Real Estate: The Real Future (Is It ????)

These days, almost everyone (including me) are on an obsessive spree of buying a new home. Some call it second home. Some say its their Investment and for a really few numbers it is a bare necessity. Ofcourse I am no different. In this Real Estate Tornado, Even I have tried to make my hands full and searched for a number of possible options to fulfill my psychological craving to stay competitive in this rat race. At one time, there used to be fun fairs in huge football sized grounds. Now these are replaced by "Property Exhibitions". Almost every weekend, there are such Property exhibitions stalled at various levels at a variety of locations. Visiting a Property Exhibition has now become a favorite pass-time hobby on weekends.


I happened to visit such an exhibition in my home town: Thane. There were many stalls belonging to various builders. Most of them had shown a tendency to favor present-ability by employing "Good Looking" sales girls- Polished as well as Finely dressed. And obviously the crowd preferred the stalls with fairer gender. Wading through the stalls I was mostly concerned with the prices. 

However, pries were effectively hidden and were disclosed only at the end of a boring long speech which the sales girls recited with a beautiful plastic smile.( Why cant I smile that way ??).







It took me some 2 hours to completely go around each stall and grasp all the information available. (P.S.After the exhibition, my SPAM SMS and SPAM CALLS have grown to an unmanageable level)

While going through the exhibition, A few stark observations that I made are mentioned below:


1) Most of the builders provide a free site visit for the prospective buyers.

Catch:

After the exhibition, I called up one of the well known builders(or well publicized ?? anyways, lets call them ABC builders ) and expressed interest for an UPCOMING PROJECT. The project was located near PEN. A place about 80 km from Thane on the GOA Highway.

The right person from ABC was not available to take my call and hence I was asked to leave my name and number. After a while, I received a return call from ABC builders inquiring for my requirements.

Dude: Sir, What is your budget ?
Me: (blank) .....(again blank) ..hmmmm .....I will fix my budget depending on your construction and amenities.


( I had no answer, ......this is a rat race. .) 


Dude: Ok Sir, Tell me your requirement.


Me: Please tell me how I should plan to visit your construction site. I was told that you provide free site visit on weekends.


Dude: yess sir. We have a Site Visit Program Package specially designed for you on every Sunday.


Me: Program ... Package ?? you said it was free ...


Dude: Yes sir, it is still free if you visit in the next 10 working days. Also sir, we have an orientation session arranged for you where we will inform you about the various facilities that we offer. Your site visit will be free only if you attend the orientation session by coming to our office in Andheri(west). You will need to do this one day before the site visit.


Me: Thane to Andheri West ???? (WTF ... Andheri west from thane is like going to a different planet on saturdays. It will take me a lifetime to achieve this task).


Me(again): But I will not be able to visit Andheri for this. Can you please email me the documents, I will read them and get information about the project myself...


Dude: No sir, for availing the free site visit, you need to be here.

To Keep hope Alive, I actually went to his office. All drenched and wet ( our mumbai rains did a guest appearance on that same day).

The dude explained me how their company was stable and consistent with their results. He tried to explain me the model and the plan. Then comes the real fun:

 Sir our project is situated at a strategic location... The New international airport is about to be constructed here. A new highway is also being formed. This will connect the PEN City to mumbai in 15 minutes. So anytime you want to visit goa, you can actually visit your adobe. This home will also be useful when you want to go abroad. .......!!! BLAAAAH BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH....!!!!

2) "All projects were going to start very soon (in fact the sample flats are ALMOST ready)".


Catch:
In reality when My mom visited the ABC project at PEN, all she saw was a flat ground. I also came to know that some of the land was yet to be acquired.

3)  All Sites have HUGE Club Houses, Swimming pools, Gymnasium and Jogging Parks. All club houses will be provided with a 24 Hours Water Supply, uninterrupted Electricity and a Strong Security Service.


Catch:


Theres no Catch .. Club Houses were really ready ..! 

The only problem was with the Water supply and Electricity connection .!!! So essentially you can Swim in the pool, play tennis, carve 6 pack muscles in the society gymnasium but die out of thirst and may be fall from your balcony out of darkness ..!


4) We already have tie-ups with Major Banks and Loan Providers:


Catch:

I doubt if this so called "tie-up" does really stand, when  the bank officials are about to process and approve your loan. A good old friend of mine told me that when he approached an already tied-up bank with a builder, he went through immense pains and finally got his loan approved after a month. Another friend who approached a co-operative bank also went through the same pains and also took the same time.  

Conclusion: Home loan is Painfull ..! Tied-up builders HARDLY influence anyone.


5) All projects will be completed within the next 12 months:


(Super Duper) Catch:

All the above happens -----------PROVIDED the builder is healthy, his construction workers do not go on a strike, the Sarkari Babu does not ask for an extra premium, the plan gets passed easily, some poor dude does not claim ownership of this land being robbed from him forcibally,  the builders wife does not fight with him in the next  12 months, his dog does not run away with a fair looking bitch and so on ...!! 

So yes, your house will be built in 12 months.. if all the above if fulfilled.

6) All homes are VAASTU Compliant:


"Sir ...The toilets are placed perfectly in the extreme corner so that you do not face any vastu problem which may effect your growth in home office, private or public life. "

I am sure an authentic Vaastu Expert will still want to make some radical changes in this design( yet that's not the focus of this blog) .

6) All Exhibitions will also sell USEFUL DOMESTIC tools and items:


What Catch ?? they sell everything from flower pots to Hand held Slicer-Dicers to Agarbattis.. and yess... the most talked about stuff: FENG SHUI AND VAASTU tools.  .! These are sold as a part of the Property Exhibitions so that you can buy them for your existing homes.




My very Own Business Model for young Entrepreneurs:

For the young upcoming Entrepreneurs , remember this is one of the most exciting ideas someone can ever give you. 

Just get a Painter who can create a good enough Hoarding about your own construction company. Find a good barren looking land somewhere near the woods -  and post your banner and hoarding there. Advertise on every possible email community and exhibitions. People will flock your office/ stall or site . Now you can very easily grow your loss making Agarbatti business saying that you know of a "Tanzanian SMOKE THERAPY" which helps cure anything from Rheumatism - cancer or even AIDS. (For better prospects, Also talk about Swine Flu - the latest panic creator).  "just 2 Agarbattis a day will keep everyone Awake" ....!!!!

And still if you cant make money with the smoke, atleast take everyones Contact number and sell it to an authentic builder. He will keep bugging everyone to buy his bricks. ..!

Hope you make Good Money ..!

Latest Update:

With the above Experience, I realized that I presently do not have any money( unless I get a loan at 8.5% - only or the first one year.. and later on 11%). And hence my home Search is currently Dormant ..!

regards

Ameya Gokhale

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Real Estate: The Real Future (Is It ????)

These days, almost everyone including me (and my dog..!) are on an obsessive spree of buying a new home. Some call it second home. Some say its their Investment and for a really few numbers it is a bare necessity. Ofcourse I am no different. In this Real Estate Tornado, Even I have tried to make my hands full and searched a number of possible options to fulfill my psychological craving to stay competitive in this rat race. At one time, there used to be fun fairs in huge football sized grounds. Now these are replaced by "Property Exhibitions". Almost every weekend, there are such Property exhibitions stalled at various levels at a variety of locations. Visiting a Property Exhibition has now become a favorite pass-time hobby on weekends.

Read more »

Malshej Traditional Route

I had read about this route some years back in a book( don’t remember much of the details now). Later My friend from pune: Ajay Dhamdhere told me about this route and I was fascinated. Infact I was of the opinion that I should do this one as a circular trek with Chakram Hikers. However now I really feel that It was somehow a good decision considering that the route is not amongst the most simplistic ones. On the previous night, we had stayed in one of the Tapri’s @ Khubi fata. I happened to inform the tapriwala about this route and he said there was one Mr Marathe who could help me with the route. In the morning, I met Mr Marathe who owns another Tapri  nearby. This guy said that he was too busy that day but since there was no other option I requested him to guide me atleast for the first part of the route

  so that It becomes relatively simple for us to search the route further. He came with us an in the first 10 mins itself we realized that it was IMPOSSIBLE for us to find the start of this route.

To describe in some layman terms, If we are standing at the junction of the road to MTDC and the highway, we have to draw a line which perfectly bisects the angle between the two roads. There is no route or anything until one enters the initial thicket( that’s where most of us are going to start doubting ourselves if whatever we are doing is right or wrong).However, It take just a couple of minutes in the thick bushes and waist level grass to see a totally faint trail – yet a definite trail. It appears as if the trail must have been a regular route some years back but now since not many people use it, the thick bushes must have taken over.

The route further reaches a stream where one comes across wide stairs. Though the staircase is not a part of the route itself, It is much evident that this route was one big routes in the history. To add to this thought process, one can further see a Ganapati idol inscribed in the right hand side wall- with even wider staircases. This curious route proceeds further to 2 water tanks a little above on the right side. This appears like a small cave carved out in the wall. However pulling yourself to the cave level shows you the water tank- Atleast now it was filled with water till brim(October 2010). 

The route moves ahead in similar fashion making you thing every moment “this must have been a big route sometime in history”. However a little ahead there are 2 – 3 landslides, because of which, we spent atleast 30 mins searching for the right track. At this point there was always the option to enter the thicket (instead of searching the right route, and expect that we find the correct route in a while). (Within our group, We called this “Zahir giri”, since our dear friend Zahir would have always chosen the option to descend through the waterfall boulders). However we did not do this, because in that case we would have lost the charm of this route being an old prominent route. After a total brainstorming search, we found that the route was washed away at a point due to the land slide. Anyways we found the route and were back on track.

If you are a regular trekker walking on a route which is a fairly common, the Chocolate/Gutkha/ biscuit wrappers usually do provide a sure shot way to confirm if we are on the right track. We tried using the same hint here, but it didn’t work. A  very big reason was the MTDC resort being perfectly above the right side wall. Though it was much-much higher, this old route was the only place for the chocolate wrappers and Gutkha wrappers to fall and get accumulated. So whenever we came across a route-search activity, we always came across some wrappers- which initially made us think that we were on the right track- though the route used to get thicker and eventually lost.

With further misrouting and searches, we managed to reach the apparent ground level. This is then a broad route on which there were evident Jeep tracks. This made clear that were on the route from Thitbi to Kalu Waterfall. By the time we reached this broad route, it was almost 3 hours or a little more from the time we started.

We eventually reached Thitbi and further to Savarne ( after a long unwanted TAR road walk of almost 2 and half kms).

Since my car was parked at the top of the ghats- at khubi fata, I had to get a lift from a truck and reach the starting point of this route and get my car back down to pick my friends- Kaustubh and Mahesh.

Read more »

Malshej Traditional Route

I had read about this route some years back in a book( don’t remember much of the details now). Later My friend from pune: Ajay Dhamdhere told me about this route and I was fascinated. Infact I was of the opinion that I should do this one as a circular trek with Chakram Hikers. However now I really feel that It was somehow a good decision considering that the route is not amongst the most simplistic ones. On the previous night, we had stayed in one of the Tapri’s @ Khubi fata. I happened to inform the tapriwala about this route and he said there was one Mr Marathe who could help me with the route. In the morning, I met Mr Marathe who owns another Tapri  nearby.

Read more »

Sindola

Sindola was a dream come true. Right from the time I first visited Harishchandragad way back in the year 1999, I was impressed with the shape of this curious looking Massif. However doing it in 2010 means it took some 11 years to find an opportunity. The trek was surprisingly simpler than whatever I had thought of , heard of and was shown of. I got to see some pictures on Wikimapia which made me believe that this was one of the highly technical places in the Sahyadris and I should not think of too many fancies and should also be prepared to return back in case I come across something like a huge Rock Wall. It was around 10 AM when me and Mahesh started the trek from near the base village. Our guides were 2 young men Yuvaraj and

Raja. This hill is initially a gradual massif with a group of pinnacles on its top. The massif appeared fairly tiring with tall grass all around. After the massif is a narrow traverse which passes from the base of these pinnacles. The crack between the first and the second pinnacle (from right side), contains water and a small uncomfortable cave like structure( hardly a person could crawl inside). We topped up our bottles and continued further. After we complete the traverse to the last pinnacle, we get to see good old carved steps which lead to the old existing door with a Ganesh idol. There was also a Hanuman idol at the same place, but it doesnt exist anymore due to damages to the idol. The top is grassy with numerous water tanks(almost 4-5) offering an apparently potable water source.


The view from the top is FANTABULOUS ..... This is one big incentives of visiting this fort because it offers amazing sights all over. Many distant peaks are visible from here. The great geographical divide: Kokan and the Platue are clearly visible as two different layers.the mountains like Hatakeshwar, nimgiri, Sindola, Dev Dandya are also visible nearby. The villagers also tell us a story about an aircraft which had fallen down somewhere on a nearby mountain many years ago.

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Sindola

Sindola was a dream come true. Right from the time I first visited Harishchandragad way back in the year 1999, I was impressed with the shape of this curious looking Massif. However doing it in 2010 means it took some 11 years to find an opportunity. The trek was surprisingly simpler than whatever I had thought of , heard of and was shown of. I got to see some pictures on Wikimapia which made me believe that this was one of the highly technical places in the Sahyadris and I should not think of too many fancies and should also be prepared to return back in case I come across something like a huge Rock Wall. It was around 10 AM when me and Mahesh started the trek from near the base village. Our guides were 2 young men Yuvaraj and

Read more »