The Cebu Retiree Write to us

Terms of Service

The Cebu Retiree · ceburetiree.com

In plain English: We sell three services. Scout Day, $500 a day, paid in full at least 3 days before the day; cancel at least 24 hours ahead and 85% comes back. Soft Landing, $2,000: $1,000 to start, by bank transfer on an invoice from us, at least 3 weeks before your flight, and $1,000 the day you sign the lease and move in; if nothing suits you before you fly, or you change your mind, $800 of the first $1,000 comes back. Soft Landing Plus, $3,900: $1,950 to start and $1,950 on move-in day; $1,550 of the first $1,950 comes back on the same terms. Each price is for one person or a couple. By default, no money goes to any landlord before you fly; the lease, the apartment’s deposit and the first rent are paid to the owner in person on arrival day. If we cancel, or within 30 days of your first payment we have not shown you 5 apartments that fit, you may cancel and the whole first payment comes back. Our other promises are in section 4. Questions? Email hello@ceburetiree.com before paying.

1. Agreeing to these terms

These terms cover ceburetiree.com and the services arranged through this site: Scout Day, Soft Landing and Soft Landing Plus. By using the site or booking the service, you agree to them.

2. Educational information, not professional advice

The site and our emails provide practical educational information about living in Cebu. We are not immigration lawyers, tax advisors, financial planners, doctors, or government officers. Nothing we publish is legal, tax, immigration, investment, or medical advice. Rules, prices, availability, and local conditions change; confirm important decisions with the relevant authority or a licensed professional.

3. The services

All three cover Cebu City and the towns around it; most apartment searches are on Mactan, in Lapu-Lapu City. A place out in the province is possible, at a price we agree separately. Each price is for one person or a couple moving together into one home.

3.1 Scout Day — $500 a day

For seeing Cebu before you decide. We meet you at the airport at any hour with a car, help you get a SIM card and change money at an honest rate, drive you to your hotel and help with check-in, and spend the day out with you: the areas, the market, the hospital, whatever you want to see. You get a checklist to prepare before you fly and seven days of answers on WhatsApp afterwards. A Scout Day includes no apartment search or viewings. It is paid in full, on our invoice, at least 3 days before the day. If you cancel at least 24 hours before it, 85% comes back and we keep 15%; cancel later than that, or do not come, and nothing comes back. If your flight is late, we still meet it; if your arrival moves to another day, your Scout Day moves with it once, free. If a typhoon or a similar event stops the day, you choose: a new date, or that day’s money back in full. If you book Soft Landing or Soft Landing Plus within 12 months of your Scout Day, you get 15% off its price: Soft Landing is then $1,700, paid as $850 + $850, and Soft Landing Plus $3,315, paid as $1,657.50 + $1,657.50, at the same moments as the full prices.

3.2 Soft Landing — $2,000

A turnkey arrival: your apartment found before you fly, someone meeting you at the airport, moving in the day you land, and thirty days of support after that. It works in five steps.

  1. Contact. You write to us. We write back within hours, not days, by whichever channel you chose — email or WhatsApp. Nothing is paid at this stage.
  2. Agreement, then deposit. First we email you the written service agreement, and you accept it by replying “I agree”. Then you pay 50% — $1,000 — by bank transfer (Wise or a named account), on an invoice sent by us, at least 3 weeks before your flight; if it arrives later, we may need to move your dates, and we tell you. Only once this is paid do we start the search.
  3. Before you fly. We find 5–10 apartments that fit your budget and area, send photos and video of each, send you a checklist to prepare before you fly, and check each one against our list. Before you fly, we negotiate with the owner on your side: the rent, a smaller move-in deposit where possible, the long-term lease terms, and what the owner fixes or buys before you move in (for example a lower rent for a one-year lease, a broken air conditioner repaired, a work desk bought). This is our best effort, not a promised result: the owner decides what they agree to. You pick one; we agree the move-in date and the owner holds the unit for you. By default, no money goes to any landlord before you fly. The lease, the apartment’s own deposit, and the first month’s rent are all handled on arrival day, in person.
  4. Arrival day. You are met past customs, driven to the apartment, walked through it, and the lease is read line by line before you sign. You are met whatever time you land — 2 a.m. included — with no hotel night in between. If your flight is late, we meet the one you actually arrive on. The second half of the price — $1,000 — is paid this same day, once the lease is signed and you are in: in cash to our partner on the ground against a written receipt, by Wise or by bank transfer, whichever you prefer.
  5. Thirty days of support. We set up the internet, the utilities and the small things in the home, are reachable on WhatsApp, and meet you in person when it matters, with a written arrival sheet covering taxis, groceries, the visa extension office, the nearest hospital, and topping up a SIM.

3.3 Soft Landing Plus — $3,900

Everything in Soft Landing, and: viewings and trips planned around you first, with a personal WhatsApp line; one of us with you at the immigration office for your tourist visa extension and your ACR I-Card, up to two visits; one of us with you at the hospital to see the emergency room, open a patient record and find a doctor; an emergency file with your blood type, medicines, insurance and family contacts; one of us with you to open a bank account; a home helper found and checked; a welcome kit and breakfast in the fridge for your first morning; an introduction to the expat clubs and meetups; and ninety days of support after you move in. It is paid in two halves: $1,950 to start, on the same terms as the Soft Landing deposit, and $1,950 on move-in day.

4. Money, refunds, and what is not included

  • Agreement: accepted by you, by replying “I agree” to our email, before you pay anything.
  • Refunds, in short: on Soft Landing and Plus, there are two kinds of refund. If you change your mind before you fly, or nothing we found suits you, most of the first payment comes back (the Refund rule below). If within 30 days of that payment we have not shown you 5 apartments that fit, you may cancel and all of it comes back (Our promises below). A Scout Day cancelled at least 24 hours ahead returns 85%; a Scout Day we cannot do returns all of it.
  • Scout Day: $500 a day, paid in full by bank transfer on our invoice at least 3 days before the day. Cancel at least 24 hours ahead and 85% comes back; later, nothing comes back.
  • Deposit: $1,000 for Soft Landing, $1,950 for Soft Landing Plus, paid by bank transfer on an invoice matching the person you have been writing to, at least 3 weeks before your flight. If it arrives later, we may need to move your dates, and we tell you.
  • After a Scout Day: Soft Landing is $1,700, paid as $850 + $850, and Soft Landing Plus is $3,315, paid as $1,657.50 + $1,657.50, at the same moments as above.
  • Second payment: the other half ($1,000 or $1,950), due the day your lease is signed and you have moved in; in cash to our partner against a written receipt, by Wise or by bank transfer, as you prefer.
  • Refund: if, before you fly, none of the apartments suits you, or you change your mind, $800 of the $1,000 Soft Landing deposit comes back, or $1,550 of the $1,950 Soft Landing Plus deposit; the rest stays for the search work already done. After a Scout Day the same rule applies to the lower price: $650 of $850 comes back, or $1,257.50 of $1,657.50.

Our promises

  • If we let you down, your first payment comes back. If we cancel, or if within 30 days of your first payment we have not shown you at least 5 apartments that fit your area, budget and must-haves, you may cancel and the whole first payment comes back. If we cannot do a Scout Day we have booked, that day’s money comes back in full.
  • If your trip moves: your first payment stays valid for 12 months from the day it arrived. After 12 months without a flight, we treat it as a change of mind and refund under the rule above.
  • If your apartment is not ready on move-in day: we arrange a hotel and pay for up to 3 nights. If it would take longer, we move you to another place we showed you.
  • If the place you chose is clearly not as it was shown: we find you another one at our cost.
  • If your flight is late: we meet the flight you actually arrive on. If your arrival moves to another day, a booked Scout Day moves with it once, at no cost.
  • If a typhoon or a similar event stops a Scout Day: you choose a new date, or that day’s money back in full.

What is not included, and who pays us

  • Not included: flights, hotels (except the nights we pay for when an apartment is not ready), visa and other government fees, and the apartment’s own deposit and rent.
  • We are paid only by you. We take nothing from a landlord on a rental.
  • If an owner changes the agreed terms after we have a deal, we walk away and find you another place, at our own cost.

We do not raise the agreed price or add work without your written approval.

5. What we can help with — and what we cannot guarantee

We can help prepare documents, attend errands, and explain local processes. Landlords, banks, utilities, government offices, and other providers make their own decisions. We do not guarantee their approval, timing, availability, price, or performance.

We do not file visas or represent you before government agencies. On Soft Landing Plus we go with you to the immigration office and the bank; you file, and they decide.

6. Rentals and buying a home

For rentals arranged through Soft Landing or Soft Landing Plus, you pay us once, for our search and hands-on work. Nothing from landlords on rentals.

If you are planning to buy rather than rent, we can also help: a short-term place to stay while you look, price ranges by area, vetted agents, and one of us beside you at viewings. This is a separate, smaller offer, not one of the three services above.

7. Your responsibilities

You are responsible for giving accurate information, reviewing documents before signing, making decisions on time, maintaining valid travel and identity documents, and paying agreed third-party costs directly when required. You remain responsible for your housing, immigration, medical, financial, and travel decisions.

8. Our responsibility to you

We perform our own work with reasonable care and according to the steps above. Apart from the promises in section 4, we are not responsible for events outside our reasonable control or for the acts of landlords, banks, government offices, utilities, transport companies, or other third parties.

To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability is limited to the amount you paid us, and we are not liable for knock-on costs (for example a flight you chose to change), unless we cheated you or were seriously careless; then this limit does not apply. This does not remove any right that applicable consumer law says cannot be limited.

9. Problems, changes, and contact

Email us first at hello@ceburetiree.com. Most problems are fixable quickly, and we would rather fix them than argue. We may update these terms as the business changes; the current version and its date remain on this page.

Last updated: October 25, 2026