More on Renting Flats in Pune

Real estate brokers in India work differently than they do back home. Anyone can become a broker - there are no classes or exams, no ethics or fiduciary duty to either seller or buyer. There is no listing service used by all brokers in an area so everyone has the same inventory to work with, along with their exclusive listings.Every person you meet has a brother, uncle or cousin who is a realtor, and when you deal with only one, all you see are the flats that he personally knows about.

I contacted my friends in Pune, talked to my office and asked for recommendation. Each gave me the number to the "only honest realtor in Pune". I contacted them all and visited several high rise flats. I had told each one that I was looking for a flat that would accept two dogs, was fully furnished, and preferably a gym and a pool. We wanted something close to the office that was also nearby a retail center. Most of the realtors told me, "oh, I just had one that was perfect for you, but this is what I have now". The flats were okay, nothing special. I concentrated by search in Wanowrie, a little farther away. We kept looking, and after seeing some decent flats and some horrible ones, the last one was something called a "row house", similar to a duplex back home. Designed by an architect in Singapore, it definitely has a Singaporean aesthetic to it. Badly in need of paint, the house had been empty for more than a year as the owner only wanted to lease it to vegetarians. The son had recently gotten involved and was determined to rent it out. We showed up just in time.

Realtors in India demand at lease a month's rent from both the renter and the seller, some two months each. Each year that you renew the lease the realtors come back again for the fee. If you negotiate your lease agreement for more than 11 months, they double their fee. The good thing is that you can negotiate this down. We settled on a two month's fee for a two year lease. The agent had wanted two months per year. The agent states that he handles all the moving in issues, getting the police clearance, arranging the cooking gas, etc. during the lease time frame. We'll see. This agent was pretty good, though. He had plenty of inventory to show me, and they most closely matched what I was looking for.

The place is paradise. There are three huge bedrooms plus servant quarters and features a beautiful landscaped yard. Perfect for the dogs, who will be arriving next week. The backyard has a heavily laden coconut palm, a pomegranate tree heave with fruit, a mango tree, banana trees and some kind of citrus. All that's missing is pineapples. Every house plant I ever had in the states, from colorful freesia and frangipani, to mother-in-law's tongue, poinsettia and spider plants, is planted in my backyard as hedges, shrubs, and small trees. The white marble outdoor patio is ample enough for a table and chairs. The kitchen is huge, but could use more storage space (we'll work that out soon). The living room has a double height ceiling keeping the space very cool, even in the heat of the day. The only other thing we need to do is buy a washing machine.

The last issue is getting the dogs down from Delhi. My partner is still at our house in Delhi and closing the place down. She's buying the dog crates to fit them and visiting the vets to get their "healthy to fly" certificates. Her round-trip ticket will cost 16,000 rupees, while the dogs' one-way flight will cost 10,000. The tickets are booked and they arrive next Saturday. The car is booked to receive them, so the family will finally be together again, the first time since early December. That's a very, very good thing. :-)

Driveway

More Driveway

Front Door. We've already been locked out twice.

Backyard from the Driveway

Triple sliding doors to backyard

Front Yard

Upstairs Hallway

Looking down from the upstairs hallway to the double-height living room

Stairwell

Front Yard

Doorway to backyard from upstairs

Front Doorway

The Adventures of the FRO (Foreigners' Registration Office)

My family has experienced the pain and frustration of four FROs (or FRROs - Foreigners' Regional Registration Office) in Kolkata, Gurgaon, Delhi, and now Pune. Pune is, by far, the best. 

In India, long term visitors to India are required to register with the office within 14 days. In Kolkata, my office manager and I visited the FRRO on AJC Bose Road. The first time, we went with my passport and entered a dilapidated office building, signed in, and walked into an air conditioned office. There were four desks in the anteroom with stacks of papers and a few chairs for visitors. The woman we talked to wrote out a list of documents and told us to come back tomorrow. Each time we returned, the list changed or the paperwork was missing some wording. After 90 days, I was no closer to getting the residency permit. I spoke to my CEO who hired a gent who had experience with foreigner registration, and he accompanied me to the office. He gallantly strode in, flirted with the ladies, shook the hands of the gents, and 60 seconds later, I had a stamped residency permit book in my hand. Brilliant.

When we moved to Gurgaon, we tried to simply change our existing Employment visa to the new company I was joining. We decided to go to the Home Ministry (also known as the Ministry of Home Affairs) with my HR manager. We spent the whole day there. The HR manager as hit on by a Nigerian gent, a creepy NRI with a cheap british accent who continually played with his belly button kept bothering us, and eventually we were told to leave the country. The Brit shook his head and said, "Man, I can't get out of this country. I have to bike back to the bloody Punjab to get a police clearance, and these people want to stay? Not bloody fair, man." So we went home to the States and got new visas.

That's when the fun begins. In Gurgaon, the FRRO is located at the Mini-Secretariat at Rajiv Chowk. The moldy, old building with cracked and crumbling paint and stucco featured slow moving, whiny fans and papers were stacked to the ceilings, neatly tied in stacks with twine. The elevator has never worked. Back in 2008, the FRRO was located at the top of the building so be prepared to walk up quite a few flights of stairs. I believe it's now down a few floors and have some paper-based numbering system for people waiting now. Beggars plant themselves at the base of the stairs. Shoeshiners, chaabiwallahs (key makers), and other small children ply their trade within the building selling goods. It's sheer torture. Standing around, waiting for hours to get someone to review the paperwork and make a decision. Each time you go, the paperwork differs. It took around 90 days again, with numerous trips to get the paperwork done. Extensions were even worse.

Because my job required me to travel internationally numerous times a year, my paperwork had to be in order for me to leave the country. My first extension took over seven months. The companies I worked for never offered an agent, nor did I know where to find one.  The company kept arguing with me, blaming me for not getting it done, even though I had absolutely no control over the situation. They'd send different staff from the company with me assuming a local could make the difference. They tried everything, bribes, pleading, gratitude, while I demanded, argued and cried in frustration. They'd say come back in a week, that the paperwork was still in Chandigarh. We'd go every week, or I'd send my son by himself. Once, after they said the paperwork had returned, we thought we were finally done, then they sprung a new surprise on us. We now needed a local police clearance. I could have stabbed that man in the heart. I was SO pissed. My son, accompanied by a member of my staff, visited the police numerous times, bribed and ingratiated themselves until that paper was received, delivered to the FRRO, where they said I had to be there to take the papers. I went back the next day to pick them up and they said my son had to be there, too! Unbelievable. What the hell did they think they were giving me? I blew up. I swore at them, yelled at them. I told him that my son was a minor and as his parent (proven in the paperwork by birth certificate) I had legal right to act as his agent in any aspect of his life…blah, blah, blah. Finally they relented and gave me the damn stamps and papers. It took nine months. For the second one-year extension. Every year it was like this.

When I joined Sannam S4, run by Brits, they immediately hired a professional agent to handle my residency permit. He was AWESOME. He sent me all the paperwork to fill out by email, told what I had to scan, and I emailed back all the documents. We met up early one morning at his club and he brought everything printed out for me and my son to review and sign. He accompanied us to the Delhi FRO and took us around to each of the desks, we smiled and waved, and within a half hour, we were out of there. We had our papers in three days. It cost us 7,000 rupees each. What a difference an agent makes.

In Pune, the FRO is located at the Police Commissioner House. Foreigner's go through the Foreigner Gate (Gate #2). For extensions, the hours are 10:00 to 12:00 noon. New permits are scheduled for 3:00 to 5:00 PM. You enter through a small door in a heavily fortified metal gate, then run the security gamut: handing over your bags for searching, then signing in, going through a metal detector, and another bag screening just inside the building. To the left is the FRO, an air conditioned space. At reception, you'll be told what counter to line up for. The agent goes through your papers and confirms everything is there. We were missing the stamp on our C-Form from the hotel, so we were told to come back tomorrow. We got the right papers and headed back the next day. After the same woman confirmed our paperwork, we were sent to another line where a woman entered all of our data into a computer. After that, we were sent to scan all the documents, then to another agent to get photos taken, fingerprinted and had to electronically sign all the documents. They told us to come back one week later. We did. Mine as not ready. We talked to the police inspector and he told us to come back at 5:30 the next day. This time, we took one of my staff, who spoke Marathi, with us. 

When we got there, the door was closed and we were refused entry, them saying that the office was closed.. My Marathi-speaking colleague talked our way in, where it took us about 20 minutes to get the permits. More modern, professional, fast service… much better than other cities. Only issue? Now that we're settling in to our new home, we have to go back and update our files with the new address. Still waiting on a new police clearance - a stamped C-Form to bring with the signed lease. This may be where the torture starts… we'll know soon enough.

Renting property in Pune

So, we're in the process of moving to Pune. We've looked at a lot of apartments and even a few bungalows and the process is frustrating. Now, I've been a landlord in the US and know the concerns of both the landlord and the renter, and here in India, the process is even more difficult. First, there is no universal listing system like we have in the States. You can't see another broker's listings without seeing that broker. We had four different brokers looking for properties.

The costs are ridiculous as well. To lease an apartment in Pune, you need a minimum of six month's rent as a security deposit (some want 12 months!), plus 2 month's broker's fees (from both the landlord AND the renter), and stamp duties and registration, which is not included as a portion of the rent. In addition, renters are expected to handle most maintenance costs, and any society maintenance fees, if applicable. Sometimes the landlord will also charge you for your parking spaces as well.

We've finalized on a little two story bungalow, 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, with servants' quarters. It features solar water heating, ACs in the bedrooms and comes fully furnished (pretty much). It has a little front yard and a bigger backyard, which will be perfect for the puppies. It's a wonderful site, quiet, and the neighbors, while curious, seemed nice. It was calm, peaceful and I could really envision our living in this home happily. I'm hoping to move in as soon as possible.

As part of the process, a meeting is set up by the broker, where both parties meet to finalize the lease points and negotiate final prices. Our broker, a really professional gent (finally!), set this up at the hotel where the owner was staying. We were led out to the outdoor terrace where two young men were drinking beers and having a good time. The gent in the shiny shirt was clearly inebriated. When we were introduced, I was happy to learn that the quieter, sober gent was the landlord's son.

We all sat down, made introductions and I introduced my background, six years in India, experience in renting houses in four Indian cities... we discussed living in Mumbai as well. The landlord's son discussed his family, why they were renting the place, and the reason the property had been on the market for so long. Apparently the father had a long list of rules, like only renting to vegetarians. Now the son was taking over to get the property rented. We were lucky to come along at the right time.

At this point, shiny shirt had spilled a beer and had been interrupting the conversation repeatedly. From what I could gather, he was there to help the son negotiate a better deal. He was a bit arrogant, but overall, harmless.

My negotiation skills have improved over the years and I've learned to stop talking and let the other person pick it up. The original deal was 45,000 rupees a month with a 6 month deposit up front. I originally countered with 35,000 and 6 month deposit paid over a six month period. The initially agreed to talk. They countered with 35,000 with 6 months up front. Shiny shirt kept trying to get a full 12 months up front which I totally refused. I countered with 40,000, 3 months deposit over 6 months, alerting them to the fact that they were now making an additional 60,000 rupees for the first year. They finally agreed once I agreed to also pay the 2,000/month maintenance fee which also pays for the pool and gym at the clubhouse. That seemed fair.

The next step will be signing the lease and getting it registered at the property court, which is typically a full day deal, involving lawyers, standing at a desk and declaring your age (check), standing in another line to show your ID (check), then standing in another line to have a photo taken (check), have witnesses sign that you were the person standing there having your picture taken (check), getting fingerprinted (check), then you're done. The paperwork is completed within a few days. Last time, we watched a family enter the court with a Hindu priest who performed a puja (religious ceremony) to bless the new home owners. That was actually kind of cool. :-) Plus it relieved some of the boredom.

While the costs are high, compared to homes I've had in other cities, this is a standalone bungalow - no neighbors above me and no one staring at me as I enter my house, except maybe my next door neighbor... We're also keeping a house in Delhi at the moment, so our cost are double right now.

Shipping our personal effects won't be too bad since we don't have much. We have 2 very large aluminum shipping crates along with 2-3 cardboard boxes. The shipper estimates 22,000 to ship from Delhi to Pune. Everything is packed, padlocked, and ready to go. The biggest issue is moving the dogs. They'll have to fly.

Airline approved dog crates are VERY expensive here and the two I arrived with won't fit these two. We sold Grace's crate after she died to an expat who was taking her rescued stray back home with her to the UK. We investigated the costs at the pet shop in Khan Market, Delhi, and each crate will cost 6,000 rupees. Our roundtrip flights will cost us around 36,000, plus the costs for the pups as excess baggage. Totally worth it, considering the time to travel. Eunice is not a good road tripper. She'll either puke or poo every few miles while riding in a car. We thought about driving them down, but felt it would be better to bite bullet, pay the expenses and get them there in a couple of hours instead. Hopefully, they'll be okay.

As soon as we get a chance, we'll take photos of the house. It sorely needs a paint job, but we'll be putting it off. Due to the high ceilings and size, it would take at least a month to paint the house, and we can't wait that long to move in. If anyone can recommend a good store for purchasing a washing machine, please let me know. Other than that, I think we're in really good shape. :-)

My Work in Pune

I arrived in Pune last week, to meet my American CEO and get acquainted with my fellow employees. I was very impressed and happy to meet the large team of capable, accomplished, and very talented Indian workers. I am confident that we can take this company to the next level. Last Saturday, we hosted a holiday pool party at a five star hotel where we ended up drinking all the vodka, rum, wine and beer available at the hotel! The poor bartenders probably have post-traumatic stress from their experience. The music was loud and the DJ played "Gangnam Style", which got everyone up on their feet and dancing. Women from the office jumped into the pool with their clothes on! Only one Blackberry mobile was harmed during the event. :-)

I am in the process of building out a marketing team, hiring an HR lead and a new finance lead. If any readers are interested in working in Pune, by all means send me your CVs! Bear in mind, I only want to work with the best of the best. The company is growing very quickly, so you need to be flexible, creative, analytical and have awesome English writing and speaking skills. I only looking for team players.

The company I'm working for is iPlace, situated in Magarpatta City, Pune. It's a great company to work for. The CEO emphasizes employee satisfaction and everyone is treated equally, regardless of your background or how well you get on with your boss. Everyone has a performance component to their salary package that enables them to make more money for producing results for our customers. I like that a lot. It makes it easier to recruit quality staff when they feel they can make a difference, that if they work hard they can make more money. Totally worth it.

I've also spent some time looking for a place to live. (Sigh.) This is always the most challenging aspect of being an expat. While moving to another city in the US can feel difficult, moving cities in another country puts that stress into a whole new order of magnitude. Pune locals speak Marathi as their native tongue, and I still haven't learned Hindi. My HR team has been extremely helpful and found many places for me to visit, some of which weren't so great (I'm talking about you, Spring Valley), but yesterday I saw the house of my dreams in Clover Village in Wanowri, about 25 minutes from the office. Turns out, my co-worker just moved out of the society a few months ago and highly recommends it.

It's called a row house, but Americans would call it a duplex. Since it is one of the older housing societies, the landscaping is mature and well manicured. The house features a small front garden and a larger backyard, which will be great for my puppies. The house is fully furnished, has ACs in each of the three bedrooms and decent servant's quarters.The area was very, very quiet, which I liked. India can be so chaotic and noisy, so this was a very welcomed aspect. The next step is negotiating the lease, which hopefully will be agreed upon by the time I get back.Otherwise I'm back to square one.

I am leaving Pune tomorrow to head to the States for new visas for Will and myself. We're going to Foxborough, MA to celebrate Christmas with the family, then heading down to New York to meet up with my grandmother. We should be back in Pune by mid-January to start a whole new adventure!

If anyone reading this has suggestions on what restaurants are great, places to shop, advice on getting utilities set up, etc., hiring a housekeeper, please post a comment below. I'm glad to be in Pune and excited to see what kind of trouble I can get into here, too!

We're Moving to Pune

I came to India this time in 2007 and moved my rescued greyhound, siamese cat and 12 year-old son to Kolkata to head up the Marketing department for a dotcom focused on building traffic from the United States. You can read about our experiences at http://american-in-calcutta.blogspot.com.

In 2008, I accepted a new position with an internet marketing firm based in Gurgaon and moved my family there. You can read about our next few years living in Gurgaon and Delhi at http://american-in-delhi.blogspot.com.

In 2012, I have moved on yet again. This time, sadly, my pets will not travel with me as both have lost their lives here and are buried at Jeevashram, a pet cemetery affiliated with a wonderful animal hospital that takes care of injured strays, cows, and other wild animals.

So now we are packing, preparing and planning our move to Pune. We are very excited since Jason, an ex-colleague from Chicago, lives there with his family and the Dhunjibhoys are there, my exchange family I lived with all those years ago. I recently had a chance to get more information on living in this city.

"It's the best city to live and raise a family in India. It's quieter, cleaner, and its people are more laid back."

"We couldn't take Mumbai anymore."

This was what we were looking for. Some peace and quiet. Something hard to find in India's urban centers. Our next step is to locate an apartment. From what I've been told, the negotiations are different. Brokers expect to get one or two month's rent as their fee, from BOTH the renter and the landlord, and they expect this fee for each new contract. Negotiate hard with the broker to bring his fee down to one month, and negotiate a multi-year lease if possible to avoid the extra broker's fees. This is exactly the kind of information you can only learn from people who already live there. The lack of clarity, in every process you go through in India, from renting a flat to arranging mobile phone service, is the bane of my existence.

We're particularly interested in finding something in Magarpatta City, where my office located, or in Amanora Township, which is just across the street from Magarpatta City and close to Koregaon Park, where Jason and the Dhunjibhoys live. I've heard though, that hiring help there is a challenge as it is far from the city center. We'll see.

Restaurants I recommend in Pune (so far!):

• Stone Water Grill
  Great seafood and Western cuisine.
• Darios
  Excellent vegetarian Italian done really well. 

Expat Support

Pune Expats Club 
So far, not super excited about them. I went to their web site to join, tried to use the online form from my mac (didn't work) and ended up downloading the form, filling it in by hand and emailing to the address on the web site. Never heard back. I do, however, get their emails now, promoting International Cheese Night and Wine Tastings... Hmmm.

Well, I leave Monday on this new adventure. Seems like we're finally "coming home".

Cheers. 
  

Introduction

When I first came to India as an exchange student in 1976, India was under a State of Emergency. Americans were not exactly welcomed here. But I was living with a Parsi family that made me feel all sorts of welcomed within days of my arrival. One of the aspects I loved most was horse racing. My family had race horses, so when the season came to Mumbai, everyone in the family was excited. Even better was heading to the house in Pune to participate in racing season there. Pune was and still is beautiful. Having recently revisited a couple of years ago, reuniting with friends and family, I have wanted to return in a more permanent manner. That may soon be be case. Stay tuned. As things develop, more will be revealed. Cheers.