OFW home buying from abroad

You can start while you are abroad

An overseas Filipino worker can start a purchase without flying home for the first conversation. You can compare a house and lot, a condo, and a lot, and you can book an online presentation on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. Starting is not the same as sending money. The two decisions that cause the most damage are these: who is allowed to sign for you, and which account receives the reservation.

Do the comparison before you appoint anyone. A developer’s seller is paid to sell that developer’s project. A broker can put two projects next to each other. TapatBahay is the second kind of desk. The contract itself is still with the developer named on the project, not with the broker.

Who is named on the contract

Decide whose name will be on the reservation and, later, on the contract to sell. That may be you alone, you and your spouse, or a co-borrower who will actually sign the loan. A relative who is only helping with keys should not quietly become the buyer.

If you are married, ask how the property regime treats the purchase before a relative “just signs to move it along.” If a Pag-IBIG or bank loan will cover the balance, the lender will care who the borrower is, what income can be documented from abroad, and which papers are originals. A computation on a flyer does not answer that.

Special power of attorney and apostille

If someone in the Philippines must sign while you are abroad, they need a special power of attorney that says what they may do: receive notices, sign a specific contract, or both. A broad authority to “handle everything” is how a helpful cousin becomes the person who can bind you.

Documents signed abroad for use in the Philippines generally need an apostille from the competent authority in the country where you sign, or the older consular authentication where an apostille is not available. The Department of Foreign Affairs explains the apostille path on the Philippine side. Ask your notary or the embassy which office issues it where you work. Do not ship a signed SPA and assume a developer will accept a scan with no authentication.

Give the attorney-in-fact a copy of the unit number, the price, and the account name. Tell them what they may not do. Paying a reservation into a new account “because the old one is under maintenance” is a no, unless you have confirmed the new account with the developer in writing.

Where the reservation goes

Pay the reservation only to the developer’s official account, and keep the official receipt. A broker can tell you what the project’s instructions say. A broker should not ask you to send the reservation to a personal account so it can be “forwarded.”

On this site every sample spells out a reservation fee so you can see the shape of the number. Haraya Fields uses ₱20,000. Aurelia Residences uses ₱25,000. Both projects are fictional samples, not homes you can reserve, and their License to Sell lines are not DHSUD records. Use them to rehearse the question, then ask the live developer for the account name that matches the official receipt.

A presentation is enough to start

Book an online presentation if you are on the other side of the world. Have the project name, the unit you were offered, and a photo of any computation ready. The point of the hour is to separate the reservation, the equity, and the balance, and to decide whether anyone needs a power of attorney at all.