Building customer trust, one homebuyer at a time

This 2025 marks my 19th year in the real estate industry.

For that entire period, I have been part of teams that have sold, built, and turned over close to 10,000 homes to Filipino homebuyers. I’ve had a wide array of experiences, starting from the earlier years of my journey—before the rise of the social media, mobile communication, and technology we know today.

Early days

Back then, serving our homebuyers entailed numerous clients visiting our offices all day long. We had filing cabinets and photocopying machines, and just so much paper everywhere. This, however, meant that losing files and documents was a normal occurrence as we didn’t have systems and procedures back then.

Some of our clients would have to travel to our offices to follow up the status of their loans, which many times entailed having to take the day off from work.

During those days, my office desk was situated in the waiting area of the customers, as I wanted to hear and observe what the needs and concerns of the clients were. Occasionally, there would be memorable clients—the ones that would come with pancit for merienda to thank us as they finally moved into their home, while some would come in with hot heads and frustration.

Emotional incidents

We did our best to rectify issues and concerns. Over time, I realized that the emotions mostly stemmed from the fear that their dreams of moving into their new home would not come into fruition. Those are the highly emotional incidents that would drain me.

Barely a year out of college, I remember ranting to my Dad, our boss, about those experiences. I will never forget what he told me in that moment: “Buying a house should be a pleasant experience. We need to do better for them.”

Shift in perspective

That shifted my perspective instantly and every time I would come across an irate client, instead of putting a defensive stance, my mindset began to change. I wondered, what do we need to change to make this unpleasant experience pleasant? This way of thinking slowly transformed the way we serve our homebuyers.

We began to increase the standards of our company, going back to the challenge of making homebuying a pleasant experience.

From the first moment the potential client encounters the brand, all the way until after turnover, we have become obsessed with building the best homes and communities for all our homebuyers—leaving no stone unturned.

We urge our clients to participate in our homebuyer surveys, asking them to rate their experiences. And while our current average satisfaction rating is 9 out of 10, we do not celebrate as we know that we still need to closely examine where we can still improve.

Earning trust

After 19 years in this business, I can say that one of the most important things I have learned is that, it is our duty to earn the trust of the market we serve, every single day, one homebuyer at a time.

The author is the president and CEO of Ovialand Inc.