Testimonials

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Then as luck would have it, with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, I ended up not being able to travel together with my husband to Washington to see the house as it was being built. While we were apprehensive about purchasing the property sight unseen, Aiko sent videos showing how the work was progressing day by day, which gave us a clear grasp of what was going on with the construction. With the way she responded so conscientiously to any question I might have, we were able to complete the purchase with peace of mind.

The way it turned out, at the same time as our house in Virginia sold, we made our big move to Washington, accompanied by two big black labs!! As soon as we made our way to Seattle, she helped set our minds at ease with already prepared ID tags marked with Kohtoku’s phone number, telling us to attach them to each of their collars for the time being, as it was a number that could be reached 24 hours a day. “Wow, they’re even looking out for our pet dogs?! What an amazing company,” I thought.

Realizing that our house in Renton wasn’t going to be ready for another two or three months, we began living in a hotel. This turned into a challenging three months for us, staying in a hotel room like that with our two big black labs. With these water-loving dogs of ours, Aiko was kind enough to accompany me many times to places like parks with rivers and space for big dogs to run around in, always showing her concern even for our dogs with their tendencies to get stressed out. Thanks to her thoughtfulness, we all got safely moved into our new house, leaving three months of hotel living behind. Then even when Tatsu, one of them, went missing shortly after we got settled into our new home, she went to pick them up right away after she heard… These are all nostalgic memories at this point.

Though my husband and I had just gone to all the trouble of taking the plunge and moving all the way out to Washington from Virginia, his health took a turn for the worse, and he ended up passing away. It wasn’t an easy time by any means, but I resolved to load up our two big dogs and pluck up the courage to make the drive back to Virginia, where we had lived together for so many years, on my own.

In selling the house, I ended up entrusting Aiko’s son Hideo Suganuma. Hideo kept in close contact with me and took time out of his busy schedule to make the trip to the house many times. He’s so courteous and amiable, the way he speaks is always so gentle, accompanied with warm smiles, and everything he conveyed to me was clear and precise.

For me, Kohtoku was a wonderful company. Everything that was in my hands I felt confident entrusting to them, and I feel so pleased that they always took such good care of me. From buying the house to putting it back on the market, they gave their assistance professionally and conscientiously, and as a result, everything went smoothly, and I was able to make it back to Virginia myself, safe and sound.

For all of that, I am so sincerely grateful to Hideo, Aiko, and everyone at Kohtoku. — Katsuko Clarke

I was driven around to various properties and was surprised by her cordial and polite explanations and her desire to thoroughly meet the needs or her client. I was worried that perhaps meeting the needs of her clients to that extent might not be good for her bottom line.

Taking her at her word I asked for this and that and during the process of being advised by her, found the house I’m living in presently on day three and purchased it. All my conditions were met and though it’s only been a little while since I started living here, I feel as comfortable as if I had lived here for ten years.

That would have been enough, but she led me through each complicated process, from furniture and kitchenware to moving in. The day I moved in I was able to begin without a problem. There is an expression: Leaving nothing to be desired. In Japan this is becoming a dead expression in business ethics, but I feel that it has been preserved in Kohtoku Enterprise.

Another reason I’m glad I chose Kohtoku Enterprise is that when I go to the bank or school and tell them that I bought my home through Kohtoku, that gives me instant credibility. Actually, I didn’t know this, but a few years ago the president of the company was chosen as one of the top one percent real estate agents out of 18,000 agents in the Washington State Real Estate Association. I was further unaware that she had achieved the rank of 69th top seller until I bought my house. Average effort will not get you these results.

There was good reason why she was chosen. This year Kohtoku Enterprise has been in business for twenty five years. We, as consumers are fortune that such a super conscientious business has flourished. I hereby heartily recommend Kohtoku Enterprise to all those in Japan and Washington state. If you’re looking to purchase or want advise about real estate in　Washington state, you can do no better than Kohtoku Enterprise! –Saku Yasushi

While I’d seen the Suganuma name from Kohtoku ads in flyers for the Seattle-area Japanese community and online, it was last year (2012) on November 5, that I first got in touch. At that point, though I was vaguely speaking of buying a house, I didn’t know the first thing about how to go about it. I was well enough acquainted with the area around Everett and Lynnwood after living and working there for eight years. Yet, looking back now, the first houses that caught my interest looking online seem like ill-considered properties in poorly thought out locations. It was only a matter of days after meeting with Aiko Suganuma and receiving her exacting advice that I came to realize how unfitting my first choices were.

A week on from that, I would be driving around with Aiko Suganuma and her son Hideo, being shown five or six houses a day that matched what I had in mind. I must have seen over 30 properties with them this way. Aiko said customers often told her they felt they’d never find a house they were satisfied with buying while they were on the hunt with her. I’ll admit that I did also have the thought myself after being driven around to a few houses that it could easily take until the next spring to find the right house with Aiko, who seemed to have no nose for profit in the matter. That just reflected how extremely accurate the advice she gave me was, offered from her solid experience as a professional in the field: What’s good is good, and what’s no good is just no good. I really felt as if she were looking for a house she might live in herself, not just me, the customer.

Particularly from November on, you can take it for granted that the weather is going to be bad on house-hunting days, and the sun starts to set extremely early as well. It’s, honestly, the very worst time to go looking for a house… Yet, to look at it from another perspective, that also makes it the time when you can see a house in its very worst light. On this one day, which I think must have been a weekday right after Thanksgiving, it was, of course, raining. There was even a house that, just standing outside in front of it, we hesitated to go inside — the kind of place where we got a bad vibe the moment we opened the door.

“There weren’t any really standout properties today, but there is one place around here that just went on the market the day before Thanksgiving. Let’s finish up with a look there,” suggested Aiko. I didn’t have particularly high hopes, but when we opened the door, wow…! “This might be a good one!” she exclaimed. In a matter of mere minutes, I found myself agreeing right away, “I’ll go with this one!” To find this level of quality at this asking price… I could concur that if somewhere satisfied Aiko’s eye, it would satisfy everyone else’s, too. Sure enough, the house had received several offers already, within a day or two of going on the market, so for a while it was like waiting for the results of college entrance exams… Then, after a few days, I got a call from Aiko: “Congratulations!”

Just a month later, from the first days of 2012, I began living in my new house. Even my loan was approved at such a low rate as I’d never seen before. It was as if some unseen force had instructed me to buy a house at this time. Above all, I feel that if I hadn’t gotten in touch with Aiko Suganuma of Kohtoku Enterprise and had reached out to some other real estate agent in a hurry to make a sale, I would have ended up getting encouraged to just settle for one of those — to think of it now — ill-considered houses in poorly thought out locations that I’d had my eye on at the time — a “penny-wise, pound-foolish” waste of money. I can imagine myself still toiling away making the commute from there now… Along with my gratitude to Aiko and Hideo Suganuma, I appreciated their personal characters in ways not limited to real estate. I felt that I’d love to have ongoing personal interaction with them as members of the same local Japanese community as well.

I actually ended up going ahead with the purchase of a second house as an investment property, and this one again was a popular property that had received multiple offers as soon as it went on the market. Happily, I also found a very nice, agreeable tenant just a few days after closing, which came as a surprise to me. While pre-move-in maintenance costs would ordinarily be my responsibility as the owner, Aiko took care of a considerable amount, which I was very grateful for. For anyone thinking of buying or selling a house in this area, whether they’re from Japan, the U.S., or anywhere, I can fully recommend Kohtoku Enterprise, 100%.

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