About Cousin JK
Hey cuz--I’m JK.
I’m a Korean returnee, twin dad, surfer, and cross-cultural housing guide based in Seoul.
For 18 years I lived abroad (Indiana, California, Bali) before life brought me back home with a wife, two baby girls, and a backpack full of stories.
Coming back wasn’t smooth.
I knew the language, the culture.
But the housing system?
Jeonse, wolse, deposit rules, landlord psychology.. even I felt like an expat again.
Our first long-term lease in Hapjeong?
I thought it was a scam when I read it.
I saw “2-year term” on the contract and tried to cancel it on the spot because no one had ever told me that was the standard here.
True story--I paused the signing meeting, stepped outside the Budongsan, secretly Googled "2 year lease in Korea normal??"
Imagine I'm on the side walk like I was checking urgent medical symptoms. kkk
That moment stayed with me.
Not the mistake, but the feeling.
“Is this normal?”, “Am I getting played?”
The kind of feeling you only confess to someone you trust.
Well, I stayed in the process long enough to understand it.
I earned my realtor license, ran my own office, and helped expats, students, families, and busy professionals find their first roof in Korea.
Somewhere along the way I became “the cousin who figured it out.”
People would DM me with screenshots, contracts, weird landlord texts. And I’d walk them through step by step.
No pressure. No jargon.
Just a cousin who wants you to feel less alone in the process.
That became Letters from Cousin JK.
A place where you can pull up next to the tteokbokki truck (the steamy, late-night kind) and ask the questions you have nobody else in your corner to ask,
where I break down the laws and rules, the local mindset, and all the emotional turbulence behind finding a roof in Korea… through lived stories that actually happened.
I’m not here to be some kind of guru.
I’m here as your cousin--a wanderer turned realtor, always within reach, carrying stories from both sides of the ocean.
Wherever you’re landing from, welcome.
Let’s help you feel a little more at home while finding home.
--Cousin JK
