How Do You Shortlist a Plot Before Booking?
- How to shortlist a plot comes down to sequence. Run the criteria that can disqualify a parcel before the ones that are merely preferences.
- The first four are free and documentary. They remove most candidates before you have spent a Saturday driving.
- Fix your horizon before you look at anything. It decides the corridor, and the corridor decides half the other answers.
- Tenure, access, land use and the register are pass-or-fail. Terrain, view, plot shape and neighbours are preferences.
- Exit is a criterion, not an afterthought. Ask who buys this from you, and what has to be true by then.
- A plot that passes all nine is not necessarily the one to buy. It is the one worth visiting twice.
Most buyers shortlist plots by starting with the ones they liked looking at.
That is the expensive order. The checks that can disqualify a parcel are documentary, they cost nothing, and they can be run from a desk. Doing them last means falling for land you then have to talk yourself out of.
Terms used on this page
Tenure is the class on which land is held, which decides whether it can be freely transferred.
Satbara is the 7/12 extract: the village record of rights for one parcel.
Khatedar is the person recorded as holding the land.
Mutation is the entry that records a change of holder in the record of rights.
NA is non-agricultural: the order that converts land use from farming so it can be built on.
Gat number is the group survey number given to a holding after consolidation.
Layout is the sanctioned plan that divides a parcel into plots and roads.
Why does the order matter when you shortlist a plot?
Because the disqualifying checks sit in the record of rights that section 148 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 requires in every village, and they cost nothing to run.
Preferences cost a site visit. Running the free checks first is simply cheaper.
There is a second reason, and it is psychological rather than economic. A buyer who has stood on a plot at golden hour is a different buyer from one reading a document. Findings that should end a conversation get reframed as things to sort out later.
Order protects you from yourself. Disqualify on paper, then go and fall in love with whatever survives.
What are the nine criteria?
Four disqualifiers, then five preferences, applied in this sequence under the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 framework.
Nothing below the line matters if something above it fails, which is the entire point of ordering them this way rather than by how appealing each parcel looked.
- Horizon first, before any plot. How long will you hold, and when do you want to build? This is not a criterion about the land, and it governs everything that follows.
- Tenure. Is the land held on a class that permits free transfer? If it needs prior sanction and there is none, stop. This cannot be cured downstream.
- Legal access. Is there a recorded right of way or approach road? Not a track in use — a recorded one. Without it the plot may be unbuildable.
- Land use and the conversion order. Is the parcel lawfully non-agricultural, and does the record reflect it? An order that exists but is not reflected is incomplete.
- The register. Any entry made but not certified? An uncertified entry is an unresolved argument, and buying into one inherits it.
- Layout sanction, if you are buying in a development. Sanctioned means roads, open space and amenity space carry enforceable requirements. Unsanctioned means a drawing.
- Water, honestly assessed. Where does it come from, is it shared, and what happens in April? This is the preference that most often becomes a disqualifier.
- Terrain and buildability. Slope, rock and drainage decide what the house costs before you have drawn it. Price the groundwork, not just the plot.
- Exit. Who buys this from you, and what has to be true by then? A plot with no plausible buyer at your horizon is a holding, not an investment.
| Criterion | Type | Where the answer lives |
|---|---|---|
| Horizon | Sets everything else | Your own circumstances |
| Tenure | Disqualifier | Record of rights |
| Legal access | Disqualifier | Record of rights and village records |
| Land use / conversion | Disqualifier | The conversion order and the record |
| Uncertified entry | Disqualifier | The mutation file |
| Layout sanction | Disqualifier in a development | The sanctioned layout plan |
| Water | Preference that often disqualifies | Site, neighbours, dry-season enquiry |
| Terrain | Preference with a cost | Site visit and a builder’s view |
| Exit | Preference that should be a criterion | Recent comparable transactions |
Why is exit a shortlist criterion?
Because a plot you cannot sell is a different asset from the one you thought you bought, and no register kept under section 150 of the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 will warn you.
Resale depth is a market condition, invisible on any document, and it varies enormously between belts.
The test is concrete. Name the person who buys this plot from you in year seven. If the answer is a specific kind of buyer — a family building a second home, somebody consolidating adjacent plots — you have a market. If the answer is somebody like me but later, you are relying on a story rather than a market.
This is not an argument against emerging belts. It is an argument for knowing which of the two you are in and pricing accordingly.
A shortlist is a filter, not a ranking. Its job is to leave you with three parcels worth a second visit, not to crown one before you have read a single document.
Girish Chhalwani, Co-Founder, Lords of the Lands
Frequently asked questions
How many plots should a shortlist have?
Three or four that have passed the documentary checks. Fewer means you are choosing under pressure; many more means the filter is not doing its job.
Can I run the first four checks myself?
Yes. Tenure, access, land use and the register are all documentary, and the first three can be started from the record of rights once you know the village and survey number.
What if a seller will not give me the survey number?
Treat the reluctance as the finding and move on. There is no legitimate reason to withhold the number from a serious buyer who intends to verify.
Should price be on the shortlist at all?
Price decides which shortlist you are building, not which plot passes. Apply it as a filter at the start and then leave it alone until the checks are done.
Is a plot that passes all nine the right buy?
It is the one worth visiting twice. Passing means nothing disqualifying was found, which is a floor rather than a recommendation.
How long does this take?
The documentary checks take an afternoon per parcel once you know the village. The office file and the conversion order take a few working days. Anyone pressing you to book faster than that is telling you something.
Building a shortlist right now? Send us the survey numbers you are considering and we will run the first five checks with you, on our parcels or anybody else’s.
Related reading
Verify before you book
- How to verify title before buying a plot – the six-document sequence.
- What RERA registration actually covers – and what it does not.
- The title-check checklist – the documents to demand.
- How to read a 7/12 extract – the record of rights explained.
- The Other Rights column on the 7/12 – where charges and disputes sit.
- Mutation entries and ferfar – the uncertified-entry check.
- Right of way and plot access – testing legal access.
- Class 1 vs Class 2 tenure – the transfer restriction.
- NA plot vs agricultural land – the land-use line.
- How to check a plot’s NA status – confirming conversion.
- Getting building permission for a plot – the approval to build.
- Getting water and power to a plot – the utilities check.
Strategy and comparison
- The seven risks, and the check that retires each – what to screen for.
- How to compare land corridors – the four-question framework.
- The 2026 corridor comparison – four belts side by side.
- Plotted land vs an apartment – two different investments.
- Land banking near Mumbai – the long-hold playbook.
- Selling a plot later – the exit question.
- How to judge a project for yourself – the layout checklist.
- What a villa plot actually is – defining the product.
Corridors
- How to read any MMR corridor – the regional map.
- Khopoli-Pali road land: the SH-93 guide – a corridor worked through.
- Karjat vs Khopoli – two belts head to head.
From Lords of the Lands
- Decoding land: how a parcel is assessed
- The types of plotted development we build
- What Mumbai 3.0 actually refers to
- Talk to Lords of the Lands
Citations and sources
- Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 — sections 148 and 150, the record of rights maintained in every village and the register of mutations.
