PHIL M. COQUIA: Former Corpororate Finance Executive and Entrepreneur




 
Certainly one of the  most visible Past Presidents of  the Pasay-Makati Realtors Board, Phil continues to inspire current board members by serving as adviser.

After completing   his accounting degree from the University of Sto. Thomas in 1970, Phil embarked on a career in corporate finance that led him eventually to a regional posting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

He availed of  an early retirement at the age of 36, then he moved to the United States to start a trading business that he operated for 2 years. Upon his return to the Philippines, he founded a financial consultancy business in 1987. From his dealings with high net worth clients then, he saw the need to advise on real estate investments— thus his shift to what proved to be an illustrious real estate practice.

What is your educational background? What were you considering as a career when you were in high school or in college?

I graduated from the University of Sto. Tomas, Manila in 1970 with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Commerce, major in Accounting. Before my graduation from high school in Dagupan City, I had the ambition of taking up either medicine or law but my parents prevailed over upon me to take up a shorter and cheaper course because my family was not really that well off and they could not afford an expensive education for me and my three other brothers. I chose commerce/accounting because I felt  that  I had a knack for going into business.

What was/were your first job/s prior to your shift to real estate?

Immediately after graduation from college, my accounting professor hired me to be one of the junior auditors in his accounting firm, which, at that time, was the 3rd biggest audit and management services firm in the country. While I stayed there for only two years, I had the opportunity to be exposed to different types of businesses/companies engaged in various industries. One of my audit clients hired me to be their accountant and I was with them for another two years.

The break in my career came in 1974 when I applied for an accountant's position with the biggest construction company in the country (and eventually in Southeast Asia). I started as a project cost accountant for an Indonesian project. I was subsequently assigned to be an executive staff of the newly-created international group of the company. After a year, I was assigned as the controller of our Southeast Asia operations with base office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. My job entailed going all around the Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and of course, Malaysia (including the states of Sabah & Sarawak) to visit and supervise our company's various construction projects. As controller, I had under my functional & administrative supervision over 120 finance, accounting and administrative personnel all over the region.

After two years, I was promoted to become the branch manager of our Kuala Lumpur branch office in addition to my job as Regional Controller. I stayed in this position for the next three years with tremendous learning experience and personal development in my career.

After five years, I opted for transfer back to manila head office because I noticed that I was being left behind in the promotion process. In 1980, I was re-assigned to the corporate finance group of the company and put in charge of the loan sourcing & administration department where I have to deal with more than 30 foreign and local banks and financial institutions. I stayed in this department for the next six (6) years having been promoted to senior manager and later, as assistant vice president. I opted for early retirement in 1986.

In early 1987, I went to the United States to engage in the food manufacturing & distribution business in the states of California and Texas with my brother. The business covered meat and seafood products. It also entailed importing seafood products from the Philippines. It's a long story but the business was short-lived (2 years only) due to external factors which adversely affected our financial position.


I came back to the Philippines in 1988 to set up my own financial consultancy and advisory business taking into consideration my vast contacts in the financial & banking community. I was enjoying a lucrative consultancy practice and was earning good income. In the course of my consultancy work with various high net worth individuals and small & medium sized companies, I learned also of their needs for real estate properties for their respective operations & businesses. I did some research on the feasibility of entering the real estate business and I learned that my financial consultancy business would complement the real estate business. ..........and the rest is now history. In addition, I was also active as a licensed life insurance advisor with Philamlife for 10 years (1995-2005).

 How did you prepare for your shift?

My shift to the real estate business was not really difficult. My educational background, my corporate work experience and my financial consultancy business converged together to form a formidable foundation to enter the real estate business. I thought that the only qualification that I do not have is a sales and marketing background/experience. But again, I thought that in any selling business, selling a product is only secondary. What is important is to sell yourself first and the service that you can offer.......and that's how I manage my real estate selling career up to this time. Credibility, resourcefulness, honesty, sincerity, competence and professionalism are the most important assets of a sales and marketing person.


What would you consider to be your major achievement or most memorable experience in your real estate practice?

My most memorable major achievement in my real estate practice came in the year 2000. I was able to help the family of a good friend in need by putting together all my career expertise and background in financial consultancy, insurance and real estate.


It’s a long story but I would like to make it short and straight to the point. A lady friend of mine, who was only 23 years old then and just graduated from college, lost his father due to a fatal accident. Being the only child and her mother was just a housewife; they were both caught in a very difficult situation. Her father left only about Ps 800,000 savings in the bank and also left debts of more than Ps 500,000. They used about Ps 300, 000 for her father's hospitalization and burial expenses. To make the story short, my friend and her mother were left with only about Ps 500,000 in cash to spare. but remember, the father also had debts of around that much. The father did not have any life insurance coverage. They were worried that the remaining money they have would not last long specially that my friend did not have a stable job at that time and they have no other source of income.

After all the burial arrangements, my friend who looked helpless, dejected and teary-eyed sat down with me to tell me her family story and their financial predicament. I asked her if she has exhausted all means to determine any sources of funds and she said none that she knows of. Until I asked her about the property they're occupying in New Manila. She said she did not know. She asked her mother who said they owned it. At that point, my eyes glowed with excitement. I asked her to look at her father's files for a copy of the title or any folder that would show documents of the New Manila lot. After two days she came back to me to tell me that she found a folder with a land title in it. In my excitement, I was in their house within 30 minutes. I scrutinized the title and the tax declaration and found out that it was indeed the title of the New Manila lot and had no annotations on any lien or encumbrance. It was registered in the name of her parents. The first thing I did was to get photocopies of the title, tax declarations and official receipts of the latest land tax payments made. I did some due diligence check on the documents and found out that the title was indeed clean and there were only two year arrears in unpaid realty taxes.


After thoroughly studying the possible options on how I could help my friend and her mother, I sat with both of them on a Saturday afternoon, discussed my findings with them and laid down my proposals, which were:


1. sell the property, which in my own appraisal, would fetch somewhere between Ps 40 million to Ps 45 million;

2. when we find a serious buyer, we will ask for a down payment to settle the estate tax due on the property;

3. if sold at Ps 45 million , I estimated the net proceeds to be roughly Ps 39 million; if sold for Ps 40 million, the net would be about Ps 35 million -- all taxes including the estate tax and broker's commissions would have been paid;


4. after selling the property and after all expenses would have been paid, I proposed to them that the net proceeds be used for the following:


a. buy a Ps 5 million to Ps 10 million life insurance for her mother and pay a onetime premium (the mother was only 45 years old at that time and still very insurable)


b. pay all the remaining debts of her father;


c. buy a 3-bedroom townhouse worth Ps 5 million to Ps 7 million and fully furnish it for them to transfer to;

d. invest 70% of the balance of the sale proceeds in safe, short to medium term investment papers or securities like treasury bills, commercial papers of blue chip companies like PLDT, San Miguel, Ayala, etc.;


e. deposit the balance of 30% in an interest bearing short term savings account which will serve as their revolving fund for their daily life needs until my friend has found a good job that could sustain them.


Simple as it was, my friend and her mother accepted all my proposals and entrusted everything to me.


It took some time to sell the property. After four (4) months, it was finally sold at Ps 42 million. We did exactly what I earlier proposed to them. To make the story short, my friend and her mother are now comfortably living in a townhouse in Pasig City (actually they bought 2 contiguous townhouse units at Ps 6 million each unit; the other unit is being rented out), the mother is insured for Ps 10 million and my friend is the sole beneficiary and they have investments in treasury bills and commercial papers. They have closed the savings account revolving fund because they are now earning interests on their investments, earning rental income and my friend now works as a supervisor in a call center company and got married in 2008 and has now a 2-year old son. They have traveled around the Southeast Asian region, Hongkong and China and are now enjoying the perks of modern day living and technology.

Of course, I will not deny the fact that I earned a lot of commissions from the sale and purchase of the properties, commissions from my insurance business and also from their investments but I believe that for what I have done to them, it cannot be replaced by any monetary consideration. They have now a happy and healthy life and they have since treated me now as part of their family. They do not forget and keep sending me and my family gifts and many other things. They have since given me their complete trust.



What would be one major piece of advice you would want to share with someone who is considering to shift to real estate?

There is no substitute for honesty, sincerity, resourcefulness, professionalism and competence in the practice of real estate. By practicing these values and attributes, clients will trust you, put their confidence in you and they become your long-term clients and they will surely become your center of influence. They will refer you to their friends, relatives and business associates. Remember that in most cases, you are dealing with successful, experienced and moneyed people - people who have accumulated enough wealth and have established businesses that can impact on the lives of many people. So there is no room for big mistakes or inaccuracies, dishonesty and insincerity in dealing with your clients.

 What other details about yourself would you like your fellow brokers and your clients to know?

I believe many people I deal with in the real estate practice and most of my clients know that I am not only a serious REALTOR® and financial services provider but I can also be a good friend to them. I can socialize well, I can sing, I can dance (the disco way), I love sports and can play some of them fairly well. I want to see people succeed. I am always available for consultation. I have expanded the meaning of "service" to include anything beyond the call of real estate for as long as I am able to physically do it and am competent to do it. Many of my clients have become my close friends.

PHIL M. COQUIA, 60 years old, 23 years in real estate.

Landline : (632) 647-1240
web site : www.rpmlx.com/cgi-win/sendagnt.exe/philcoq