroll to the bottom of the page -- the maps with English in them.)

I use the mapping function constantly not just for driving & walking around Japan, but also for trains. It's a built-in feature that has departure times of all train routes, transfer stations and fares. Makes getting around way easy.

Anyway, have fun with your android.

 By Tim4 on 04-25-2012 8:52 PM

Posted By ThaiGuy on 04-25-2012 5:26 PM

Posted By Tim4 on 04-25-2012 12:35 PM
yea, the Sponser was good. Kinda got nervous cuz I would email him and wouldn't hear back for like 2 months. Basically my wife and I did everything on our own due to the "lack of communication" All in all, he was at the airport to pick us up and he stuck with us during the run around at the airport so it could have been worse. I'm looking forward to learning the area and being a sponsor to someone else. I feel there is so much more sponsors can do to aid in the transition.

BTW, there is a sponsor class, or at least there is here in Iwakuni.  Try to take it someday to learn the tips & tricks of being a great sponsor.

Definately will look into that. Had a friend that we lived near in Virginia a few years back took us for a great tour of Yokosuka area and overloaded us with some great information! Tomorrow's agenda is to obtain cell phones and starting browsing through the binders for off base housing.  

   Anyone have recommendations on phones? wife and i are not Iphone people, we are more Android or anything other than Iphone! LOL heard the Aquos phones are really good and to get softbank but to sign the contract through the NEX rather than out in town since the contracts out in town could have some tricks hidden in them.

I would look for a phone that's also sold in the USA as most accessories in Japan on Japanese only items are usually outrageously priced...with that in mind I ended up getting an HTC Evo 4G last year for free and I order anything needed for it via USA Amazon.com

okay I'm confused..... Wife and I both had Verizon before we left the US. I had the Droid Razr and she had the HTC Thunderbolt. Both are 4G phones. We were both planning to sell our phones back to verizon as they had the buy back plan. The closer we got to leaving, we decided to sell just mine as they offered alot more and we were just going to keep hers only because we could still use the phone in a wifi zone to still acess emails and internet. verizon told us that both of our phones would not work on a japanese cell network since they don't have 4G. is this true?
I really would have loved to have kept my razr if this is true.

we aren't into accessories that much. the thunderbolt was my wifes first smartphone and she enjoyed it. I'm more of the "new release" phones and like to have the new technology type stuff.... So just from online reviews and images, I do like the Sharp Aquos 104sh and they have some other nice phones. Guess we will just have to find out more when we get over there today.

Posted By Tim4 on 04-26-2012 5:43 AM
okay I'm confused..... Wife and I both had Verizon before we left the US. I had the Droid Razr and she had the HTC Thunderbolt. Both are 4G phones. We were both planning to sell our phones back to verizon as they had the buy back plan. The closer we got to leaving, we decided to sell just mine as they offered alot more and we were just going to keep hers only because we could still use the phone in a wifi zone to still acess emails and internet. verizon told us that both of our phones would not work on a japanese cell network since they don't have 4G. is this true?
I really would have loved to have kept my razr if this is true.

we aren't into accessories that much. the thunderbolt was my wifes first smartphone and she enjoyed it. I'm more of the "new release" phones and like to have the new technology type stuff.... So just from online reviews and images, I do like the Sharp Aquos 104sh and they have some other nice phones. Guess we will just have to find out more when we get over there today.

Yes, Japan has very limited 4G LTE network areas at this point.

My "new" iPad for example will only work on 3G here in Japan.

For my HTC Evo phone, I knew I would get an extended battery and some type of very protective case and holster...which I was able to find on Amazon USA.

Japan either didn't have comparable items or they were very expensive for what I could find.

Im also hopeful that when I leave, the phone can be unlocked also...

PS...the iPad also only works on 3G in most of EU as well.

Ok so I have a question about the cell phone. I currently have a HTC EVO 4G on Sprint here in the states. Will I be able to bring my phone with me and place it on one of the networks in Japan? I'm just curious as I was reading the current post? I am due to report to Yokosuka in August.

Posted By kymmie262003 on 04-26-2012 8:00 AM
Ok so I have a question about the cell phone. I currently have a HTC EVO 4G on Sprint here in the states. Will I be able to bring my phone with me and place it on one of the networks in Japan? I'm just curious as I was reading the current post? I am due to report to Yokosuka in August.

In theroy is should work if your carrier is willing to unlock it.

Unfortunately Japan is very protective about what they will/won't allow so I can be certain they will let an unlocked phone back onto one of their carrier networks...

Ok thank you!!!!! While I'm asking questions, is there a better way to book the Navy Lodge or Navy Gateway, when I call and look on line(I also inform I'm pcsing) they are all booked up.

Posted By kymmie262003 on 04-26-2012 8:16 AM
Ok thank you!!!!! While I'm asking questions, is there a better way to book the Navy Lodge or Navy Gateway, when I call and look on line(I also inform I'm pcsing) they are all booked up.

when you look online they are always gonna show they are booked up. If you call and they say they are booked then they might truely be booked up.....when is your estimated arrival date?

I called the front desk directly and was able to book a room for 30 days. I just did this two days ago.

Posted By hgracianojr on 04-27-2012 11:31 AM
I called the front desk directly and was able to book a room for 30 days. I just did this two days ago.

Nice! When do you arrive here?

Seen this while walking and smiled!
http://i45.tinypic.com/15owa6g.jpg
 

Nice Tim! Should of come in and said hi. I am busy away coding..

Posted By Tim4 on 04-27-2012 11:26 AM

Posted By kymmie262003 on 04-26-2012 8:16 AM
Ok thank you!!!!! While I'm asking questions, is there a better way to book the Navy Lodge or Navy Gateway, when I call and look on line(I also inform I'm pcsing) they are all booked up.

when you look online they are always gonna show they are booked up. If you call and they say they are booked then they might truely be booked up.....when is your estimated arrival date?

I'm arriving in August. I ended up calling and explained that I was pcsing and was able to book my room for 30 days!!!