Read the title before you love the house

You walk in, the light is right, the kitchen is yours. Then comes the part nobody photographs: the mother deed, the encumbrance certificate, the khata. I've watched buyers skip straight past these because they're boring. Boring is where the problems live.

Three documents I never compromise on. First, the chain of title — every sale back to the original allotment. Gaps mean disputes. Second, the encumbrance certificate for the last 30 years; any loan against the property must be cleared before you pay. Third, the khata — A or B, and ideally A, because that's what lets you legally modify and resell later.

Let me make this practical. When I represent a buyer, the chain of title is the first thing I pull, often before we even schedule the second visit. If the seller can't produce a clean encumbrance certificate for the last three decades, that's not a red flag — that's the whole flag. I've seen a 'dream villa' in Koramangala fall apart because the 1998 sale in the chain had a signature that didn't match, and nobody had noticed in twenty-five years. The buyer who notices is the buyer who doesn't spend five years in court.

None of this is glamorous and all of it is free to check at the sub-registrar's office or online through the Karnataka land records portal. If an agent tells you a document 'isn't needed' or 'we'll sort it later,' that's the moment to slow down, not speed up. Later is when the problems become yours.

The Nairs almost lost a Koramangala home to a clouded title. We walked, found a cleaner one two streets over, and they moved in happier — and cheaper. The document saved them, not the brochure. When in doubt, I'd rather lose a commission than hand you a lawsuit with a nice kitchen attached.