Bangalore House Hunting

Just about settled in a apartment in Bangalore. So thought I'll share what i went through. Here is the top three things one must avoid if you are looking for a house.

1. Not willing to share i.e No Roomies

2. Being single (apparently its a big deal)

3. Looking for a house by yourself (not going through the middle man).

UN fortunately i was kind of stuck up on these. Lets talk about them.

Room Mates - The general culture around here seems to be to live with a room mate. People often give weird looks when you say you want to live alone. The general day to day activities people do seems to involve another person just naturally. It almost seems like a way of living, but having lived separately for some years i could not come in to terms with it.

Marital Status - This is probably the most important aspect when you are looking for a place. I had to let go so many good houses just because i was a single guy trying to live alone. The general perception is that married folks are more responsible and take good care of the house.While i can understand this perception i thought it was quite ridiculous to have this as a parameter in judging a tenant. The high points were when i would get in to a conversation with the home owners they would say something on the lines of ' I know this is a personal question but when are you planning to get married? ???????????????? ;( '.

Doing your own search - The first few weeks i was just looking for a house by myself . But most often than not all the good houses get filled up immediately in Bangalore because there is such a high demand, and without the middle man you are just lost. Even the classifieds and online advertisements usually give you the contact details of a broker and not a the home owner. So i had to compromise on this one. If you really want to find a good house you gotta worship the middle man.

Any way all said and done i did find a apartment very close to my work. Though its quite big for my needs its a nice one.

So moral of the story unlike America in India its about whom you know and how you work the system.

For My next post - Resident or non resident alien - but where ?