How To Rent A House In India & Not Get Burned

When I moved to India, I wanted to rent a house, get fast internet and live like a local. In less than a week, I had found a place with one bedroom and one big office for $178 a month. I’ll share how I did it below…

How to rent a house in India? Looking at the local Facebook group or places with TOLET signs. AirBnB.com is another option with slightly higher prices. Then look at the houses, negotiate a fair price and sign a lease. Check out a list of questions you can ask below…

NOTE: You may have a different experience. I rented a house in a small-ish town in South India. You may find it is different in the city you want to live, and if you find out some helpful information along the way. If so, please post in the comments. Then we can all learn together.

Before I moved to India, I was so excited to have my own place. I had booked a guesthouse for a week so I could look and I did NOT have much time to find a place. This is why I started looking for a place to rent before I even flew to India.

Look on Facebook Groups

I had traveled to the town I wanted to live in last year, so I was already a member of the local FB group. About a month before I flew to India, I started messaging landlords who were posting their homes and flats and rooms.

Almost once a day someone would post another room, so as I was messaging I started to get a sense for how much I would pay. The type of services that were offered. Was WiFi available?

When I arrived I had a list of contacts to reach out, and I set up times to meet them and see their places.

When I arrived, I also posted on FB that I was looking for a place to rent for a year at least. I had a lot of posts, so I added them to my list of contacts as I started to look.

Look for TOLET Signs

As I drove around looking at the places, I started to notice signs that said TOLET on a number of houses. Eventually, it dawned on me (I’m kinda slow, haha), that these were signs offering a room or place to rent.

I started to call the numbers on these signs and added more contacts to my list to see.

TIP: As I was calling these places, many of the people picking up the phone could NOT speak English though. I would ask someone nearby and often times local people were happy to help.

Look on AirBnB.com

Of course, AirBnB.com might be the easiest place for you to find contacts. Even in the relatively small town I live in, there are 87 rentals available. Ranging from 690 INR (~$10 USD) a night to over 5000 INR (~$70 USD) a night.

Take Your Time Looking

I was in a rush to find a place, but I still looked at almost 10 houses and spent a week to make my decision. By the end, I understood:

What most rent prices were
How much a landlord will initially offer

What price they might come down to
What types of items would they include in the price, furnishings, WiFi, etc
What types of neighborhoods were available and what did they offer

What types of landlords were there

I met a French friend here and he looked at over 30 PLACES before he settled on one. He also got a great deal on a place so maybe his strategy is the smart one. I looked at much less but I found one I really liked and most people say I was lucky to find. Others say I’m paying too much, haha.

Questions to Ask when Looking at Homes in India

I asked a lot of questions and I still missed out on some basics that I wish I could go back and ask. Here’s a list of questions that I’m glad that I asked and I also did some research on questions that I wish I would have asked:

Is there a water purifier?

My place has a water purifier. The flat below me does NOT have a water purifier. Every time I want a drink I can just pour a glass of water, yet my neighbor has to make sure he has a full water jug and pour some out of that.

This may not be a dealbreaker for you, since you can have large jugs of clean water delivered to your door. However, I’m very happy that I have a system in place that I don’t have to worry about one of the essentials of life.

Is there an air conditioner?

It was over 105 degrees Fahrenheit most of May and I run my air conditioner all day, every day.

Yet I had to buy my own air conditioner. This was about a $400 USD expense, and it would have been amazing if my flat came with one.

Is there an inverter and battery?

I asked if the power goes out at my house and my landlord assured me that it did not, haha. In fact my power goes out almost every week, sometimes every day for short periods of time (10-15 minutes). Sometimes it goes out for a few hours. Then once a month, it will go out for about 8 hours at a time.

However, my friend who lives in Goa has an inverter with a battery, and she has certain appliances that will stay running even during a power cut.

Eventually I’m going to buy one of these which run at ~$400 USD as well, but it would have been amazing if my house came with it.

Can you clarify how much rent is and how often I will be expected to pay?

I pay 12000 INR ($171 USD) per month in 3-month installments, because I’ve agreed to live in my house for at least one year. If I were only staying for 3 months, my landlord had originally quoted me at 15000 INR ($214) a month.

The French friend that I mentioned above pays 8000 INR a month ($114) and he pays his rent each month.

Another friend of mine has lived in a home all to himself for 8 years, and he pays 8000 INR a month ($114). His strategy is to pay for the whole year upfront, which is why he can get such a good rate.

Another man who I met at the local chai shop said he rented a small room in an apartment for 10 years and has already paid in full.

This question will start the negotiation period that could go on for awhile if you want to play hardball 😈

TIP: If you pay more upfront, you may be able to negotiate a lower monthly rent. However, of course, you may risk losing that money if you have to go home or decide India isn’t for you.

Do you have WiFi here now or have you ever had WiFi here?

This question may be pointless, but it’s worth a shot. If you want to rent a place out of the city, then you will want to make sure you can get high-speed internet.

If they already have internet, then I would do a Speed Test right then. If they have never had internet, then I would call your local provide (BSNL is the most popular, I use a new company called Cherrinet) and ask if you could get WiFi at that address.

Is there an alarm system?

My place has flood lighting near my doors, and lighting throughout the property. There’s also a loud alarm I can switch on if anything happens and it makes me feel secure to know I have it.

Does furniture come with the apartment?

My flat did NOT come with furniture, but my landlord did provide furniture for the flat below mine. I had asked about it and he had offered but the price he was looking for seemed too high.

I bought furniture at the local store and on Amazon.com and am pretty happy with it.

You may use this as a bargaining tool if you don’t want to make the effort to buy furniture yourself.

Find a Place You Love? Great! Now Keep Going Back…

Once you find that place that you love and can see yourself living in, that’s when it can be tough. I just wanted to pay my money and start moving in, however by being patient you can not only get a better price, you can prevent making a big mistake.

I visited the place I eventually rented 3 times before I decided to put money down on the property.

I went back to see it in the morning, mid-day and in the evening. If I was being more thorough I would have gone back during the week AND on the weekends.

Who your neighbors are is essential to you loving your place, so every time I would go back to visit I would be thinking:

Do the neighbors seem relaxed?
Do I feel safe here?

Is it extremely noisy at one time of day?

How To Negotiate Your Rent Like An Indian

It is a part of the culture to quote a higher price because it is natural to negotiate on most everything.

Like I mentioned above, my landlord started off quoting me 15000 INR and we settled on 12000 INR. If I had negotiated like my hard-nosed French friend I could have probably reduced the price to 10000 INR.

I would constantly ask the question:

What is the best price you can give me at this time?

Then I would say, okay let me think about it. I still want to look at other places.

WARNING: If I had waited another few days, I would have lost my place though. I found a house that a local friend said I was “really lucky” to get. I negotiated for a few days, but eventually, I paid my deposit to hold the place and I’m happy I did. After I moved in, within a day someone moved into the flat below me and I could tell she was jealous of my place. Had I waited longer I may have lost it, so there is always that balance to play and it may just come down to luck.

Get it in Writing!

If you’re in a big city, they’ll have a lease for you to sign. In my town, my landlord just wanted to shake on it 😬 After signing 30 pages of a lease in the US, I couldn’t believe that.

On one hand it’s refreshing to just trust this guy. On the other hand, if someone offered him more money, then he could just find a way to kick me out.

I took my friend’s advice and drew up a simple contract on a piece of paper. It says the price and how long I will live there for and how often I would pay. It’s literally like half of a page long.

I don’t think the document would be legally binding, but it would allow me some leverage over his business with the other expats in the area, so it might prevent a situation.

Get it in a Video too

I took a video of myself paying my rent for the first time and I narrated our agreement. I then took a photo of all the money I paid. My landlord thought I was insane, but I’ve been doing this often and have used it when my internet provider didn’t follow through 🤓

After I moved in and a few months went by, I was really happy with the home and how it was working out with my landlord.

I then posted the photo on Facebook in the local travel group and just gave a recommendation for his business. He does other travel related services like taxis, SIM cards, and money exchange, so I wanted to help his business.

Of course, I also subtly wanted to send a message that it could go the opposite way if I wasn’t happy with his business 😈

This is one strategy I have experimented with when I bought my internet, furniture, and other services. Aside from drawing laughs, it seems to help prevent situations. I mostly do it so I can remember what I paid though!