Well, we looked at the three of our top houses from day one, Pebble Bay and a few more houses over the course of the next few days. We are now in the process of negotiating for a house in the north part of town. It is about 20 mins from IBM and 20-30 mins from the school. The. process for renting in Bangalore is similar to buying a house in the USA. You have to negotiate everything that is to be included and changed. We are asking for everything from white goods (ie, oven, washer, bigger fridge) and A/C's in each bedroom, to things I would have assumed like a professional cleaning before move in and pest control. You can take nothing for granted when it comes to the negotiations. Thankfully, we are well within our allowance for housing so Eugenie, our relocation specialist, can get more things done with an increase in monthly rent. The biggest surprise for most people when negotiating a house is that the deposit is 10 months rent for an 11 month rental. This is the standard practice and no one seems to think it is outrageous. Wish us luck on getting this rental. It has been owner occupied for the last 7 years and appears to be in MUCH better shape than any of the other places we saw. It also had a lot of little upgrades that we really like.
The last day of the trip we went to the Overseas Women Club of Bangalore. It meets at the Leela Palace and is a great resource. I anticipate attending the meetings on a regular basis when I arrive. They keep a book of people looking for work as cooks, maids, nannies and drivers with references from previous OWC members. I am looking forward to having these services. Currently, with cost is about $100/month for someone to come each day for about 2 hours to clean your house 6 days a week. Similar cost to have a cook come each day and cook dinner and prep for breakfast. The driver is an absolute necessity for an expat. A driver costs about $1000/month for a driver who provides his own car (Innova), all tolls, gas and parking. If you have your own car and just need a driver, that is about $225 per month for him to come 6 days a week for 10-12 hrs/day. Most people from India buy a car but if you are here less than 2 years people tend to get someone with a car. We are right on the break point so we are unsure which we will do yet.
The next thing we need to figure out is TV for India. We are currently looking into using a slingbox. This and phone are a very complex issue so I will post on those separately. We are trying to set up a service so people in the US can call us for free using our current cell phone numbers. I will let you know if we get it set up.
The last day of the trip we went to the Overseas Women Club of Bangalore. It meets at the Leela Palace and is a great resource. I anticipate attending the meetings on a regular basis when I arrive. They keep a book of people looking for work as cooks, maids, nannies and drivers with references from previous OWC members. I am looking forward to having these services. Currently, with cost is about $100/month for someone to come each day for about 2 hours to clean your house 6 days a week. Similar cost to have a cook come each day and cook dinner and prep for breakfast. The driver is an absolute necessity for an expat. A driver costs about $1000/month for a driver who provides his own car (Innova), all tolls, gas and parking. If you have your own car and just need a driver, that is about $225 per month for him to come 6 days a week for 10-12 hrs/day. Most people from India buy a car but if you are here less than 2 years people tend to get someone with a car. We are right on the break point so we are unsure which we will do yet.
The next thing we need to figure out is TV for India. We are currently looking into using a slingbox. This and phone are a very complex issue so I will post on those separately. We are trying to set up a service so people in the US can call us for free using our current cell phone numbers. I will let you know if we get it set up.
Wait - it costs $100 / month for daily cleaning and $100 for cooking.!!!!! I'm coming with you!
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