How many times have friends and family come to your place and said “Hey you have a really nice home. Is it your own?” And if you say YES, I’m sure you can’t be missing the subtle pride with which you say it, or, the envious wows you hear back. That’s what makes every bit of struggle you’re putting in to re-pay that fat home loan, worth it.
A home to call one’s own is an absolute must. Financial calculations and spreadsheets can easily prove me wrong. And I’ve battled the number game often enough in my own head…why should I buy a flat which costs me 1 Crore rupees when I can jolly well rent out a similar flat for 25,000 rupees a month. But owning a home not just in India, but also anywhere across the world is less about numbers and much more about the sheer pride of having one!
What tips the balance a lot more towards owning a pad in our country is the harrowing experience you may have to go through for renting out one. There’s an uneasy sort of relationship between landlords and tenants, based on what I sum up in one word - distrust. Perhaps a legacy of the old and now redundant tenancy laws which favoured tenants over homeowners. Most landlords still believe that you’re out to get their house or misuse it for loud raucous parties! And God forbid if you can’t offer them a multinational company lease, or even better - are single. Your hunt can take days! Why pray are personal leases not good enough, I’ve never understood? They are as watertight as any other leases, aren’t they? And has a landlord tried taking on a behemoth Company in the legal arena vs. taking on a regular family, which gets sleepless nights with just one legal notice?
Point driven I guess - You need to start thinking of buying a home you can LIVE in, TODAY, if you don’t already have one. But hey, didn’t I say in my last week’s episode start pre-paying home loans because they’re really expensive, and now I’m saying buy a home if you can, even WITH a home loan. Not trying to confuse you, promise. There’s really no good time or bad time to buy a home that you are sure, YOU WILL LIVE IN.
What is expensive and absolutely avoidable today is INVESTING in a flat or a house, which means you’re buying it not to live in it, but you think it’s a good idea to make a neat little profit by selling it in the next 2 to 3 years. This is just not the time to do that. Why? Watch our next week’s episode. We will also tell you where you can get the cheapest home loans.
Till next week….