Buying a House and Running Around

I haven't bought a house but I have been actively involved on one occasion, when my Dad bought a house. My Dad bought land in a place called Naukuchiyatal in the Northern hills in India around nine years ago. The place is around 300 kilometers from New Delhi, the Indian capital. When he bought the land, he and his friend went there and they asked a local gentleman, who was a landowner about it. He offered to sell them land but he said that he had 1000 sq meters of land and that he would sell it as one block. Dad and uncle decided to split the land between them. The land had a nice lake view. The current price of land at that time was $2000 per unit but he asked for $4000 per unit. After haggling a lot, the owner decided to sell it at $2800 per unit. After the sale, the land price in the region went up to $2800 per unit.

After they bought the land, my Dad and uncle hired a contractor to build two wooden cottages, essentially Swiss chalet style cottages. The contractor would trouble them a lot. One, he said that his workers had run away. Dad and uncle would visit the site often. Once my Dad spoke to the workers and then the truth emerged. The workers wanted to complete the project as soon as possible. However, the contractor wouldn't give them money to buy the materials and he wouldn't buy them himself. So, essentially, the contractor was delaying the work. He would tell the workers that Dad and uncle weren't paying him any money. They had to tell him sternly that they would cancel the contract. Then the contractor came around and said, he would expedite the work. Finally, he didn't complete the cottages as planned. He got the cottages made but he didn't complete the woodwork and grills. So, my Dad and uncle had to hire other local workers to help them out. They went to a bigger city and bought good glass for the French windows in their cottage. When they were buying glass, they learned that Saint Gobain glass was the best one available. Later, my Dad came back to New Delhi and bought Saint Gobain stocks and made money. Dad hadn't heard of Saint Gobain all his life till he went to buy glass for the windows.

It took almost a year and a half for the two cottages to come into being. It was quite a difficult time but it was worth it. During the house building process, Dad, uncle and all of us learned a lot. We learned how to negotiate with workers, we learned about the various materials that went into building a house. I wouldn't mind doing it all over again for my own house.