Post demonetization and cut in home loan interest rates, a lot of potential home buyers are once again getting attracted towards buying a house. If you are one of them, you need to look at the realty portals. These portals are the primary and convenient source to gather relevant information for home buyers. Read more about what these portals can offer.
Shortlisting the properties
It is too difficult for a home buyer to visit and compare all the projects in a city or even in a particular locality. It would be hectic and time consuming for homebuyers to visit all the projects physically. Moreover, it is not necessary that all the projects will match the requirements. In such scenario, property portals are very handy. Almost all the realty portals offer map-based property search, typically linked to Google Maps. You get aerial view of the locality and surrounding infrastructures.
“We enhance a user search experience with the help of varied offerings like personalized search, suggestion cards to take care of narrow or wide search, Data Science Labs (DSL), Falcon, Slice View, etc,” said Ravi Bhushan, chief product and technology officer, PropTiger.com, Housing.com and Makaan.com. There are various other methods based on which a home buyer can personalize the search process.
Comparing tools
Once you shortlist few properties, portals can help you compare them on various parameters. For instance, Makaan.com’s—Locality Livability Index’ assimilates various data points for a locality. It then brings out a score that predicts the livability based on popularity, property density, amenities, connectivity and commute feasibility, and property price trends. Similarly, NoBroker.com’s—‘Life Score’ generates a score for house taking into consideration traffic, carbon footprint, travel time and so on. HDFC Red’s ‘Brand Store’ gives a home buyer more information on a developer’s company, senior management team, past projects, size and scale of current operations. 99acres.com’s—‘Trending Projects’ highlight projects, which receive maximum consumer interest. On 99acres.com, a homebuyer can use the ‘Price List’ calculator and see how prices can vary between a corner flat and a garden facing flat.
Better understanding
To see the house yourself is a must before you can decide on a house to purchase. But it is not possible in cases of under construction properties. There are portals which provide animated 3D views of both completed and under-construction property. The portal also includes detailed floor plans for all flats, which includes size of rooms, kitchen and living area as well as directionality of houses, giving users a near-real experience of having visited the property. Besides that, in case of resale properties, you can have videos and photographs to look at, so that you can ascertain the condition of the property. Proptiger.com’s ‘Slice View’ feature lets the user inspect the 3D master plan of a project by choosing a specific building and hovering over the floor of their choice to see available flat options.
Apps and tools
There are many apps and tools that portals offer to make home buying experience easy. ‘Search by EMI’ is a unique tool from HDFC Red that displays properties based on the approximate monthly savings one can manage. 99acres.com’s ‘Landmark Search’ lets users look for homes near their preferred landmarks.
On the other hand, Magicbricks.com’s app—‘PropWorth’—helps in knowing the price of any property, on the go. It also helps homebuyer interact with developer and sellers with their online chat facility. “This service helps the buyers get in touch with sellers by remaining anonymous. Generally customers don’t want to share numbers with sellers and thus Chat helps them in understanding the details of different projects,” said Sudhir Pai, chief executive officer, Magicbricks.com
Add-on services
Realty portals are now not only limited to property search. Apart from finding you a suitable house, there are various other services that it offers. However, additional service can come at a cost. For instance; NoBroker.com offers legal verification—getting encumbrance certificate and title check done for the property—at a nominal cost. Magicbricks also offers similar facility. “We have launched few services on a paid basis for title verification, valuation services, lawyer on call, property registration/documentation. Buyers can pay a nominal fee ranging from Rs1,000-5,000 to avail these services,” said Pai.
With so many features, real estate portals and its apps and tools make home buying experience smooth. Though many portals also help you book a property online, but once you zero in on a property, it make sense to visit the property physically.
