Hi everyone! 😊 We're planning to build a house, and I'd…

I'm a retired architect from the States... everyone here seems to think they're an architect/engineer/builder/decorator/landscaping pro... a bunch of wannabes. A 'good' architect will save you money and headaches, and you'll end up with a much better result when it's done. Stay away from the smooth talkers who promise you the world but don't have a single credible reference.

Be there from start to finish

Rule number one...... under no circumstances fall for the old 'labor = 50% of materials cost' scam. You see so many people doing that here, but in reality labor should be 30–40% max.

There's no point writing up a contract that isn't worth the paper it's on. We got completely screwed over by a wannabe builder. He quoted 360k on a 4-month build contract.. and it's only 160 sqm. Needless to say, one day he just stopped showing up for work, and he still owes us about 100k. The build is over 4 million so far.. Don't trust anyone, their work is substandard.. Big lesson learned.. Don't hand over any money up front. Get a total cost and timeline for the build, then pay labor every week and materials as you go. Tell them they'll get the balance at the end of the job.. that way it's in their interest to do a half-decent job and finish ahead of schedule to get that cash.. Don't let them pressure you into handing over cash.. A skilled builder is around 700 pesos a day and a laborer around 400–500 pesos a day.. and in some cases you also need to provide food, tools and other costs

Just remember... nothing ever gets finished with the quality and completeness we're used to. Get past that and you'll be fine 🙂

Just waiting for the miserable ones to show up with their usual 'wisdom': "Don't do it, you're a fool. She'll get the house and dump you." 😂 Because somewhere in these comments, a man who has never built a house in his life is preparing a 17-paragraph warning about women, property and betrayal. 😂