Developer Review : ProFriends Inc.

WoW! It’s been a while since I last posted for my blog. Good thing I have a long weekend to take full advantage of. Since, it is my come back, I have to make my time worth it. I would discuss my initial house purchase.

I have reserved my unit with ProFriends Inc. last March 2010. It was a very exciting experience as it was a first in my life. Call me sentimental… tee-hee!

Okay, to give you a little bit of my background as a buyer. I am single and in my 20s who works in the corporate world of IT. With my profile, you could definitely predict that I would have dove in for a condo, but checking on their model units made me think twice. Definitely costs more than what they can actually offer. A condo with the size of a comfort room can cost P1.7M minimum. Yes, I know that’s insane. So I searched for a place to call my own in the suburbs, with a lower price but with a more humane space. And so it happened.

Since this is my personal experience I would share my opinions for ProFriends, Inc. Again all of the things that I would discuss are just my two cents worth.

Honestly, I find their plans in community development very amusing up to now. I like the clubhouse, the church, the pool, and the model units.

However, there are some points I want to share with you guys so we could all be vigilant on our house purchase. This is very important especially when you are still about to buy a house. Well, it’s not just a shirt, it’s a house anyway. Right?

So here goes… I bought a house that is at pre-selling stage, hmm meaning not yet constructed and would be arranged for a turn-over after 12 months of equity. I chose this since I am not really in a hurry to move-in and I like the idea of not giving huge amount of money for down payment. So, I can just allot a portion of my salary to pay for my monthly equity and it actually worked. I even had the chance to save more money as an additional down payment for the house. It is really different when you already start building your dreams. Totally makes you feel more on track.

Initially, ProFriends offered the house to me as a unit that could be paid thru PAGIBIG financing. And since I am a member of that institution, that sounded like a good deal to take advantage of. Then the agreement was finalized.

After 12 months, the unexpected happened. One afternoon while following up on my account as it was already my 15th month of payment, ProFriends told me that I have to transfer my loan request from PAGIBIG to Bank Financing. Take note this is without warning. Not even a letter of notification or anything, it seemed more like an order from ProFriends which I have to comply with. That is where I got personally irritated, I signed for a different agreement and they want to change it without giving me better options. Why?

(1) Bank Financing has higher interest rates than PAGIBIG. I managed to lower my loanable amount during my PAGIBIG application just to maximize what I can avail for. The interest is from PAGIBIG’s 7% to Bank’s 10.5%.

(2) Monthly amortization would then change from what I have initially allotted for. I have to adjust it at least 2,000-3,000PHP more.

Things could have been better if ProFriends informed the buyers earlier about their situation with PAGIBIG. They should have made a written notice that would give their reasons in black and white but no effort was made. When buyers go to their office personally, their arrogant customer service team would just say “kung gusto nyo mag PAGIBIG kayo mag-asikaso.” Oh! I have emailed them consistently to check on the possible options and their reply is:

"Regarding your inquiries if you can still continue the financing under HDMF, our conditions to the buyer once the account is due for conversion and he/she decided to continue the said financing despite of the discussed consequences earlier, is to convert the account under In-House financing and the buyer will be the one to file it individually to HDMF. While waiting for the LOG or Letter of Guarantee from HDMF or take-out, the buyer must continue the payment of amortization under In-house at 21% interest rate."

This added to my disappointment, which I have not expected as I researched about the company and learned good things like they are also helping out Gawad Kalinga to give better homes for Filipino families. I guess there is no perfect developer, but they could have tried to be more helpful to the buyers who were caught in bad PAGIBIG situation. Seems like this developer is just after our money and not our welfare. Darn!

Now here are some points that I just want to itemize for my ProFriends review (based on 5 stars with 5 being the highest):

(1) Customer Service – 1 star (For the effort of having CS Reps in the office)

(2) Timely Unit Turn-over – 1 star (Mine is delayed for 5 months and the promised date to have it delivered is by December 2011 total of 9 months delay)

(3) Construction Quality – 2 stars (This is based on the existing home owners feedback in the area. They told us that water comes out of the floor when raining and when you pull your appliance's cord the sockets would easily go with it. Their engineers themselves informed us that PCP quality is not that good. I am going to update this later on.)

(4) Security – 2 stars (They have security guards but only from the gate, the village is quite big and there is another passage to an unknown housing area at the back where there was an allegedly killed pusher. No worries he's finished. Whew!)

(5) Drainage – 2 stars (The provision is quite small, not sure if it could endure long term demands)

I should also rate amenities but it is not yet finished so, I have to update you guys on this one. Currently I am happy about how the church and the clubhouse looks like, let’s see how they plan to maintain it.

Again, these are just my unsolicited opinion. You can suggest other criteria on where we should base our ratings for Philippine real estate developers. Please share your ratings with your developers, for condo units, for townhouses, or for single detached houses. I haven’t really found a website that summarizes all these things, I hope we can start our own to help each other out in making an informed decision.

Thanks guys! Til next!

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Work + Fun = Malaysia (Part 2)

To continue with our first day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I decided to start our itinerary with the Menara Tower, since I am always after the “shouldn’t-be-missed-spots” in a tour.

We rested for a while in the hotel, then headed for the Menara Tower at around 2PM. Our hotel is very close to KL Monorail station. We got our tickets and headed for Bukit Nanas.

KL Monorail's artsy cover.

We only took single journey tickets since I am not sure if there is something
like an octopus card in Hong Kong here in Malaysia.

They said that it was just a short walk from there, rather, there is a free ride near the station. But up to this point I still don’t know how to get to the free shuttle station hihihi. In short, we walked all the way to the tower from Bukit Nanas station. For me as a young adventurist it was pretty fun but tiring. I just don’t know with my old folks if they share the same feelings ;-) Anyway, we had a long walk asking every person we see in the street on where is the easiest path to the tower, which surprisingly is unknown to most, which lead us to a strange entrance… The RAINFOREST :-) hihihi… Yes, that’s right, I found out in the ticket station in the tower that it is a free featured area in the place, funny how we enjoyed it first before the main attraction.

Seems like a never-ending walk to Menara Tower ;-)

Ironically, we can see it but we don't know how to get to it hihi ;-)

Finally, a positive sign! KL Tower is just somewhere here hihi ;-)

Tada!!!! After our sacrificial walk ;-p

And that's where we came from :-D

At the ticket booth, senior citizens have discounts, good! :-)

 At the ticket booth, I chose the Culture Package wherein we could enjoy the view from the tower, the cultural show, and the cultural village. We enjoyed the view from the top. And there is a portable player with earphones that tells you more about the view in each station in the tower. The cultural show is also a good experience since the performers are kids.

Elevator to the top. Nothing Special in it.

Nice view of KLCC Tower / Petronas. Going in Microsoft office by Monday hihi :-)

Hmm I'd say pass to this hihi, I had enough from the rainforest ;-)

The performers are playing "sungka"

Boys division ;-)

KL / Menara Tower at night. Sweet!

By the way, our ticket :-)

Good perfromance.

After that, we headed down the place, take note: riding a free shuttle and not back through the rainforest hihi. We had our dinner at Secret Recipes in Bukit Bintang.

YuM! After a long and fun day :-D

Saturday Jam, a lot of teens in Bukit Bintang

That concludes our day 1 adventure. More in Part 3 :-)

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Work + Fun = Malaysia (Part 1)

It was last May of this year, 2010, when I went to Malaysia for training in Microsoft. What I was happy about is the fact that the venue would be in Petronas Towers :-) What else could be better than that? I would not just experience touring in it, I would also experience working in it :-)


So there, Malaysia it is. My training schedule was Monday and Wednesday. Perfect! I decided to extend my stay there before the scheduled dates. I brought my mama and papa with me for a homey company. I came there 2 days earlier, our flight was Friday midnight. We arrived by dawn on Saturday.

Arrival in Malaysia, Looking forward for a great trip.

Had to take "Teksi" to the hotel.

We booked for Hotel Sentral near KL Sentral Station. We arrived earlier than the check-in time. Sadly, unlike what we saw online, they didn't allow early check-in even if there are available rooms. Price is even higher than online rates, since they consider that as walk-in rate, full charge. So, we looked for a nearby hotel that offers cheaper price for few hours of stay.


The people at the lobby of the other hotel are quite friendly, and I was happy about that. There is this big guy who instantly approached us and tried to converse with us in english the best way he can since he was very curious about where we came from and our culture. At first he was talking with us in mandarin, and I answered him back in mandarin since I know how to speak little. But I told him we are from Philippines which brought us to topics about Jericho Rosales and Carmen Soo because of their telenovela shot in Malaysia hihi. Then came other topics like GMA and Ampatuans, which I am not really proud of since I am totally against those bad news hihi.


You really get what you pay for, since the rooms in the nearby hotel is not super clean, and I didn't even get the courage to sleep. But surely not bad for me to plan for our daytrip. ;-)

Travel guides that I grabbed from the airport. Since I was excited I couldn't sleep yet
so I made use of the time to polish our plan for the trip.

We stayed at Hotel Sentral, good price and location.

Hotel restaurant's menu.

Promo lunch includes Nasi Lemak, their local dish :-)

 

Yummy! :-)

Nasi Lemak - if I'm not mistaken. Delicious!

Food + Free Wifi = Life away from home :-)

Good thing the hotel that we booked is really clean. I was thinking that we would have to look for new hotel if it isn't, and that would consume time. But, it was fine. The cleaners are always doing their job. That, I am happy about. At least I could go to my training and not worry much about my parents' comfort.

Rooms also have Free Wifi.. spongebob was very happy, yipee!

So much for our arrival. I would continue this in another article since the page would be quite long if I would finish it all here hihi :-)
 
Check out Part 2.

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i MISS my blog

Currently missing my blog. My apologies for being too busy in my daytime (which currently extends to the night time job), I promise to recover by weekend.

Pausing for a while...

GiNG :-)

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3rd Stop - HAVEN Model House

Moving forward with HAVEN Model House now. It is the biggest in terms of number of rooms and floor area in Lancater Villages at Kawit, Cavite.

One good thing about this area is its location. Currently, it is the closest to R1, the road that connects Coastal Road to Covelandia. :-)

I apologize for inadequate amount of pictures (i think), just not within my current budget hihi ;-)
 

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2nd Stop - RIDGE CREST Model House

Ridge Crest in Molino Road, Bacoor, Cavite was our first choice before. This is due to floor area, number of rooms, and number of comfort rooms. No need for a major change. However, we thought about location that is why we chose another village.

Below are some of my shots for Ridge Crest.

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