As if rental apartment hunting at a new place is not hard enough, the experience is made a lot harder based on how you are perceived by the real estate agents or the brokers. After 3 weeks of house hunting in Chennai, here are some tips:
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Never tell anyone your budget. Once they know your budget, all houses will be at the budget irrespective of what the owner is looking for. I have seen the same apartment from two brokers one who gave the price Rs. 40000 over the other agent becase she knew what I was willing to pay. The asking price for a house was bumped up by Rs. 50000 by another broker.
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Speak in tamil and not english if at all possible. Once you start speaking in english, you accent is a dead giveaway and they know you are a NRI or an expat.
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Ladies, leave your capris home and switch to salwars. Guys, go local style.
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Never admit that you are a software engineer. If you do, the rates go up as everyone has decided that software engineers are a gold mine. I have no problems paying a premium if I get premium service and a premium price but don’t want to be taken to the cleaners just because.
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Always bargain on the house rent and the commission you will pay. Everything is negotiable.
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Try to avoid deals where there are multiple agents involved. Several of the houses I have seen involve multipe middlemen and makes it very hard to negotiate as everyone wants a cut.
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Look at local newspapers and try to go with listings by owners. Best possible deals if this works.
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And never ever take your kids with an accent that is a dead giveaway!
Good luck.
How did we do finally? We found a place that we really liked and paid a premium for the location and full commission to our shark. Next time, I will be wiser and more local. The good news is that I now know all the streets of Adayar, Thiruvanmiyoor, Valimiki Nagar, MRC Nagar (how many people know what MRC stands for??) and RA Puram.
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Tags: Chennai, house hunting, NRI, real estate brokers, software engineers beware
