Once upon a time, a buyer decided to transfer his own condo title. No agent, no lawyer. He figured he'd save on professional fees. How hard could it be? Here's how the deal got there. The condo was P5 Mn. He wanted the unit, but his money was still tied up in the sale of another property. So he paid P2 Mn as a downpayment and had the seller sign a Contract to Sell. The balance was due within six months. Five months later, his other sale closed. He paid the remaining P3 Mn, th

Once upon a time, a Broker was having lunch with his family on a weekday. It was his mother’s birthday. In the middle of lunch, he casually glanced at his phone and noticed several missed calls from unknown numbers. Then he saw another missed call from the owner of a property he was handling. That got his attention. The owner was the type of client who almost never called, so the Broker stepped away from the table and called him back first. The client answered and said the bu

Once upon a time, a seller approached a Broker to sell his condo unit. Before accepting the listing, the Broker did some basic due diligence. The project had been turned over around 10 years earlier, but the developer was known in the market for significant delays in the issuance of condominium titles. So the Broker asked the obvious question: “Does the unit already have a title?” The seller said no. According to him, the title was still being processed by the developer. He h

In this week’s episode of what can go wrong in real estate... A deal was practically ready to close. The seller was a financial institution, the documents appeared to be in order, and the next step was routine: secure a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the title from the Registry of Deeds. Except there was one problem. The Registry of Deeds couldn’t find the title. Yep. The copy that was supposed to be on file was missing. Suddenly, what looked like a straightforward transaction

Once upon a time, a broker was hours away from closing a sale. The night before, he followed his usual routine and reminded the seller what to bring the next day. IDs. Documents. And, most importantly for this transaction, the owner’s duplicate copy of the title. Weeks earlier, the broker had already asked the seller to prepare everything. The title was there. The seller placed it inside an envelope together with the rest of the documents. So when the broker called the night

Once upon a time, a couple owned a house in a posh village and a high-end condo. They were in that stage where they simply wished to see the world. So, they decided to lease out their house and stay in their condo. They got their trusted broker friend to look for a tenant. Their friend showed their house multiple times until one day, they got an offer. The prospective tenant was a top executive of a multinational company. Since the company wanted to declare the rent as an exp

Once upon a time, a broker was finally about to end a long dry spell. The deal was huge: two entire floors of an office building. The buyer was serious, negotiations were well underway, and because of the size of the purchase, they were asking the developer for a bigger discount than the published rates. But the numbers still weren't where the buyer wanted them. So the owner of the buyer's company decided to step in. Instead of continuing the negotiations through the broker,

Once upon a time, a developer had dozens of in-house brokers, but one consistently stood out. She was a top seller year after year. Wanting a bigger market, she eventually left the developer and became an independent broker. She started handling secondary-market properties, and before long, her sales had doubled. Later, she joined a brokerage firm. During tax season, she overheard her colleagues discussing their Income Tax Returns (ITRs) and BIR deadlines. She joined the conv

Once upon a time, a property owner discovered that the boundaries on his land title overlapped with those of the neighboring property. To resolve the issue, he hired a geodetic engineer to conduct a survey and establish the correct tie points. Once the survey was completed, only one step remained: have the Municipal Assessor update its records. So he went to the Municipal Assessor's Office. The assessor told him, "Before we can process this, you first need to pay your real pr

Once upon a time, a new broker had a residential lot listed in Tagaytay. Another broker called and said she had a buyer interested in viewing the property. They agreed to meet on a Saturday at 9:00 AM. Knowing traffic to Tagaytay could be unpredictable, the broker left early and arrived at 7:30 AM. He messaged that he was already there and that they could take their time. Apparently, "take your time" meant arriving at 12:30 PM. Fortunately, he had Mobile Legends on his phone.