Notes for owners · Industry playbooks
What a buyer checks before paying a booking amount on an under-construction flat
The step between shortlisting and paying is a verification step. How a builder or agent can lay out the papers and approvals in general terms first, and lose fewer buyers at booking.
The GullySales team · Updated 17 Oct 2026 · 5 min read
Rules for this trade differ by state and professional body, and they change. Check the current position with your own council or adviser before you act on anything here.
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A buyer who has shortlisted your project is not ready to pay. Ready to check, yes. Between "I like it" and the booking amount sits a verification step: the papers, the approvals, the payment schedule and the builder's record. A seller who lays these out in plain, general terms before being asked gives the buyer less reason to walk away at this step, and none to chase answers alone.
Why buyers stall at this step
The amount is large, the flat does not yet exist, and the buyer is often borrowing. A mistake cannot be undone cheaply. So the buyer behaves like a person who is about to sign something they cannot read well, which is exactly what they are.
They ask the same few people: a relative who bought before, a bank officer, a lawyer or a chartered accountant, and the builder's other buyers. If your papers are hard to see, their advice is "wait". Our post on how buyers shortlist a property or construction firm covers the stage before this one; here we start after the visit.
What buyers ask to see
These are the questions, in the order buyers commonly raise them. Which papers apply, and what they are called, differs by state and changes. Check with your own adviser or the regulator, and with the project's lawyer, before you describe any of them to a buyer.
| The buyer's question | What a seller can lay out | Who the buyer will show it to |
|---|---|---|
| Does the builder have the right to build and sell here? | The land title documents and the registrations your state requires, with where they can be seen | Their lawyer |
| Are the approvals in place? | A list of sanctions and approvals held, and any still pending | Their lawyer and their bank |
| What exactly am I paying for? | The agreement format, the carpet or built-up area as defined, the specification sheet | Their lawyer and an architect friend |
| How do I pay, and when? | The payment schedule linked to construction stages | Their bank and CA |
| When will I get possession? | The stated date and what the agreement says if it moves | Their lawyer |
| Has this builder delivered before? | Past projects, with addresses, that the buyer can visit | The buyer, on a weekend |
Put the first column on the buyer's side of the page. If you can answer each row in a sentence, you are ready for the conversation.
The verification pack
Make one pack, in print and as a PDF or a shared link, that a buyer can take to their lawyer. Keep it in the same order as the table.
- A one-page index: what each document is, and where it is held for inspection.
- The agreement format, unsigned, with the payment schedule attached.
- The specification sheet and a floor plan with dimensions.
- A list of approvals held, and of those pending, each with a line saying what happens next.
- Two or three completed projects the buyer can visit, with a contact who will speak.
Do not describe a paper as "all clear" or "no issues". That is a legal judgement, and the buyer's own adviser will form one. Say what exists and where it can be read.
What to say when something is not ready
Many projects have a gap at some stage. The seller who says "the final sanction is expected after the next inspection, here is the application and the date it was filed" holds the buyer. The seller who says "don't worry, it's coming" loses them.
Give the buyer a choice. They can wait until the paper arrives, or they can book now on the terms in the agreement, knowing what is pending. Some will wait. Fine. That is a better outcome than a buyer who books on a vague promise and cancels in anger.
Avoid anything that reads as a guarantee: returns on the flat, a rise in price, a promised date you do not control. Those are the claims that cause trouble. Describe the project and the papers, and let the buyer decide.
For example: a two-bedroom flat on the outskirts of Nagpur
Take an invented buyer in Nagpur who has seen a show flat on a Saturday and liked it. A relative who works at a bank tells the buyer to ask for the sanctioned plan and the payment schedule before paying anything. The sales executive says the papers are at the head office and can be shown later. A rival hands over a folder at the first visit.
The buyer does not come back to the first project. Whether price or the missing folder decided it, the seller will never know, because nobody asked.
That builder then makes the folder once. The index lists the title documents and approvals in the sequence above. At the visit, the sales executive hands it over and offers a time when the builder's lawyer or accountant can sit with the buyer's adviser. Some buyers who bring their own lawyer to that meeting go ahead, and some do not. One asks for a clause on possession that the builder will not change, and walks. It is better to learn that before a booking amount is paid than after.
This works when the project's papers are actually in order. If they are not, the pack will show it, and the right move is to fix the papers, not the pack.
Before and after the pack
Not every visitor is ready for this step. Qualifying leads before site visits shows how to find the buyers who are. The wider set of habits for a developer is on the real estate and construction hub.
Your first task: list the six questions from the table on one page and write, next to each, where the paper is kept and who can show it on a Saturday. Wherever a cell is empty, that is the gap a buyer will find. If you want help building the pack for your project, tell us what you need.
