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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