What to Ask Your Agent Before Buying Property
What to ask your agent before buying property By Tessa R. Salazar Philippine Daily Inquirer 11:30 pm | Friday, September 14th, 2012
In 2009, an estimated 85 percent of cases being filed with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board legal office involved refunds of installment payments on real estate properties. The refunds of installment payments included subdivision and condominium developments in Metro Manila. What may have become an all-too-familiar scenario in the HLURB halls have been complainants filing cases against developers who didn’t complete their projects, despite receiving payments even during the pre-selling phase. HLURB legal officer Mike Denava lamented that prospective buyers should oblige their sales agents (even of reputable developers) to show documents pertaining to the project and the developer before giving the downpayment. Aside from that, Denava and fellow officers from HLURB advise the following, before buyers commit to pay for properties: 1 Do an honest-to-goodness reality check. Will your resources allow you to maintain a monthly amortization? Look into your source of income, whether you can afford to pay equity and the monthly installments. “We have seen many cases of overseas workers who bought preselling properties but could no longer maintain the monthly amortization even before the house and lot or condominium was turned over because their contracts abroad were not renewed,” said Denava. 2 Check if the broker/agent is registered with the HLURB and especially ensure that the property being eyed has not been sold to other buyers. 3 Make sure that the developer has a License to Sell for the particular project. Ask the seller or broker/agent of the developer if the project is registered and has a license to sell issued by the HLURB. This can be verified in the HLURB website (www.hlurb.gov.ph). Runel B. Taningco of HLURB’s Information and Communications Technology Division advised prospective buyers to go over the HLURB list of
In 2009, an estimated 85 percent of cases being filed with the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board legal office involved refunds of installment payments on real estate properties. The refunds of installment payments included subdivision and condominium developments in Metro Manila. What may have become an all-too-familiar scenario in the HLURB halls have been complainants filing cases against developers who didn’t complete their projects, despite receiving payments even during the pre-selling phase. HLURB legal officer Mike Denava lamented that prospective buyers should oblige their sales agents (even of reputable developers) to show documents pertaining to the project and the developer before giving the downpayment. Aside from that, Denava and fellow officers from HLURB advise the following, before buyers commit to pay for properties: 1 Do an honest-to-goodness reality check. Will your resources allow you to maintain a monthly amortization? Look into your source of income, whether you can afford to pay equity and the monthly installments. “We have seen many cases of overseas workers who bought preselling properties but could no longer maintain the monthly amortization even before the house and lot or condominium was turned over because their contracts abroad were not renewed,” said Denava. 2 Check if the broker/agent is registered with the HLURB and especially ensure that the property being eyed has not been sold to other buyers. 3 Make sure that the developer has a License to Sell for the particular project. Ask the seller or broker/agent of the developer if the project is registered and has a license to sell issued by the HLURB. This can be verified in the HLURB website (www.hlurb.gov.ph). Runel B. Taningco of HLURB’s Information and Communications Technology Division advised prospective buyers to go over the HLURB list of