Banashankari to Bommanahalli

I did not know that letting out our old Banashankari flat was going to be so tough and an experience by itself. Especially since we had always found our neighbors / co-residents in our building, as well as other friends and relatives in Bangalore were able to very quickly and easily let out their property. But when it came to us, the same task appeared Herculean! That, in spite of our flat being several touches better class than identically sized replica flats in the same building. Well, a good learning experience it was.

It was in December 2008 we had moved from our old flat in Banashankari to another in Bommanahalli, and immediately we started the process to get the old flat rented out. Yes, it was that time when the economic recession had just set-in, alright, but I never expected it to affect me in letting out the flat, particularly so badly.

Our flat is a decent 3-side ventilated flat, on the 3rd floor of this 7-floor apartment building that hols a total of 54 flats in two abutted blocks. We first got the flat white-washed fully and by Pongal / Sankaranti (Jan-14) 2009 it was ready, back in quite a glossy state. We spent Rs 3000 for the paints and another Rs 3000 for the painting charges. We could easily locate a painter in the husband of one of the house-keeping ladies in our apartment building. So no difficulties there. We could admire the flat again – all the furniture and household goods vacated out, the empty flat had a nice fresh look. And what do I mean by our flat being several touches better class than identically sized replicas in the same building?

Over-proud add-ons in our flat

When we had booked the flat in 2003, during construction, we made the builder bring-in many changes to design and material, at our extra cost, and all those added a lot of value plus look-and-feel and even comfort level in our flat. It is only a small ‘1 + Study BHK’ (i.e. 1.5 BHK) flat – with super built-up area of 1042 SFT, and carpet area of approximately 800 SFT. It has one master bedroom, and the study room is a small bedroom for our son who was <6 years old that time.

• Tiles in the hall were replaced from builder’s ordinary brand and color choice to a marble-alike from Johnson & Johnson tiles.
• Tiles in the bedrooms were changed too. Particularly, wood-pattern tiles for our son’s room.
• We introduced an arch at the entrance of kitchen passage.
• We removed the wall and door to the kitchen and made the passage space to be part of the kitchen. That accommodated a dining table for us in the extended area of the kitchen itself, thereby freeing up the related space from the living room.
• We removed the wall, window and door to the balcony in the living room and introduced French-windows with teak-wood frames and glasses.
• We added extra ventilator in both the bathrooms – the one attached to the master bedroom as well as the common one.
• We brought in a 4 feet bath tub in the attached bathroom. Our son being <6 years old we felt that would make a good play time during weekends for at least 2-3 more years.
• We changed both the bathroom tiles and basins to completely different ones from the plain white stuff that the builder had planned. We brought in blue theme in the attached bathroom and green theme in common bathroom.
• We changed the layout of the common bathroom and the wash basin there in such a way that there is very good utilization of space. It also lent us the ability to bring in a recess space on the exterior, foyer-side, where we could comfortably build a small wooden shoe-rack plus provision for shoving old newspapers.
• Similarly we also changed the layout of the attached bathroom and wash basin there for better utilization of space.
• Lofts were made in the kitchen as well as both the bathrooms that increased the amount of storage space in the flat. 
• There was no Pooja room in the builder's design. We created a small Pooja shelf in the hall by modifying the shelf in the study room to open out upper half of it from the hall-side and lower half-of it still acting as a shelf inside the room.
• We installed grill cover and sliding glass windows in the balcony in living room. We also installed curtains, so it made it kind of a ante-room or pseudo room. It acted as a study room for our son. So, our flat became a ‘1 + study + mini-study BHK’ configuration.
• We also moved the entrance to the study room to be from the far end of the living room instead of from the kitchen passage. That made that room movement space to be away from normal space used in living and kitchen.

It was our first own flat, and its features and outlooks have been very close to heart for each of us. I am sure it is the same for everyone who used their hard-earned money to buy their first fixed asset in life. We had spent an extra two lakh rupees than the original budget in order to bring in all those changes through the builder’s execution. 'Space' was our theme, and we achieved our motive, made the flat appear bigger than what it actually is and it gave a spacious feel for anyone walking in.

Add to it the wood work. The flat has good wardrobes and kitchen cabinets installed that garnished a neat look, while adding value to the residents. Then the electrical fixtures. We also had electric geysers installed in both the bathrooms, plus, we had tube-lights, ceiling fans, ornamental drop lights, lamp shades, central chandelier, etc. everywhere in the flat. The rent would also include the covered stilt car parking lot for the tenant. And, what's more, we were also offering all the curtains to the windows and doors as freebie to the tenant.

Does any one need more from a owner?

Pegging the rent

It was the first time I was becoming a house-owner tenanting out a flat. So, one of the questions we have been debating was about how to fix the rent for our flat. Obviously, the easiest way was to refer to the rent of the flat next doors. The neighbor’s flat is of exactly same configuration, but does not have any of the value-adds and comfort-adds we had done in our flat.

The thumb rule we framed was like this. With all those value adds and comforts added to our flat, the rent for our flat expected is at the least ‘x + 500’ rupees, where x is the rent of the neighboring flat. Even that Rs 500 more was looking less, for all those wonderful little enhancements our flat possesses. May be Rs 1000 more is even justified, but we felt we should be quite content with Rs 500 more.

We know that the neighbor’s flat was going at Rs 9500. Just about 3 months ago (somewhere around September / October 2008) the previous tenant of the neighboring flat had vacated. At that time, its owner, a late 50s or early 60s gentleman from Andhra, had come from his Brookfields flat to get it painted and in no time – probably within a week – he found a new tenant! The rent was Rs 9500 for the new tenant, up by Rs 500 from the previous Rs 9000!!

So we decided that the lowest rent we should get must be Rs 10,000. But due to all those very own admirable features in our flat, my wife and I genuinely felt that Rs 11,000 is worth a rent for our flat, and that is what we planned quote to prospective tenants initially.

The search begins

We started searching for the tenant. We spread out the word through email groups, friends circles, online free ad websites, and the apartment manager as well. 

Considering the number of online free ads I had posted, I was expecting a flurry of enquiries and calls. But what we actually saw was zero response for a few days. Yes, zero.

It was early January of 2009, when the recession was at its peak and there were job losses and salary cuts being discussed everywhere including Bangalore. Soon, the manager started telling us more discouraging news. He said there are many full 2 BHK flats and even 3 BHK flats vacant in the building – almost 5 to 6 of them – and their owners were unable to find tenants for over 2 months. He also added that the rent quoted for those bigger flats were all under Rs 7000! And, I was expecting a rent of over Rs 10,000 for our 1.5 BHK flat!!

This gap he highlighted started giving us pressure. We were not sure whether the his statements were factual or not. But we decided to wait relentlessly. I upped the ante by promoting my Sulekha.com ad into a paid one.

Fishing for tenants

Slowly, the ad on Sulekha.com as well as a few other online ads started trickling some responses. Most responses came via sms or calls on my mobile phone. Sulekha’s design is very user friendly as well as detailed. It gets a lot of hits too. I started liking Sulekha.com more and more. [Though, I think that site is not as clutter-free or user-friendly nowadays.]

When we started have the first few enquiry calls, we slowly understood that we had missed to form a detailed outline about what ‘kind’ of tenant we want to have. We always thought we just need to find a ‘good’ tenant. But, we realized later that the adjective ‘good’ is further made up of many ‘sub’ goods!

Between Chennai and Bangalore, we had lived in 4 different rented flats during the 9 years, 1995-2004. And we have always felt that we were ‘good’ tenants to our house-owners. Not sure whether those owners had really felt the same way about us in return, but certainly that has been the feeling me and my wife had about ourselves. We always took very good care of the rented flat we lived, like our own. I myself repaired bathroom flush tank problem, or replaced bad tube light bulb, or fixed door latch problem, or kitchen sink block, or any such thing on my own and never disturbed the owner to complain or to seek help.

But here some of the inquiries we got made us worry about this factor – how are we going to find a good tenant for our flat?

- A group of college-going boys;
- A group of working bachelor men;
- A married Muslim guy wanting to live all alone in our flat;
- A married couple with young kid wanting to pay only Rs 6500 for our flat;
- A Nagpur couple who are not married yet but planning to live in our flat;
- A family running a fruits shop brought, by the building manager;
- Etc.

Each one of those inquiries made us nervous! I was also talking to family and friends to enhance my knowledge in this area. Now we started forming norms and boundaries to filter our already dry list of tenant inquiries that were coming! We brought in a lot of ‘no factors’. No bachelors, no large family, no miserly, no loner, etc. etc.

While defining what is good for us was the major trick, the other major issue we faced was a very regular irregularity, with almost all the enquirers, time and again.

That is, we would receive the first inquiring call from someone while I am at my office at Koramangala or at our home in Bommanahalli. We exchange high level details first, I check some of the good / no-good filter factors a bit, and then we jointly decide that the prospective tenant would come to the flat at Banashankari at a specific date and time. After that, only one of the two things happened all the time.

Either, the flat will be shown to them with a lot of my enthusiastic explanation and finer details showing off the admiration we have for the features; and they go off saying they will get back to me; and never bother to even think about us after that – did I bore them so much or frighten them away in some way, I don’t know.

Or, they don’t even show up at the Banashankari flat while I would go there all the way (~13 KM) and keep waiting for them, calling them every 20-30 minutes - they only tell that they are still in a meeting at the office (on Saturdays or even on Sundays) or they are stuck in traffic somewhere, or some plan changed for them in the last minute, etc. - and then finally I would return to Bommanahalli without having achieved any mission!

In summary the consumer behavior and consumer mix was interesting and strange, same time

• Whoever visited the flat and went back saying they will get back in a day or two, never bothered to call us back.
• It was we who had to chase prospective tenants rather than they coming back behind us (barring one or two exceptions with whom we had other good / no-good filter factors mismatching).
• With several advantages to our flat's credit – including, walking distances to Foodworld, Big Bazaar, Nilgiris, Bus stop, Clinic, Temple, etc., within-the-complex internal roads to walk / jog, children's play area, shuttle / volley-ball court, nicely developed trees within the complex, etc. etc. – we thought we stood a big chance to choose who our tenant must be, from a long queue of them. But it was not to be.
• True to Bangalore's cosmopolitan trait, we did encounter a kind of pan Indian prospects; but the proportion was more of north Indians, and only some Andraites, some Kannadigas, and very little (just 1?) Tamils.

We slowly reduced our asking rent to Rs 9500 as the rock bottom we can accept.

Experiences with prospects

A professional doctor couple, who are moving from somewhere near Chamrajpet to the new KIMS institute near Banashankari BDA complex, and wanting to find a flat to live in Banashankari area. We scheduled meeting time at Banashankari 3 times and none of the times they could turn up. The third time when the schedule was made and I was waiting for them at the flat, they told me that they are in a meeting in Hassan somewhere!

A working professional planning to get married in April and hunting for a flat (in February) living very close by in Chennamanakere near Kamakya theater, yes, living so close to our flat. But even he never made it. Every time I called him he was positive that he needed a flat and wanted to come and see ours. Only I kept chasing him behind, but he could never make visit the flat till the end! And, not even once he called me to check status or inform status.

A big fat person (wow so fat, he just, only just, managed to pass through the main door entrance of our flat), just moved from Satyam (after that big fudging scandal that company had gone through) to HP Bangalore, but has got pay cuts in HP already. He was interested but wanted to get his family members’ feedback. He also never called me back after that.

An Infosysian living on the 1st floor of a house in a street behind our building, being forced by his current owner living in the ground floor, because the owner’s son will get married shortly and so they need the first floor to be vacated. From his walks, it was evident to me, he visited our flat more as a casual tour rather than with a purpose. Though, he said that he had a real need to shift house very soon. I thought he was a good candidate to rent our flat, but it was not to be. He also never called me back after that.

A group of bachelors, they live currently in Puttenahalli and have a very big fan in their current owner, because they are such a good bunch of boys, but they have to find a new home now only because one of their new pals who joined the group has no bus pick-up facility in that area currently. One of the guys was after me for many days later too. At the start I had actually missed to check with him whether they are a family or bachelors, and ended up showing around the flat for him in detail. When I came to know they are bachelors trying to rent my flat, he used a lot of sweet-coated statements and tried to impress me to agree to let it out for them. I explained to him our concerns and politely denied. He was the only guy who kept calling me even after 2-3 weeks. When he heard that the flat was still available he increased the pressure on me. But I kept finding ways to delay an answer for him.

A fruit-shop guy came through the building manager, looked below par, really not to the living standards we would expect our tenant to be. Looked even below poverty line standards and they were asking rents in the order of Rs 7000 (as the manager would have surely prompted them). But on hearsay information it appeared like they were doing good business in bulk supply of fruits by a Maruti van to many retailers.

An Andra guy with wife and young kid, working for Wipro, tried coming close to literally grabbing the flat. He was pushing me hard for Rs 6500 p.m. He followed up on phone many times. His point was that I am wasting time by not letting out to anybody and would much rather let it out to him for 6500. I told him that I am not at all in a hurry and am even willing to keep it locked for a year. My next door tenant pays Rs 9500 p.m.; where is 6500?

A married Muslim guy came alone, looked at the flat and liked it. He too came close to grabbing the flat. He also followed up with a few calls to check when he can come and discuss regarding agreement. He was willing to pay Rs 9500 and wanted the flat. But when we came to know that he will be living all alone himself, and he claimed that his wife is living separately somewhere in Bangalore, we started becoming a bit concerned. The IISc Bangalore blasts and other serial blasts in Bangalore were coming to our minds and we got worried about possible shady activities. He might have been a good guy but we wanted to be very cautious.

A Nagpur couple, working in the IT industry in Bangalore, to get married in a few months, knew each other for many years in their home town. They agreed to pay Rs 9000 and almost decided to take the flat. A few emails exchanged. I told them that they have to give us identity proof, passport copy etc. first before we sign the agreement. But in the meanwhile we came to know from them that along with them 7-8 people including parents, brother, sister etc. from both their sides from Nagpur, Ahmedabad etc. will be moving into the flat. We got terrified. We explained to them that our flat was not suitable for such a big family. We as a small family of 2 + 1 had lived in there and we know its capacity. While the discussions had taken a few positive steps forward already, I politely explained to them our concerns and they agreed to look elsewhere.

A lady, living in interior Ittamadu behind Banashankari, with a 2 year old kid and servant maid, but her husband was on an onsite trip abroad, while she had to start sending kid to the newly started play school ‘Roots to Wings’ near Foodworld at Katriguppe signal from May / June 2009. She looked more modern and trendy than how much we are or our flat is. She appeared like she can take a decision herself in a day or two and that’s what she told me and left the flat after meeting me. But she also never called me back after that.

Finally, who won?

It was around the same time as the lady with 2 year old kid visited the flat, we got the enquiry from this gentleman who finally became our tenant. He is a very nice, friendly person from Chikkamagalur & Mangalore side, with a small family. We have been quite glad they came by and have become our first tenant in April 2009 and continuing still.

We won.