* * S*O*L*D **

It's the first time we experience a sale in the Philippines. We happened to have had a little house in Cavite, namely in Barangay San Francisco, General Trias, and since we advertised it on the Internet, someone accidentally clicked on this page and contacted us to ask if we could show the house to them. They happen to live in Tagaytay City, the second summer capital of the Philippines, about 30 minute drive away from the house. So, we met and gladly showed them the house. They immediately fell in love with the house, as it resembled to where they live, but it's about twice as big. They live in a rented two storey 48 sq/m condo, and ours is 84 sq/m.

Anyways, we came to close the deal, and with a very good price, they could not go wrong with this. The house was built by Camella Homes, a reputable local developer and builder. But when you see the quality inside the house, it's not that good, compared to what we, as westerners, are used to in the west. They also built the house "bare", and what this means is just the house, but no kitchen cupboards, ceramic tiles, blinds, fence, landscaping, etc... That would be all on your account. But, it's still very cheap for a foreigner, just to buy a house here and get settled, but with this price, for a local, this price is 10 times his or her yearly salary, so it's out of their budget.

So, with that, the couple we sold it to has a 2.5 year old son who loves to play outside and just a few steps away from the house is a small playground, so it's perfect for this couple.

The husband is an Englishmen, married to a Filipina. He worked as an expat for 10 years in Hong Kong as an IT Specialist, and due to downsizing and the current financial crisis, he was laid off.

We promised them to do the transfer of Title, too, as in most cases lawyers manipulate papers here. Both us and the buyer agreed to it at first and we were on our way to complete all the steps, but in the Philippines, there's sooooo much paperwork involved to get a service done at each office, we decided at the second step of the way to give all documents to a qualified broker for them to complete the transfer of the Title. The buyer gave about 150 Euro for the broker's service and about 30 Euro as extra money to fasten the service at certain offices. It's a little bit of smear money, you can say, to boost the employee's salary, as they will hasten your transfer.

But we all were happy with how the sale went.

First picture: The house.
Second picture: Subdivision clubhouse.