Choosing a Right Home!

 

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“You leave home to seek your fortune and, when you get it, you go home and share it with your family” … Anita Baker.

Anita Denise Baker is an American singer-songwriter. She is one of the most popular singers of soulful ballads during the height of the quiet storm period in the 1980s. No wonder, with such understanding about emotions like home & family, Anita’s song touched the hearts of millions! I deliberately used the term emotions for the words “Home & Family” respectively as home may be a concrete, brick, wood structure but then so is any structure, it’s the emotions attached to the structure which makes it a home. And any bunch of living species we can call it as a herd or a group or a bunch but it can’t be called a family unless animals (read as living objects) in that group or herd are attached to each other with their emotions! And that’s why a home is complete only if you have a family to live along in it, is my perception & that’s why while making a home or buying it, one must think from the aspect of the family which will be living in it! If you are wondering, what made me start my sharing with such a strong “gyan.com” dosage then the reason is a visit by one of my school friends with his son, who wanted to buy a home in Pune for himself & dialogue with both of them!

Whenever anybody asks me where I should buy a home, I have to be very balanced, as being a builder, if I say buy in my projects then I am a big fool as I must not forget that I am a professional first & then a trader (read as builder). My job is to guide the people (read as clients) to understand what is a right home for them & then let them decide whether my project is right for them. This is the base of sharing, because there is nothing such as good home or bad home, which people often ask me as there are no bad homes; a term named home can’t be ever bad, it just may not be right home for you! So, the first thing I want to share is whenever you are looking for a home then use the scale of right or wrong & not good or bad! Here many will be confused, what is the difference between good or bad home & right or wrong home? Well, for that you will have to analyze the home on the parameters & for that you should learn to look at the home from not just yours but from the entire family’s perspective towards that home!

To start with for any home, still the age-old main criteria is, location. I gave them example of I Phone, that if you buy a I Phone, it will give you same service or outcome on all front right from price to camera quality to the functions irrespective of location or city from where you buy, right? Means, whether you buy an I Phone in Mumbai or Raipur or Seoni (MP) or Solapur, its price will be nearly same & so will be the service that I Phone will give to you. But it’s not applicable for a building which we call a home as the building structure may be the same but depending upon where it has been built will decide whether it’s a right home for you or not. As construction cost of the building & specification you can keep same at any place in any city (nearly) but its utility to the residents will change as can the home will serve you same has it been built in some remote area of rural like Vidarbha or Marathwada or even in Dharavi slum of Mumbai in compare to developed location like Baner or Hadapsar or in posh areas of South Bombay or Prabhat road in Pune, of course no, is the answer. Does this mean the building is not good if it’s built at such odd locations, no, it’s not but it isn’t a right choice as utility of any building which we are looking as a home changes as per the location & so does its price, this aspect differentiates real estate from all other commodities significantly! Whenever you are searching for a home, see that you are at the right location where past, present & future infrastructure, your connectivity, surrounding & price are evenly balanced as then the home will serve you at its best!

Then comes the major part of home & a most neglected one & that is planning of a home & when I say planning, its two-fold i.e., internal & external planning. Internal planning includes interconnection of rooms, right dimensions of the room as well wasting minimum area in commuting with the home yet each room will have privacy at the same time natural light & ventilation, which is very important for a healthy home. The external planning consists of common passages & lobbies connecting to the flats at every flow & right from stair case trade (payara, tappa) height which is allowed 7” by law but must be below 6” for ease of climbing, so many things matter which you can’t change later. And post pandemic where the entire city has been locked within their complex, open spaces around the building as well top common terraces, matters a lot as we can use them for walking or open gym type uses. At the same time if you are having basements then the ramps as well parking areas should be well lit naturally which helps in saving your common electric bills. Do check for the parking ramps as well side margins because to take turn in your parking lot comfortably for any size of car, a minimum 14 ft margin is a must. Even the internal arrangements of the toilets matter where wet area (shoer area) is clearly segregated from dry area, making maintenance & use of the toilet easy. I have seen many clients asking for planning as per Vaastu Shastra (I don’t believe in it but I don’t disrespect it as it’s emotional aspect for many) but these clients neglect the basic aspects of the planning which are responsible for making your life in any home comfortable, which is major factor in deciding a right home!

Of-late many people ask about specifications of the home, indeed with thousands of options available for materials it’s a difficult task for the builder as well architect to chose something which will be liked by all yet if asked to me, my first criteria in choosing materials such as plumbing fitting, electric switches, door fittings & many such, is durability! The home is supposed to stand with you for more than fifty years & all the hidden parts of this home which are responsible to assure the home stands in fit & healthy condition with you for this time span!  Right from hinges used for fixing the doors to fasteners for fixing the wash basin or commode, everything which your eyes won’t see matters more than what your eyes see. So, it's not just costly or fancy looking gadgets that make a right home but the durability & toughness of the materials used in making the home is what makes a home right one! As do mind, you can get your home decorated with whatever costly & good-looking exteriors but just the way our body is strong not by our skin or colour or clothes we wear but our physic & immunity, same way a right home depends on the strong & durable ingredients used for making it & for that you need to ask question to your builder & his team about specifications which matters most i.e., workmanship & process of constructions!

One most important aspect which many always neglect in finer detailing related to the home as there are many things which a fancy brochure of the project or even 3-D walk-way of a home won’t show you but your common sense as well exposure of the world you have, can find out such details! Right from having a safety door fixed in MS frame so nobody can cut the lock of the door to having two kondas to main doors so nobody can  lock you inside your home to having CC TV’s at every floor lobby to display of emergency & essential contact numbers on every floor lobby to marking on all water lines as well power lines so it comes handy at the time of maintenance to using all internal walls also of 6” thinks to avoid voices getting heard across the rooms, there are thousands of things where detailing matters in a right home! Even having clear 4 ft height parapet walls of your balconies, verandas or even to terrace or a safety railing at overhead water tank & a proper climbing ladder to inspect the top of the water tanks makes a big difference which nobody notices!  Do you know why Japanese car makers or European car makers are better than our Indian car makers, it’s just because the smallest of the detail is looked after in making a car & while you drive the driver realizes the importance of those details, same logic is applicable with a right home! Again, this one has to see by your own eyes & open mind but most clients see only the fancy furnished flat & Italian marble lobbies & choose a wrong home getting mesmerized with just presentation & that doesn’t mean presentation doesn’t matter, it does but do check what’s being presented to you while choosing a right home!

Then there is always the legality factor along with the people whom you will be dealing with & that also now you can confirm from social media or communicating with the existing clients of the builder & sharing their home buying experience with the said builder! As well, speak with the team of the builder not just sales or marketing but site team & judge their dedication for the job they are doing i.e., building your home as a right home is the outcome of the right approach of the entire team involved in making it!

And above are just a few aspects to select your right home, it’s not a full & final list as a home is an evolving thing though right & wrong never changes, if you are clear about deciding the norms! And when all of these above parameters are tick-marked then check the price as indeed that aspect you only have to decide, how much you can pay for a right home, right? So, go ahead, there always is a right home waiting for you, all you have to do is make a right definition of your right home!

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Sanjay Deshpande, team Sanjeevani

 

Please view my sharing about real estate in Pune at U-Tube link below...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4xX7eopH5o&t=5s

 

Please do visit my blog links below to read about real estate & home buying! 

https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2021/01/post-lock-down-real-estate-home-buying.html

http://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/

 

Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below) 

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345

 

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