My Wishlist

Here are three things I wish RE market players and regulators would consider working on...

1. Remote notarization

The proper act of notarization requires signatories to sign in front of a notary public. But come on, does that really happen? More often than not, people just send signed documents to a notary public to have them acknowledged. Notaries don't witness the actual execution of the document.

So why not allow remote notarization where a notary witnesses the signing through a video call? In the call, signatories introduce themselves, show their IDs to prove they're the ones who claim to be, and show the documents they're executing. The notary truly witnesses the execution–digitally. Parties can sign the document separately, and the notary issues acknowledgments separately as well.

I know this is possible because I've witnessed this done during the pandemic.

2. Verifiable information

I saw the documentary, Bitconned, on Netflix. In the film, the protagonists fake their credentials on their LinkedIn pages, claiming they are graduates of Harvard. If their investors knew they were lying about this simple piece of information, I doubt they would be successful in scamming people.

The same applies to RE transactions. Since we live in the digital age, wouldn't it be nice to have the capability to verify legal documents online (anyway, they should be "public" documents)?

I know this is possible because Singapore does this for their Apostilled documents.

3. Fund Transfers for BIR Payments

One issue we brokers commonly encounter is the preparation of Manager's Checks (MCs) for tax payments (banks don't accept personal checks). And if you've actually had an MC prepared, you know it takes easily 1-2 hours because of the long bank line. For this reason, payors delay scheduling their trip to the bank due to their availability. For us brokers, rushing to get the MC and depositing it in an authorized bank–BEFORE THE DEADLINE–is a typical problem.

I know this is possible because they already do this for smaller amounts (<Php550K). Why not increase the limit? Come on, do money launderers actually want to pay taxes?

Just some wishful thinking...

For the tech people reading this, these may be lucrative business ideas to look into...