It is important to remember that purchase of a property in India cannot be an easy experience. For most, first time home purchase is the largest investment ever outlayed. The emotions of buying something so expensive and personal can often cloud our business judgment. Therefore, it is essential that before initiating a house search in India we take complete stock of the current real estate market and keep a few tips in mind.

Identification of a Property Agent and/or Builder:
In india, real estate broking firms are not yet institutionalised. Therefore soliciting a trust-worthy broker becomes the first and foremost step towords making the right decision for purchase of a house. A few ethic and principles that should essentially be guiding a broker are:

Market Knowledge: Thorough knowledge of the property market will add valu in advising clients on the best investment options as well as extnsive market research to assist innegotiating the best rates.

His/Her Integrity: The realtor should never put his own gain above your welfare and must respect your confidentiality and transparency in all dealings. A realtor should be open to share full facts with the client, making ever everything as clear as possible.

Financing/Budgeting: One should adopt a practical viewpoint while ascertaining the budget for financing a property. Whilst, the real estate industry has undergone a transformation and has much more to offfer than earlier, there is clearly a flip-side to the whole aspect. The variety of glamorous housing loan options available coupled with an easy access to cheaper and less complicated housing finance, it is very easy for buyers to lose focus and commit to something outside their sustaining power. While deciding on a budget, it is pertinent to keep in mind that the money spent on housing should commensurate with your other future plans such as education, family and medcial.

One must also carefully look at other additional expenses like stamp duty and registration charges, legal fees, agent brokerage, society transfer charges, cost of renovation/improving the property, cost of furnishing the property and future house tax/property tax payments.

Also, keep in mind that many a time, builders/developers misrepresent facts while booking properties with regards to the gross pricing of the property. The gross price is normally the sum of base price, external development charges, car parking charges, club membership if applicable, Electricity charges, and other maintenance charges.

Identification of Property:
For most of us, buying a property along with end use objective is also seeen as a long-term investment, which forms an asset and can be liquidated in the time of need. It is also a consideration while upgrading ones home where the proceeds from selling the existing property could be utilised to buy the next property. So, resale value/future appreciation factor is an important factor in decision-making.

While noone can guarantee that your home will grow in value, there are steps you can take that maximise your potential gain.

Location is the major aspect that one needs to keep in mind while searching for a house. The idea is to buy a house that will appeal to the largest number of potential future home-buyers. A careful choice of location can minimise potential negative influences.

From clearly an end use standpoint, closeness to workplace/children’s school/college becomes one of the prime steering factors in the choice of location. A few other factors, which should drive the choice of location are:

Neighbourhood: A good neighbourhood along with the right occupant profile plays a key role determining the esteem of the area. Given the changing lifestyle and the burgeoning nuclear family concept, it is important to ensure that the neighbourhood is secure from all aspects and the building has excellent security and maintenance standards.
Civic infrastructure along with a good neighbourhood, it is vital that well maintained access/connecting roads,good power and water supply situation, supports the location. Also, given extreme traffic pressure it shall be a good idea to keep in mind, e.g. if you are NCR Region see if there are any metro stations in the proximity.

Physical infrastructure & proximity to hospitals should be borne in mind before identifying a location. Schools/Colleges, shopping and recreational facilities viz. clubs, restaurants, shopping areas, cinema halls grocery stores are a few other facilities, which add to the positives of the location.

When one sets out to identify a property, it shall be a good idea to keep the above factors in mind. However, if the property is not for immediate use, it whould be a good idea to explore location not fully developed, commanding lower prices, and have the potential to grow with regards to infrastucture and other facilities. This would also allow one to earn some returns on the property in the interim period by way of leasing out to reputed firms thereby easing the burden of the home loan repayments.

Types of the Property
While looking for a property, you need to be clear about the kind of property you like to buy. Mostly buyers have diffliculty in identifying the right type of propery. Although the decision is largely guided by the budget and the quality of the life one sees for himself, the pros and cons of each property type should be analysed.

Independent Houses: Such houses offer the luxury of open spaces plus the structural design can be customised to suit specific needs and requirements. Then there are also problems with regard to maintenance. You have to deal with challenges such as power cuts, irregular water supply and security everyday.

Condominiums: Residential development in India has been typified by a low rise plotted housing. Recent trends suggest a combination of high land and construction costs coupled with the advent of housing societies and private developers, has not only meant that apartments have not only become acceptable, but are gradually becoming the norm.

For example in Delhi & NCR, the important apartment complexes are concentraed in the North Delhi (Rohini), West Delhi (Dwarka, Pitampura, Vikas Puri) and East Delhi (Mayur vihar, Patparganj), Gurgaon & Noida. The maintenance of condminium is either outsourced by the developers or is run by the Resident or Owners Associations and therefore poses very little in facilities for the residents on a day basis. The new apartment complexes in Gurgaon and Noida offer extensive civic amenities such as landscaped garden and jogging tracks, 24 Hour security, 100% power back up, in-house plumbers, electricians and other facilities like swimming pools tennis courts, gymnasiums, etc.

In Mumbai, high-rises are a common feature and generally the maintenance of the building is looked after by a co-operative housing society. In case of new constructions the building maintenance at an intial stage is taken on by builder/developer and as and when new buyers invest into the building a housing society is formed which then takes on the maintenance of the building, common area, security and other aminities some of the newer constructions in Mumbai bost of inernational quality standards wiith a host of amenities viz. swimming pools, health clubs, gardens, children’s play area, ample carparking spaces, superior quality internal finishes, high speed elevators, impressive lobbies and lounge areas.

Heavy construction activity is being witnessed in the central belt of the Parel/Lower Parel/Worli and Prabhadevi area as well as in northern suburbs such as Bandra (W), Khar, Juhu, Andheri, Powai, Malad, Goregaon, etc. Most construction tends to be vertical as parcel of lands are smaller in size therefore multiple stories high rise towers are getting to be a common phenomenon in mumbai.

Old and New Building Constructions
Sale price of a property is generally arrived at on the basis of the actual saleable area or built-up area may be significant as against an old constructions where the difference is negligible.

Some of the advantages of a new construction are additional amenities offered to attract prospective buyers viz. swimming pools, health clubs, garden, additional ample car parking spaces, superior quality construction offering state-of-the-art fire-fighting and security standards and earthquake resistant designs which may not be present in older buildings.

Again, property or municipal taxes in a new building are assessed at a higher rate which tramslates into higher monthly outgoings through the maintenance standards of new buildings are generally supper to an older building.

Multi-Story Dwellings
These are individual plotted housing developments converted into 3-4 dwelling units. More popularly known as builder apartments and commonly found in South of Delhi, Gurgaon and Faridabad.These properties offers a good mix of apartment culture along with relative indpendence. From an affordable viewpont,it is well accepted by consumers, but poses a few logistical issues. The most prominent issue faced by residents is accountability for overall maintenance of the building such as upkeep of common areas, watertank, lift etc. Since the builder wants to accept no responsibility related to the maintenance of property, post-sale of the premises, the building maintenance quit often gets neglected.

Property Value Assessment
Before taking the decision to buy any property, assess wheather the property price is in line with the existing market values. One can avail information on previous transactions from the open market to determine the right price. A good real estate agent would be able to advise on this aspect in term of last transacted sale price, comparable sale transactions for similar quality options.

Search for Property Titles
Once the property price has been negtiated upon, the most crucial step is the title search (examination of original title deeds). This exercise involves a number of legal/technical aspect. Therefore take help of a good lawyer, well versed with property rules and regulations.

Land/Plot Documents
Some essential documents you have to review are chain of conveyance, sale/purchase deeds, partition, gift deed or will, share certificates, electricity bills, society & maintenance bills, No objection certificates (NOCs)from housing societies and builder/collector.

Document of Project & Building
Remember to check reliability of the developer before you commit to any poperty in a new development. Checking the developers past track record and visits to his past projects could ascertion one to large extent about his reputation and deliverables. Timely possession, quality of construction, compliance with buyer’s agreement, especially penalty clauses, providing the amenities mentioned, etc. are a few things which you needs to keep in mind while finding out about a developer.

To validate the above information and to get a better understanding on the developers financial status, you can liaise with financial institution or banks, who are funding the developer.

Verrify documents related to the real estate project:
Development agreement with the land owner if the developer is not the owner of the property. The power of attorney excuted by the land owner in favour of their developer
- Sanctioned zoning plan.
- Approved building plans along with number of floors.
- Commencement certificate.
- Occupation certificate
- Completion certificate.
- Property card.
- Technical verification etc.

To find the quality of the building property, ask a structural enginner for certification.

Stamp Duty and Property Registration:
Enthusiasm of owning a house is such that many people often overlook the need to acquire documents duly certified and stamped, and to check that the buyer has paid the right stamp duty.

Stamp duty is a levy that the government imposes on instruments to velidate them. It is payable either in the form of stamps or through a franking machine that puts a sale on the document with details of the duty paid. Typically the buyers pay the stamp duty to get the property registered in his name unless agreed otherwise.

Registration of the conveyance deed should be carried out by lodging the original stamped agreement with the respective registration office. Stamp duties and registration charges are the obgligation of the buyer.

Another cost to be taken into account in Mumbai is the society transfer charges are typically shared in equal propertion as per market norm or as negotiated upon.

Documentation for a Property Transaction:
Provisional agreement for sale and purchase signed by the purchaser and seller at the negotiated price with certain terms.

- Sales and purchase agreement deed signed by both buyer and seller.
- Mortgage deed signed by the buyer to agree on the mortgage of the property concerned for exchange of loan.

- Sale Deed & Conveyance Deed transfering ownership of a property from a seller to the buyer.

- Share certificates.

The above factors give an insight into the intricacies involved when buying a home in India. Taking a step towards fulfilling these aspirations can be alleviating, however, before really committing to buy a property, it is essential to assess and evaluate your decision from all aspects to ensure that you are making the right choice.

You can visit property listing websites like 2letservice.com, magicbricks.com, 99acres.com, indiaproperties.com, propmart.com etc. to find some houses listed for selling. Do verify the seller's credentials properly before you decide to buy from such online listings.