One Year Later - Part 1

In the past I blogged about my experience of selling my old house, shortlisting a new one, getting a home loan and finally buying the dream house where I stay currently. Thanks for all the feedback regarding my earlier posts. Now that I am settled in the new house I thought it might be a good idea to write a bit about the experience of living in a big housing society. These are a few simple issues which are relevant to most new / 2-3 year projects which have been completed in Mumbai.

Quality of construction:
No matter what the reputation of the builder, you will NEVER get world class construction. Although my builder is a smaller guy, I spoke to friends who bough houses in complexes constructed by Rahejas, Hiranandanis and Runwals, and all of them had the same issues. In the age of increasing interest rates and high costs of conducting business most builders cut a few corners here and there. Most try to do it in a manner which is not very visible. One year down the line you will have peeling paint in your house, a few leakages here and there, nothing serious which threatens the building structure but lots of small issues which will need to be addressed in the long, if not short term.
Most builders will send maintainence people to attend to your complaints (at least till the time the society is formed), but these people will just do a cover up job which will mask your problem and not actually solve it. The aim of the builder here is to procrastinate as much as possible and avoid buyers till the time the society is registered and he hands over the day to day functioning of the building to them.
Nothing much you can really do here, if you are still looking at houses and close to shortlisting one, please insist that the builder fixes all the visible flaws BEFORE you get possession of the house. If you have already bought the house the your best bet is to highlight these flaws to the builder AND the provisional / managing  committee of the building society, you will need to do a lot of follow up to actually get some work done.
Parking:
The thumb rule here is that most builder force you to buy 1 parking at least for a 2bhk house and 2 for 3.5/4 bhk houses. If you want more than one parking while buying a 2bhk house, the builder will discourage you by saying that you can buy it later or that some open parking is available. Here lies the catch, the builder has limited parking spaces for sale and by hoarding this precious commodity he is trying to maximize returns for himself. When you actually approach him later on for that additional space, he will quite a price 1.5-2 times the original rate.
Another common problem you will face is that the open parking (which is supposed to be free to all residents / visitors) is sometimes much smaller that what was actually committed, because the builder hardly earns any money from this he is not really interested is providing this facility. A scarier version of this problem is when your builder runs out of covered / basement parkings and starts selling open parking spaces. Technically this is illegal according to BMC, but rarely is any action taken against builders. The only option here is that you and your managing committee take this issue up with the builder aggressively and threaten legal action. I don't predict a very high success rate with this action but it worth taking a chance.
Society Formation / Managing Committee:
Am sure most of your will agree that the most entertaining part of living in a large building complex is the society meetings. Usually when people start coming to stay in the building/s the residents form a provisional committee amongst themselves to coordinate with the builders office on various issues and to pass on information to other residents.
Most of the times, the initial committee will find itself at loggerheads with the builder. This is mainly because the builder takes advance maintainence for 12 / 18 / 24 months from you at a particular rate but the actual maintainence cost is much lesser. Secondly in most cases this advance maintainence money is supposed to include property tax for the first year at least. When the committee brings this to the builders notice, he will come up with some opaque explaination which usually does not make any sense. Then the builder will question the validity of the committee and ask if they enjoy the full confidence of the members of the society. I saw the same script being repeated at 3 different building complexes.
Most common area where the builder cons you are:
 - Not paying maintainence for unsold flats
 - Not paying  / negotiating the property tax with BMC and leaving the residents with a high bill in the end.
 - Claiming that the money for maintainence is over and trying to pass on all responsibility to the society.
 - Not paying any maintainence / tax for the flat in the building which he uses as a sales / admin office.

In the end there is nothing really which you can do to force the builders hand if he has decided to screw you. Your only recourse is complaining aggressively to your society and maybe taking legal action which will drag on for ages. The bigger builders will be slightly more careful here because they have other upcoming projects, so they would not want negative feedback from present ones to affect them. However that does not mean that they will be completely honest and fulfill all their promises. It is in the DNA of a a builder in Mumbai to take buyers for a ride and he will do so. This is simply because the laws and the administration in Maharashtra are completely skewed in favour of the builder's lobby.
Let this not discourage you, if you keep your eyes and ears open and fight for your rights you will end up with a decent deal.
Hope this advice helps. Feedback most welcome.

So Long and Thanks for the House..

I have been writing about my experiences in searching for a house and buying one over the past few weeks. This is the final post in this series when I finally get the keys to my dream house.

Story so far: After unsuccessfully searching through property portals I finally found a buyer for my house in Navi Mumbai. I started searching for a house in Chembur in Mumbai and found one within my budget, had a traumatic experience in getting a home loan.

Once a bank gives you a sanction letter for that elusive home loan, do not under any circumstances think that all your troubles are over and the bank will easily disburse the amount sanctioned. The bank still has a couple of tricks up its sleeve, namely the legal and technical evaluation of the house.

The legal is a straightforward step where the bank just goes through your registered agreement with the seller (in case you approach them for a loan after registering) or examines the draft sale agreement, this is mainly to ascertain the agreement value and the facilities / amenities and space included in it. Banks have a panel of legal advisors who do this and it takes 1-2 working days. Since most agreements are in a standard format, this should not give you any trouble.

Then comes the killer, the technical evaluation and the valuation. Technical evaluation means examining the building plans and permissions and determining if it matches what the seller is offering you. Typical documents which are checked are the municipal corporation / relevant authority approved building construction plans showing the areas of the flats and the Occupation Certificate given to the builder by the relevant authority (BMC in Mumbai). An OC (currently in news because of the Adarsh scam) is granted to the builder only when the entire construction is done as per the approved plans and all the relevant approvals are held.

Now if you are buying an under construction property, the OC is not required, just a copy of the commencement certificate (a document which allows the builder to start construction as per the approved plans) is required. Once the banks technical team (or an outsourced firm) checks these documents and ascertains they are in order they send a technical team to visit the house and confirm if its built as per plans and specifications. Be very very scared if you are buying a house in Navi Mumbai, because most builders here use their own concept of super built up area (to charge you extramoney), and usually it never matches the super built up area they are claiming to sell you. That’s one of the reasons why most agreements have carpet area (the actual usable area) mentioned. This is a problem typically with the smaller builders, none of the big guns will screw around like this because they depend of the banks to fund them as well as their customers.

Once the banks has checked the approvals and physically matched the specifications a bank appointed firm does a valuation of the apartment. This is where most of us get screwed. The banks sanction letter has a killer line in the fine print ‘ Bank shall disburse 80-90% (whatever is approved) of the agreement + stamp duty and Registration value OR 80-90% of the valuation conducted by a bank appointed firm whichever is lower’. This is the line which killed me both the times (in 2007 as well as 2010). Most of the times the valuation done by the banks valuers is lower then the agreement value. However most banks are accommodating here and have some sort of an understanding with the valuers and manage to get the desired valuation. Once again MNC and PSU banks screw you here and they refuse to manage this aspect leaving you in the lurch in the last minute.

Just imagine your situation when your bank informs you at the last minute (just a couple of days before you have committed final payment to the seller) that they will disburse Rs 4-5 lakhs less due to valuation issues. If you are on a tight budget like me, managing to arrange this amount in just 2 days is a tall order and can cause immense stress. Its too late to even go to another bank because the process of approval takes 5-6 days minimum. In some cases the seller has a clause in the agreement which enables him to charge you a penalty or interest on delayed payment screwing you further.

To cut a long story short, I faced this issue but luckily I am a bank employee and knew some people around, so a few emails and phone calls later the home loan department agreed to increase my valuation basis the podium parking (a 1st or 2nd floor parking area) which my builder had allocated to me (god bless him) which in the eyes of the valuation agency is much more expensive than a stilt (which is a standard covered ground floor parking) or a basement parking (I thought a basement is more expensive to build with the digging and all).

A few tips to tackle the final leg of this loan disbursal journey:

- I would strongly suggest going in for a bank approved project (if under construction) simply because the banks have all the documents required and wont pester you for it and also because the valuation is not an issue here because of an implicit agreement between the bank / financial institution and the builder.
- If you are buying a ready possession property directly from a builder, please go through a bank which has funded transactions in that building, makes life easier.
- Some banks / institutions agree to check the valuation upfront and let you know if there might be a problem with disbursement. Notably ICICI (in some cases) and HDFC. This is great news because the stress later on is just not worth it.
- If you are buying a ready possession property which is more than 2 years old from a seller and the society is not formed then you are screwed. MNC and PSU banks wont fund you. Private Banks will take a call on a case to case basis. Your best bet would be NBFCs like Deewan Housing, Indiabulls etc.
- In the above case if the society is not formed a NOC from the builder is needed to complete the sale. Most builders charge a fee for it. Currently in the Mumbai market the buyer and seller pay this fee jointly (usually in a 50-50 ratio).
- If you are buying a flat from a seller and a society has been formed, please check beforehand that the society has all the relevant documents which your bank / NBFC might require. In case the society is very old and has lost documents, please don’t bother wasting time with banks and head to NBFCs.

Wait my dear prospective home buyer, if you tackle the valuation leg do not think that disbursement is just a day away. Banks in this country still have some ridiculous rules to screw you. Some idiotic banks insist that the builder submit his KYC (not the firm of the builder like Raheja Constructions but Mr Raheja himself), obviously the builder will ask you to take a hike if you ask for it because he does not have any dealing with your bank and is not expected to share his personal documents without any rhyme or reason. In such a case, please scream at your bank, threaten to drag them to RBI and make a huge noise so the bank will finally relent and waive this condition.

Some general tips which I might have forgotten in my earlier posts:
- HDFC rocks in the business of giving home loans, they have been doing this business successfully for many years and is fair and transparent to its customers. In case you are looking at speed (occasionally with some errors) go to ICICI Bank.
- Please avoid MNC Banks as far as possible as they are very rigid with their rules and will give you attention only if you are a private banking or a client who gives them lots of mutual fund and insurance business.
- Go to PSU only if you know the branch manager very well and the rates are low enough to justify the long wait for approval and disbursal.
- Please make enquiries with prospective neighbors about the builder, if possible read the society notice board. You might find out something you didn’t know. Please discuss it upfront and get a clarification from the builder before signing on the dotted line.

So finally after two months of struggling with banks, agents, property portals and builders I finally paid off my builder and got possession of my new 2BHK house in Chembur. Hope the blog posts are helpful and make you prevent the stress and sleepless nights which I spent in this process. Your feedback and suggestions are hugely appreciated.

The Househunting Chronicles - Part 3 - The return of the Banker

Story till now: I had purchased a property in Nerul on the outskirts of Mumbai in early 2008. I finalized a sale transaction for the property recently and started looking for houses near Chembur in Mumbai close to where my parents stay. Had shared a few observations about the entire process in my previous blog posts.

Having finalized my dream home and paying a token to the builder, I started another painful process called 'Searching for a Home Loan'. Having taken a loan for my last purchase in 2008, I was quite experienced with the process and was aware of the various steps and processes. Since I had spent many sleepless nights in 2008 worrying about my loan disbursement I decided not to take any chances this time. My plan was simple - Apply to 2-3 banks at the same time and take the loan from the one which gives the best deal in terms of interest rate and speed of disbursement.

For the uninitiated let me first take yo guys through the process of a home loan sanction and disbursement in India. (Disclaimer: This is not a moronic Economic Times type articles meant for the retards)

Step 1: The collection of documents. Since I belong to the salaried class I shall cover aspects mainly related to my clan. If you have less than 2 years of work experience, please don't bother applying to a Private, MNC or a PSU bank for a home loan, you are better off trying with a NBFC.
Basic documents you will need are:
 - Salary Slips (3-6 months depending on the bank which you are applying to
 - Form 16 (1 - 3 years depending on the bank which you are applying to)
 - Bank Account statement (6 months minimum, and this is for the account into which your salary is paid)
 - PAN card copy (everyone needs it)
 - Identity and Address proof (Driving License or Passport Copy)
 - Photographs (1-4 depending on the bank where you apply)
 - IT returns (1-3 years, usually Form 16 should do, but some banks insist on this)

These are some basic documents which every bank asks for. I suggest that you make 3-4 sets and keep them ready. Please ensure that you sign on each and every page of all the documents. Most banks do this to confirm that the documents received are from prospective customer only and not someone else (to prevent fraud).

Now for the silly document requests.
 - Copies of degree / post graduation certificates (some PSU banks)
 - Copies of repayment records and closure letters of past loans (once again PSU banks and some NBFCs)
 - Recommendation letters from branch managers where you took education loans in the past (Bank of baroda actually asked me for this)
 - Appointment letter from present employer (some private banks and most PSU banks ask for this)
Tips:
 - If you are applying for a joint loan with the wife / husband, please keep a copy of your marriage certificate ready. if you haven't bothered getting your marriage registered forget about applying for a joint loan. (more tips about obtaining a marriage certificate in a later post)
 - If you have any personal loans / educational loans / car loans please mention it truthfully in the application form, else the bank credit will get back saying you withheld information from them.
 - There is a difference between a co-applicant and a joint applicant. A co applicant is a stupid concept introduced by banks to ensure that someone takes over the liability in case you die, the co applicants financials wont be considered for loan eligibility and he / she need not be a joint owner of the property. A joint applicant is also a joint owner of the property and his / her financials are considered to increase your loan eligibility.
 - If your loan amount is small (below Rs 25 lakhs) even Sales executives will throw attitude and collect your documents according to their convenience.

Step 2: Logging in the documents
This is where the home loan executive collects your documents and creates a file in your name. The file is checked for discrepancies like missed signatures, information missing from the home loan application form etc. In case there is any discrepancy then the executive will contact you again and get it rectified. Finally when your file is complete in all aspects, it is logged in the operations department of the Home loan vertical. This process is almost uniformly followed by most banks.

Tips:
 - The worst time to log in your file would be the last five days of a month. The executive will keep avoiding you on one pretext or the other. Most of them have disbursement targets and they are running around to get the disbursals in the cases which are already sanctioned. The best time to send your documents for processing would be the first 10 days of the month.

Step 3: The Verifications
This is a two part process, the first part consists of verification of your home and office address and telephone numbers. The second part consists of verifying your CIBIL records to check for any past defaults in loan payments / credit cards.

Tips:
 - In case you have a friend working in the credit card department of any bank please use your charm and get a copy of your CIBIL report for free beforehand. You can also get it through a painful process through the CIBIL site which is best avoided. Usually banks look for a CIBIL score of 750+ to sanction a loan
 - If you have some late payments in your credit card or personal loan accounts worry not, they are unsecured loans and a home loan is a secured one so the late payments don't matter so much. However a default is a serious matter and might result in you application being declined.
 - Many a times (especially with PSU banks) you repay a loan and they forget to update the CIBIL records. Always ensure that you have documentary proof of a loan repayment (statement / closure letter). This is important because outstanding loans on your CIBIL file will reduce your loan eligibility.

Step 4: The Approval
This is where the people in the credit department approve your home loan amount and give the go ahead to another department to issue the sanction letter to you.

This is just the start, we still have 2 more painful processes lined up which I shall cover in my next blog post. The technical and legal evaluation of the property can make or break your deal.

General Tips and Observations:
 - The first thing you need to be aware is how much loan you want and for how long. Private Banks usually finance 85% of the property value (this includes agreement value + stamp duty + registration). ICICI bank goes up to 89% in some cases. Banks like Kotak do this for their employees but not for external customers. PSU banks are generally more chindi and sometimes do only upto 80%. MNC banks also usually do 85%, for some senior employees they go upto 90%. So if your agreement value is 90 lakhs ad stamp duty and registration works out to Rs 10 lakhs. Most banks will want to give you only Rs 80 lakhs to Rs 85 lakhs. Rest has to be paid from your own pocket BEFORE loan disbursal. Bank will also ask you to show your account statement to evidence that the payment was indeed made from your own account.
 - In case you wish to get 90% funding, ICICI Bank or an NBFC (Indiabulls / Reliance / Dewan Housing Finance) would be your best bet. The interest rates in the NBFCs will be slightly higher (0.5% to 1% more thank bank rates).
 - Please make it very clear to all bank executives that you are negotiating with 2-3 banks for rates and approval terms, ensure that they give you an option to stop processing your papers once you have finalized something with a competitor. Once the sanction letter is out, no one will refund your processing fees.
 - Some banks (like HSBC) give 25 year loans, this is really helpful to increase your loan eligibility and reduce EMIs.
 - Some banks like Standard Chartered and HSBC have an interest saving product called Smart Home / Interest Saver. Its a very good product where all your savings go into a savings account linked to your home loan account. The tenor of your home loan keeps increasing according to the savings kept in your account.
 - Most banks have a tie up with General / Life Insurance providers to provide you with a term cover on your loan which reduces with your outstanding. Simply out, if you die the insurance company pays off your home loan and the property belongs to your family. However some banks force you to buy the insurance product and some even club the premium amount with your loan amount hence reducing your payout to the builder. Make it very clear to the sales executive if you want the insurance or not and ensure that the premium amount is kept out of your loan sanction.
 - Loan eligibility norms of most banks differ, however from experience I can safely say that PSU banks will show that you have the lowest loan eligibility. Private bank sand MNC banks are better.
 - If you are looking for low interest rates only please go to a PSU bank, however be warned that the sanction process takes 10-15 days there and largely depends on your relationship with the Branch Manager. Disbursal takes a further 15-20 days as their technical and legal evaluation procedures are too lengthy.
 - If the project is pre-approved / approved (for under construction properties) by a bank it makes a lot of sense to apply for a loan there as the legal and technical evaluation is already done. For a property which is for ready possession and if you are buying through a builder please enquire and find out which banks have financed flats in the building and approach those to reduce the time to disbursal.
 - Resale properties (where you are buying from the house owner) are slightly trickier. Most banks wont touch a flat if the building cooperative society is not formed yet. If the society is not formed please talk to the sales executive upfront and give your papers for processing only if he confirms that his bank finances such projects. Better still, give a copy of the previous sale agreement and related documents to the sales executive so that he can check and confirm.
 - If you are buying a property in Navi Mumbi be careful, two main issues: firstly the way the builders calculate super built up there is totally different from the way Mumbai city builders calculate it. As a result my 865 sq ft Chembur apartment is larger than my 970 sq ft Nerul one. Secondly there are two types of building plots Gaothan plots where the builder has purchased land from a villager who used to own it and CIDCO plots where the developmental authority (CIDCO in this case) sells the plot directly to the builder. Most banks will easily finance the second case and stay away from the first one. This is simply because in a Gaothan plot other family members of the villager might stake a claim to the plot in future and demand money from the builder and the property might get involved in a legal dispute. However a Gaothan plot becomes cool once a society if formed.

Enough gyan about the loan approval part for now. Please to let me know your views and feedback.

Coming Soon: So Long and Thanks for the House (where we evaluate the technical and legal aspects of a loan disbursal)

Previous posts about Househunting:
The Joke called Property websites
The Broker strikes back

The Househunting Chronicles: Part 2 - The Broker strikes back

In my last post I mentioned how property portals like MagicBricks and 99Acres have been useless in helping me find a property to buy which fits within my budget (upto Rs 90 lakhs). I was resigned to using the neighbourhood brokers to continue my search. So armed with the numbers of some brokers me and my dad started doing rounds of their offices.

Stop 1: A fat lady who claims to have sold many many houses in the area asks us point blank if we have the money to buy a property. I felt quite offended by the rude question and offered an irritated response saying that why else would we come to her. To this the lady said that she merely wanted to confirm if the deal for my Nerul property had been concluded and if I had the money to make a downpayment. That angered me and we walked out. I hated her attitude and made a mental note to ensure that I mention this to all my friends and acquaintances who were planning to buy a property in Chembur.

Stop 2: The real estate brokerage arm of one of the leading MNC banks of the country. This one was recommended to me by the wife. Their executive calls us to Diamond garden and promises to show us a 2BHK flat near Amar Cinema at Chembur, the cost of the flat isRs 75 lakhs. We reach at the given time, wait for 15 mins for the guy to show up, he leads the way on his bike and we follow in my car. Instead of taking a left turn to go towards Amar Cinema he takes a right and starts leading me towards Basant Cinema. I wonder if we heard wrong. He stops at a building there and says he is showing us a 3BHK flat now and will show us the 2BHK after that. We point out that we dont want a 3BHK becuse its not within my budget, he gives me the usual broker bullshit 'Sir dekh to lo, kya pata pasand aa jayega'. We see the house and like it a lot, but its quoted at Rs 1 cr so obviously beyond my budget. I once again mention my budget to the guy and tell him that I want to see house that are below this or equal to this amount. He nods his head. Next to took me to a building in the middle of nowhere and showed me a tiny pigeonhole which had rooms as big as my kitchen (seriously, I am not joking). The quoted price for the house was Rs 75 lakhs. No way on earth was I even going to consider it. The executive later called my wife and offered to show similar good properties, thankfully she politely declined.

Stop 3: My parents then went to the broker who had helped my Dad rent an office in Chembur. He showed them around 5-6 properties which either they did not like or were way beyond our budget. Finally he showed them a project which quoted an affordable rate and he claimed that he had done a deal a month ago at a rate which was Rs 200 per square ft lower than the amount quoted by the builder. Parents loved the property and told me about it. I too was kicked about it because it was a 16 storeyed tower with a swimming pool, club house and all that jazz. However I wanted to approach the builder directly and negotiate a rate. Here I made a big mistake, in my eagerness to get that Rs 200 discount, I told my Dad that we should inform the broker and tell him that we will give him a brokerage only if he manage to get us substantial discount.
A time was fixed and we headed to the builders office, the broker didn't bother calling us before the meeting. However when we were looking at the flat which we wanted to book, he called my Dad. Now I was irritated with him because he didn't bother calling us before and also because my friends recommended I deal directly with the builder, so I asked Dad to make an excuse and cut him out. Dad said he was out and would call him later. After looking at the flat we walked back to the builders office and our beloved broker was waiting for us there.
We began our negotiations with the builders representative, Mr Broker just kept quiet. My Dad finally told him to get us a good discount else he wont get his brokerage, so his highness finally 'requested' the builder "Sir, thoda kam kar dijiye please". I was irritated beyond my wits. Somehow we concluded our negotiations with Dad and My best friend (who is quite knowledgeable about property deals) being the major participants and managed to get a price which just about fitted into our budget. However the discount which we got was nowhere close to what the broker promised my dad.
Later on we found out that in fact this particular broker had not even closed the deals he was mentioning. And the price at which he quoted he closed the deal was also incorrect, the actual price was much higher. It seems he just made up the story to impress us and ensure that he gets something out of this deal.

We finalised the property and paid a token to the builder directly, Mr Broker-Who-wanted-a-small-cut was nowhere to be found and we decided to cut him out of the deal. If he comes back to fight Dad might give him a small token amount simply for the effort he put in to show them some properties.

Learnings:
1. Most brokers wont even show interest in you if your budget is small, they will throw massive attitude and behave as if they are doing you a favour by showing you some houses.
2. A lot of brokers tend to boast about the deals which they have done and their great contacts. Ideally you should make discreet enquiries within your circle, if that's not possible observe the broker closely. How soon can the broker get the keys to a flat, how soon can he get you a meeting with the owners etc will tell you a lot about how effective the broker is.
3. If a builder still has a site office in a ready possession project, do not even think of going through a broker. The builder will obviously give you a bigger discount as he does not have to pay the broker. Going through a broker makes sense only when the broker can ensure you a fixed discount over the last quote of the builder.
4. For under construction projects, ALWAYS talk to the builder directly.
5. A broker will usually try to show you flats which he wants to sell not what you want to buy. So if you want a 2BHK within a budget of 80 lakhs, he will show you a 3BHK with a budget of 1 cr first. Some brokers do this to show you how property rates are high and your budget is ridiculous, some do it in the hope that maybe you will like the property and might exceed your budget in trying to buy it.
6. The brokerage of the broker is ALWAYS negotiable.

Services you should insist your broker provide:
1. Negotiating the rate as per your budget not a compromise between what the owner wants and whats your final limit.
2. Helping you resolve any payment disputes / delays with the owners
3. Helping you with documentation (property related) for bank loans

There is a breed called as a 'good' and 'effective' broker, although its in danger of extinction. Finding one of this species will take some time and you might have to deal with lots of assholes

The joke called property websites

I recently sold my house in Nerul, Navi Mumbai and plan to buy a flat near my parent's house in Chembur in Mumbai soon. I consider myself tech savvy, so instead of doing rounds of the offices of  Real estate brokers, I decided to use technology to help myself find a buyer (for the flat in Nerul) and a seller (for a flat in Chembur). Have jotted down some observations and experiences in this process.

The Selling Part:
After checking with friends and searching the net, I shortlisted two websites where I wanted to post my property 99Acres and MagicBricks. The listing part was easy and within a couple of days of listing my property I started getting responses through SMS and E-Mails. Most of these responses were from brokers in the area. Despite having posted ALL the detail about the house (Area, exact location, expected price, full cheque payment expected etc), I kept on getting calls from brokers asking for these basic details again and again. Even when I reiterated that all the details are on the sites and I could give them the property id on the site to check them out these morons insisted that they could not see the details on the site and only my phone number was visible.
Within a week of registering on MagicBricks I could not see the contact details of the people who had responded to my post, I could view the contact details only if I bought a listing package from them which cost around Rs 1000 for a month. Since I wanted to reach out to a wide audience I relented and purchased the listing package. 99Acres was slightly better, they allow a months free listing and then give you the option to go in for a paid one. As soon as the month was over their sales executives started calling me for an upgrade, which I agreed to, once again I paid Rs 1000, but I got a listing for 3 months instead.
Having paid for a premium listing on both the sites, the response picked up gradually and I started getting quite a few calls (2-3 on a weekday and 5-6 on weekends). the only disappointing fact was that 90% of these calls were from brokers who made me painfully narrate each and every detail about the property again and drove me to a point of severe irritation.
Finally my property deal was finalised, but not through any broker or a prospect through these sites, it was a relative of a family who stayed in my building who was interested. It was the old friend, family and neighbour network which came to my rescue.

Learnings:
1. These sites are helpful to get the market to know that you are selling, but be prepared that 90% of your responses will be brokers. Still it saves you the trouble to go to meet them individually.
2. Most brokers are not so tech savvy (at least in Navi Mumbai), they have an office boy or a receptionist sitting and searching these sites for listing by Owners of properties and then call them for details. No one bothers to read your post properly.
3. These property sites are quite money minded (especially MagicBricks) and expect you to pay for listing your property. However the listing is cheaper than a classified ad in a newspaper andguarantees better response. So its quite VFM actually.

So, If you are looking to sell your property, I would definitely recommend a listing in property portals. Even if you don't want to pay commission to a broker, it helps you get an idea of what the market is offering, besides it always helps to have a couple of offers from brokers on the table when you negotiate with direct parties. Just a word of caution, please be patient and prepared to explain each and every detail of your property over the phone to these brokers. And remember, most families prefer seeing houses on afternoons on weekends, so be prepared for lots of calls during that time (I suffered a lot because of this as I usually try to catch up on sleep on Sunday afternoons).

The Buying Part:
I am looking to buy a 2BHK apartment in Chembur. I based my budget on listings available on 99Acres and MagicBricks. I tried searching for 2BHK apartments between Rs 60 lakhs and Rs 80 lakhs in Chembur on through 99Acres (in fact they just have a Rs 60 Lakhs to Rs 1 Cr option to search) and got 19 responses which were within my criteria, for the same criteria in MagicBricks I got over 100 responses. So obviously I was happy that property prices are still not so high and I will finally be able to buy that house within my budget. I planned accordingly and started saving money, liquidated some investments and prepared myself to buy a flat within a couple of months (this was beginning of Sep-10). Being the planner that I am, I did not call any of the listings till I had some money ready for downpayment / token, the bank loan part could be taken care of later.
So finally I started calling these listings on Sunday, as expected, more than 95% of the listing were through brokers. On calling them, most of them quoted a price between Rs 90 lakhs and Rs 1.20 Cr for a 2BHK flat in Chembur, when I pointed out that their listing on the site said something else they said that that property was sold and now they have properties in this range only. The first two times, I thought maybe this is true, its quite easy to sell a 2BHK in Chembur for Rs 75 lakhs. But then after calling 8 different brokers I realised all of them were bullshitting. They just buy bulk listing on these sites, the property description for every 2BHK sounds the same and the actual location is almost never ever mentioned ( a few exceptions to this), all the prices are between Rs 70 lakhs to Rs 80 lakhs and ALL the brokers claimed that these properties were just sold off last week.
After being disappointed by the broker clan, I decided to check if any actual owners had listed their properties. I found zero matches on 99Acres and around 10 matches on MagicBricks. Once again I was in for a disappointment when I called the so called owner, I realised that he was a broker and had only listed himself as an owner to get more responses.
Some brokers have offered to show me some apartments in Chembur in the bracket of Rs 80 lakh plus but I am not so hopeful and have resigned myself to a long wait. In fact some brokers didn't even talk properly when they were informed that my budget was ONLY upto Rs 80 lakhs, a couple promptly cut off my call rudely and did not even bother to pick up when I called subsequently.

Learnings:
1. 95% of listings to sell properties on property portals are by brokers. All the properties listed by a particular broker will have similar description and no indication of the actual location of the property within a locality.
2. Most low prices quoted are only to attract buyers, almost all the brokers will claim that the property was sold recently and now the rate has increased by 10-15%. In fact one particular broker had 5 2BHK flats listed for Rs 75 lakhs, he coolly told me that there must be some mistake on the site and they must have listed 5 such flats by mistake, the only one he had was sold last week only.
3. If you wish to search for a house in any locality in Mumbai through a property portal, please be prepared to pay brokerage fees + 10 - 15% to the average cost of apartments quoted on the websites.

So if you wish to purchase a property, use these portals only as indicators. None of the listings on them are reliable and most of the brokers are listed only to reach out to prospects. A trip to your neighbourhood broker is highly recommended. I have once again put all my hopes on the friend, family and neighbours network to get something within my budget and would recommend you do the same.