Moving into the place of our own is always a dream come true. The joy of stepping into the owned house is simply unmatched. All of us, at one time or the other, wish to experience this jubilation. Buy ing a home, therefore, is easily one of the most crucial decisions in one's life. All that is important while arriving at the decision is to strike a perfect balance of head and heart. It is not at all advis able to take any decision under the sway of emotions. The deci sion has to be an intelligent one so as to avoid any encumbrance at a later stage. In our country, people traditionally aspire to possess their own homes. And it is here that homebuyers are prone to make emotional mistakes. Apparently, there is the need for reforming property buying and selling processes. This is all the more relevant in the present market conditions where the cost of capital and loans are high and not expected to decrease in the near future affecting affordability and availability of homes.

The decision to purchase a house is thus taking place in a highly constrained environment. Biased contracts, lack of transparency in transactions and regulation in development and brokerage services are all factors that are affecting homebuyers.Hence, as prospective consumers, knowing the right questions to ask and if permissible, engaging expert advice could definitely help one make a sound investment for one's future.Whether you are buying a home to live in with family or for investment purposes, understanding one's wants and needs is the way to avoid emotional mistakes.

There is a critical need in India for robust practices that coincide with internationally recognised procedures, in order to safeguard and protect consumers, while at the same time having a tangible and accurate approach to determining market value of properties and reporting protocols.Only when such issues are addressed, will anomalies and miscreant practices be eliminated from the system that have existed thus far, due to the lack of regulation and transparency in the practices, procedures and processes; where consumers have been typically been at the short-end of the stick.