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SIXTY NINE March 20 - Today we had a meeting with three guys who are in the construction business. Jaime who is the financial backer, Jake the builder and Edwin the architect. We had a chance to view some of their work and I must say I was impressed especially with the finishing work which was definitely on par with the best in the USA. We figure we are looking at at least 20,000 per sqm here in Davao and that price will be a couple thousand higher for the additional costs for for building in Samal which involves freight across the channel. The next day Lynn met with her own builder who knew these guys and said that their jobs usually ran over budget and they used cheaper materials whenever they could. He suggested building pricing can be cheaper or at least maintained if you source out your own materials and then basically have a engineer and architect to supervise the actual building. We will be meeting with him and some of his referral architects when we get back from Manila. March 24 - Today I noticed a beautiful apartment complex going up right across from the popular SM Mall. I was struck by how smart it looked among all the horrible architecture that seems to predominate the Philippines. I was also impressed that the location was so perfect and the apartment unit actually designed with a more western clientele in mind. It was no surprise that all 19 units were already rented at least two months before opening. I was fortunate to be able to speak to one of the owners. She told me the building contained 20 units of one, two and three bedroom apartments renting monthly as follows: 1br - 11,000 ($268); 2br - 16,000 ($390); 3br - 22,000 ($534). I calculated the rent role at about 320,000 ($7,800) per month or about 3.84 million ($93,658) annually. She said the building cost and land improvements were 40 million peso ($976,000) so the annualized return I get is about 9.5%. I used 41 peso to the dollar. She says they calculate the return at 12.5% I can't say I am too impressed as there are other expense factors not accounted for such as maintenance, personnel, tax, vacancies, taxes, etc. Not to mention we didn't even factor in land acquisition costs. Of course there should be good appreciation on the land as the city continues to grow and there is still much more room left to build on the 4,000 sqm lot. She said they plan to offer add on services such as maid and laundry. Anyway, as with the development/subdivision Lynn bought in, these types of living situations will continue to grow and prosper and there will be mucho dinero to be made with this.
March 25 - Today was Doctor visiting day. Having just arrived in Davao it was important we establish our new doctors. I need a Cardiologist and Rheumatologist. Lynn and OBGYN/Gynecologist and Alex a Pediatrician. The only success we had was with Alex who visited Dr. Bernardo her new pediatrician. During his examination he determined Alex at exactly 6 weeks is 22.44 inches (57cm) in height and 9.5 pounds (4.3 kilos) in weight. If this means anything, her head is 13.38 inches (34cm) around. So Mom you should check out the other babies and see if they measure up LOL to baby Alex. Tomorrow I will try and see my new doctors and Lynn hers as well. March 29 - We left Davao today on an early 6:30am, flight to Cebu where on Sunday, Barry will drive us down to Lilloan to catch the Ferry to Dumaguete. Alex was so well behaved the entire way back to Dumaguete. March 30 - We took a cab down to Car Car where Barry's wife, Kay has her new one bedroom house. I was really surprised how nice it looks and the bill was only 1,000,000 pesos or about $25,000. It is 600 square feet and solid concrete with nipa wall covering. I am thinking I would like to go with something similar to this for Siargao but ours would be about 800 square as we need two bedrooms.
April 1- We have learned there is a total cargo strike affecting the port of Dumaguete so the plan to ship our stuff in a 10 foot container using Super Ferry is out the window as is the alternative to use Sulpicio Ferry Line. As with many things in the Philippines the professionalism of these two shipping firms is poor. Both are giants in the business here and have operations in the Port of Cebu so you would think they could simply transport our container up there by road and ship it from Cebu to Davao. Wishful thinking. Neither would provide this service or even provide their container to an outside trucker. The only thing we could do is load a generic container and have it trucked up and and then reloaded into one of these two ferry company containers in Cebu. Fortunately, we found a alternative by going through a shipping agency called Lorenzo here in Dumaguete. They have their own container ships and use another port to ship from. The catch was we would have to use a 20 foot container, it would have to go through Manila and the price tag would be 43,000 peso $1,025. (14,000 more than Super Ferry and 22,000 more than Sulpicio). As we really had no other practical choice, we said yes and booked it. On a positive note, I have decided to purchase a golf cart in Manila and I will be able to get the cart in our container before it heads south to Davao. The positive side of this is the cart shipping would have cost 15,000 by itself but now it can be absorbed by the expense of our 20 footer so this episode doesn't feel AS bad now economically. Lorenzo picks our stuff up on the 3rd 2005
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