Sample Apartments : Learn How Builders / Promoters Trap Property Buyers..

One of the biggest traps for real estate buyers are Sample Flats. When you visit properties sites to inquire about any under construction properties or / ready for possession flats, the builder / promoter or the sales person there shows you a Sample Flat.

The moment you look at a sample flat, something happens to you. The sample flat is so beautiful & mesmerizing that, you feel like you are in love again, some kind of beautiful music starts playing in your head and for a moment, you visualize the future with your family living within that same sample flat & how you and your loved one’s are enjoying the ambiance and premiumness the sample flat offers.

You are delighted !

But - This is trap, set by Builder or promoter

Sample Flat Example..

Why you get trapped.. ?

Because you are human, you have emotions & you have lots of dreams for your family & yourself. Because in this competitive society, you have to grab your share of status &  show to the world, that your time has come finally! .

Builders / promoters know how to exploit the human psyche and how to manipulate your aspirations.

Every person wants to give himself & his family the best housing and the most spacious and premium living conditions - a fact, well known to the builder. When they create sample flat, all these things are kept in mind and the sample flat is constructed in a manner that makes you fall in love with it at the first sight.

The builder’s goal is to ensure that your emotional mind is activated & prevents your rational mind from questioning things or /  think hard. You should be hypnotized! .

Check out this guy sharing how his builder did not fulfill his promise

Lets look at two important points you know should be aware about the so called sample flats, which can save you from potential disappointment some time in future when you hunt for your dream house.

Trick No. 1 – Sample Flats are created to look more “Spacious”

Everyone wants a big home at a lower cost. Given there are 4 to 6 people in family on an average &  lots of belongings in home, a bigger house is always preferred than a smaller one.

You should have space for all the things you have at house, without making your home look cluttered. So few tricks are used to make sure that the sample flat looks more spacious artificially! .

 Here are they..

**    There are no doors in toilets & bathrooms, and some of the walls are merely glass partitions, which creates a visual illusion of more space.

**    There are no doors between rooms in a sample flat, which makes the flat appear more spacious than it really is.

**  The ceiling is much higher than the real flat & is just increases the volume of sample flat, thus giving a feel of space.

 

**  The lighting using in sample flat is suggested by interior designers, who are experts in creating optical illusions.

   

** The furniture used in sample flat is kept smaller, so that in comparison the rooms &  kitchen looks bigger.

   

** Even the other things like bed, almira’s and dining table in kitchen are placed in such a way & are of smaller size, to give a feeling of more space.

   

** The walls are much thinner in sample flat, compared to the real flat, which again gives more spacing. They are known to use gypsum boards and not the real cemented wall.

What You Should Do.. ?

Once you visit a sample flat, the first thing you should do is slow down &  stop yourself from getting biased by the spacious feel of it.

For a moment, consciously tell yourself that you know its not reality & a kind of trap (remember 3 idiots - “All is well, All is well”) .

Visualize the furniture, bed, kitchen belongings, all the almira’s you own at house. Your Sofa, your TV, your Waching machine & Refridgerator and every thing you own and ask where will you keep it ?

Also consider those new things you might buy before moving to new property ?

If you are seriously considering buying a home, then actually mark places where you will keep what & check the space it will take (mentally atleast) .

Seek help from ladies at house, because they have a better understanding of minor details & can tell you, if the flat will be able to accommodate everything with higher accuracy (and in most of the cases, women are anyways more bothered for those things compared to men).

Note that rather than blaming builder / promoters on using these tactics and fooling you, I would suggest being self-reliant, as there is nothing illegal in what the builder / promoter has done. Yes, its kind of unethical & the tricks employed here, are just a way of exploiting human psychology & aspirations.

But, then, there is no law on all these points & anyways, the agreement will mention that the sample flat was just for demonstration purposes & the look and feel of the actual flat may be a little different. I want you to be prepared for this, rather than complaining about things.

Here is one real life experience I found on the net, which talks about the same thing we are discussing here

    At the time of booking Builder / promoter shown a central park as well as a very huge green area (80 % of the project), the same is also shown / mentioned in the

Brochure given to during the time of booking. Also showed a sample flat and did a sale agreement.

    Now builder is constructing three new towers on the park area &  also cutting down the green area as he is coming up with another project on the same green land – Source here

Trick No 2 – Sample Flats gives the feeling of PREMIUM

Who does not want a premium and beautiful house?

Everyone does!

We want our home to be better than others, we want to make sure we get the best. We aspire to live in premium houses (majority of them, if you do not). Builders / promoters do their homework properly & put all their efforts in making sure that the sample flat looks the way most of the people cant actually afford!.

I mean to say that every bit of work, furniture, finishing and material used are expensive and of very high quality and high standards. In many cases, the cost incurred in making the sample flat look premium is more than the cost of the flat itself (Imagine Rs. 50 lacs flat having Rs. 50 lacs of premium things inside it, just to make it look premium).

    ** The fixtures & furnishing used are of world class quality & brand and is so premium that instantly a prospective buyer imagines him selves owning it.

  **  The floor tiles used are of high quality & more beautiful than what you get in reality.

**     The view you get from Balcony & Windows is really great (lake view, greenery, beautiful mountains), but in reality your flat might be on the other side of the project, which has all the old buildings & has a crowded road (may be after some years) and you will not get the same view which you saw in sample flat.

This is because the sample flat is created first and the location chosen for it is well planned and for the purpose :)

   **   The furniture used in the sample flat is very expensive and promises high lifestyle. Imagine Rs. 5 lacs to Rs. 6 lacs worth of Sofa set, whereas you will buy only Rs. 50,000 worth of sofa in your case.

   

   ** The walls will have beautiful paintings which most of people want, but cant afford .

Tip – This startup called Art Square sells  ART and Paintings at affordable price to common man.

Boy! , they also have the feature which shows you, how it looks on the wall. check out this example.

Difference between Sample flat and real flat

What to do ?

Incase of under-construction property, you cant do much, you can only rely on the builder / promoter words and do some research on how truthful they are by talking to their old project buyers (actually go there, and talk to some flat owners about their experience).

Before booking the flat, you need to get all information from builder on the materials going to be used, which brand they will be, what kind of wall paint , which fittings ? which wires ?

 what kind of tiles ?

everything in detail ! .

Note that, you are going to get unfurnished flat, and then you have to put everything from fan, A/C, bed, sofa and everything else you have at house.

So, its important to check out the unfurnished flat apart from sample flat, but its possible only when you are buying a ready to move in property.

As buying house is one time decision, its always better to be more present (physically & mentally) to reality and not take the decision in hurry.

Sample apartments are not reality & you have to get that.

You also should control yourself and your family members emotions (a lot of real estate buyers complain that ladies fall for the beautiful looking flats and get excited by beautiful wall colors, premium kitchen and the wall texture giving wow-experience and then do not comeback to reality from the unreal world they reached after looking at sample flat. Slow down and take the right decision.

Src: Mr. Manish Chauhan, http://www.jagoinvestor.com

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