Make it simple: Choose your property online

These days anything and everything can be bought by a click of a button. To buy eatables, gift items, electrical and electronic items, furniture, home décor items, garments and the list goes endless, it is just simple, search for a store nearby and order it and the item will be on your doorstep soon.

Though the joy of personal selection will be missing in such purchases, people are increasingly opting for online mode to buy items of their choice due to lack of time and other factors.

All through the years, purchasing of properties has been done through traditional ways - through agents, word of mouth or advertisements and with mushrooming of property websites offering host of services, the process of buying a home or renting a house has become pretty simple.

There are however, risks involved in buying a property through online websites such as lack of personal inspection and buying at rates more than the actual value, etc. But still people use websites overwhelmingly to short-list property, either for buying/selling or rental.

“Today people begin their preliminary property search through online. Since cities like Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Delhi are having very high penetration of internet, this is working well for prospective home buyers to select their dream home at any point in time. Many property portals operating today are providing information about newly constructed, under construction projects and resale properties,” says Kishor Pate, CMD of Amit Enterprises Housing.

With hundreds of property portals offering hosts of services, one would wonder how to select the right website which provides authentic information about the required details?

Almost all websites provide user-generated information about properties across India and paid details of properties on sale or rent posted by consultants. So, authentication becomes difficult. No website would guarantee on the information provided on their websites. Buyers have to spend time to visit the property personally and verify the vital information.

‘Relying solely on property portals is not advisable. The information they provide can be incomplete and sometimes even misleading,” says Kishor.

For instance, home seekers scanning the Internet are generally look for the cost advantage of investing in an under-construction project. Naturally, the primary search would be based on the price. However, Internet searches based solely on city, location and price can generate skewed or insufficient results.

“Aspiring property buyers should understand that while buying a flat in an under-construction project by a well-funded and reputed developer is safe, an incomplete project by fairly new or unknown builder would not give such assurance. Also, it is generally believed that well-known developer’s reputation gives a sort of assurance as for as quality of fittings and construction as a whole. But this is not always true. There may be instances that even reputed builders’ projects had met with rough weathers affecting the aspirations of scores of homebuyers,” says Vinoth Mishra, Managing Director of Big City developers, a Chennai-based construction company.

Choosing homes through online websites has become an order of the day. But, one has to check the details provided before signing on the dotted lines. Checking the area, builder’s reputation and facilities and amenities mentioned should become the priority during the initial states of home buying. As the next step, the buyers should get the copies of vital papers such as parent documents, sale deed, patta, chitta, adangal, encumbrance certificate etc., which should be thoroughly checked through a competent and dependable legal authority. 

Once all the documents are cleared by the lawyer concerned, the buyer should make arrangement to buy the property by asking the seller to prepare the documents for registration of the property.

If the buyer wants to go for a bank loan, he should enter into an agreement of purchase with seller and provide the same as a proof along with other necessary documents.

So, property websites can be at most taken for reference, pinpoint the area of interest, check the area and facilities available, builders’ reputation, getting feedback from buyers about the builders etc.