I have been so busy lately with the title transfer of a foreclosed property that I purchased and I realized that it would be better if I just outsourced the title transfer to someone else. The amount of time that I have already allocated for this could have been put to better use finding more income generating properties, among a number of other activities that are more worthwhile doing, which is why I don’t intend to spend more time with the title transfer.

Don’t get me wrong, handling the title transfer is very important for me and my tenant/buyer, and I also want to learn how this is done, which is why I tried to do this myself. However, with the amount of time and effort needed to complete this, it makes better sense to just let someone else do it for me.

Just yesterday, I spent the whole afternoon following up on some documents I needed and I drove more than a hundred kilometers in the process going back and forth from Makati to Antipolo.

Highest and best use of my time

Outsourcing the title transfer to a title company would free up my time and allow me to use it for its highest and best use. As real estate investors, the highest and best use of our time is to find more deals that would generate passive income and positive cashflow. I should always keep this in mind and focus!

Why do I need the title transferred to me?

I have already paid in full for this particular property of mine and my objective is to transfer the title of the said property from the bank to myself, in the shortest amount of time possible, so that my tenant/buyer can apply for a housing loan for it. You will notice that this is a double closing. This was the only option I had with the bank where I bought the foreclosed property from. Yes, this would mean double taxation but it is okay, I factored-in the taxes I am going to shoulder into my expenses and the numbers still made sense for this deal.

Transferring the title of the property

Just to give you an idea, transferring the title of the property to my name would require the following:

• Payment of Creditable withholding Tax – already done by the bank
• Payment of Documentary Stamps Tax – already done by me
• Payment of Transfer Tax
• Filing of Certificate Authorizing Registration or CAR at the BIR
• Registration/Transfer of Title
• Registration/Transfer of Tax Declaration

Looks easy but in reality, these tasks are very tedious and time consuming but if you are into real estate investing, you will have to do these sooner or later, unless you outsource it.  The tasks above will be done for me by the title company I hired, except for those that have already been done. I’ll update you all of the status of the title transfer in a month or two. Wish me luck!

To our success and financial freedom!

Jay Castillo

Real Estate Investor
Real Estate Broker License #: 20056
Blog: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Mobile phone (Call/SMS): +639178843882
Follow me in twitter:http://twitter.com/jay_castillo
Like this in Facebook:Foreclosure Philippines facebook page

Text by Jay Castillo. Copyright © 2010 All rights reserved.

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Time to outsource my title transfer is a post from: Foreclosure Investing Philippines

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I recently answered an e-mailed question from a reader of Foreclosure Philippines who was also an attendee of the Think Rich Pinoy seminar held last November 21, 2009, where I was a guest speaker. Actually, our featured reader sent her e-mail last November 25, 2009, a few days after the Think Rich Pinoy seminar, but I was only able to answer her e-mail a few days ago… me bad!

Anyway, I noticed that I often receive very similar questions not only from other readers but also from people I meet who find out that I invest in foreclosed properties which is why I believe that it would be a good idea to feature it here, please continue reading below.

Questions and Actions

I intend to share my answers and some actionable items, as inspired by the book “The 4-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferris, one of the books that inspired me to take a leap of faith (more about this in a future post). Tim’s book has a number of “Questions and Actions” at the end of each chapter.

Beginning with this post, I intend to feature questions from readers from time to time as a way of helping real estate investors in the Philippines.

Of course I will not disclose our reader’s name and e-mail address to protect her privacy and her questions are as follows:

“Hi Jay. I am currently looking for properties and try real estate. (I was an attendee from the Nov. 21, 2009 TRP seminar.) However, most banks have limits like income if you are an employee you must have 25k + salary. I only have 12K. Or must have a steady business. Or must be 2 years or more in a company. How can I start early with all these limitations? How can I apply for a loan and thus finance my first deal? Thank you very much…” – Miss MJ

Thank you for the excellent question Miss MJ. Let me try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge and also share some of my thoughts as follows.

Your capacity to pay

Assuming that Php12,000 is your take home pay, let us first try to determine what is the maximum loan amount you can get based on your capacity to pay. I believe most banks and lending institutions look at a person’s net disposable income or NDI to determine a persons capacity to pay and the corresponding maximum housing loan they can get.

The rule of thumb is the monthly amortization should be no higher than 40% of the NDI. In your case, If you have no existing obligations like loans, etc, and assuming Php12,000 is already your take home pay after taxes and monthly contributions like SSS, etc., then 40% of your monthly salary of Php12, 000/mo would be the maximum monthly amortization that can be allowed for you, which is Php4,800.

Foreclosed properties you can afford

Using the payment terms from Unionbank as an example, Php4,800 would be more than enough as the monthly amortization for a foreclosed property priced at Php350,000 with a downpayment of 10% or 35K, and the balance financed with an interest of 15% per annum for 15 years. With these terms, the resulting monthly amortization would be Php4,408.69, well within your maximum of Php4,800/month.

Obviously, there are other banks and lending institutions that offer lower interest rates and longer terms so you can definitely still get your first deal through bank financing. That is assuming you can come up with the minimum downpayment required.

How can I come up with the downpayment?

Yes, you will still need to save for the downpayment. I suggest that you start managing your money NOW! I believe learning how to manage money is a prerequisite to starting to invest in foreclosed properties. I would like to reiterate my belief that anyone who wants to get out of the rat race really needs to learn how to manage money and finances and this remains true whether you intend to invest in foreclosed properties or other investments.

Moving forward, let’s assume you manage to consistently save 15% of your salary each month or Php1,800, you will be able to save enough for the downpayment in less than 20 months. If you think 20 months is long, remember the requirement you mentioned that you must be working for a company 2 years or more in order for you to be able to qualify for a housing loan?

Don’t bite off more than you can chew!

You might be asking why you should limit yourself to foreclosed properties worth Php350,000 and below? Well, I believe there is wisdom in starting small so that in case you do make mistakes (we all do!), you also make small mistakes and failures from which you can easily recover.

You still learn from the entire process but you start gaining knowledge and experience that would help you to get ready to take on bigger deals and bigger success.

What about Other People’s Money or OPM?

I know the subject of OPM is always in the mind in beginning real estate investors but I believe that if you are just starting with your real estate investing career, you should not even consider using other people’s money unless you are already able to prove your worth in managing your own.

How the heck would you be able to make good use of other people’s money if you cannot even manage your own?!

Your own money might be small but it should be good enough for one to start. As mentioned in Luke 16:10(NIV), “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much…”.  Makes sense right?!

Investing in foreclosed properties is a numbers game

Obviously, it may take some time for a lot of people to save enough money to start investing. I know I did as it took me 3 years before I was able to buy my first property. But that should never stop anyone from consistently analyzing properties to find deals worth pursuing.

You do not need any money to analyze deals as you are investing your time. So go ahead, start analyzing deals NOW, even if you still have no money to invest. Save money while  consistently analyzing properties and make the most of your precious time!

The more foreclosed properties you analyze, the sooner you will begin to see those deals worth pursuing. I’ve read a number of books about real estate investing that mention that on the average, you may have to analyze a hundred properties to end up buying one and I for one believe that these numbers are accurate. The key is to keep on analyzing as much foreclosed properties as you can.

Don’t listen to the little voice in your head that may say “These numbers just won’t work… foreclosed properties are too expensive… I will never find one that is worth investing in… ” after looking at just a few listings or just a few properties. Remember, that’s the voice of the loser inside of you.

Just keep it up and you will eventually begin to see those great deals that you were unable to see before. When that time comes, I have a feeling you will already have the money to invest.

Happy investing!

—

To our financial freedom!

Jay Castillo
Real Estate Investor
Real Estate Broker License #: 20056
Blog: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Click here to contact me via E-mail
Mobile phone (Call/SMS): +639178843882
Follow me in twitter:http://twitter.com/jay_castillo
Become a Fan in Facebook:Foreclosure Philippines fan page

Text by Jay Castillo. Copyright © 2009 All rights reserved.

PS. If you are a new visitor, please start here to learn more about foreclosure investing in the Philippines.

PPS. If you feel that anyone else you know might benefit from this post, please do share this to them and don’t forget to subscribe to e-mail alerts and get notified of new listings of bank foreclosed properties, public auction schedules, and real estate investing tips. If your inbox is getting full, you may subscribe through my RSS Feed instead.

Reader Q and A #1: How can I apply for a loan and thus finance my first deal? is a post from: Foreclosure Investing Philippines

My wife who has become so obsessed with finding a new house we can call our home shares updates on what we are thinking of doing with our old house that was devastated by Ondoy, what things to consider, our target locations, finding not just a house but also a sound real estate investment by searching foreclosed property listings, and applicable tax exemptions and pending articles about this and other taxes that apply to real estate, which I hope she finishes soon…

I’m just glad that I was able to convince her to buy a property the way true real estate investors looks for a good deal. Knowing how stubborn she is, I was surprised how easy it was for me to convince her that this is a perfect opportunity for us (as a team) to find a really sound real estate investment that will produce a good positive cashflow if we decide to have it rented out, or sell it for a significant profit down the road. This can only happen if we buy a house well below market value and apply Rich Dad’s principle “… You make money when you buy, not when you sell” as often mentioned by Robert Kiyosaki, best selling author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad”.

Our journey to our new house

By Cherry Castillo

As most of you may already know, we are looking for a new house, as our old house was totally devastated by Ondoy. I am sure many of you are in the same boat as ours. Of course, our decision to move entails more decisions with regard to the next steps, such as:

1. What do we do with our old house? Right now, we have a payment holiday until January 15 with Pag-Ibig. But after that date, we have to continue paying the monthly amortizations. Admittedly, the market value of the house is in question, and it’s not practical to continue paying the amortizations which was based on the market value of Provident Village prior to Ondoy. The next question is, do we sell it now, do we let Pag-Ibig foreclose it, or do we surrender it through a dacion en pago (a.k.a. payment in kind – that is, we give the house as payment for the loan)? If we sell it now, we will be selling it at a loss, but we will be cutting our losses since we will stop paying the high monthly amortization. If we let Pag-Ibig foreclose it (or if we surrender it through dacion en pago), how do we go about it? While it is clear that my husband will no longer be able to take out another housing loan from Pag-Ibig, would it also affect my husband’s credit rating and prevent him from taking out a loan from banks?

2. Granted that we will be moving, where do we go? We can  go anywhere! Anywhere where there’s no flood of course. And since we are now so paranoid of natural (and man-made) calamities, if we are to move, we have to make sure that the area is one that was not reached by floods and that there is at least a second floor.  I don’t want to be in the mountainside too for fear of landslides. We are now open to condominiums (unlike before, when I really could not imagine living in one), but not those that are too high, as I am also concerned about earthquakes. You may have noticed that there have been a lot of news about earthquakes in the Asian region and in the Philippines in particular. I have been telling my officemates that the best place to be is in a low-rise condominium, somewhere in the 3^rd or 4^th floor, since it will not be reached by floods, the structure will be strong enough to withstand earthquakes, and if there’s a fire I can jump out of the window and just have broken bones, or, if there’s a swimming pool nearby, I can just go straight to it. I know it’s a bit on the psycho side but you really get to think a lot about these things if you’ve gone through the great flood brought about by Ondoy. Oh, I forgot, I don’t know how to swim. I better join my son in his swimming lessons this summer! And time to turn into reality the Ondoy-related ideas I have thought about.

3. Where are our target locations? I have narrowed down our choices to the elevated portions of Kapitolyo, Pasig, San Juan, and Quezon City near UP. Aside from the earlier-mentioned considerations, it is very important for us to be near to a good co-ed school for our son as he will be turning five in January 2010 already and it won’t be long before he enters elementary school. I have sort-of developed loyalty to Mother Goose  Playskool and Grade School (This is my son’s school in Provident Village, Marikina which was also devastated by Ondoy. Because they have several branches, they allowed my son to finish the rest of the school year in their Makati branch. Mabuhay ang Mother Goose!) so I want to find a house near a Mother Goose branch. As for my work, I am currently working in Makati but I am open to moving to Ortigas or QC, or maybe if my husband’s business picks up, I might just help him in the business. One of the best lessons I learned in the past years is that TIME is the most precious commodity. There are only 24 hours in a day and spending it on the road is totally useless. So the house should be near the place of work and study. In the course of my research, I have learned that prices are really so steep in the good areas.

4. This of course led me to search our site for foreclosed property listings (In the right side of the this page, you can use the “search” function to look for listings in this site.) I have also called several banks so I have updated listings with me, which my husband will be posting soon. I have also revisited my husband’s post on the Ultimate List of Bank Websites and I have found some updated listings there too. I have found a lot of promising properties and I must admit that it’s really exciting looking for good buys. I have been a bit depressed since last week, after I visited our old house and saw its sorry state. I determined that the only way for me to get out of depression is to finally have a new house! I have been joking that leaving our house is like breaking up with a boyfriend of 5 years – the only way to have closure is to have a new house/boyfriend! The process of looking for and deciding on the perfect place to grow our roots is both tiring and exciting. I do hope we find the house meant for us soon. We have visited a foreclosed property in Mandaluyong last week, full of excitement, only to have our bubble burst because of the really bad neighborhood, one of the worst as my husband put it (And he grew up in Mandaluyong! I really don’t understand why the Mandaluyong local government spends so much money fixing the islands  when they have so many squatters!).  My husband reminded me that it should be the other way around – we should find the worst looking house in a good neighborhood. I have also selected several properties and when I called up the bank, I discovered that they either have pending cases or encumbrances, or the bank does not have possession. Hay! I guess we have to look at more foreclosed properties (Around 100 more according to my husband – that’s a lot!). In God’s time, I know we will find the one for us.

5. Applicable taxes and tax exemptions? Being the tax person that I am, I really have to consider taking advantage of the  capital gains tax (CGT) exemption from the sale of principal residence. I also need to create a post about this and all the other taxes – real property tax (RPT), percentage taxes, VAT, etc. (Okay, I’m really delinquent I admit!).

So basically, we will be going through the entire process of choosing a property that will also be a good investment. We are also looking at other properties, though not foreclosed but are rather houses for sale by owner (FSBO), but which look like good deals. We will do our best to document each step of the way so that it can be a handy and useful guide for everybody, much like a walk-through of the process. Wish us luck!

Cherry is my wife. She is a certified public accountant (CPA) and lawyer.

—

My vision – financial freedom for all!

Jay Castillo
Real Estate Investor
Real Estate Broker License #: 20056
Blog: http://www.foreclosurephilippines.com
Click here to contact me via E-mail
Mobile phone (Call/SMS): +639178843882
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jay_castillo
Facebook: Foreclosure Philippines fan page

Text by Jay Castillo. Copyright © 2009 All rights reserved.

PS. If you are a new visitor, please start here to learn more about foreclosure investing in the Philippines.

PS2. Larry Gamboa and Bo Sanchez will give the Think Rich Pinoy Seminar this November 21 at the Philamlife Building in UN avenue in Manila. Larry will discuss his unique Real Estate methods, buying foreclosed properties and turning them around for passive income. You’ll also get to play Robert Kiyosaki’s CashFlow 101 Game and learn! To attend, click here now!

PS3. If you feel that anyone else you know might benefit from this post, please do share this to them and don’t forget to subscribe to e-mail alerts and get notified of new listings of bank foreclosed properties, public auction schedules, and real estate investing tips. If your inbox is getting full, you may subscribe through my RSS Feed instead.

Our journey to our new house – Finding a new home like true real estate investors is a post from: Foreclosure Investing Philippines

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