One of the things that someone getting married has to go through in Bangalore is the phenomenon of searching for a house. Its tiresome; at times being very irritating; but at the end of the day when you finally get one house to stay after marriage, its an experience worth every bit. You find different types of people – from utter fools to people whose activities are completely driven by absolute greed. Invariably you would find the second category of people more. With my marriage less than a month away, I was desperately searching for the house; and Thank God, I finally got one!!! But this experience helped me to formulate the 10 rules of house-hunting in Bangalore:

1. No house ever satisfies you. Its all about getting into the house that gives you the least dissatisfaction

2. When you are looking for a house to stay with your spouse, never even dream of a scenario where you would find a house that both of you would like. Priorities change!!!

3. When the house owner says that rent is negotiable, be rest assured that he had hiked the initial rent told to you to take care of the “negotiations”. End of the day its just your peace of mind. The owner just made a fool out of you.

4. Ten months advance is insane. You feel like revolting against the entire world when you hear that from a house owner. But if you want the house, pay!!!

5. When the house owner smiles at you as if he was waiting for you to arrive all his life, be rest assured – his thoughts are solely on the advance that you are going to give him

6. When you see an ad in the newspaper for a house which says “x” minutes from some landmark, take it with a pinch of salt. To be on the safer side, take it as “2x” or “3x”

7. When you come across a broker dealing in houses for rent, don’t expect him to argue for you in the negotiation phase. After all, the lesser rent you pay, the lesser brokerage he gets. Why would someone say “I want lesser money”?

8. Be prepared to have a kitchen where you can barely move around. You need to be bloody lucky to find a house with a reasonable kitchen

9. Never have hopes of having a house similar to the one which you have in your native place. You would be disappointed. More importantly, the searching time span just gets a bit longer. Eventually you compromise.

10. Pray baby… pray!!! And hope your stars are all favorable