Steps 2: Get the needed documents drafted

If you're paying for the property in cash, you can skip this section of the article. However, the rest of the information should still be relevant to you.

So you have a property in mind, made initial inquiries, and the seller has already agreed to help you thru your Pag-ibig loan application. 

Congratulations, you've caught a unicorn! 

No, really. Pag-ibig loan application is a long and tedious process so be very grateful to your seller. And use this guide to take note of the steps and how you can speed up your Pag-ibig loan application. 

Step 2: Contact a lawyer to get the documents needed. 

There are a lot of samples online and personally, I have just selected one there. But if you can hire a lawyer, please do so for your own safety. 

If you're getting a lawyer, I suggest getting a Deed of Absolute Sale drafted too as well as a Special Power of Attorney. You will need all 3 to process all the documents needed.  

So that's 3 documents: 

• Conditional Contract To Sell (CCTS) - Required by Pag-ibig when filing for your loan application. Basically, it says that you and the seller have agreed on the selling price and the seller is aware that you're gonna buy the property thru Pag-ibig loan. It would also have a clause that in case your loan is not approved, the CCTS becomes invalid. 

• Special Power of Attorney (SPA) - This document will enable you to process Real Property Tax, Tax Declaration, and Tax Clearance which you need to get in City Hall (in my case it's Taguig City Hall, the old site). You can also use this document to contact the Property Management Office where the property is if it's located within a village or is a condo unit. Stand-alone houses (house and lot) do not have Property Management Offices so you can skip this step. SPAs really go a long way in helping you speed up the processing of documents.

• Deed of Absolute Sale (DOAS) - You will need this eventually -- after your loan gets approved. Since you're already paying a lawyer to draft a contract, might as well get this done too. Just have it ready so you don't have to go back to your lawyer to get this done. You just cannot have this signed by the seller (and they wouldn't sign this too) until your Pag-ibig loan is approved.

Once you already drafted these documents, you need to get your CCTS and SPA notarized. 

The notary public outside Pag-ibig Housing Loan office is the cheapest -- they just charge 1K pesos per million. Say if the property you will buy is worth 4M, then this notary will only charge 4K.  

If the notary public in your area charges 1% of the contract's value, consider using a notary public outside the Pag-IBIG Housing Loan office. By doing so, you can save some cash, especially since you're just starting to pay for things. Trust me, you'll be paying for a lot of things in the future. 

Btw, if you've contracted the services of a lawyer, chances are they have notary services available too. But it's up to you where to have your documents notarized. 

Be careful about a number of things in the documents: 

• Make sure the details all match up. Very important. Any wrong data is very expensive to correct. Especially the names. For Southeast Asian folks like my husband, use the complete name in the document -- first, middle, and last names should all be completely spelled out. For Filipino names, make sure to include middle initials. My initial DOAS was rejected because I did not put my middle name initial. 

• Get your DOAS checked by Pag-ibig. Yes, this is possible. Once you've submitted your documents, you can nicely ask Pag-ibig to check your DOAS. Keep the commented DOAS in handy when you get it notarized because the notary public outside Pag-ibig housing loan will ask for this. And yes, do this even if you have your DOAS drafted by a lawyer just to be on the safe side.

• If the seller is married, then both husband and wife should be cited as sellers in the document. If you (buyer) are married, your spouse should automatically be mentioned in the documents too. Spouses should always be mentioned in all the documents you will draft. If you are separated but your separation is not legally filed, there's a Disinterested Parties document that needs to be drafted and will this will be part of the documents you will submit to Pag-ibig. Either way, make sure to mention to your lawyer your marital status when drafting your documents.

I've already written a lot so I'll just cut things here. If you have questions, please let me know in the comments. 

Hope this helps.