Real estate software in the Philippines, a buyer's guide.

A buyer's account runs for years, and each step depends on the one before. The system has to know, for every lot or unit, whether it is open, on hold, reserved, sold or turned over, and who is paying for it.

• A lot map or unit list that shows what is open now, so two agents cannot sell the same unit.
• Reservations with an expiry, and holds that release themselves.
• The Contract to Sell with the equity and amortisation schedule, and a statement of account the buyer can read.
• Official receipts, post-dated cheques kept in a vault, and the overdue list with a call log.
• Bank and Pag-IBIG takeouts, turnover with punch-list items, title transfer and the release of the mortgage.
• Commissions per sale, released by the milestones the developer sets.

The Realty Installment Buyer Protection Act protects buyers of residential real estate on installments. A buyer who has paid at least two years of installments has a grace period of one month for every year paid, and on cancellation is owed a cash surrender value of at least half of the total paid, rising by 5% a year after five years, up to 90%. A buyer with less than two years paid has a grace period of at least 60 days.

Cancellation takes effect only 30 days after the buyer receives a notarial notice of cancellation, and, for those owed it, after the cash surrender value is paid. Software should compute the grace period and the refund from the buyer's own ledger and refuse a cancellation that skips a step.

Under PD 957 (and BP 220 for economic and socialised housing), a developer must register the project and hold a licence to sell from the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development before selling any lot or unit. A system should keep the licence per project or phase and stop sales on a phase without one.

The Real Estate Service Act (RA 9646) allows only PRC-licensed real estate brokers to sell for others, with salespersons working under a licensed broker. The seller network should record each broker's licence and its expiry, and commissions should follow that chain.

A spreadsheet per buyer works for the first phase. By the third, payments posted to the wrong row, penalties computed by hand and an inventory that disagrees with the sales list become a monthly argument. A system ties the lot, the contract, every receipt and the documents to one buyer account, with a trail of who changed what.

A buyer portal also cuts the calls to collections: the buyer sees the balance, the next due date, construction progress and where the title is.

Sales and collections should post straight to the books, so receipts, commissions and takeouts do not have to be typed into accounting again. Buyers' IDs, incomes and bank details are personal information under the Data Privacy Act (RA 10173): only the people who need them should see them, and every access should be on record.