Philippine pre-selling is a long-cycle sale: a buyer reserves a unit years before turnover, pays a downpayment in instalments during construction, and often takes in-house financing from the developer afterwards. That makes a Philippine developer a builder, a lender and a collections operation at the same time, and the systems have to reflect all three.
The stages
| Stage | Document | What has to be tracked |
|---|---|---|
| Reservation | Reservation agreement, reservation fee | Unit held, expiry date, fee received |
| Documentation | Buyer requirements pack | What is outstanding, per buyer |
| Contract to sell | CTS executed | Price, payment terms, turnover commitment |
| Downpayment period | Instalment schedule during construction | Due, received, ageing |
| Balance | Bank take-out or in-house financing | Which route, and the amortisation schedule |
| Turnover | Punch list, acceptance, keys | Open items and their dates |
| Title transfer | Deed of absolute sale, transfer | Status per unit |
The reservation stage is where most pipeline leakage happens. A reservation without an expiry is a unit removed from sale by someone who may never complete their documents. The control is the same one used everywhere — a hold with an expiry and a manager-level release. See double booking prevention.
In-house financing changes the business
When a developer finances the balance, three new obligations appear:
- An amortisation schedule per buyer, with interest, computed rather than typed.
- Long-horizon collection that continues years after turnover, when the buyer already has possession and your leverage is lower.
- A receivables book that has to be valued, aged and reported like any lender's.
Developers who treat in-house financing as an extension of the sales process rather than as lending discover the difference at the first wave of delinquency. The signals that predict it are the same as anywhere — see six signals that predict default.
Maceda Law and why cancellation must be documented
Republic Act 6552 gives buyers paying in instalments defined statutory protections, including grace periods and, where at least two years of instalments have been paid, a cash surrender value on cancellation. The practical consequence for a developer is that cancellation is a documented legal process, not an administrative decision: notices, grace periods and refund computation all have to be evidenced.
That requires an accurate payment history per buyer, produced from records rather than reconstructed. Apply the statute to the specific case with legal advice; what your system must guarantee is that the underlying facts — what was paid, when, and what notices were issued — are never in doubt. See building a schedule that does not live in Excel.
What the CRM has to do differently
A pre-selling pipeline is longer than a resale pipeline and involves more documents. Two implications:
Document status is pipeline status. A buyer is not stuck because they are undecided; they are stuck because a requirement is missing. The pipeline should show which document is outstanding, not just a stage name.
Broker networks are large and layered. Many developers sell through extensive agent networks with tiered structures, which makes attribution and commission administration a first-order problem rather than an afterthought. See broker portal lead attribution.
Turnover and the punch list
Turnover follows the same discipline as any handover: inspect, rectify, hand over against a signed list with dated commitments, then track open items to closure. Where units turn over in waves, the coordination problem dominates — see snag lists and defect liability.
What to do next
Take your current reservations and count how many have been open longer than their stated period, and how many are waiting on a single missing document. Both numbers are inventory you are not selling and revenue you are not collecting — see reservations, schedules and turnover in one pipeline.