Thursday 28 November 2013

Advantages of Living in an Apartment


Written By: Anil Kapilashrami, Co-founder and CEO, roofontop.com

Today, more and more people are moving from individual single family homes into apartments.  Whether they are renting or own their own homes, the trend in Gurgaon, Noida, and Faridabad and the overall National Capital Region (NCR) is clearly in favour of apartment living. Why is this the case?  Below is my perspective on the key benefits of apartment living and why we are all moving in this direction.

Benefits of Apartment Living:

1.       Power Backup – In a place like Gurgaon, where the power situation is extremely bad, apartments provide a huge advantage over single family homes.  100% backup is provided and when the power does go, the backup generators kick-in within seconds.  This is a major-major advantage especially during the scorching summer months, which in the NCR is for a minimum of 6-7 very long months (March – September).  When you have called your friends for dinner, you don’t have to worry whether the oven will work for that new lasagna recipe or whether you will have ice for drinks for your guests.  Also, you won’t have to walk the streets covered in perspiration, along with your fellow bungalow owners in search of a breeze!

      And if you are bold enough to get your own power backup infrastructure –inverter/generator/ups,   you don’t have to run up and down your 2-storey house to reset the malfunctioning unit as the power comes and goes.  The trips to the petrol pump to get diesel are no longer needed and you don’t have to worry about the hired help siphoning off diesel or the arguments with the neighbour regarding the direction of the exhaust fumes from your generator.

2.       Cleanliness – In a gated community the cleanliness of the entire area is looked after by the society/RWA.  There is a labour force to oversee the regular cleaning of the area, the upkeep of the community and to ensure that there is no trash, unkempt leaves, or dog poop in every nook and corner.  We Indians tend to be fascinated with cleanliness within our homes but unfortunately are equally fascinated with dumping our trash right outside our homes.  This is absolutely taken care of in apartments.  While you manage to keep your interiors spotless, the hired team will ensure that the exteriors are as spotless!

3.       Security – In a single family home you may have your own employed 24 x 7 guards and even a motion detection security system linked to the local police station.  However, how safe are you really and how well do you sleep when travelling out of town?  Not too well, I’m afraid.  The level of security provided by a top notch team of 75-100 guards in a gated community cannot be matched with 1-2 self-hired guards.  Each car, visitor, and intruder will be screened, questioned, and verified before entry and at times during exit.  You can sleep assured that you are as safe as the times will allow us to be!

4.       Maintenance – While apartment complexes help provide external cleanliness, they also provide for upkeep of the lawns, the planted trees, shrubs, speed breakers, and overall greenery.  The roads, the drains, and the exterior of all towers are looked after and well kempt.  Additionally, all common areas including the stairs, the elevators and the lobby are kept clean and well maintained.  For any issues within the apartment – leakage, clogged drain, electrical noise, etc – help is just a call away.  A uniformly dressed maintenance crew arrives within minutes to ensure that life is back to normal and one may focus on living life and not servicing our appliances!

In a single family home, one must maintain a diary full of specialized support personnel – plumber, carpenter, electrician, gardener, mason – and the list goes on and on!  And one must pay top dollar to ensure that they attend the next emergency you will soon have!

5.       Facilities – Apartment complexes and gated communities provide multiple facilities to their residences.  From swimming pools to full-sized basketball courts, to tennis courts, various kinds of facilities are provided.  Often a club house provides indoor amenities to include table tennis, billiards or snookers, a gym, card room, and squash courts.  Organized activities like yoga classes, aerobics, dance classes, and tennis lessons are a major convenience provided at your doorstep.  These same activities would cost a bomb at an independent bungalow!

6.       Celebrations – Another major advantage of community living is the joint celebration at all major festivals.  Be it Diwali, Holi, New Years, or Christmas, the entire community celebrates jointly.  The entire area lights up and there is celebration in the air – greetings with warm smiles, warm handshakes shared over the warmth of eggnog and a meal.  No more hunting for celebrations and friends and family to share with – all the family needed is within the warm walls of the gated communities we live in!

So, if you live in a gated community, continue to enjoy the good practical life!  If you do not, please do join the party!

6 Things a Novice Buyer Should Know Before Buying a Home


Written By: Sumita Roy

A new buyer is scared as well as excited about buying a new home. But he should have a right mind that always goes into understanding the market, satisfying his necessity and making the best decisions possible. It is therefore imperative to do some research before investing.

The things he should look for are:

First, the locality he wants to reside in- whether it is an urban city setting or a suburban one. Both come with their own boons and banes. In an urban setting one is most likely to get an apartment, or condos. Villas and bungalows are also available but at a much greater price. The benefit of an urban setting is the commuting process, with commercial places at hop skip and jump away distance, one has the world at his doorsteps. Whereas a suburb has the merits of a peaceful, tranquil environment and even a hobby for gardening can be cherished easily.

Secondly, the affordability always varies from person to person. One can get a bigger place in the suburban area at the same price than in a city. The bank loans seem to be very affordable from a casual approach. But one should do a thorough study before any commitment is made.

Thirdly, often builders advertise before the completion of the houses. It is important for the buyer to view the plan and inspect the locality before promising anything. Certain builders advertise only in papers or in their own website to keep better control over their transactions. So the buyer should not depend only on the web listings.

Fourthly, the buyer should be completely aware of the construction process by maintaining regular surveillance at the site. He should also be conscious of the reputation of the builder.

Fifthly, it is often advantageous to hire a broker to find houses in accordance to the buyer’s necessity. He should be able to look after the interests of the buyer by performing certain key duties namely- bargaining, legal formalities, discounts offered in various properties and so on.

Lastly, it is often profitable to buy houses from a builder who is just entering the market. For higher sale, he often announces discounts on properties. Or, one may even buy from the last stock of property of the builder ensuring not a reduction of price but, rather, an increase in matters of internal amenities which are, usually, not acknowledged in the market, keeping the image of the builder intact in the market and benefitting the buyer as well.

But it is always better to hire a broker, an expert in this field, who will point out the advantages and disadvantages of properties and help the buyer in making the right decision.

Saturday 23 November 2013

Tips for Students Renting Apartments in Pune


Written By: Sanya Kaushik

If you’re a student living in Pune, you may have already dealt with the mammoth task of finding and renting an apartment. But for those of you who are new to this city, or have recently decided to move out of your parents’ home or the hostel, there are a few key things that you need to keep in mind about renting a flat.

The first thing that you need to consider is whether or not you want to go through an official medium of communication; in this case, brokers. Considering the fact that you’ve have never interacted or dealt with a real estate agent before, you may be reluctant to approach one now. However, taking into account your inexperience in this particular sector, you may want let the professionals handle it. Brokers will help you find apartments quickly because they’re usually aware of what’s available and viable. It’s also easier for them to get in touch with the owner of the property and negotiate on your behalf. They’ll also take care of the legal aspect of things- lease agreement, police verification and such.
Just be a little cautious when you negotiate the commission percentage.

Once the broker starts showing you houses, look at the locality and the amenities near the apartment before anything else. If you’re going to be using public transport frequently, make sure you rent a place that has an auto/bus stand nearby. Other strategically important places include department stores, medical stores and salons.

Don’t settle too quickly. Look around a little. Look at all the houses that your broker has lined-up for you. Weigh all your options before you land on one.

Read the lease document word to word before signing it. Most of it may seem like persnickety jargon but it’s still vitally important as it is the only legal form of agreement between the owner and the occupant. This document lays down the financial and other aspects of the transaction, thus protecting the interests of both parties.

Finally, if you’re going to be having people over and hosting parties on a frequent basis, make sure your landlord knows and is ok with it. If you have families for neighbors, you might want to ingratiate yourselves to them; this simple action will help in deterring conflicts and complaints in the future. 

As a student living in this magnificent city, the right apartment could make all the difference to your lifestyle. So just make sure you find a broker who understands your needs and finds you a comfortable apartment in a safe locality; don’t forget to read the lease before signing it; make nice with the neighbors and the landlord. You are now ready to live it up, Pune style!

Wednesday 20 November 2013

roofontop.com launches its Facebook 'SOCIAL PROPERTY FINDER' app


Written By: Anil Kapilashrami, Co-founder and CEO, roofontop.com


Earlier this year when we were looking for our office space, my partner in crime, Sharad and I must have seen approximately 100 or so spaces. We used the various portals, property agents and even our friends and family sources.

We saw everything from extravagant offices in Golf Course Road to space in large swanky commercial buildings with dedicated garage parking to offices in Sohna Road.  From the state-of-the-art commercial buildings to approved residential style office space, we saw almost everything that new Gurgaon has to offer, I believe.

We tried to specify our requirement as clearly as possible when we searched the portals; we did the same when we spoke to the Real Estate Agents, however, we saw a variety of things that didn’t come at all close to what we were looking for.

Our requirement was, in my view, simple –furnished office space for approximately twenty-five people with open seating, one large meeting room to seat 8-10 people and a second meeting room for 5 or so people.  In addition to this, we needed a small area for a server room and a pantry.  The rest of the space was open seating with standard modular, cubicle style furniture.  Nothing extravagant was required but a decent, open functional office. We had no specific colour requirements other than - NO gaudy!

I could clearly picture not only my dream office but even several visions of acceptable offices.

But boy did we see everything but the images I had envisioned.  We saw builder and broker offices for rent that had huge leather sofas and huge chairs with colour schemes from red to pink to green.  We saw large football field size spaces with no furniture and we saw sweatshop style areas with no ACs, but barely revolving fans and 2 foot work areas for staff.  We saw an architect’s office with high table and stool seating for blueprints, etc.  We even saw a 300 square foot area where the agent swore to us that 25 people could fit.

I absolutely knew that we were not connecting with the agents or the portals when we saw an office space on the 5th floor devoid of an elevator.  After huffing and puffing up the staircase, we saw the most dust covered desktops and servers,with mouse traps under each cubicle.

Anyway, long story short, we finally found roofontop.com’s haven.  However, it was certainly an experience.
----
Wanting to spare our Customers looking for property the type of experience we went through, we came up with an idea – the Facebook Social Property Finder.  This FB app is quite simple in its concept.  It allows a user to select from properties that match the “visual image” that the user has of his/her property and find their dream property.

The user selects from images representing exterior and interior of properties and only those properties that match these images are displayed.  Beyond this, the user can further select based on other criteria.
We have adopted the app to both commercial office space and residential spaces. 

A simple concept derived from some personal pain we have experienced.  Hopefully it will save some of you the pain when looking for property!

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Dog proofing your home!


Written By: Sanya Kaushik

“You don’t own a dog. You have a dog. And the dog has you.”- Anonymous

Your dog is part of your family. While you’ll do all you can to give the perfect emotionally stable environment, it is also important for you to invest some time and energy in finding the best physical home for him. Today, most residential complexes are dog friendly. However, if you live in an apartment complex, there are some things that you can do to make the experience easier for you, your 4-legged best friend and your neighbors.

There are a few easy and economically feasible things you can do to dog proof your home.

When you move in, talk to your neighbors and find out how they feel about dogs. While your society may allow dogs, your neighbors may not be as cooperative. In this particular situation, a “love thy neighbor” philosophy may work wonders. Show them how adorable and friendly your dog is. It’ll make them a lot more reluctant to complain about you and your pup if they like you.

If you have or are planning on getting hardwood flooring in any part of the house, you may want to train your dog to pee in a litter box in the balcony. Wood swells up pretty quickly if it stays in contact with any type of liquid for too long so either avoid wooden flooring all together or make sure your dog has a place in the house to go to do his business.

If you have a small dog, you should consider getting a mesh of some sort for the balcony. This mesh covers the balcony without obstructing your view and saves your dog from slipping between the gaps.

Consider sound proofing your apartment to avoid complaints from pesky neighbors about your mutt’s barking and/or whining. Soundproof insulation is cheap and easy to install. This simple but effective will also protect your little one’s sensitive ears from the harsh racket of Diwali.

Just keep these few, easy tips- become friends with your homebodies, avoid hardwood floors, mesh up the balcony and soundproof your home- in mind and enjoy the joys of your furry fleabag.