House hunting… anyone?

It is said that a person who owns a house has only one house to live in, but a person who doesn’t has the whole city full of houses for him to choose from! Wow! looks wonderful on print, but is it really easy to find a house on rent or lease in the Garden City? Well I just learnt a thing or two about this in the last couple of weeks.

I have never really set foot into house hunting. I have been blessed with the pleasure of having my own roof over my head for quite a while now. So, when one of my friends wanted help in house hunting, I was excited to try my hand at this new adventure. I wanted to do it by myself to get first hand information about this art.

I stay in a residential area strewn abundantly with lovely houses, some of which are ready to be let out. The trick was to identify the ones that are vacant and the ones that are occupied. Well, start off with a survey of the locality, that’s what I thought is the best approach. Armed with the mobile and the Airtel network I set off, making stops at each and every “To-Let” boards and dialing the numbers that were displayed prominently. Some of the conversations were pretty interesting:

Me: “Hello, I am calling with ref to your To-let board in HSR layout”
He: “Helooo!, which sector of HSR?” (Apparently this was not the only house that the guy had to let out ).
Me: “Sector 7, 22nd cross.”.
He: “Oh, ok.. That is a beautiful 3 bed-room house, with excellent interiors,, wonderful neighbors… etc etc.. the rent would be 12K pm, plus a monthly maintenance change of Rs 300 water and electricity will be extra, plus...”.
Me: “Wow! That is a wee bit expensive..”
He: “Ok, what is the range that you are looking at?” (Sounding like a typical salesman at a cloth store)
Me: “Well, I am looking for a place for my friend, who is a bachelor and lives alone, so 1bhk should do fine”.
He: “Hmm.. actually if you walk down a couple of metres there is one more building that is ready to be let out.. but that one has only 1 room, we can make a kitchen.”.
Me: “Make a kitchen?”( I was totally confused)
He; “Well, we will get a table which can be used to prepare coffee, bread toast etc., that will be charged extra of course... and we make it a point that there should be at least 2people staying in the same room.”
Me: “Huh? I told you my friend is a bachelor who stays alone….”
He:. “Well, he needs to get a room mate.. And the rent for the room (pigeon hole) is 5,000 pm.”
Me: “How big is this room we are talking about?”
He: “Well large enough for 4 people to live comfortably that is the reason we insist that each room should have at least 2 people. Its always better to stay with a friend than to stay alone.. you will have someone to share your joys and sorrows.. And so on...”. (whoa!! what concern!)
Me: “Thanks. I’ll get back to you..”
He: “If he is really not interested in getting a room-mate, there is another place that is a bit smaller… another couple of metres away.. “

I had to be impolite and disconnect the call.

The next guy I met in person..

Me: “Hi, I just saw your ad that you have a house to let?’
He: “Well, “had” would be better; all the houses are taken, there is one though on the third floor”
Me: “Can I have a look at it?”
He: “Is it for you?”
Me: “For my friend” The guy gave me a really quizzical look…I got the point on time and added “He is a bachelor, works in Electronics City” (stressing on the “He” a bit harder)
He: “Ok, Go ahead and have a look” (Still refusing to remove the stare from his face”
I did have a look and return to get the details of the rent and other conditions..
Me: “What is the rent you are expecting?”
He: “Are you going to decide for your friend?”
Me: “Does it matter? I need to give him the details, right?”
He: Hesitating considerably, still staring...” that would be 4K pm, electricity and water extra”
Me: “Thanks, I will have my friend take a look”
He: “Where is he staying now? Why does he want to move from there? ( .. and I thought that such questions were asked only at Job interviews!)
Me: “I will bring him over, you can ask him yourself”

I had to stop the barrage of questions and leave some for my friend to answer!!

There was another person whom I contacted who said that the house was really cool, brand new etc. The reality was that it was new to the point of not having completed the circle of construction! Another friend provided a contact who in turn directed me to a couple other house owners... all had the same issues, either the house was too big, or too small, but either way too expensive!!

At this point, I just decided that it does not hurt to get help. I requested a real estate agent to help me and instantly he referred me to a house that was actually located just a couple of metres from my own house!! Hmm...These people are really good at what they do. I just lived so close by and did not know that the house was vacant! I guess the deal is closed here and my friend feels the house is ok.

Whoa that was one crazy experience! My phone rang a couple of minutes later and I was glad to speak to another good friend after a long time..but wait until you hear what he said.." Vidhu, I need a house yaar... a two BHK.. in and around HSR, and its kinda urgent.. do you think you can help?"