Our experience of DMCI began in 2019, when my husband Jeff and I started talking about where we can spend our retirement meaningfully. Philippines our birth home came first in mind. We know we wanted a place where we need not worry about ground maintenance, where we can feel safe and where it will be accessible to basic life necessities.
Photo by JR-JC Garcia
DMCI came number one in our research of the many real estate developments available. The biggest selling point was its atrium floors and the healthy cross ventilation of air through its” lumivent” technology. As residents of USA, we reached out to our family friend Lulu Salgado (blessed memory) and discussed what we were looking for while doing our own research. I also asked our other family friend Sister Del Oling to visit the place as well when she is in Manila. We wanted to make sure we select a place that is not only good in its building structure and development but in the long-term maintenance of the building and appreciates its owners through the life of the community. We trust that our dear friends will only look out for our best interest. By this time, we got a response from Lea Ortega, our DMCI sales consultant who set a time to meet with our friends Sr Del, Lulu and her husband and a follow up to show them an existing DMCI site. Our friends sent us their photos while visiting a DMCI property where the cross ventilation was evident, and they were very happy to report that we selected a good developer. March 9, 2019, marked our reservation date for a 3-bedroom unit in Orabella, it just happened to be my birthday as well. What a grand birthday gift!
How we landed in Orabella – Lea was noticing my hesitancy in locations where there are multiple buildings, and that was how she introduced us to Orabella (golden beauty – as advertised in its theme got us sold!). The Orabella was a single building to itself centrally located to places which were familiar to us because my husband and I met in Ateneo graduate school. It is a circle of life for us to be situated in this area. My husband was also given birth in Quirino Memorial Medical Center, within the same vicinity.
During the turn-over a happy news was the provision of free internet and drinking water supply. That was thoughtful to make available important basic needs of the residents.
Now as we enter a new transition of our life in how we can serve our country back, our unit in The Orabella is surely a good home to be grounded in place with safety and comfort. Having decided its purchase was the beginning of our giving back to bring income to the development of the place.
Although we are still transitioning between countries, whenever we are home, it always felt right. Being part of the communication of Orabella residents, it placed a smile on us when we read about the Simbang gabi masses available for the residents in the building. We were kept up to date on any developments happening in the building, such as maintenance work and happy occasions.
Photo by JR-JC Garcia
Our favorite spot in the building to visit is the roof deck. As we were fixing the interior of our home and unpacking all our deliveries and shipment, we brought our food up there, took vacant seats and just rested in the quiet and the splendor of the sky and our surroundings. Breathing some good open air was a treat in the city.
One helpful spot through our transition, is the “cage/storage” by our parking space. It became a good landing spot of interim shipment of our balikbayan boxes as we travel while some of our things are transported from one home to another.
I could have spent my seventieth birthday anywhere else, but it just felt right to have some high school friends visit our new Orabella home instead. It was good to reconnect with longtime friends and family in a home we can take pride and comfort with to share. Friends from other parts of the country came and visited and were surprised how fast we have completed our interior decoration. We are still not completely done with our home project and working to get there especially when we are back for longer term residency. Our home in The Orabella inspires us to make our unit truly our home. As our friends and family leave our home, most often they leave with a statement “we really felt blessed being in your home!!”. With the grace of God and the expert management of our DMCI building all should be well.
Is our DMCI Home, The Orabella, living up to “Building Together Shaping Tomorrow”? It surely is off to a good start. Through some unexpected preconstruction imperfections along the way, our PMO has been responsive in a respectful and thoughtful way in resolving personal as well as the residents’ concerns. It does not get ignored, so that truly responds to “building together shaping tomorrow”.
Transitioning back from the USA to the Philippines there are many systems unfamiliar to us that we need reacquainted. The guidance provided by the DMCI main office helped us be responsible citizens in paying property taxes without worrying who to reach and how we might encounter either red tapes or untoward incidents.
If all these are centrally facilitated it would surely create a more sustainable community of responsible citizens working together. The provision of being able to pay our bills remotely reduced our anxiety in maintaining responsible schedule of our timely payments. We look forward to spending more time in our home in The Orabella by the end of 2024.
We thank Lea for thinking of us as the condotel properties opened. We explored Solmera Coast and it is a great concept to be able to spend different vacation times among all the other condotel/resort properties as one maintains a condotel/resort property. Hoping this passive income opportunity will prove worthwhile and that a good condotel management takes DMCI to yet another level of continuing with its theme of “Building Together Shaping Tomorrow.”
About the author:
Josephine “JC” Carandang-Garcia is a Corporate Strategist in Quality Improvement and Leadership Learning and Development. A member of the International City/County Management Association she has served government and corporate agencies in the Philippines and USA. Although retired professionals will be the status of both her husband and her by the end of 2024, they continue to take on opportunities that will extend their expertise in serving back the Southeast Asian communities, as trainers and consultants, living up to her recent recognition as the featured Asian American during the AAPI Heritage month. Happily married, she remains in support of her husband as a Christian Orthodox priest. Leaving a legacy of a healthy and growing community of professionals will continue to be their mission.
