a big baby's guide to adulthood: SMDC Condo Investment

To start my adulting journey, I needed a place to live. Luckily for us, we invested years ago on a SMDC property. It was offered to my mom as an investment and we got it as she was still working as an OFW and I got a decent job just right off college.

December 2017, we signed for a pre selling condominium so the down payment has an easy 2 year plan. Our monthly due that time was only 6,300php but we did have to pay for reservation fee of 15,000php. It was not that heavy for us and our agent explained to us very well the process on that 2 years and what will happen after the down payment. After the 2 years, we were to pay a lump sum before we will be endorsed for a loan, once paid, we then apply for a loan to different banks or through the government or in house financing. We applied namely to ChinaBank, BDO, and PAG-IBIG, we put the in house financing as our last resort as it has the highest interest out of the choices.

As we have always been a BDO user, I had their junior savings and now we use their Kabayan savings. We applied to it first and I heard that it was not that easy to be approved. There were a lot of papers to fill and as I was just starting and my mom as an OFW doesn't have a huge paycheck we were advised to look for other options. We inquired to China Bank and PAG-IBIG but before we passed any requirements to them, we were told that BDO approved our loan.

Below are the requirements needed for the releasing of the loan, we were in the middle of the pandemic this time so everything was done via email.

Two (2) Valid Government-issued IDs (SSS, TIN, Passport, Voter's ID, Pag-ibig, Philhealth)
SSS number and Tax Identification Number (TIN) of all loan signatories
Marriage Contract (if Married); Certificate of Non-Marriage (if Single but with dependent/s)
Original Copy of Contract to Sell (CTS) with developer
Mortgage Redemption Insurance (MRI) and Fire Insurance
Special Power of Attorney (SPA, if applicable)
BDO Account Number - Automatic Debit Arrangement (ADA) for Monthly Amortization
Official Receipt (O.R.) representing payment* of Bank charges (to follow) - to be discussed during loan signing.

For the bank charges, I believe this varies to the loan amount. After all that was done, the bank will release the loan and you will get a confirmation from the bank and also from SMDC. The time we finished with the process the condo still wasn't ready for turnover, we waited for at least 2months before we received a letter for turnover.

October 2021, we received the letter for turnover and we were scheduled for a visit right away. If the owner or any representative can't visit, they also offer virtual tour. On the day of the visit, house rules are explained, quick tour of the facilities, more forms to fill up, and a payment for what they call a working capital. Working capital is I believe the payment for facility operations, we can do the computation by multiplying the condo dues by 3. Condo dues can be computed by multiplying the size of the unit (sq.ft) by the price given by the management (I think this varies per project, our price was 83). Once paid, you will be given the keys or if you find anything that needs changing and is still part of their maintenance, you may refuse accepting the unit until they fix it but once you accepted the unit I believe it will not be for free anymore. They also gave us a copy of safety guidelines, prices of the services they offer, and copies of various request form (concern slip, work permit, etc.).

Once all of that is done, you just need a fire extinguisher to move in. I didn't moved in right away as my job that time was still in Taguig but I was then decided that I will look for a job here near the condo.

Condo Sneak Peek: