Are You Being Smart When Buying a Home? Here Are All The Background Checks You Can Do Online.

You are ready to buy or rent a property.

What will be your first step?

I bet one of the two: log into 99acres, CommonFloor, MagicBricks, or similar sites, or tell your trusted broker. Right?

The practice of shortlisting a property to buy or rent online as the first step on aggregator sites has been around for a while.

The trend is still to catch up with full vigor in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities where most of the property transactions still happen physically through brokers, agents, or word-of-mouth. The Covid situation has made a dent in the way transactions happened earlier and has encouraged naysayers to open up online for property hunting.

There’s MUCH MORE to buying a property than searching for one on aggregator sites. Bookmark this post to guide you through this research systematically and understand how to leverage resources available online. Go beyond identifying properties online to other aspects of the buying journey such as buyer reputation, research other properties in the locality, the experience of others with the builder, and how the identified properties compare against each other in quality and pricing, legal checks, lifestyle in the neighborhood, social infrastructure etc.

IC: Valmark

How to get started with shortlisting a property online:

Location and Price

Identifying which location you want to buy a house is the most important step. How do you shortlist a location, you may ask?

Good cues to start with are the location of the school or a neighborhood you feel strongly connected to. Keeping the office location as an anchor for a home may not be a good idea in the long run as people change jobs.

Location and price go tandem. Even though you may feel strongly about a neighborhood it may not work out price-wise like India Nagar, for instance, in Bangalore. The choices are also limited options of large apartments with amenities where kids will feel at home.

Tip: Choose your search criteria wisely on the aggregator sites based on what matters to your most.

Is the Price Right For the Property Chosen Or Is There Room for Negotiation?

You may find a lot of online portals with the discussion around a specific project or area. Try avoiding those as they are mainly dominated by agents. Area-specific discussions take into account all the projects. The members share the property price of various projects in the area. It’s extremely important to do a comparative market analysis of the property’s price quoted by the developer or real estate agent if you have consulted any to ensure that you don’t end up paying more.

To do the analysis, you can best find out the prices of similar properties located in the neighborhood or in the same area through online forums or contact a broker of the specific area.

Tip: Don’t get influenced by price alone if you like a property. All that glitters is not gold. If the reputation of the builder is good for quality, it will come at a cost but one that is worth it in the long run. You don’t want to deal with water drips during heavy monsoon from your roof. 

Builder & Project Reputation

When it comes to online searching, it is advisable that you search for projects by notable developers and also, make sure that the property you’re looking for is RERA registered. Finding out details of the builder’s previously completed projects is the perfect way to do a background check on the builder. You should check details like the experience, the number of ongoing and completed projects in the past, adherence to the delivery time, banks that are registered with, and what buying options are provided to you.

Tip: choose premium builders that do not compromise on quality, finishes, and the way they make you feel. 

Social Infrastructure

When you begin the process of buying property online, you should first try to get an idea about the location. For location accuracy, you can use the online map and get information about educational institutions, commercial establishments, hospitals, and other nearby conveniences. In addition, you can also collect information about future development projects such as the metro, a highway, and any improvements in connectivity as these will eventually lead to property appreciation. Gathering relevant information is now simple.

Background Check

IC: RealtyNXT

Virtual Tour

The truth is technology is shaping the real estate industry like never before with 3 D virtual tours with your safety and convenience in mind. Physical touchpoints will not go away completely but the number of physical site visits will greatly reduce. Why visit every property physically if you can shortlist the plan virtually and get an almost real feel from your couch?

Check out NVT Projects’ virtual tours: Mystic Garden    LIfe Square

Developers typically put up a model flat at the construction site which can be visited by potential buyers to get an idea of how their dream home would look like. But, today in the digital age, real-estate builders offer online tours for the customers – allowing interested buyers to view the project from different angles. One can see the apartment how it will look in the morning or at night, maybe a view from the bedroom’s balcony, and can also compare the floor plans with the neighbourhood’s project.

Payment

When searching for a property from your phone or laptop, you can put filters on price and location and accordingly, explore all the projects that fit within your budget. You can also find the details of the projects you are interested in and contact them directly. Once you get an idea of the project price and the location, you can either contact the builder for the payment procedure of the project. You can also go through several bank websites or contact executives to know about the home loan options. Yes, you can easily explore the payment processes online.

Legal Check Online

It is always suggested that you physically check all the property-related documents with the developer as investing in a property is one of your life’s biggest decisions and costs a large sum. But today there is also an option for the customers to complete the paperwork online, which is easy and instant. But, remember that you collect the following documents form your builder to get a legal ownership title of the property:

• Allotment Letter
• Original Sale Deed
• Payment Challan
• Possession Letter
• Original Lease Deed
• Property Registration Certificate

Here are a few websites where you can get the legal checks done :

• Zippserv 
• Propertychek
• Legal Docs
• Proplegal
• Legal Conclave
• Assureal

Disclaimer: we are not associated with any of them and have not verified the process. So please do your due diligence before engaging with any of them.

Property Reviews

Today, in the digital age, it is so easy to accumulate information or feedbacks about any builders. You can find a number of online portals that discuss the project, customer’s experiences while booking a flat, and a lot more. As it is impossible to make everybody happy, every builder is likely to have some negative feedback, but watch out if the builder has a significant number of negative reviews and opinions from past customers. It is advisable to avoid investing in a project that has very few or no reviews online.

How do they make you feel

These are the vibes that one gets when visiting a property that cannot be described in words. How did the builder’s team make you feel? Did they give you undivided attention, answered your questions, were they professional in talking to you and keeping up their scheduled appointments — these small things go a long way when purchasing a home. These are intangibles for which you cannot put a value.

Tip: you want to feel good when you visit a home and you’ll know it’s the one. Rude behavior is unacceptable.

Some more questions:

Where do I look online for project information?

RERA website of your State: RERA is the most trustworthy source of information online. RERA website of state will provide you with all critical information about the developer and the project. For Karnataka, it is RERA Karnataka

Developer’s website: All reputed developers upload their project related information on their website. Information regarding the project brochure, location, master plan, floor plan, developer’s other projects, ongoing offers, list of real estate agents, etc. can be found on the website.

Online Realty Portals: Property portals like 99 acres, Magicbricks, Commonfloor, etc. provide convenient ways of filtering projects based on locality, apartment type, budget, availability, and area.

Is it possible to find information about the projects online?

Through a thorough online search, you can find a lot of relevant project information online that could enable you to be more informed before a site visit or interaction with any developer’s representative:

Project overview – Developer’s website

Project photos – Developer’s website

Project construction status – RERA website

Project proposed date of completion – RERA website

Project litigations – RERA website

Project approvals – RERA website

Project Real Estate Agents- RERA website

How can I communicate with the real-estate company directly?

If you wish to connect with the developer directly, make sure to go to the official website of the developer and connect on the contact co-ordinates mentioned there. As per RERA, each real estate agent needs to be registered with the authority. RERA provides the registration number along with the registration certificate to every RERA authorized real estate agent.

You can check information of all registered agents through the RERA website by searching for his/her name or Agent registration number

Buyer’s Quick checklist:

• Check-in detail the project and the builder.
• Ensure that the project is registered under RERA
• Ask your builder for a sale deed and NOC
• Ensure you get the OC and CC before possession
• Ensure you’re compensated if the builder terminates the agreement or if there is any delay in possession.