Selling South Delhi property from abroad, without travelling to India

I'm recording this from South Africa. Beautiful views, beautiful place. Love this place, but I'm coming back to India soon. And I want to talk to you about selling your property in Delhi or India as an NRI. A lot of people have that problem, I understand, but it can be done. You don't have to come back to India. You can sit there and I'll handle, or somebody else will handle if you show him this video maybe. Everything can be done from there and everything can be very smoothly handled. There are like four five things you need to do to make sure it is like that, and I'm going to cover them all. By the way, do me a favor and like. Things that I've handled: everything through banking channels, no hanky panky cash cash involved, you know. All paperwork fully done. No money gets stuck in India, and the TDS the least possible, and you can save on your taxes legally as much as you can, okay? Do consult your legal adviser. I'm not a legal adviser. I'm just a guy on the YouTube who's happened to done do hundreds of deals and may know more than your CA, but just ask him, okay? So, let me start with something honest. All NRIs who have who have thought of selling a property in India, it takes them at least 1 2 3 4 5 years to get to that stage because not that they're lazy or they are not smart enough or something. They run into stops, and those stops are is such that, I mean, they take time to process in the head. The good news is it's only a few things that keep coming up. Yeah? One is, who do I trust? Brokers are not trustworthy. I don't have a relative who can handle, or there is a relative but I don't trust him either. And the second is usually a family complication because the family property, there are other people involved, and then egos come in, or they're busy, I'm busy, we'll do it later, or she's feeling emotional, he's feeling this way, you know, those things also happen. And I understand. Also, the paperwork is a point which feels very unknown because most brokers are also not able to guide you properly. And then there is this FEMA, Foreign Exchange Management Act, which involves a lot of things actually. And then there is this TDS. There is a higher TDS of 15 to 25%. I mean, which I covered in another video. You should take a look at that. So, I don't want to go much into that now, but there is this paperwork thing, the sale deed, the registered document. What are they making me sign? Am I going to get into some trouble? And the mind solution is, yeah, let us just do what we are doing in our own country, in Dubai, Singapore, US, or wherever, you know, and we'll go to India one day when I figure out this all out, and then you just forget about it. And then three four years later, you look at it again, or when you need the money, or when the prices have risen so much and you're like, "Oh, let me take the money out because now the prices are not rising, but the rupee is going down. So, my money is going down." I understand all those viewpoints, okay? I have family who are NRIs, and I totally understand that. So, let us do one thing. Let us just address these three things. Now, before you talk to any broker, before you list your property with any agency or any big international or small friend, firm, whatever, okay? The first thing is your own documents. Are they 100% there? So, what are those documents? So, we are talking about property documents, okay? What are those documents? So, number one is your registered sale deed. How you became owner, or or if it is an inherited property, say from your dad or from your grandfather, how did he become the owner? The original sale deed is often missing, and it should be there. If it is missing, we can sort that out also, but ideally and and mostly people have it. So, is the original sale deed there? The original registered document through which you became an owner, or your father, or your grandfather, or whoever became the owner? Then if he had bought the property from somebody else who had also bought from somebody else, so all these owners, A, B, C, they all had a registered sale deed. Do you have that? Now, for people who are, say, from Dubai, they don't understand this because you don't need it there. Here you need this. All the title chain and all the documents mentioned in the title chain will be required. For example, that title chain says, "Okay, when you bought this property, there was an agreement to sell done, and then the sale deed was registered." You will need that copy of agreement to sell also. By the way, that sale deed is more important, but I mean that is also needed. Is there a completion certificate of the property? Any other documents of the property? Say it was a leasehold property later converted to freehold. So, then you will need a perpetual lease, freehold document called conveyance deed. So, all of these documents are the documents that you need. In a nutshell, this point number one is about the ownership documents. Whatever are the ownership documents, do you have them in original? Good. Make a scan of them, make a photocopy of them. Just keep them with yourself. You will need it later on. Once this step is done, you're good. If you don't have it, you will need professional help to sort it out, okay? And everything can be sorted out, even if you lost the papers, even if you burned the papers, and anything is solvable. It just involves money. It involves sometimes the prices will change, but it's fair. You can think with it. Yeah, if you were a buyer, if you got a some bit of a discount, but the original papers were lost, you'd like, "Who gives a whatever?" Now, it could be that it's not a builder floor, but it's some apartment. In that case, the paperwork will be different. You will need maybe the allotment letter, the possession letter, and then maybe the registration documents and all that. So, the set will change according to the property, but mostly in South Delhi it will be perpetual lease, conveyance deed, sale deed, any agreement to sales, any power of attorneys issued in between. Now, what about your own PAN card? Maybe you never come to India, you never had a PAN card. So, you need to apply for a PAN card. Do you have an NRO account? Because if you have a old savings account in India, it's not going to work. So, do you have your NRO account in place? Now, say your mother is the owner and she can't really come to India, or you don't want to bring her and you just want to give a power of attorney. Look, when there is a buyer involved buying such a big property, he would normally want that you personally come and register it. He wants to see you. He feels safer. Having said that, maybe you can give a power of attorney to somebody in blood relation, and most lawyers or the buyers or the lawyers of the buyers will agree to it that, "Okay, fine. We can do with that. Maybe just do a video call or whatever." We've done transactions like that, and works, but we've also done transactions where the buyer just insisted, "No, I want the owner here." In that case, mostly maybe an agreement to sell can be executed before she comes here, or he or she, whoever. And then later on, you can just, for one trip, you can. It's nice. I mean, come and spend some time in India. Anyways, if you're thinking of a power of attorney, talk to your lawyer. You'll have to do a power of attorney in your, like, where wherever your base is now, say in US, Singapore, Dubai. Get it notarized by a lawyer or through the embassy. Yeah? The embassy can notarize it and all that. You will have to consult a lawyer. That gets a little bit tricky because I don't want to give details here because it it will change based on the property, and then you'll blame me, okay? But in a nutshell, if you're considering that, know that a buyer may have a problem with that later on. Yeah? Having said that, if it's a blood relative, usually the buyers or their lawyers agree. Now, these were all the things in which you had to be prepared. The other part is now who's going to sell your property? So, maybe you're going to engage an agency. Maybe you're going to engage a friend who's a real estate agent. I don't know. Always go with a professional team because there are so many small things that can get messed up. How are you going to sell it? What is the marketing channel? Who's going to handle the sale? Does that person really know all the paperwork involved, all the things you will run into, the TDS, the forms that is called form 15 or 15C, whatever, that your CA has to do? Because if he doesn't know, he's not in sync with your accountant, it is going to become a dispute later on with the buyer, okay? So, make sure you interview the people who are dealing for your property very well, and they have some experience in getting these deals done. There's a lot of people. It's not just me. I'm not marketing myself here, but I mean, do check that because there are people who just do deals here normally, and things are very simple when you're not an NRI. Also, just tell your broker you should get regular updates. If you're not getting regular updates of what's going on, it creates a vacuum. I've done that mistake at times, and I realized, you know, it creates a vacuum in the mind of the seller, and then he starts to panic or feel whatever. Now, there are a couple of more points that nobody wants to talk about, and I really feel bad for it because it's just so easy to do. You will inevitably run into people who are going to say, "Sir, you will have to take some cash." I'm telling you, don't have to take any cash. All the payments will be through your banking channels. You can insist on it and get it, and any professional agency like mine can get that done for you. I would even go so far as saying, even if you have to give a slight discount because if everybody is just involved in a cash black money transaction and paying a little more, don't go for it. Yeah, people will tell you, "Oh, you have to do it," and you'll be like, "But this is all illegal." But sooner or later, you're like, "Okay, fine. If everybody is doing it, I'll also do it." There is no need to do it. Insist and get all money in black and white. There are so many transactions that have gone wrong with NRIs. Yeah? And and where all of this hanky panky is involved, you can't even go to court. What are you going to do with the cash? I mean, you're going to—if you take this money illegally out of India, it's not an income tax matter anymore. It's an ED matter. Yeah? It falls under Foreign Exchange Management Act. You don't want to get into that, okay? I'm saying this very strongly because this is one point that nobody talks about, and and a lot of people actually get into a lot of trouble later on because they get involved on in all this cash drama, okay? Don't don't do that. Another important point, jot it down. It's going to come later on, especially if you're selling to a builder. A builder always wants to get a power of attorney and agreement to sell instead of a sale deed because what happens is he's going to pay 8% stamp duty. Yeah? Margins are not so much, say, in a place like South Delhi now. Say his margin is total margin after construction, everything, was 20 30%, where he's going to work for 2 years also. Yeah? He can't give you that 8%, you know? So, he doesn't want to get the sale deed done. Usually what they do is they they do an agreement to sell with you, and they try that by the time the registration time comes, when the entire payment is to be made to you, say in 3 months, 4 months, 6 months, whatever is the agreement, they have a buyer and they get the sale deed directly in in the name of the buyer, which is fine with you. It should be fine with you. You're getting your money, and it's a bonafide thing. There's no problem. But sometimes when they don't get a buyer in that much time, then they say, "Okay, I'll just take a power of attorney and agreement to sell with you." And you say, "Okay, what do I care?" You're getting all your money. He's, uh, probably at more of a risk because he does not have a registered sale deed. But you, as an NRI, won't be able to take the money out. Now, if I, as an as a resident, was to do this, and I was to tell the builder, "Okay, fine. You give me my money and take agreement to sell, power of attorney," it wouldn't matter to me. But for you to repatriate money to your country now, you won't be able to do that because the Indian banks won't allow this money to be sent outside, okay? Plus, your CA will not issue you the form 15 CB and form 15 C 15 A, whatever, uh, because the registered sale deed is not there, okay? Even if it does, the bank may not transfer the money. And I'm not blaming any builder for it. Builders are totally right in their place. They're saying, "We're giving you the money. It's our wish. We don't want to register a sale deed." But you're not going to be able to take the money out. So, that is going to be an issue. There's also issues of a lower tax deduction certificate. How much is the TDS, for which we have shot another video. You should see that next. If this content is helping you, and if you feel, or or if you know any NRIs or you have family, friends who are NRIs, do share this video, please. You have to take out a subscribe button. Do like it and subscribe.