What to check on a site visit

A sales gallery is designed to make you feel something. The site is where the facts are. Go on a weekday if you can, and go twice — once mid-morning and once at the hour you would actually commute.

Before you leave home

• Look up the RERA number on the state portal and read the last two quarterly progress filings.
• Check the developer's completed projects, not their upcoming ones. Ask to visit one that was handed over three years ago — how it has aged is the real specification.
• Note the declared possession date from the RERA filing. Ask the salesperson for the date, and see whether they match.

At the site

1. 1Ask to see the actual unit or its floor, not just the sample flat. Sample flats are built without a few walls and furnished at a scale that will not fit your furniture.
2. 2Check the sample flat's specification list against the agreement's specification annexure. 'Premium vitrified tiles' in a brochure and a named brand in an annexure are different commitments.
3. 3Stand on the balcony and look at what will be built in front of it. Ask which survey numbers around the site are already sold, and to whom.
4. 4Look at the water source. Municipal connection, borewell, or tanker? Tanker dependence is a recurring monthly cost and a summer risk.
5. 5Count the lifts per tower and the units per floor. Six units per floor on two lifts is a fifteen-minute morning.
6. 6Ask about the DG backup allocation per flat in KVA and what it runs. 1 KVA runs lights and fans, not an air conditioner.
7. 7Check parking allocation and whether visitor parking is genuinely separate. This is the single commonest source of society disputes.
8. 8Walk the approach road at the time you would drive it. A four-minute drive on a Sunday afternoon can be thirty at 9am.
9. 9Ask what the estimated monthly maintenance per sq ft will be, and what it covers. ₹3.50/sq ft on 1,300 sq ft is ₹4,550 a month, forever.

The questions that get honest answers

• 'How many units in this tower are unsold?' — a specific answer means an organised developer; a vague one means either chaos or a slow project.
• 'What was the launch price and what is it today?' — tells you the real appreciation, and whether you are buying near a peak.
• 'Which banks have APF here?' — no APF from any large lender is a genuine warning sign about title or approvals.
• 'Can I see the approved plan sanction letter?' — the answer, not the document, is what you are testing.