Are you a home-based VA, freelancer, or any internet-driven income worker and interested in getting a housing loan for condo or house and lot?
I am also a licensed real estate salesperson and at the same time a home-based freelancer working for foreign companies. This blog documents my experiences in getting a housing loan.
(1) DETERMINE YOUR LOANABLE AMOUNT
My first application for a housing loan in PAGIBIG, my loanable amount was only P550,000. At that time, there was a special lower rate for those that have an income below a certain threshold.
According to the PAGIBIG officer, this low loanable amount only requires me to submit a Certificate of Employment form my online job employer.
Here is a sample of a certificate of employment I asked for from my online freelance employer. (Note: I was the virtual assistant and website manager back then)
• From the Freelancer’s Marketplace such as Upwork.
• Ask certificate of earnings from your client.
• Back it up with COE from the platform: See if an automated PDF document of your earnings will certify your authenticity as a credit-worthy citizen.
• At Upwork, you can go to Reports>More Reports>Certificate of Earnings. It will generate a special document for you to print.
• When I presented this to the PAGIBIG assessor, she delightfully approved it and said that they approve this kind of loan for a maximum of P550,000. (This may depend on the monthly earnings that you receive)
• I also presented this document to the housing company, and they delightfully accepted it. They said that many freelancers used this method to avail of loans. The developer has an in-house PAGIBIG agent or officer and I only need to submit the documents without processing them in the PAGIBIG office myself.
However, higher loanable amounts would require other documents such as Income Tax Return which I will explain below.
(2) ASK FOR A CERTIFICATE OF EMPLOYMENT
If you work in freelancer platforms, ask your foreign employer for a Certificate of Employment. They may generate this using websites like FormPros. Back this up with other proofs of income such as bank statements and payslips.
(3) BUILD YOUR CREDITWORTHINESS WITH YOUR BANK
I also recommend that you establish a long-term relationship with a local bank or a “home branch” where you open your account, grow your savings, and establish a relationship with the manager. Strengthen your credit trustworthiness, meaning, you have no unpaid loans, you pay your credit cards on time and maintain a low usage rate, and you don’t terminate your credit even though you don’t use it (I have experienced this and this did not do me good for my credit status).
Bank Statement
• This is also strong proof that will help them decide you are credit-worthy. If you have online access to your bank (such as BDO or BPI) you can access your bank statements online and print them at your own convenience. Save yourself from the hassles of traveling to the bank, or waiting for a holiday to pass by.
• For BPI, just login> more options> view account details> view statement of account. It will give you 4 options of time ranges wherein you can generate a PDF document of your financial ins and outs for the last 12 months.
Also remember that no matter how big your savings are, if you have bad loans and credit history, you may have a hard time, especially with bank credit cards or loans.
For PAGIBIG, you only need to present proof of income such as COE, Bank Certificate, and an ITR. Provided that you are not blacklisted in PAGIBIG, and that you have no other PAGIBIG housing loans that will place your income-to-debt ratio to unsustainable levels.
3. Phone Plan Bills and other Proof-establishing Documents
•Just bring in the rest of your papers that can testify you are an authentic income-generating citizen.
Approvals of loans may differ from one PAGIBIG office to another. You could try to transfer the salesperson, maybe it’s the personnel who is not approving (I experienced this in banks where some tellers/managers approve certain applications, some do not).
4. No PAGIBIG?
In the case you have no PAGIBIG (just like me), you can pay lumpsome for 24 months so you will be qualified for a housing loan.
BANK HOUSING LOAN
Below are the requirements are given by BDO to me for a housing loan. If your requirements as a freelancer is applicable, you may try to submit them to your city’s bank housing loan office.
As requested, please see list of standard documentary requirements for your housing loan referrals:
- Completely filled up & signed application form
- Two (2) unexpired valid Ids (driver’s license,SSS,passport,TIN,etc)-both spouses
- Proof of billing (Residence)
- Marriage contract (if applicable)
- Employment Letter/Contract indicating monthly income
- Latest 3mos payslips (updated)
- SPA (to be prepared by BDO upon submission of requirements)-if based abroad
- Proof of Dual Citizenship or Oath of Allegiance (if applicable)
- AIF Info Sheet **Authorized representative
- Two (2) unexpired valid Ids (driver’s license,SSS,passport,TIN,etc) – authorized rep
- For Refinancing/Take-out Loan/Developer
- Updated/Latest SOA from Developer