NoBroker Review By Sharanya Kannan and Tipu Sultan Mohideen

Sharanya Kannan and Tipu Sultan Mohideen, a married couple where both practice different religions was finding it extremely difficult to find a house for rent in Mumbai. They spent a month waiting, looking at properties where deals would fall through in the end. After spending several days away from work and hearing a load of excuses from brokers and owners they found a house, the type they were looking for and in a society of their choice through NoBroker.com. And it only took a day! Here, Sharanya in an interview speaks about the experiences they faced while looking for a house. 1. How many places/ houses were you turned down at until you found an apartment? There is hardly a count. But we looked at places like Versova, Azad Nagar, DN Nagar and areas around the Andheri stations. It would have easily been 20, if not more. In fact, a house from the same society we have moved into now also didn’t work out. But we found this house in the same society immediately after that happened. 2. What are some of the reasons you have heard? We finalised at least 5-6 houses (gave the final thumbs-up to the broker to inform the house owner but never heard back after that stage) In some cases, the broker came back with the reason that the owner is hesitant after learning of our inter-religious background. But despite showing us ‘cosmo’ societies where religion isn’t an issue, when he didn’t have a reason for not getting us a finalised house, he would promptly blame our budget. (Our budget was 40,000. I think we have enough reason to believe that for this budget, we could expect some decent houses in the areas we looked.) 3. How many brokers were you in touch with and what sort of reactions did the brokers have? We contacted at least three brokers directly who put us onto more brokers from their contact list. So, ideally I think our count of brokers would have been 6 or 7. They gave us only two reactions – ‘sorry sir’ and ‘mil jayega sir’. They were happy about how forward we are with our inter-religious ways but always ended up telling us that the society is ‘probably not cosmo enough’. That’s when they said ‘mil jayega sir. 100% mil jayega’ 4. How much time in months or days did you spend looking for a house? We started the online search by end of March and the actual door-to-door search on April 2nd. But we were on a rigorous schedule – taking permission and leave from work to find a house ASAP. We spent roughly a month searching. But the search was on everyday with not a single day’s rest in between. We were desperate and in a hurry to move. We found nobroker.com on April 21 and finalised on our house the same evening. 5. Could you narrate one incident where the deal was almost finalised and fell through due to the religious bias? The last house we got turned down at in the same society. The minute a friend suggested the society as a very amiable option, we took a look and liked it immediately. The broker said there was one house vacant where the tenant (a friend of the house owner) still resides but is looking to move out. The broker made it pretty clear that we will have to meet the tenant who will take a decision upon renting the house to us after discussion with the house owner. The broker also made it clear that both the tenant and the house owner were Muslims, insisting on Muslim tenants. My husband, the Muslim between the two of us, wasn’t comfortable with this arrangement but decided to go with it on my insistence We checked the house out and met the tenant (who was extremely arrogant). He refused to negotiate saying he is answerable to the house owner. So we ended up agreeing to an amount higher than what we had in mind. It was clear he wasn’t too happy about the Hindu mix in the marriage. But since we agreed on his quoted rent, he said he will get back to us after consultation with the owner. But, he never did. After a few days our broker called us to inform that the house owner (who stays in Saudi) is visiting and will take his time to meet us directly after which he will finally decide. They kept us waiting for a long time. It felt horrible because we couldn’t afford any more permission and leave at work to house-hunt and we really liked this society – we didn’t like the way we were being treated and were already regretting our decision on the rent but didn’t want to give up either. It was a weighed wait and decision. After a few more days the broker informed us about the owner not agreeing. We stay in the same society now and that house has no takers yet. 6. What were some of the things you have heard? Are people upfront about not renting out a place to you due to religious differences or do they make excuses? We got turned down from confirmed ‘cosmo’ houses for the weirdest of reasons – 1. ‘Us ghar ka chaavi nahin mil raha hai’, Owner 2. ‘Aapse woh nahin ho payega’ 3. ‘Yeh conservative society hai. Thoda mushkil lagega’ 4. ‘Woh sirf muslim/hindus ko dete hain’ 5. One broker even showed us a house that wasn’t completed. There were no floors only cemented lumps here and there, no proper stair case, no doors, no completed walls, no electricity. It looked absolutely uninhabitable and would have needed at least another 8-10 months minimum for completion (more if you consider the upcoming monsoon). He said “Yeh le lo. yeh bahut acha ghar hai Sir. Naya hai aur religious bias bhi nahin hoga aapko” 6. The brokers asked us to take the agreement in either of our names and hide the fact that the other person was a Muslim/Hindu. They told us that revealing the inter-religious connection will make the house owner automatically hike the rent and increase the demand.