Property for Sale or Rent

Interesting topic. From my experience there's a lot of unregistered "agents" hoping to get a commission, as well non-specialised, advertising portals whose property details aren't regularly updated. In the past I've tried to look at properties advertised on such webpages, that were no longer on the market, and couldn't get an seller/agent response etc. Also, I've been driven around on the back of motorbikes looking at beach lots by local intermediaries, who were paid a commission by the seller in some type of informal arrangement. It turned out we were pleased with one of the properties at a great price, the land purchase went through. Nothing in particular went wrong because we had a good lawyer. That's the key I think. 

That said, this might not be for everyone. There are some registered, professional realty companies. For example, my nephew, Adrian, who has recently graduated and passed the national board as a "Mechanical Engineer" was offered employment with a real estate company in Cebu City. As happy as I was for him, couldn't quite understand the relevance. They explained the company had "ISO accreditation", and therefore one of the requirements was the employment of such an engineer, for whatever reason.  I imagine a company like that would have a more professional advertising portal, and willingness to send details and pictures for properties advertised to potential buyers.

Once, I advertised a property for sale on Locanto, which is a free portal, and all I needed to do was upload a brief description of the lot and some pictures, and I had a few email enquiries...but it's all unstructured attempts to sell, and didn't sell the property. Eventually, I tried  a company called Bachelors Realty, and they were really professional, and wanted to see pictures inside and out, asked me to send better quality images, wanted to see title and transfer details, full names and passport details and to sign a contract. So it was a whole different experience.

Good luck with your property searching!

One search illustrated a really nice rental property at a reasonable price. Since there was no picture of the entrance to the property, I requested some detailed pics. It showed a concrete staircase with at least 80 steps with no handrail. Since I am over 70 years old, that eliminated it very quickly for me. Can't imagine carrying bags of groceries, even if only going down, that far. Agree with previous comments that there are some people who have no experience just tryin g to make a commission. And, if purchasing, so important to have a clear Title, which is Rare here, especially in The Provinces. Buyer Beware.

When its new production selling, then its even rather common with only DRAWINGS. Often they arent even built yet, so in comparing some bad photos is a good add   

In some cases its even good if broker know where it is!

E g one broker was stubborn he had market correct lot at the scetchmap. 

- Is the green painted house included?

- No thats baranggay captain's house. Thats 500 meters away from this lot.

-But its the lot where the green house is, because map show thats where the road turn.

-No the lot for sale is 500 meters away from there.

-But there is the road straight so it cant be correct lot marked.

-It is the correct lot marked.

And so on until I gave up   

But an other case was much worse. Price was told per hectare.  Broker was stubborn he had told correct size of land, although the scetch map did show it was 1/10 000 of that. He thought the correct squaremeter amount was hectares inspite of there arent even as many hectares as he claimed in the whole walley there   

But there are some good brokers too.

Compared to other businesses though are brokers much LESS lazy because they DO answer in phone and at written messages!!!     which almost no other businesses do. 

E g we have tried since February to get answers at a few but main questions from a bank through emails, chat and phoning. They dont even answer in phone and when we finaly got any answer at all, then we just got a nonsence answer at our questions:

-Contant the province head office.

!!! But thats 2 x 200 km away, thats why we wanted a few answers to get to know if its even possible to get from them what we look for, so its realy crap to have to travel that far to get answers at a few basic questions!!!    (We gave up trying to get answer at distance, so my business partner will travel there this week.)

BUT when there are competitors to us acting like that then we find that GOOD, because that make it much easier to become better than them.  Or perhaps presumtive customers will die by shock when we answer   

That properties are posted multiple times and never updated is frustrating. I'd never lease without seeing it in person. Or there might be a price point that says this is a decent place.