We have finally purchased our property for our future home in the Philippines. After almost five years of living in “paradise,” my asawa and I have bought a lot in Guimaras, the mango province of this archipelago. Our new lot is over 7,000 square meters and we were able to purchase the property for a very reasonable price.
That’s me, The Kano, in the photo above, standing next to our attorney who drafted and notarized the “Contract to Sell” for our property purchase. Our lawyer is the Honorable Vice-Governor of Guimaras, Mr. Vicente B. De Asis.
The Vice-/Governor is a very astute attorney and extremely sociable. His efficient staff processed our paperwork in a very timely fashion and we were in and out of his office in about two hours. We didn’t have an appointment as you might expect to have with a legal representative back in the States. I was frankly surprised that despite my previous encounters with “Filipino Time,” to have everything taken care in such a timely fashion.
While we waited for our attorney, who was chosen by our liaison, Ester, seen later in this post, my wife and I waited in the Vice Governor’s Support Staff Office. As you can tell by the next picture, my asawa was in quite a good mood.
As well she should be. As regular readers of “Philippines Plus” know, we have been looking at property in Guimaras for the past several months. Though my asawa already owns property in Guimaras where she had a home built several years ago, this new lot will be the site of our future residence that will be our “dream home” complete with a pool in the backyard.
My better half was quite excited to sign the paperwork as shown in the next picture. It’s been a long wait and with our Social Security now kicking in and access to our five year T-72 investment plant only months away, we can finally start work on that new home.
That’s our seller, Naldo, in the next picture, a former resident of Guimaras, signing the contract. Naldo is a former seaman and currently lives in Cavite. He was very easy to work with and was very agreeable to some clauses we desired in the contract.
Ester, mentioned earlier, is shown signing on as one of the witnesses to the sale. Ester acted as broker and was the one who initially showed us the property and helped arrange the sale.
My happy asawa and Ester posed for the photo above. Ester runs a beauty salon in San Miguel and my wife and I met her one Sunday while looking for an establishment that would do a pedicure and foot spa. She knew the owners of the property and was instrumental in helping this deal go through so smoothly.
The Vice-Governor’s staff was very helpful and courteous and was kept quite busy by a steady stream of clients coming in to see their boss.
Everyone in the office thought my asawa was a foreigner like myself, as she is often mistaken to be Chinese by many Filipinos she encounters. Her Father has a strong Filipino-Chinese heritage.
But what really pleased my wife was that no one in the office could believe she is going to be fifty years old later this year. I wish I could say the reason for her youthful appearance is being married to me these past 14 years, but I really can’t take the credit.
My wife breaks open an Aloe Vera plant almost daily and spreads the gel from the plant on her face. At night time she uses a product made by Olay and faithfully scrubs her face before going to bed.
Me? I’m a 62-year-old geezer with missing teeth and bags under my eyes. Many folks don’t guess my true age but I think they are only being polite or in dire need of a vision test and new spectacles.
Our brother-in-law Joery will be the foreman of the crew that will build our new home. We will have Joery build a nipa hut for us first before the construction of the main house will begin in earnest later this year. We plan to have accommodations for a live-in maid that we plan to hire in the near future, who will help my wife as she takes care of the household chores and acts as chief caregiver for her ailing father who has Alzheimer’s. .
We will have clear title to the property and our new attorney, the Vice-Governor will help us in obtaining the necessary paperwork to do the title transfer. Title transfer is not an easy chore in the Philippines and is quite a different process than what can be expected in the States so we’re pleased to have such a competent attorney that will assist us.
We hope to be able to move into our new residence at the end of this year or January 2015 and are looking forward to this big event. I’ll have updates on the progress of our new home coming up in future posts.