Best Posts in Forum: Property Development

My wife and I have been purchasing property for about four years now. We also looked at property for several years off and on before buying our first lot, an overlooking lot in Valencia. We have also made four separate purchases in Siquijor of raw land.
We have attempted to purchase at least 6 other properties that there was a scam to cheat us. The first was an 80 yo lady with a lot in Valencia which we paid 10k pesos to survey. We then went to the lawyers office, an older gentleman and his wife only to find out she had already sold the land to an Aussie and received payment in full. She somehow forgot to tell her siblings, which were in the attorney's office, that she collected the money but failed to pay them their share. Later I found out in another case that when this happens one of the siblings will bring a case against the purchaser and the whole transaction is thrown out with the rightful heirs getting the property and the purchaser getting the shaft. Some of the others have been this sort of scam.
Another property we tried to buy was a good deal except the 80 yo lady, yes another one, was not the only signer but she said she was the only signer. She had sold other land in Dumaguete near Valencia that she was only part owner but said she was the only signer. Property was sub divided and houses built by the unsuspecting persons. I don't know what happened in that deal.
There are two ways to hold a property in Philippines, Tax declaration and title. Once a land is titled it must remain titled, no more tax dec. There are many cases, one we encountered, where a third party would get a title to land with a tax dec and then get a title. After five years no legal suit can be brought against the person holding the title, it belongs to them period.
We were trying to buy a lot and it turned out to be on the other side of the road from the land we were shown and only turned up when the surveyor showed up and pointed out the discrepancy. We have 30k in that deal and trying to get at least some of it back.
There are so many ways to get screwed trying to purchase property here. I'm not trying to discourage you but beeee careful. If you do find something you want to buy I would suggest you go to Attorney Dee across from Palwa Hotel and have them check it out for you, even that is no guarantee the title will be good as this is not the US where you have a way to check for leins on a property.
I do not consider myself an expert but I do have some experience in property in Philippines.

 

I have experience with this,, the proper route is to play their game.. Ask how much they want to move. When they give you a price say ok, i am going to give that amount to a good lawyer and you will get nothing. Any competent lawyer has connections with the DENR, City Engineers Office. DOH,, DOLE, Noreco if they have electric and DCWD if they have a water connection without a land title. Let the locals handle it just help them out a bit.. These people have turned squatting into a well paid profession even though its against the law.. The city government payed millions to buy out all the squatters on foreshore and private land on the boulevard extension to the north..

 

For many years, my wife and I served as buyer's agents. During this time, we bought and sold 85 properties. We learned many lessons and insights the hard way. As to the poster's question about what keeps prices so propped up:

The number #1 reason is there are no listing service where buyers and sellers can find the going price of a similar property. Sellers do not know what the lot or condo next door sold for because the selling price is often deflated to save on closing cost. The only measure a seller has is the asking price of his neighbor. This means that if one condo owner is asking an "over the moon" price, other condo owners will jack up their price. This is a tough situation to come up against as a buyer. We have found that many times an area gets way overpriced and there is nothing to do but walk away. It sometimes takes 3-4 years for a condo building or a neighborhood to return to reasonable prices. It is also very difficult for a foreigner to negotiate with a Filipino. Our tough-buyer tactics are usually taken as rude.

 

I would suggest that if you are serious about purchasing a lot. Check out the foreclosures at the Banks. They all have a list of foreclosed properties. The banks do not want to own land they want their money back. So you can find some good deals but it takes a lot of research. Plus the ownership document's are in order before the banks will loan money on the land

 

I'm living here now for 25 Years and haven't build anything....but my general advice is, just wait for your retirement, come over here and start it when you are here....

 

The wife has figured out where the removed soil will be heading, so other than the above request we are sorted.

I'll start a post in the next 6-8 months on the farm journey as things start coming together. This build will probably be going on for many years, but hoping to have the main infrastructure and areas operational starting from the next 6 months ongoing to 30 months, give or take.

This is my retirement project, meaning I won't retire until things are up and running and then my "retirement job" will be the farm. Should be a fun time as I am going completely solar/wind with some cool automation ideas. Aquaponics will be a huge part of what we do as well as concentrating on self-sustainability and growing as naturally as possible (not saying organic) without chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

I was probably around 8 years old when I first started thinking about a farm pond design, changed over the years as I started to understand things and then had opportunities to build for a living. Hoping I don't make too many mistakes on the way to bring this farm together...

Shawn

 

Just an update. Project complete and have now moved in. All good - no glitches. Delighted with the outcome!

 

I put a walk-in closet in our master bedroom and the first thing I had to do was remove the door...it got way too hot in there. I should have put in a louvred door and maybe an exhaust fan.

Shawn

 

Since our Husky had an unexpected litter of 3 pups fathered by our Belgian Malinois the wife decided some cages were in order to minimize the chances of that happening again.

Her design all the way; I think they came out looking pretty good (just need a final coat of paint) and are pretty large with floor space about 5 1/2' X 5 1/2' for each of the three cages.

I'm not a huge fan of caging dogs but short of getting them fixed (not in the plan) this seems to be a decent option.

Shawn