Renting a house in Cebu City

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lonewolf
Posted
Posted
18 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Just telling my own experience here, but I have never found a house or apartment online, in Philippines, that I liked when I saw it for real.  I have tried it many times.  Looked at many houses and apartments.  But there is no truth in advertising here and so much left unsaid and lied about.  Here are some of my personal experiences.

In one case I went to look and the price immediately jumped when she saw I was a foreigner ("Oh that was an old price in the ad")

In another case I went to look and loved the place and the price but when I went to sign the papers, ("OK we have a deal, just bring the deposit and sign the lease", she said), but I showed up and she had rented it to another foreigner who had offered more.  Playing everyone against each other to get more money.

In many other cases the neighborhood sucked and the house did not look anywhere near as good as the pics which had been taken 20 years ago.

In other cases I found out that a caretaker, (or squatter), goes with the place and there was no negotiation so if I took the place I got a freeloader with it.

Then there are the animals.  They don't mention any lizards, cockroaches, rats, termites, or other animals that you just can't get rid of.

Anyway,  in my personal experience, the stuff they try to sell or rent online are the dregs that they cannot sell or rent by sticking a sign on the gate and having someone walk by and take a look.  Boots on the ground, that's my mantra.  Its a similar story when buying or renting a car but that's a tale for another day.

All that said, many people come here from other countries and are thrilled to rent a place for 15K pesos that I know should only rent for 10K.  For many they say "What's $100 bucks?"  For me I see a 50% price hike.

EDIT: Note to self. Come back and delete this story when I am ready to sell my own house. :morning1:

 

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lonewolf
Posted
Posted
18 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Just telling my own experience here, but I have never found a house or apartment online, in Philippines, that I liked when I saw it for real.  I have tried it many times.  Looked at many houses and apartments.  But there is no truth in advertising here and so much left unsaid and lied about.  Here are some of my personal experiences.

In one case I went to look and the price immediately jumped when she saw I was a foreigner ("Oh that was an old price in the ad")

In another case I went to look and loved the place and the price but when I went to sign the papers, ("OK we have a deal, just bring the deposit and sign the lease", she said), but I showed up and she had rented it to another foreigner who had offered more.  Playing everyone against each other to get more money.

In many other cases the neighborhood sucked and the house did not look anywhere near as good as the pics which had been taken 20 years ago.

In other cases I found out that a caretaker, (or squatter), goes with the place and there was no negotiation so if I took the place I got a freeloader with it.

Then there are the animals.  They don't mention any lizards, cockroaches, rats, termites, or other animals that you just can't get rid of.

Anyway,  in my personal experience, the stuff they try to sell or rent online are the dregs that they cannot sell or rent by sticking a sign on the gate and having someone walk by and take a look.  Boots on the ground, that's my mantra.  Its a similar story when buying or renting a car but that's a tale for another day.

All that said, many people come here from other countries and are thrilled to rent a place for 15K pesos that I know should only rent for 10K.  For many they say "What's $100 bucks?"  For me I see a 50% price hike.

EDIT: Note to self. Come back and delete this story when I am ready to sell my own house. :morning1:

 

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lonewolf
Posted
Posted

sorry guys sure don t know how system work. but dave I like your edit thought it was a good touch, would tlike to do that to if on selling end.

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mogo51
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Posted
4 hours ago, lonewolf said:

I think you are correct 'lonewolf' it is flying blind trying to do it on internet.

 

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bigpearl
Posted
Posted
54 minutes ago, mogo51 said:

 

I think there are a few problems in the system with this thread, can't quote a topic. Regardless I will go on and hope it ends up in the system.

I have absolutely no knowledge of Cebu but Manila yes, relative? Also yes given large cities. 4 or 5 years ago I temporarily moved to Manila for 12 months, Bengie my better half worked for PNR based in Tondo, yes bad area but that is where PNR headquarters are based, where he worked, we looked in and around Makati and while affordable meant travel times for my better half quadrupled, 60 to 80K per month was not an issue, we decided to look closer to his work, (all this was done on the internet) boots on the ground came later. Celedon park in San Lazaro Santa Cruz came up many times, some 3 Kilometres from his work, good area, opposite a large mall and only 30K for a 3 bed 2 bath condo on the 18th floor with views to Manila bay from the 2 balconies, we looked at others there but were not so good, this one ticked the boxes. We negotiated directly with the owners as this add was found on OLX and offered 25K per month paid for 12 months in advance, 2 months deposit as surety etc. Yes we got our 50K bond back no questions asked. We did all this and many other locations while based in Ermita for a month so I did lots of travelling while Bengie was working. Agents could sell you the world, (Ice to the Eskimos etc) owners sick of agents will negotiate to secure their investments and are generally found on OLX or other like sites, boots on the ground in the end is a must, never purchase/rent a property site unseen, spend time looking at the properties and the area where you may end up stuck for a long time.

The same goes for where we purchased, not exactly where we wanted to be initially, but on reflection a far superior property with twice as much land 10 minutes north but one third of the price, a quiet area on the beach surrounded by mansions, worst house in the best street etc. Live where you want, do your research, compromise if needed but don't lose sight of why you want to move to the Philippines and what your aspirations are. Everything is negotiable. Only my opinion.

Cheers, Steve

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Jollygoodfellow
Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, bigpearl said:

I think there are a few problems in the system with this thread, can't quote a topic. Regardless I will go on and hope it ends up in the system.

I have absolutely no knowledge of Cebu but Manila yes, relative? Also yes given large cities. 4 or 5 years ago I temporarily moved to Manila for 12 months, Bengie my better half worked for PNR based in Tondo, yes bad area but that is where PNR headquarters are based, where he worked, we looked in and around Makati and while affordable meant travel times for my better half quadrupled, 60 to 80K per month was not an issue, we decided to look closer to his work, (all this was done on the internet) boots on the ground came later. Celedon park in San Lazaro Santa Cruz came up many times, some 3 Kilometres from his work, good area, opposite a large mall and only 30K for a 3 bed 2 bath condo on the 18th floor with views to Manila bay from the 2 balconies, we looked at others there but were not so good, this one ticked the boxes. We negotiated directly with the owners as this add was found on OLX and offered 25K per month paid for 12 months in advance, 2 months deposit as surety etc. Yes we got our 50K bond back no questions asked. We did all this and many other locations while based in Ermita for a month so I did lots of travelling while Bengie was working. Agents could sell you the world, (Ice to the Eskimos etc) owners sick of agents will negotiate to secure their investments and are generally found on OLX or other like sites, boots on the ground in the end is a must, never purchase/rent a property site unseen, spend time looking at the properties and the area where you may end up stuck for a long time.

The same goes for where we purchased, not exactly where we wanted to be initially, but on reflection a far superior property with twice as much land 10 minutes north but one third of the price, a quiet area on the beach surrounded by mansions, worst house in the best street etc. Live where you want, do your research, compromise if needed but don't lose sight of why you want to move to the Philippines and what your aspirations are. Everything is negotiable. Only my opinion.

Cheers, Steve

test

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Jollygoodfellow
Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, bigpearl said:

I think there are a few problems in the system with this thread, can't quote a topic. Regardless I will go on and hope it ends up in the system.

test and working fine ?

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bigpearl
Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

test and working fine ?

My bad JGF, looks like I was trying to quote a "quote", should have just copied and pasted.

Cheers, Steve.

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Jollygoodfellow
Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, bigpearl said:

My bad JGF, looks like I was trying to quote a "quote", should have just copied and pasted.

Cheers, Steve.

I assume you know if you just want to quote part of someones post that your highlight it and it says quote this. I forgot to do it in this image but if you only want quote a few words of someones post thats how its done.

quote highlight.jpg

Also if you want to reply with quotes from more than just one post you use multi quote

quote more.jpg

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bigpearl
Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

I assume you know if you just want to quote part of someones post that your highlight it and it says quote this. I forgot to do it in this image but if you only want quote a few words of someones post thats how its done.

quote highlight.jpg

Also if you want to reply with quotes from more than just one post you use multi quote

quote more.jpg

TY kind Sir.

Cheers, Steve.

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