Rental property

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 hour ago, BrettGC said:

most of the people I know in Dumaguete had/have similar experiences to ours though. 

Interesting, when I think about it I had good rental experiences in Dumaguete as did everyone I can think of.  It was in Cebu City and the surrounding suburban areas that gave the trouble.

So location is important.

[Snowy79]

I thought you were moving in with the family. 

[Possum]

My rental experience was mostly good while renting from local residents. Atone time my wife discovered that there were banks that allowed reputable people to live in foreclosed properties for a pittance. The thinking was it's better to have someone living in the house than no one until the property was sold. Worked out well for about two years, We basically lived for free but getting electric and water turned on was an ordeal and fixers the agent knew were required. The last place we lived was owned by BDO and they abandoned the practice in our area after they discovered the agent scams.

After that we only rented from people whose house we could visit. There is truth in the axiom of, 'we know where you live'. They were nice though hesitant to return deposits. Kinda like dealing with Florida landlords in the USA.

[stevewool]

3 hours ago, Snowy79 said:

I thought you were moving in with the family. 

I would if a certain member was not around 

[Kingpin]

21 hours ago, BrettGC said:

We found our place in Dumguete in a local Facebook property group.  Asking price was 15k, wife talked them down to 13.5.  We looked at dozens of places and yes, as others have said, 95% of the time the photos were vastly different to reality.  Overall our rental was great; on-site manager was a champion and fixed any issues within 24 hours, quiet area (Sto. Rosario, Junob, for those that know the area), good neighbours (I was the only westerner in both apartment blocks) and our deposit was returned in full with no issues despite us breaking the lease early.  

You're not in the 13.5k rental anymore?

[BrettGC]

1 hour ago, Kingpin said:

You're not in the 13.5k rental anymore?

Nope, moved into our own place about 3 hours north.  I see you "bolded" the deposit?  We negotiated an exit date, they asked us to leave 2 weeks earlier than we initially informed them as they had found a new tenant, we said what's in it for us? They offered our deposit back.  We originally gave them about 6 weeks notice.   I'm not sure what it's like there now, but back in June last year, the vacancy rate in Dumaguete was still relatively high so it worked out for everyone.  

Edited January 26, 2023 by BrettGC

[Kingpin]

4 hours ago, BrettGC said:

Nope, moved into our own place about 3 hours north.

Got it, normally I'd say the 13.5k probably went back up to 15k, or even higher. But with the 'pandemic' these haven't been normal times and rentals have never been lower, or more available. Though that was more true last year than today, and will be less true a year from now.