Avoiding fake land titles

[Dave Hounddriver]

51 minutes ago, RBM said:

I know of many including  myself whom have land Holdings here and are very satisfied with the results, many years on.

You asked how expats feel about owning land.

I feel that the personal experiences of expats who have land holdings for many years are not a recommendation to buy property.  There are many "workarounds" that people use but I have seen none that are failsafe.  NOTE I did not say its a bad thing.  I am saying that basing a decision to buy property on other people's experience is filled with pitfalls here.

To me, Bruce, it means you did sufficient homework to make up your mind.  You proceded to make a purchase.  You got lucky over the years that none of the potential problems that others have had came up to bite you in the arse.  All we can say is congrats and I am happy for you.   I also got lucky, so far.  It feels good to be one of the lucky ones.

I find the discussion on "how safe is property buying" to be very similar to the discussion on "how safe is Mindanao as a place to live".  The only correct answer, IMHO, is "It works for me, your mileage will vary". (Or the opposite stance.)

5 years ago I would sit in the coffee shop in Naval Biliran with Gene Abrams and Henk Nuits who did remarkably well in their property dealings and who said exactly the same as the quote from RBM.  A few years later, each was assassinated as a direct result of their land dealings.  It does not happen to everybody,  but it is a recognized risk.

Since the time I arrived on Philippine shores, over a decade ago, I have listened to the oldtimers who told horror stories about why it is better to rent and not buy.  Like them, I have lived to see those horror stories unfold over a decade and the advice is true.  But its also true that there is a steady supply of new property buyers getting off the plane every day and some (many?) of them will have drama free property holdings that will keep them happy for the rest of their life.

Each individual has to toss a coin as to whether it is for them.  My personal observation is that 50% (my estimate) of foreigner involved property purchases end up with the foreigner saying "I shouldn't have done that".  Let us hope all of us here are in the "good" 50%.

Best wishes to all who bought property here.  Either for themselves or their spouse or kids.

 

Edited August 17, 2018 by Dave Hounddriver

[Mick]

I had a friend who took a lease on land for 25 years, as he was 62, he thought it will out live him, he agreed a low rental and built a house moved the GF in, everything fine, untill around 20 relatives turned up saying the land was shared and he had to vacate the land, as it was also not for sale, he was working with me in Saudi at the time and hired lawyers, the GF was following it, but in the end he was told either vacate or agree a price to buy the land in is GFs name, this was the ruling from court, which he did, and paid well over the odds, then 6 months later she sold everything while he was in Saudi and vanished..... I have been lucky, or just done my due diligence, with the GF of 9 years we have 3 plots, and things seem OK, so I would go with the 50/50 split of fails and success stories, the key is due diligence on your partner IMHO, and on that note, we are finally getting married on 7th October, another one bites the dust...... 

[Jack Peterson]

We can go round and round on this one as our Dave says but it would be useful to have a For Instance from the OP @Onemore52so maybe we can see where he is coming From. If it is about a Relationship gone wrong, sorry if it was a too personal problem but......................

[bastonjock]

It's not just land titles, my gif just told me that she did not pay for the vehicle that I asked her to buy on my behalf ,she had the mechanic check it first ,then she ran a check on the vehicles paper work and told me that it was dodgy , so no purchase 

[Snowy79]

If you do your homework.  Have a long term relationship within a decent family and don't invest more than you can afford to lose you will have slighly more chance of things being successful. 

If you meet someone on line, spend a couple of honeymoon weeks with her and are talked into investing in land then I'm afraid chances are you'll be lined up for a fall.  There's a reason relatively attractive women in decent jobs are single, especially when they mix with similarly successful locals.  I was just discussing this today with a couple of my married expat mates.  One has been suckered hook line and sinker.  He's invested in his partner and her mask has slipped.  The other expat told me about a few of his friends in a similar position.  Fell in lust, bought land and built the family home then realised just why she had been single so long. 

[RBM]

 My personal observation is that 50% (my estimate) of foreigner involved property purchases end up with the foreigner saying "I shouldn't have done that".

Dave would you be so kind as to expand on this comment.

Its my view, bad news travels and fast, its what unfortunately seems to interest people. My thoughts would of been less than 20% of people go down the gurgler........Of the expats friends I know can only think of one whom has invested and lost.   Sadly even with the internet there are still so many whom for what ever reason rush into a relationship with a girl 40 plus years younger, many from the bar.

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 hour ago, RBM said:

Dave would you be so kind as to expand on this comment.

I would love to, Bruce, but observations over a decade make this an essay type question.  There are dozens of people I know who have turned out alright (such as yourself and Jack).  There are dozens of people who have had extreme misfortune (such as my friends Bob and Lee losing their house to a filipina or Gene and Henk getting assassinated etc).  There are dozens who have just had bad experiences (such as spending a fortune to build the house and then having to sell it for half what they bought it for (like my friend Billy) or just leave it to rot when they went back to their home country (like my acquaintances Jim and his wife).  And there are some who have good AND bad luck because they persevere.  Let's talk about that one.

Good and bad.  Here is a summary.  A friend bought some land on the beach in an excellent location (in his Filipina wife's name) and proceeded to build a resort.  It was a fast success.  So much of a success that the governor of the island came to him and told him that he would have to move.  The governor said whoever sold him the land and permits had made a mistake because there was a plan to build a fish sanctuary on that spot.  So he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and moved on to a less than perfect location and built another seaside resort.  It took a lot of work, constant rebuilding when typhoons hit, and a hell of a great attitude to make it work.  But it worked.  Sure there are times when he wishes he was not tied to that resort.  I know he realizes it would be a tough sell if he were ever to sell it.  But he is fortunate enough to have never invested more than he can walk away from if he must.  That is the secret.  Not much of a secret as we should all know it.  But few listen to that all important part.  For the record, there is still no fish sanctuary at that original spot and the governor now owns that piece of land.

[Snowy79]

The one thing I've noticed is certainly not investing more than you can afford to lose or will grudge losing.  Buying in anothers name does appear to be a BIG no unless you've a strong and stable relationship. 

With the advent of the internet it's getting easier to meet a partner, but at the same time more of the potential partners are finding ways to con people which gives them the financial security to be with the one they want. 

My partner is doing teacher training and there's another girl on her course who is married to a foreigner and two others with foreign boyfriends.  My partner tells me they chat amongst each other about the pros and cons of having a foreign boyfriend.  I'm the only one that has been seen dropping my partner off, the others keep their boyfriends as low profile as possible due to the other girls impression that a foreigner is super rich and will set them up for life.  My partner has already been briefed there's no Golden Egg. There will be only rentals that we live in so if she wants a sucker look elsewhere.  Her other friends hear the girls talking about getting a foreigner to set them up then their true boyfriends will come and live with them.  They know a couple of years of patience beats a lifetime of living in a shack with no way out.  Having seen local boyfriends dropping their partners off to work in the girlie bars as prostitutes the guys don't mind waiting a few years either. 

[Jack Peterson]

6 minutes ago, Snowy79 said:

 Her other friends hear the girls talking about getting a foreigner to set them up then their true boyfriends will come and live with them.

 say no More EH?

[Ryan.]

On 8/17/2018 at 12:35 PM, RBM said:

Wonder how many expats feel about this statement.  I know of many including  myself whom have land Holdings here and are very satisfied with the results, many years on.

Think it's to broad  a statement on the point of being  negative, as friend Jack said do not rush in an do your homework. Myself and many others have never been happier than having a place we are prepared to call home

 

 

It is not all doom and gloom. People seeing worst case scenarios at every turn should avoid.