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.

Finding a home is now just a click away

Gone are the days when people solely depended on ‘TO LET’ boards, property consultants or classified ads in a popular daily to find a home on rent or lease. With technological advancement, finding a house of one’s choice has now become less cumbersome.

Internet provides the best and reliable option to find rental homes and there has been several region-specific websites have cropped up which provide accurate choice in terms of accommodation, budget, area and other amenities.

The choice has become so narrow that people are now putting up various demands before finanlising a home. “Our clients even ask for the details about next door neighbours, their economic status, number of car parking and facilities available in the apartments for children etc, which will make the search more difficult for us,” says Mani Priyan, CMD, Vasavi Consultants in Chennai.

He agrees that online sites do provide much more options for people to zero-in on their rental needs or owners to find suitable tenants.

For students or working professionals who are looking for flats in major cities across India, online search option is a boon as they can fix up homes by sitting at their work places itself.

In an ideal renting site, one can find the exact location of the property with available facilities such as transport, schools, hospitals, infrastructure such as banks, shops etc and price listing of each property.

Some sites even provide verified listing of the property or videos of house/flat to cater to the need of tenants. 

“Listings of property with good images or videos get good number of views and bookings. It is indeed a great idea when a house owner offers a virtual tour of his apartment or house on lease or rent,” Vibha Sridhar, Chief Executive Officer of EasyRenting says.

To make the search more enjoyable and less time consuming, her site has recently launched verified listing property facility in Delhi, Noida, Bangalore and planning to launch similar facilities across India in the coming months.

To stay in the competition, some rental sites even send their team to clients’ place to get the picture or video of the property to show in the listing, apart from the accommodation details, the surrounding areas, approach roads, neighbourhood, next door neighbour/s, sanitation and children’s play area.

Such minute details will reduce the number of visits to the property sites by home seekers and make the search more specific.

“We have seen a rental ad about a property in Iyyappanthangal in a famous rental site. The advertiser gave a photo of the building but did not give details like proximity from the main road etc. When we reached the property, though we liked the flat, the infrastructure is awful and the property is 3 km from the main road with no transport facility to the main road. The approach road is also not laid properly. We went to three other properties, and found nothing was in our favour. We lost precious time and energy in finding a right home for us,” says Geeta Vasudevan, who works for TCS and looking for a 2 BHK in Porur area.

“Tenants always look for comfort, security and convenience when they hunt for an apartment. Our team goes to the location, takes videos of the property and then uploads the same on our site. This helps prospective tenants to get a clear picture of the property,” Vibha adds.

When a potential client virtually sees and gets a feel of the property, it becomes easy for him to take a decision faster, and more so, accurately. So, house owners who intend to let out their property for rent in major cities will have an edge over others, when their listings have clear videos. Such facility benefits property owners as well as seekers.