A real estate transaction hard to navigate

 A real estate transaction hard to navigate

I had a real estate sale last December 2020 and it was bit of a pain to navigate. I had a listing that took almost 9 months prior to sale. A land located in Sun Valley Residential Estates in Antipolo City, Rizal Province. The owner of the property was my aunt. 

Last August, i had five weekend viewings through 5 different people. My aunt trusted my services although i opened the sale also to them. All of them wanted a bank loan sale. As standard with bank loan sale, the person who loans can have up to 70% of the appraised value, or 100% of selling price, depending on the credit score of the buyer. None of the five people were able to purchase the lot.

It did not proceed as my aunt needed a higher return for the idle land despite the low price as advertised. I had lots of viewings back then. Come November, someone is eager to get the property. The buyer is an old woman, close to 60 years old.

The buyer is an architect by profession and she is very meticulous to documents, which i believe to be hypertechnical as i could describe. She only relies on her professional advice of her real estate broker. I am also a licensed real estate broker, but with four years of experience. 

I am very conversed with doing the papers as i go to various government agencies to accomplish papers required for the sale of the property. Sometime in 2018, I processed a very difficult transaction which covered exchange of properties, titling, agricultural challenges that I encountered first time, and all that. 

I understand that the buyer enjoys the loyalty and the wisdom of her real estate broker. The real estate broker had a lung cancer, which i am sad about. Despite my efforts to complete the turnover of documents on the day of signing of Deed of Absolute Sale, I am still not trusted by this buyer. I gave about seventeen (17) property documents required by her team:

1. *****
2. Deed of Absolute Sale  with the amount of PhP ******* (5 signed copies)
3. Original Copy, TCT *****
4. Certified True Copy, TCT *****
5. Certified True Copy, Tax Declaration
6. Certificate of No Improvement
7. Acknowledgment of Payment – PhP *******
8. Lot Survey
9. Tax Clearance
10. Latest Receipt of Homeowner’s Association Dues
11. Supreme Court Decision re: Recognizing exclusive power of billing and assessment by duly recognized homeowner’s association
12. Special Power of Attorney – AAA as Principal, BBB as Attorney-in-fact
13. BIR TIN of property owners (with names matched in the title)
14. IDs of owner/s
15. ID of  SPA BBB
16. PhP ***** – capital gains tax for PhP ******* (5,000.00 PHP per sqm in zonal value per BIR website, Sun Valley Residential Estates, Bgy. Inarawan, Antipolo, Rizal, BIR Marikina)
17. Others (please specify) *****

The payment portion succeeded but my aunt opened a bank account in the branch where the buyer has her own account. My aunt opened a bank account and deposited the check right away, making it an ON-US transaction. The payment is as good as cash.

The only problem that I had is that they do not want to acknowledge the Special Power of Attorney (SPA). I crafted it along with the Deed of Absolute Sale. The SPA, by interpretation of the real estate broker, and the examiner of Registry of Deeds, is deficient. The SPA does not contain the phrase "AND SIGN AND EXECUTE DEED OF ABSOLUTE SALE". SPA was executed then because my cousin had to go abroad and my aunt was his representative. I believe, in the name of statutory construction, that the SPA is sufficient in form, due to the word CONVEY. The word CONVEY is enough to effectuate the SALE. However, it is not accepted by non-lawyers.

The buyer was very furious upon learning this deficiency. She even threatened me and my aunt that she would hold the check she issued at her own bank and branch.

The following day, we signed another set of papers. My aunt and I also went to the bank and withdrawn a large sum of money to be deposited to the neighboring bank.

We cannot execute SPA anew as my cousin is outside of the country. Solution number 1 is to request for a Apostille/Consularized SPA. Solution number 2 and other solutions require things only experienced brokers would know and would like to take a calculated risk. We took the solution number 2 and waited for days. The SPA was given finally to the buyer.

It was a very difficult transaction as the buyer's character and her stories tell things of horror in real estate practice. I am not inclined to gamble to those transactions.

I am somehow thankful for the lesson, and that the transaction has already closed. Noted in my heart all of those hardships to navigate this transaction.

I hope you learn something in this blog. If you have a chance in checking this article and would require my professional experience, please message me.

Thank you and have a great day.