Stories of a House Hunt. Review on Buying a House

Statutory Warning: This IS a semi-blog! Please excuse the same! didnt get the right cat even afta usng mouthpad! so here I am!

House Hunt seemed as scary as the yesteryears Witch Hunt! When we first decided that we now need to move out of our cozy, comfort zone for the past 10months, the only reason we wanted to move was for bigger space and proximity to Mayunk’s office! Otherwise the one room, kitchen house has given us the best days of our life… a perfect beginning and a warm welcome… But then only thing constant is change and we needed to move on. And we have found a gorgeous 2BHK in a decent area in BLR. So, I just wanted to share a few thoughts about house hunting (rented space) for the newbies who are moving into new cities. This might be city-specific, but I am sure some similarities WILL be there, nahi? So, heres how our thought process worked.

Firstly prioritize on what is it that you are looking for. Am mentioning few things that could be of importance; Size of the House This would be governed by how many people you are, married/single, expected guests during the year, the kind of life style you have been used to, plans to expand the family. Ideally, if you are a couple, who plans to stay so for a couple of years, a 1BHK is just right for you. But if you are expecting your parents or guests to spend time often, a 2BHK is a better deal. For bachelor’s depending on your privacy needs and number of people who are going to share it with you, the size of the house can be decided. We opted for a 2BHK eventually because the rent difference wasn’t high enough to give up on the bigger space. Locality This is also a fairly important criterion and you need to decide what exactly is it that you want in the locality. It could be proximity to your office, close to people you know, how convenient is it in terms of having all the shops close by, the overall impression of the locality, the kind of neighbours you want etc. In cities like Bangalore, the choice also has to be made between an independent house and a flat. The flats are fewer and hence more expensive too. In case of independent houses, the landlord might be staying on the same premise or might have rented it out to another family. In our case we wanted a house, which had landlord staying close by and a few other people around us because Mayunk might tend to travel a bit, and safety was to be looked at very seriously. So, even tho we liked a few houses, the locality did not give a good feeling. We didn’t feel we could walk back safely at any time of the day.

The Landlord Factor In case of independent houses, this is a very important factor. You have to check in advance whether he/she is specific about Veg / Non.Veg funda, if he has any issues about what time you come and go, any problems with friends coming home or loud music and television. Some of them can be very finicky! And to fight day in and day out can be VERY painful. So its better to clarify all these things in advance before you sign on the dotted line, your deed. The RENT THE MOST important factor, the budget you have. Please decide in advance what is it that you ideally wish to pay for a house, and what is the outer limit you cannot go beyond! That’s because the chances are that you will over shoot your budget. We had thot about 7k, but ended up paying 8K.

Apart from that, in some cities the deposit may be very high. For E.g. Bangalore has a system of 10times of your rent is the deposit payable in full, right at the beginning. Whereas a city like Noida, has just about 3months rent that’s taken as deposit. So the cash flow available also needs to be checked. How to start THE HUNT This should have been the first point. But then its too city specific and I have no idea about other places. The first option is to check with your friends who have the kind of houses you like, and maybe get in touch with their broker or landlord, who might have more than one house. What we did was to go through a weekly edition of Ad-Mag. This is published every Sunday and has area wise listings of various houses available. Just sit with the paper and a phone and call every number that matches your requirement. A lot of times, even brokers would have given an ad and you can tell them the specifics, so that he can show you all the houses that he has in mind. Remember, you will pay brokerage, which typically is one-month rent. Also, when you go thru the broker, make sure that you meet and discuss everything with the landlord. There could be a communication gap that could lead to a disaster. The Agreement Please make sure that you read EACH and EVERY clause properly. A good agreement should talk about EVERYTHING provided by the landlord. Be it the number of electrical fixtures that are there, the floor on which he has offered you the house, the size, number of rooms, bathrooms etc. Also, these days most agreements will have a clause that says you have to get the house repainted before leaving and it isn’t really negotiable. It should ideally also specify the maximum one needs to spend on repaint which could be up to one month rent. The notice period should also be clearly mentioned. I think I have covered most of the points and its already become too long! But I cant leave without telling you about some major funny houses we saw! The first one is what we fondly called The Pink House. It had a funny pink on walls and an UGLY pink on the doors! With matching pink tub and potty! Then the one that in the ad said two toilets! Now this one seemed impossible till we saw. In a tiny space, the size of a six seater dinning table, sitting opposite each other, was Indian and Western style loo! I mean do they expect you to crap together? Geez! And pink potties are very prominent! Our old house had one, and so does our new house! Ah! The list can go longer! But I think I have used up all my word power! More like ho’used’ and ab’used’ it! Hyuk!