0173A: About Owning Property

In many ways, I'm a bit of a traditionalist given my constant dreams of actually owning a home. Many have argued that it's a heck of a lot more practical to just rent a home these days, but for one reason or another this just doesn't feel right to me. I want to finally be able to break out of the leasing cycle and have that legal document that clearly indicates that Tobie and I own a piece of property together.

Given how the Philippines is probably decades away from even bringing up formal legislation in support of gay marriage, I get this feeling that a deed may be one of the few legal documents that Tobie and I can share. Sure, on paper it just looks like we're business partners of a sort who decided to work together to acquire a piece of land. But for us, it'll mean a whole lot more.

And I really do want actual land - not some virtual property in the form of a condominium. As much as owning a condo can be pretty convenient given building amenities, better security and other perks, it also goes hand-in-hand with the need to constantly rather pricey association dues whose rates often rival rental rates across Metro Manila.

I know I talk about looking for a house practically at the start of every year. However this time around this is already part of a larger plan set in motion last year. This is really mapped out as the year that Tobie and I scout out more definite prospects and hopefully come to a deal before the end of the year. That'll give us enough time to process the necessarily paperwork, gather the appropriate funds and actually tie up all loose ends here at Regalia.

But this won't happen any time soon - we'll need to take things as they come along. But of course, we're more than open to friends who wish to assist with their knowledge of good deals within the city or maybe even funds should we reach an obstacle of that nature.

Fingers crossed! We're going to try for this again!