Hii Guys!! I hope you all are excellent as always and keeping precautions and safe in such challenging times. So, as you must have read from the title, this blog is about Goa house hunts. And here, I will share my personal experience of our tiny home in Goa, away from home in Delhi. In this article, I have included everything you need to know before settling down in Goa for both short-term and long-term as a couple or a family and even alone.
P.S. – We are a couple with both having remote jobs. Looking for a homely flat/house for about 6-7 months.
P.S. 2 – WE FOUND THE BEST PLACE!
So, now you know what is coming ahead. Believe me; this is all my “”SAAR”” in these small paragraphs. I have tried to cover each part of our struggle to find the perfect place. I will divide the article into days, such as Day 1 and Day 2, for your better understanding and so that it helps you to plan your house hunt and also provide some tips and tricks to find the best-suited house for you.
Our flat requirements were simple. We were looking for a fully furnished 2BHK with a good kitchen, fridge, microwave, gas stove and cylinder, minimum utensils, two beds with mattresses, washroom, washing machine, a balcony, cupboards, mirror, hall with sofa, A.C.s in both the rooms and cosy home-like vibe. Also, car parking was a must, and we both are afraid of dogs, so a place where the owner doesn’tdoesn’t have dogs or cats. Apart from this, we were not much stressed about wifi as you must be thinking because we both have remote jobs.
I wanted it to be near Baga and Calangute beaches as possible. These beaches vibe and connect to them the most. Also, another reason is that if we found a place nearby, it would be easier for us to commute even after work on regular days for an evening or after-dinner walk along the beach. After all, this was the whole purpose of moving to Goa.
We did three things to search for the best place.
I joined Goa Facebook groups and pages as much as possible and kept posting there. I started posting about my flat/house requirements way ahead so that when we reached Goa, we had some options in hand so we could see some places asap. Also, it helped us decide to move to Goa as finding a place we both like with proper washrooms, beds, and kitchen, and entirely furnished with network connectivity, was our priority. Later we realized that since we would be coming by car, we would need a flat/house with parking at the premises.
A special tip here -> DON’T NEED TO CHECK THE COMMENTS OF OTHER RELEVANT POSTS. They are so helpful. I even dropped messages to those comment posters and called about 50-60 random people.
Facebook pages and groups might land you a stealth deal if your budget is relatively high.
Resources :
We have been to Goa about 2 times and built some small connections here. We used every bit of contact to help us search as we were in Delhi, so it was impossible to come again and again just to see the places. Goans are usually lovely in this sector. They helped us a lot. Some even showed excellent options that I will be sharing later in the article. Specifically, we messaged people from whom we rented the scooters when we visited earlier and the Airbnb owners at whose places we stayed. I messaged the caretakers of the bnbs to see if they have any options.
Websites
Another option for us sitting in Delhi, looking for options, was websites like Magicbricks, housing.com, and others. I did not reach out to anybody at these websites because I kept this as an option to consider and call people when we reached Goa.
So, let’s return to our 3-day hunt for the perfect place in Goa.
DAY 1 of finding a house for a long-term stay in Goa
Here, I am counting my day 1 as the next day from the day we reached Goa. Both my partner and I are working and have our offices ( 10:30 – 7:30), so we kept deadlines and decided to extend it in case we could not find a place we could agree upon.
Luckily Day 1 for us was Saturday. So, we had no office and more time for searching. I had already messaged some acquaintances, like the scooters rental people and the Airbnb owners, to ask if they had any options. One of them responded with a perfect choice. Two options from the same owner. As we were too tired and had to check in at our Airbnb, we decided to see these options on Day 1 and take the journey ahead from there.
Option 1 – A fully furnished, fantastic Villa. I Rent – 25k, excluding water and electricity bills.
The interior of the villa was very nice. It had everything we wanted, the parking, the kitchen, and everything else. But … yes, there is a but, the place was situated where the water clogged on the road as usual and was far from the market. Also, one thing is that it was newly constructed with not many people staying around. So, all this leads us to – NO for this villa.
If we were shifting with the family, we would have taken this place. As connectivity and everything would not have been an issue then.
Option 2 – A 2BHK floor I Rent – 25k excluding water and electricity bill.
The interior of this one was okayish. And also, the owner lived on the ground floor. We liked the flat less. It was like if we did not find anything, we could take it; otherwise, no.
Day 1 ended with nothing much in our favor, and I started losing hope. Also, as our budget was about 18-20k finding a good place in that range took time. On returning to our Airbnb, I started my search again and contacted people from Facebook groups and pages. I also noted down 6-7 flats in the nearby areas from Magicbricks and Olx. Yes, OLX isn’tisn’t strange as in Delhi. Olx is of very little use. But in Goa, strangely, people use Olx, housing.com, and 99acres-like websites.
DAY 2 of finding a house for a long-term stay in Goa
The first thing I did on Day 2, Sunday, was to call all the owners of the flats and even some brokers. Though our budget was not to pay brokerage, we were still looking for some hope. Sunday appeared to us at the start as a waste day for the reason being all of the owners of the flats I contacted were either in Mumbai, Delhi, or Bangalore and had given keys to brokers who were not ready to show us any apartments on Sunday (it is a holiday for them).
So, I only talked on calls and fixed meetings for Monday. We got lucky in the evening. One of the brokers agreed to show us 2 flats, and another owner arranged to visit another apartment on our continuous asking.
We wanted to finalize something asap before Tuesday as we were tight on schedule and also because of our offices. Another thing we had booked Airbnb for 3 days only, which we were planning to extend in case of no clue with our hunt.
Let’sLet’s come to the options now.
Option 1 – 2bhk fully furnished flat in an apartment near a resort | Rent 20K + Brokerage 10k excluding bills
Nice place with hotel-like interiors. It was fully furnished with A.C.s and all. But no parking space. Yet, the area was nice with a good vibe, so we kept it as an option.
Option 2 – 2bhk furnished floor | Rent 25k +Brokerage 10k excluding bills
The place could have been better. And after hearing the price, we were like “”Man, what is this””. Also, the owner had a giant dog. So, it was a “”NO, NO”” for us.
Option 3 – 2bhk in a resort | Rent 22k excluding bills
From the photos, it is a perfect flat in a resort. But when we went to the location and saw it, it was the opposite. The apartment was on the top floor of the resort. And it seemed to me that no one was living there for a long time. Everything was broken, windows and all.
Even the resort was in a demolished state with no one nearby. When we were talking to the owner, the main gate of the flat thrashed and closed, and it was a “”BIG NO””. We were so scared, we just ran off the place asap.
So, till now, we had 1 option: 2bhk fully furnished flat in an apartment near a resort | Rent 20K + Brokerage 10k excluding bills.
We decided to go to this 20k flat again at night and see how it looked and where we could park our car, as the flat did not have on-premises parking. AND WE GOT LUCKY THAT NIGHT.
While looking for the place, we found a house on which it was written: “”House to let””. Ohoohooo, I was like “”Stop the car, bro, stop the car, I will go and see if someone is there.”” To mention here it was around 11:30 P.M. But, we had all our luck to our side, the owner Aunty of the house was awake and in fact out for some reason. I rushed towards her and asked, “”if the flat is still available””. She said “”YES””.
She asked if we wanted to see the flat at that hour. I immediately said “”Yes””. She was too cute and lovely. The vibe was excellent overall. We went to see the place, it was enjoyable on the first floor. It was a well-furnished 2Bhk with A.C.s, fridge, and washing machine in both rooms. As a cherry on top, it was very spacious, with a balcony and a parking space. We were so happy with the place. It felt like home.
We did not say much to Aunty, as we both had these thoughts and needed to discuss them. But, internally, I felt it was a stealth deal. We discussed the same while returning to our BnB and agreed to finalize this place after seeing the options for tomorrow(if we still need to find the desired location).
DAY 3 of finding a house for a long-term stay in Goa
Day 3 was pretty hectic for us. We had to go to places, and it was a Monday. It was an office day.
Option 1 – 2BHK in a resort, third floor I Rent 24K excluding bills
We had one more flat to see today. It was again a 2BHK flat in a resort. It was a lovely flat, a spacious one, though. And it was a good place. But, now we were comparing it with Aunty’sAunty’s apartment. Also, we started comparing it to stability and help as we are new to Goa and need to learn the locals. In that case, having someone to help us out was also emerging as a necessary condition.
Option 2 – 2BHK in a terrible condition
The broker who took us to this flat also showed another option. But it was too bad. Not worth it at all.
You must have guessed till now. So, “”YES”” we took up Aunty’sAunty’s 2BHK, which is very close to Baga and Calangute, only about 5 mins drive by car. And we both are so happy that we found THE PERFECT PLACE to be our HOME AWAY FROM HOME for the next few months.
So, the old-school Moral of the House Hunt is – “”To keep your eyes and ears open. Don’tDon’t hesitate to ask for help or to communicate with the locals. They will surely help you out. Don’tDon’t forget to check out OLX and Facebook groups.””
P.S. – I suggest starting your search for the right place way ahead, I will say about 1 month before.
