JOIN USBuying, selling or renting a home need not be a harrowing experience. A unique concept called video home tours now ensures that, writes Ruth Dsouza Prabhu
Bangalore is growing and how. One look at the classifieds and you will see scores of people looking for homes and an equal number of sellers and landlords looking for the right buyers/tenants. While classifieds and word-of-mouth has often been the mode of connection between the two, here is a scenario that most are familiar with – a slew of phone calls with basic queries, wading through choc-a-bloc traffic to the home, finding it perfect on several counts but with one negative that makes the deal fall through.
And then you repeat the whole process again with another home. And don’t be under the false impression that this happens to the prospective tenant alone.
The home owner too has to make the same journey for a sale/deal that doesn’t materialise. Raghu, a mid-level software engineer, bought a second home to help generate an additional income. He says, “I find it extremely difficult to show my house to prospective tenants as I work during the week, and weekends are completely devoted to family chores.”
The lacuna is obvious and it takes a smart idea like that of Antony Davis to fill in the gap.
And here is how he does it – a video home tour which gives you a complete walk-through of a property, along with a detailed voice over that tells you from the size of the property, to the amenities to the materials that have been used. “It works two-ways, for the seller/landlord, it weeds out clients who are not serious buyers. Also unnecessary property visits are avoided. With a video walk-through, a buyer/tenant can know for sure that he has already liked the property; it’s is just a visit to ensure the details are right.
It saves time for both parties and helps make an informed decision,” explains Antony.
With Bangalore being a hub for IT/ITeS, a lot of people are relocating because of their jobs. Take the case of Joyce whose husband heads the operations for an international MNC.
Her husband has been transferred to Bangalore and the onus of finding a home in Bangalore was thrust on Joyce who was then working in China.
Joyce says, “It was extremely difficult considering that we had only two weeks to find a house and were relocating to an absolutely new place. But then video walk-throughs helped settle on a home quick and easy."
Finding your home, quick
You will now find a video home tour of niche homes that comes in the rental price range of Rs 70,000 to Rs one lakh. In your five-minute video, you will get all the information you need in terms of specifications like area of the house, how many bedrooms, make of fittings, etc.
Antony explains that as a service provider, they first speak to the client to see what it is that they look for in a home and based on this, narrow down on a few videos that will be best suited to them.
If you like what you see in the video, you schedule a home visit, if not, you move on to the next. A broker’s fee is to be paid only when the deal is signed and sealed.
Currently, the kind of takers for such homes fall in the management levels of IT and MNC companies. Expats who come to Bangalore on short haul postings too form a sizeable chunk of prospective tenants.
Clinching a deal sans brokerage
Since the concept of video home tours works for the seller/landlord, one can choose to have a video of the property created for approximately Rs 3,000. This can then be used to promote the house.
Antony says, “Many sellers/ landlords say that months have passed and their houses have not been taken. With this concept, each time a prospective buyer calls, a YouTube link of the five-minute video link is sent via email.
This makes it easily accessible on your smartphone or your computer. It also allows sellers to be able to “show” their homes 24/7. All the hassles of fixing an appointment with the buyer can be avoided.” Kumar, a home owner, has viewed home video tour 126 times on YouTube and in 38 days his house was taken up. Many a times, property visits would not happen because of minor factors like distance, or appointment missed, etc.
Another advantage for the sellers is that while watching the video it creates emotion in the buyer which every salesman knows is important in clinching a sale.