What is this guide?

When you have to move to a new city (long-term), finding accommodation can be a daunting task. There is a lot to take care of and manage: Food, Washing, Cleaning, Transport, etc. If you’ve never lived outside your home, it can get overwhelming. I’ve documented some points on what helped me during my experience of flat hunting.

Most of what I have below will be relevant to folks who are relocating to Bangalore (India) for work purposes and looking to rent a flat. That being said, it can be applied to most cases (like another city or looking for PG accommodations).

Before Moving

Here are some things you can do before you set out to move to a new city:

1. Get an idea of which area your place of work is put up at. It is also helpful to know about the surrounding areas.

2. Check if you have any friends or relatives who live in those areas or in that city. If you have someone, call them up to inquire about things like house pricing, transport facilities, etc.

   1. If possible, see if you can stay with them until you find a place for yourself. This is the best option to go for when there is a lot of uncertainty. Even if things are not going as planned, you will always have a safety net.
   2. If you don’t know anyone in the city or any known person to share a flat with, taking accommodation in a decent PG is probably the best option. You can settle down and get to know the area better. However, don’t expect this to be rosy. You may have to make adjustments in your personal space.
      1. You can find decent PGs in the range of 9k to 12k per month per person which includes all the basic amenities like food, wifi, and beds, water, drinking water, electricity. Heavily depends on the area though.
         Note: Most PGs do not provide Lunch on weekdays. If your place of work offers you food, well and good :)

3. You can also go on to housing sites like housing.com, nobroker, magicbricks, and airbnb to get an idea of the price range. The idea is to get a ballpark figure on how much is it gonna cost you if you were to rent a flat.

4. While you can check out properties online and maybe even call them up to check for availability, never pay anything in advance before actually visiting the place and checking it out yourself.

   1. Pictures can be very misleading. What you see IRL can be very different from pictures. It is particularly hard to gauge the size of the place. I remember an instance when a flat looked superb in pictures but the bedrooms were literally the size of matchboxes IRL.
   2. There are scams. There is one in particular where the person (claiming to be the owner) asks you to send ~4000/- before you can visit the place. They tell you that you have the option to get it back if you don’t like the place. Do not pay!!
   3. It is not just the room. Sometimes even though the room looks decent enough in pictures, the surrounding of the flat/building can be quite messy (which you will only see when you visit the place).

Planning

Once you have an idea of the cost per month according to your lifestyle, it is good to make a list of things that you want to have. Then categorize them into must-haves (things that you cannot compromise on) and good-to-haves (things that you are ok with not having if everything else is good).

An important tip here. If you can afford it, please consider the proximity of your flat to your place of work as the top priority.

Places to Search

Here are some online resources for you to search for accommodations. Please note that some are specific to Bangalore. If you are looking to relocate to a place other than Bangalore, you might find the equivalent of these resources for your city on these Social Media platforms.

Facebook:

These are the largest groups out there to find flatmates and houses for rent in Bangalore

1. flat.and.flatmates.without.brokers.bangalore
   1. I found a vacancy in my current flat in this group.
2. House For Rent Bangalore
3. Flat and Flatmates Bangalore

Twitter:

You can follow these accounts and have tweet notifications on

1. fmrbangalore
2. BangaloreRoomi
3. twitrbnb

Housing Sites:

In addition to the FB groups, this is where you can find entire flats for rent. Beware that many lists can be by brokers. The standard price of brokerage is 1 month of rent.

1. NoBroker
   1. You can also look for vacancy posts by current tenants here.
2. housing.com
3. MagicBricks
4. AirBnb
   1. Here the trick is to contact the owner and finalize a deal offline. If you are planning to stay for a longer period of time (at least 6 months). You can get it a lot cheaper than what appears on the Airbnb site.

Franchises:

There are multiple franchise-based accommodations. These are generally very good options if you have a slightly higher budget.

1. ff21
2. Stanza Living
3. Zolo hostels
4. Hello World
5. Grexter
6. Isthara
7. Draper Startup House
   1. If you are into startups and are looking to be surrounded by people with similar interests, this is a good option but it is slightly more expensive.

Here is a general rule of thumb:

1. If you are short on time and don't want to go through all the hassle
   1. Try contacting some brokers.
   2. You can get the No Broker package. I’ve heard from many folks that they found it very helpful in terms of saving time.
2. If you are short on money
   1. You can save brokerage if you can find a vacancy by yourself. One option is to rent a vehicle (Royal Brothers and Vogo) or a Yulu Dex or ask a friend. Then keep roaming around your area of interest and you will find To-Let boards (I found a lot of good options this way).
   2. Beware: The To-Let boards you see on electric poles and trees are most likely broker numbers. If you see a To-Let board attached to the gate or walls of a house, then it is safe to assume that is by the owners themselves.

Moving into a flat

If you're looking to move into a flat, here are a few questions you can ask or check with the existing tenants (in the case it is pre-occupied) or the owner:

1. How long have the existing tenants been staying there?
2. You can ask the existing tenants if they faced any issues with the owner.
   1. In many cases, the owner lives far away. This is the best case.
3. Is anyone of the current tenants expected to leave soon? If yes, then you will have a task to find their replacement.
4. Is Wi-Fi present already?
5. Is a Washing Machine present already?
6. Is there any setup cost?
   1. Usually, this includes the items that the existing tenants have already bought and are looking to transfer to you.
7. Is there a Geyser?
   1. Even unfinished flats in Bangalore will have a Geyser. But you don’t want any surprises.
8. How and where to get drinking water from?
9. Is there any maintenance charge? What does the maintenance charge include?
10. Is the water bill part of the maintenance charge?
11. Any parking charge?
12. Is there a cook already? If yes,
    1. What is the charge for the cook per person per month?
    2. Does the cook come on all days?
       1. It is the norm that cooks work from Monday to Saturday only.
    3. Does the cook make food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
       1. It is the norm that the cook makes breakfast and lunch together in the morning and come back in the night to make dinner.
    4. Is the cook comfortable with non-veg food?
    5. If there is no cook present, you can ask the neighboring flatmates or others in the same building how they are managing food.
13. If you plan to cook (or hire a cook to make) food at home, a fridge is compulsory. Check if they have a fridge already.
14. Is there a maid already? If yes, what does she take care of?
15. If you are occupying the place of a tenant who is leaving, ask if they are leaving any of the furniture or appliances behind.
16. Check if there are any extra charges apart from rent, maid, water, and electricity that recur every month.
17. Check the phone signals while you are at the flat location. If you can comfortably watch YouTube, it should be good enough.
18. Bathrooms and kitchens are very important. Check if all the taps are running and if there is a backup for water.
19. Check how garbage is supposed to be collected. What if you need a backup for it?
20. Check if the house (or at least the kitchen) was treated with pest control. It is a huge pain if there are cockroaches already. They just don't go. In the words of a painful tenant -> "Here's how you deal with a cockroach: 1. Burn the house. 2.** Find a new house."
21. Make sure you have an exhaust fan in the kitchen. It is rarely the case that there is none, but as I said, you don't want any surprises. The same goes for the bathroom as well.

Compatibility with Roommates

If you're planning on sharing a flat, here are a few things to consider:

1. Compatibility of food choices - Vegetarian, Vegan, or Non-vegetarian
2. Smoking or drinking habits of your roommates.
3. If you or your roommate like to host house parties or have friends over, it is nice to have an estimate on the frequency of this.
4. An estimate of spending capacity and lifestyle of each other.
   1. Let's say your washing machine isn't working properly, it is nice to have all of you either agree on repairing it or getting a new one. If one follows the lifestyle of looking for a repair and another is eying on a new one, it will lead to awkward situations.

Note: Some of these questions may feel intrusive to ask but it is important to make sure what you are getting into. Bad roommates can be a nightmare. You can decide on what is an absolute NO and check if you all are on the same page.

Before You Finalise a Deal (renting a flat)

When you find a flat that checks all your boxes, here are some things you can check with the owner.

1. Always try to negotiate on rent and the deposit amount. All owners expect you to negotiate and hence will quote a slightly higher amount at the beginning itself.
   1. It is common for owners to quote unreasonable amounts of deposit (as much as 10 months of rent as a security deposit).
   2. In my experience, they are usually open to reducing either the rent or the deposit amount. But you can ask for a reduction in both. In Feb 20203, we negotiated a 28k rent and 2.8L deposit deal to a 26k rent and 1.4L deposit deal for a 2BHK near Indiranagar (we could not go forward with that option due to some other reason).
   3. If you really like a house but the security deposit is too high, you can ask if the payment of the security deposit can be made in installments.
2. Some things to check for in the rental agreement document (a document provided by the owner to the tenants):
   1. What is the date to pay the rent every month?
   2. Once you've moved in, how many days do you have to stay before you can move out? If the owner asks you to vacate the flat, how many days do you get to stay before you move out? This is called a lock-in period. a. Usually both of them are the same. The norm is 1-3 months.
   3. What is the lifetime of the rental agreement? a. Usually it is 11 months after which the rental agreement expires and a new one is supposed to be created.
   4. What is the annual rent increment percentage upon the expiration of the agreement? a. If this information is not present, the owner can ask for any unreasonable amount as rent post the expiration of the current rental agreement and you will find yourself in a pay-or-moveout situation.
   5. If you are sharing the flat with other people (1+ BHK), it is better to have the rental agreement written jointly on all your names. This will help when you file ITR as most people would usually have an HRA component in their CTC structure.
   6. Take note of any cases where you won't be getting your full deposit amount back.
   7. What all are included as part of the maintenance fee? Is any of the furniture included? a. If yes, make sure to have it written on who owns the repair of an item (owner or the tenant).
3. Take assurance that you will get a receipt of the deposit amount that you will pay. There are a lot of cases I heard about not getting the deposit amount back.
4. What is the advance amount that you can pay to finalize the deal for you? This is called a token advance. This can be deducted from the rent or the security deposit amount that you will pay later.
5. Before signing the rental agreement, read through all the clauses carefully. Ask if something can be edited if you find something problematic.
6. Most owners would use get the house deep cleaned and painted before handing it over from the previous tenants to the next tenants. However, there is no guarantee.

Making the Decision

The entire process can get a little overwhelming, and you will face situations where you have to make decisions quickly. A small change in your situation can completely turn around decisions 180 degrees and you may have to re-evaluate all the options. I’ve seen people not finding a good place for like 2 months (in areas like Indiranagar, Koramangala, etc). But that is how it is going to be.

So it's best to write down the things that you cannot compromise on and things that are nice to have. Being patient pays well.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a DM on Twitter: @roronoazoro_189