@OldBastard
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FRUSTRATION!! I'm sure I don't need to remind anyone of how difficult it is to save money, yet how friggin' easy it is to spend it. :-( For many months now, (you could almost say years), I have been squirreling away a sizable chunk of cash, just waiting for the overheated US stock market bubble to burst. Thanks to Putin's blood lust, it appears a tipping point may have been reached, and the much anticipated market "correction" (collapse?) is beginning to happen. Now should be a time when I am eagerly watching the financial markets, and starting to slowly accumulate stocks and crypto at a heavy discount. Which is exactly what I would be doing if I were single. However ...... Apparently my wife's auntie is ill. And apparently she has some land nearby which she needs to sell to pay bills. And apparently I have agreed (really?) with my wife to buy this land from her. For THIRTY THOUSAND USD!! Aaaahhhhh!!!! Yes, the land is very nice. It is filled with harvestable trees, and is mostly very flat and level. * However, it is also landlocked. ** But no one seems worried about that but me. So -- Poof!! --, just like that, my sizable chunk of money that I had hoped to invest in the market at a tremendous discount is gone, (and then some!), following other large clumps of money into this bottomless pit of life here in the Philippines. My wife assures me this is a good investment. I sure hope she knows what she is doing. ================================================================= * Land which is flat AND level is rather scarce around here, unless it is in a flood plain and used to grow rice. Before we arrived here in the Philippines, my wife convinced me to buy some flat land her sister had discovered was for sale. Well, the land is flat alright, it's just that it is also tilted at what is at least a 45 degree angle! It would be great for raising mountain goats, I suppose. But unless you're a mountain goat farmer, I would think that you would also want your land to be relatively level. ** I don't understand land ownership and usage here in the Philippines at all. Back in the USA, if you own a chunk of landlocked land and you don't also have some sort of legal, deeded access to it, it is basically worthless. However here in Mindanao owning a chunk of land that you don't have deeded access to is apparently common? Heck, we don't even own the land our house sits on. (Another sore point for this confused Kano!) And people cross over, and graze their animals on, parcels of land that don't belong to them all the time. Is this legal, some sort of "squatter's rights"?
12 comments
What the heck did you get yourself into indeed. 😂 Better get a broker to sort it out. Foreigners cannot own land here even if you are married to a Filipino. If you have children better to put it under their name. Also, if it is just deed of rights and not title then why the heck did you buy it? My goodness... Who owns the land your house sits on then? I'm sure there are legit brokers in Mindanao pls find one to help you.
My frustrations exactly! But I have been assured all is okay. Our house is in my wife's mama's name, and she has a tenancy agreement, (signed), with the land owner. (Or so I'm told; I've never seen it!) If my wife doesn't get her Philippine citizenship back soon, we will put the land in either her mama's name, or her sister's name. Fun, fun, fun!!
Goodness gracious. 😅 Good luck.
As a native, I also don't get why people cross the fence but on the land owning part, it's counted as a safe investment of sorts here. Cuz land does appreciate if the area develops, if not, then it appreciates with inflation anyways but at an extremely slow rate. I can't imagine the place you live in is that developed but you have harvestable stuff so that could work for you
Does a wooden hut with no indoor plumbing count as being developed? :-)
Then goodbye more money cuz it's up to you to develop that
What can I say? Truth hurts ......
Sorry to hear about your predicament. Hopefully, everything is sorted out. Make sur everything is written in black and white and you have official documents for your purchases.
I am assured that this is a "legal" purchase. But then, I had NO IDEA that we did NOT own the land this house sits on until we arrived here in the Philippines.
Not sure how common is that in the province but here in Manila people usually own the land where their houses are built.
That makes sense to me. Glad to know that Manila is sane!
LOL!