Decor Life at home Smart Residential Living

5 ways to improve the aesthetic appeal of your home

Nov 6,2017 / By Priyanka / No Comment

Remember your surroundings affect you more than you are aware of. Your environment basically controls your mood and the levels of your productivity. The home you live in should be your comfort zone and you need to be happy and safe.

For that, you need to do some work around your home, which is the only way to actually appreciate its aesthetics and enjoy it. Creating a welcoming home doesn’t require a special skill set, all you need is a bit of will and determination. Here we are sharing few ideas to improve the aesthetic appeal of your home.

Remove clutter: The first stage of your home enhancement project should be decluttering. You need to remove old things that are no longer useful and make room for new ones. Start by thoroughly cleaning one room per day and you’ll be equally dedicated to all of them.

Look for Inspiration: Revamping your home requires creativeness and it is very important for you to be inspired, so you can be imaginative and playful. Even if you do have a few ideas about where you would like to start, you should check if they are achievable and if there is an enhanced way to do them. It is suggested that you should browse the internet and search for inspirations, watching beautifully designed homes and take new ideas from them and improve existing ones.

Slight Home Repairs: Once your home is clean and ready to be worked on, it’s time to get your toolbox. You know what needs to be fixed and adjusted around your home, but if you don’t know where to start you should perhaps concentrate on your noisy doors, stuck windows and cabinets and all those little bothersome stuff that you always fail to remember.

Fresh Layer of Paint: Revitalizing your walls with a new layer is the refreshment your home very much needs. In case you make your mind up to make this a DIY project, it’s not a bad idea to seek advice from an interior designer so they can help you select shades of paint that will bring out the best in your home. Although, you may have encountered combinations of colors you like while looking for inspiration.

Homey Touches: This is the simplest, but it’s also the most important step – it’s the small things that make a convivial home and it’s the cute details you fall in love with. However, this will require time as well as some money. To give a homey touch you can get things like pillows and picture frames in different shades of your favorite color.

Agreed that home improvement project will take a lot of time and effort, but it is nothing compared to what you will get to enjoy in the end.

Real Estate Smart Residential Living

How to choose the right real estate agent for you?

Nov 1,2017 / By Priyanka / No Comment

Whether you are investing in a property or selling your lifetime home, finding and choosing a real estate agent is a tough job. Rapport is all important when it comes to your real estate agent and your agent needs to be able to safeguard your financial securities.

You need someone who is reliable and listen carefully to your priorities and won’t waste time on properties that don’t fit the bill.
Most real estate agents are in business because happy customers refer them to friends, family, neighbours, and coworkers. Ask the individuals around you who they have used and ask them to recite their experiences with this real estate agent. Popular and successful agents make customer satisfaction as their number one priority. Try to find an agent who goes above and beyond his duties.

Most experts recommend five or more years’ experience—which does not mean that someone with less cannot do a good job. Make sure the real estate agent you choose is licensed by the state and does the job full-time; about half of all real estate agents are designated Realtors, which means they belong to the National Association of Realtors and agree to accept by NAR’s stringent code of ethics.

Real estate agents run real estate advertisement for two purposes. The first is to sell specific real estate. The second is to endorse the real estate agent. Go through your local community newspaper for house ads in your targeted locality. Then have a look at the websites of the agents who are advertising. These agents could be professionals in your locality. Call and check with them about their understanding and knowledge.

Real estate is a local game, and to win you need somebody who knows every nook and corner of the areas where you are looking to buy a property. The agent should be able to give you a thorough snapshot of the market in your area and surrounding areas. They should know about demographics, transport, schools and the sorts of buyers looking for homes in the area.

Inquire about what is currently available on the market in your budget range; they should be able to rattle off a few properties. Look at the agent’s track records, making sure you look at properties the agent has sold newly. Ask for the hard facts, sale prices, time on market etc.

Smart Residential Living

Accounting: Penalty Reversal on Automatic Penalty

Dec 7,2016 / By Nimesh / No Comment

One of the very crucial pieces of the powerful money manager module of CommonFloor Groups is the ability to calculate penalty based on over 150 possible penalty rule types. This is has been a very widely used feature in our communities. It automatically calculates penalty based on the chosen rule for a particular Invoice line item (Yes, you read it right. Within a single invoice there is a possibility to choose which line items the penalty would be applicable on.)

With great complexity comes greater responsibility. In past we had encountered certain cases when the update/approval of the amount received was delayed on the system. The penalty keeps getting calculated on daily basis on all eligible line items and invoices till the time a payment is made. Due to the delay in updating the system additional penalties were displayed. In this case the system operator had to add the payment and then add a discount against the additional penalty (or delete the penalty invoice) to balance the entry. This was an inconvenience and we decided to take your feedback very seriously about it.

We have now released a very simple on approval/update/add payment flow which ensures that when the payment is updated you have an ability to choose what penalty to apply:

1) No penalty

2) Auto calculated penalty

3) Penalty manually calculated (or as per payment received)

This would create an invoice for penalty as per actual penalty received and save you a lot of time . The flow for this is as below:

a) Choose the Invoice(House & Invoice/Outstanding) for which the Payment needs to be added

or

a) Click on Approve payment(In case the resident has made a payment update/claim)

b) Check the details of the Payment pending

c) Edit the Penalty amount as per actual collected in case system penalty is different that what you have collected. Update/Approve the payment.

Voila!! Its done. The payment received is now updated. Penalty based on your choice has been processed(applied as per your selection or zero)

Some of you might be worried o how do you handle bulk payments and penalty ??

We have you covered, you can also do a bulk upload of payments with penalty actually collected and system will update accordingly.

Step 1:

Facility Booking

Step 2:

Step 3:

Handling of Cash/Payments in your Society post ban on Rs.500/1000 notes

Nov 10,2016 / By Nimesh / No Comment

In a landmark announcement Govt of India has rendered Rs.500/1000 invalid legal tender. This has a widespread impact on how we transact in the society on day-to-day basis.

Lets look at some of the important aspects:

1) Cash in hand (Collections made till Nov 9): Deposit the notes in your bank account without any issue

2) Reassess if your society will fall into Service Tax bracket (Rs. 5000/month or Rs.60000/annum per flat) and do the needful registrations and declarations to avoid any complications

3) Move to electronic media for all payments collection (Either netbanking or preferably to a Payment Gateway to handle all modes(credit card, debit card, netbanking & international payments) )

4) Remember if you are depositing more than Rs.10 L in this financial year as cash in your account, you have a high probability of IT scrutiny and hardships

5) Ensure you have filed IT Returns for your Society

Keeping the above in mind we have to look into two aspects of money management and how you can do the peacefully:

Money Collections:

1) Preferable mode of payments should be electronic. Handling cheques and cheque returns is a big cost. You can also move to a payment gateway to handle all electronic payments including international payments( netbanking, credit cards, debit cards & international cards: Know more here )

2) In case you still are collecting cash, avoid collecting banned notes. Also ensure that you deposit all your collections and withdraw petty cash separately instead of using the collections directly.

Payments:

1) Use cheques or electronic payments for all payments as far as possible.

2) For payments to workers, ask them to create bank accounts and deposit the same in it.

3) Use small petty cash for any other services provided to you

4) Any recurring payments should be moved to electronic medium

Please find attached the benefits of using CommonFloor Groups online payments and comparison with other modes of payment. GET FREE ONLINE PAYMENT GATEWAY

We hope you have a smooth transition to electronic money management for your society. Please reach out to us to help you make the transition: Call 080 4278 2600 or SMS to +91 9901002797 or write to cf-groups-help@commonfloor.com

Disclaimer: This post is for general information perspective. Please talk to your Chartered Accountant for specific queries about your society.

image courtesy : hindustan times

Smart Residential Living

Join hands with Bellandur Forum for the ORR-Sarjapur Rising

Dec 15,2015 / By Team Commonfloor Groups / No Comment

Are you also impacted by the infrastructure collapse on ORR-Sarjapur and struggle to reach your work? Do you end up spending hours commuting through the Outer Ring Road. Is pollution and your respiratory wellness taking a toll on you? If answers to all these questions is an unanimous YES then it’s time to take things in your hands and join #ORRRISING, the community that is fighting for your rights.

The Sarjapur Road and Outer Ring Road is known for its notorious traffic jams. The area has seen a growth of approximately 400% in the past decade, with no sign of it slowing down. It is home to some of the largest business parks, few world class hospitals, scores of commercial buildings, thousands of residential units and over thirty plus schools.In spite of the fact that this area is one of the busiest roads in Bangalore the situation is pitiable. Roads have not been widened for years and the drains are open or overflowing with sewage. There is no place for pedestrians to walk and driving/riding is a nightmare here.

Thanks to initiatives like #Whitefieldrising & #ORRRising that came to Bengaluru’s rescue.

What is #ORRRISING?

A group of residents/ members who are fighting to get ORR-Sarjapur-Marathalli-HSR Layout infrastructure back in place. A peaceful protest is planned against the civic problem in their area. They would be protesting against the pitiable road conditions, the excessive pollution and the maddening traffic jams that engulf lakhs of commuters on this junction each day.

How can you make a difference?

Join their Facebook group and ’Like’/ ‘Follow’ their page to know about all the latest updates.
Sign the petition at change.org which would go to Mr KJ George, Bangalore minister for development and urban planning.
Spread the word by sharing all the information on all the social media platforms.

We at CommonFloor Groups are with them and urge all our readers to join hands for the cause to make Bangalore a better city to live in.

Hoping to see all of you on the 18th of December, 2015 from 12pm to 2 pm, at Ecospace, Iblur junction, Wipro junction, Cessna park.

DressCode: Orange, Red, Vermillion.