Concept of Group Booking

Group booking concept seems to be in craze these days, I get to know about some or other group each day. Any buyer will be asking other about the group. And if somebody has already seen some property he will be looking for more people to form a group and bargain for a discount.

Group booking is good, but it does have some of it disadvantage too, this help buyer to get a good price, but at the same time a single buyer feels left out and if he can't get anyone to join him to book in the same property he feels he can't negotiate.

Why I'm writing about group booking?

Couple of days back someone who loves my car too much has scratched love, love all over it. And this was the second time, this happened. So when i was getting into the car to go to office and saw more love bites on my car, i decided to get a body cover for my car.

I planned to get the cover during the lunch hours, and i found one of my friend asking me about swiss county phase 2. He saw the ad citing 2BHK for 21.6L, but i responded to him saying the flats are too small, i have seen their floor plan on their website. But he mentioned that no they are not, so i thought of checking it again. When i checked i found he was right.

I will cut myself short here as i will be posting more details about it when i write about Swiss County and why the flats in swiss county phase 2 appeared bigger (Just to make it clear they are indeed small). 

As i was already going out (to buy the car cover) i asked my friend to come along with me, so that we can also go to swiss county and check their site. When we (3 of us, my friend, my friend's friend and I) went their and after taking all the details asked the price. We came to the point to ask them about discount. Before anything could happen, my friend's friend asked how much discount will be there if we do a group booking. 

That is when i realized that, if this is the way people bargain for a group, then its flawed. My friend's friend has never been part of any such group nor has he done any negotiation for group, he can't be blamed.

On the same day i got a mail which gave details of the property rates which has been negotiated for group booking. Now looking at those rates, i felt whoever has done those negotiation probably has not done it right way.

WHY?

Because I have negotiated with one of the builder for the same price which that group has negotiated. Whats the advantage of group booking then? I guess group booking is of advantage when it really provide a price which is otherwise difficult to get.

Here is what i think one should do while forming a group and negotiating for the price.

1. One should try and visit the property alone (alone means not with the group of interested people, a friend and 2 can always be there). Why? because i feel the builder/salesperson might initially quote a price 100-200Sqft more, because he knows if the group is there he will have to give a discount.
   
2. Once you visit the property as a single buyer, try and negotiate as much as you can. May be try to visit them couple of times to get the best offer exclusively for you. 
3. Now once you have the best offer for an individual, then you should ask for more discount for the group booking.

Advantages i see of these is, if you can get the best price for yourself, you are sure to get that price even if you cant form a group. And once you have the price for yourself and you then negotiate for group, you will surely get a great deal, where if anyone leaving the group wont affect the price. As usually is the case saleperson/builder ask for size of the group, and if the group size reduces they increase the price.

Like i got a quote of 2100 psf in pimple saudagar as a single buyer, while the mail i received has also quoted the price as 2100 psf for group booking. If i now go the builder again i may get a further reduction of 50-100 for group booking. 

Group booking hurts because, if somebody doesn't negotiate well for the group, then other single buyers wont really get a discount which they might have got. If a builder has some 50 odd flats and somebody comes up with a group of 40-45 people and negotiate for a price of say 2000 psf, which could have been further reduced if negotiated properly. Now the 5 other buyers coming for booking wont really get a price of less than 2000 psf. Even though they could have had the group price would have been say 1900 psf. Now the single buyer or the next group of 5 or less buyer will not get that discount too.

PS: The views are all mine, I might not be right. But this is what i feel. There might be many who might not agree with what i just said, I'm in no way trying to discourage or blame people who are doing group booking for any kind of price rise. Not everyone can negotiate on their own, I'm too a pathetic negotiator and even i would prefer to cling onto a group for good discount.