Three Main Considerations in buying a house

Truth be told, there are many considerations to be made when buying a home in the Philippines, but these three below should receive the highest priority.

1. Location
As proven by last year's Ondoy flood, not every location in the Philippines is well worth your hard-earned money. If you noticed, there has been an onslaught of real estate ads on the net touting to be "flood free" which before, wasn't really the case when it comes to advertising your home. Although the flood last year may have washed away the dreams of these homeowners, it has also proven to be a wake up call to developers who have scaled up their efforts to keep their projects as "flood free" or "flood proof" as possible. Location is also important depending on what lifestyle you'd like to lead - for example, a family man will choose a house near a good school while the career-driven individual would prefer a high-rise condominium in the city near where the action is. Location of the property will also reveal the ease or difficulty of accessibility.

2. Budget
Do you have the budget to buy a house? First, make sure you do, because if you don't then it would be pretty useless at this point. If you don't have cash outright to buy, then think about applying for a housing loan either from a bank, financial institution, or one of the most popular ones in the Philippines, Pagibig. Determine how much you can afford. It's also important that if you are taking a loan, your mortgage debt should be less than 28% of your monthly income.

3. Know what you're getting into!
Get involved - many OFWs have had bad experiences of buying a property without seeing it and end up disappointed when they do see it (and have no recourse but to accept it since they've already paid for it), or rely on relatives to decide for them. From start to finish, be there every step of the way. Your participation will spell out the success of this real estate purchase.
One more thing - only citizens of the country can buy real estate property in the Philippines, except for condominiums with the condition that 60% of the occupants are Filipinos, and only 40% foreigners. What other considerations should Filipinos make when buying real estate properties? Do share!

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