7 Mistakes to Avoid While Buying an Apartment

The real estate market is one place every one fears a lot. Fraud is frequent in real estate sector, which could be anything from low-quality construction and delay in handing over the property to builders absconding after taking the money from aspiring home owners like you and me.

If you are looking to buy premium apartments in Bangalore, there are quite a few realtors who offer excellent apartments. So, if you have made up your mind to buy an apartment, then here are top 7 mistakes that you should avoid.

1. Focusing on Flashy Details Rather than the Essentials

Quality construction should be your first priority and concern rather than enticing external designs of the apartment you are looking to buy. Realtors can be good at luring you into lacquered glass, vitrified tiles and other exquisite details, however, taking a closer look at the plumbing, quality of the construction materials used and other details that assure long sustenance of your apartment is important.

Note: There’s nothing wrong in having a beautiful house, but only after the basics are in shape.

2. Avoiding Projects that Involve Huge Down Payments

Most customers who look for flats and apartments tend to choose realtors who settle for minimal down payment. While this might sound great initially, the process only makes a deep hole in your pocket

Those who pay small down payments will then go on paying heavy monthly instalments, making a big mistake. First, huge down payments are helpful in keeping your pressure of monthly payments low. So, you will be left with more to make substantial savings and stay prepared for unexpected expenses that come as time passes.

3. Choosing a Risky Loan Scheme in a Hurry

There are various types of financial units that function within the real estate industry. You know for sure that buying a premium apartment without any kind of financial assistance can be difficult. Everybody needs some kind of loan to buy a property. Now, this is exactly where it can get tricky when you might end up choosing a risky loan scheme.

In India, two most reliable housing loan providers are – LIC and SBI, who provide highly competitive rates and are reliable as well. However, there are other international corporate bankers who offer home loans too. Unfortunately, they can lure home buyers into the trap of free market which ultimately results in huge monthly installments.

4. Not Researching

Most of the people have major time constraints, which prevents them from doing the necessary research and falling into the trap of buying the property that they first see. You may have the hawk’s eye when it comes to property, yet not making the necessary research may not be the best idea always. Look around your choice of locality. Compare a few properties, a few builders, their construction standards and then narrow down on buying one.

Consulting friends and acquaintances and if possible, looping in some of your friends into buying apartments from the same project can be a great way to go about buying a property. It is always better to have family and friends close by.

5. Not Reading the Documents Thoroughly

Realtors can talk home buyers into investing in the property without giving them an opportunity to thoroughly check the paperwork. Most of the people looking to buy apartments or flats get carried away by the sweet talks of the sales guys employed by the realtors and do not get the properties checked by a lawyer to validate if its genuine. One aspect that results in this is time constraint. However, this may cost you your lifetime earnings. So, do not get lazy to read the documents of the property you are planning to buy. It costs only a few thousand rupees to hire a lawyer and get the papers verified, but you can save lakhs.

6. Over-Spending on Interiors

Most of us have a dream of making our houses look extremely beautiful. As most of the time we cannot get into buying high-end villas or houses, we satiate our hunger for beautification with interiors. However, going overboard to decorate your interiors too much may not be a great idea. Do as much that is good for the house and is essential. Save the rest for future maintenance requirements. What you probably don’t know as a first-time apartment buyer is that any property is a huge commitment. You will keep seeing new expenses looming up from time to time. While there is nothing abnormal about this, it is better to stay prepared for the expense that crop up. So, instead to overdoing your interiors, you can save that money for future.

7. Falling for Too-Good-To-Be-True Schemes

There would be many property dealers who lure you by showing properties that are very attractive. Understand something – no real estate company can afford to give properties at throw-away prices. You will have to pay a good price for a premium property. The situation of Indian real estate is such that no real estate company will be able to give it away to you incurring loss for them. So, do your research well and stay away from fraudulent schemes that ultimately lead to huge financial pitfalls.

Summing Up

Many people in our country are running up and down the corridors of the courts trying to get their money back, which they lost by investing in fraudulent property schemes. After all, you spend your lifetime savings on an apartment. You can’t afford to lose it to fraudsters who are waiting to cheat you off your hard-earned money.