It is no gainsaying that the real estate in Nigeria is troubled with dishonesty as there have been cases of investors been swindled of their hard-earned money by fake real estate companies, fake real estate agents, land grabbers a.k.a omo oniles, fake surveyors, and so on. The truth is that, the dishonesty trait is not inscribed on anyone’s forehead as many of these scammers are criminally minded people.
This article focuses on
- How to identify traits of dubious Omo-onlies, real estate companies e.tc
- How to avoid being a victim of a real estate scam.
The question here is; How do you know you are about to be scammed in a real estate transaction? If you are lucky and smart enough, you will know but on the other hand, you might not know that you’re about to fall victim. Before we go further, we will be exposing you to some secret formulas to use. This time, you might want to grab a glass of juice or water. Without further ado, let’s get into it.
First of all, let us dwell on how to identify the traits of these dubious Omo-oniles, fake real estate companies, or surveyors.
Some of these include:
- Providing un-genuine documents: This is a common practice among dubious real estate companies in Nigeria, Omo-oniles e.t.c. These documents include The Certificate of Occupancy, Excision, Gazette, Deed of assignment, and so on. They tend to present to you these documents for verification, which will later turn out to be invalid.
- Planting of individuals in strategic locations to corroborate the story: Dubious real estate companies, agents, etc tend to plant individuals in strategic places to corroborate lies so as to delude you.
- Display of unreal images: This is very common to non-credible real estate companies in Nigeria. Especially, for off-plan and landed properties. They tend to show you 3D images of how the estate is going to be after construction. However, they won’t keep to their promises giving you unreasonable excuses.
- Luring you with mouth-watering incentives: This has been very common in the industry especially when you want to buy landed property. I do not want to deny the fact that some companies keep to their promises even after giving mouthwatering incentives as a way to increase brand awareness. On the other hand, shabby real estate companies in Nigeria tend to lure you with incentives, by so doing you will think they care about you whereas they are not.
Having exposed you to these, let us now go deep into strategies you can use to avoid being a victim of real estate scams in Nigeria. Some of these include;
- Do your due diligence: I am pretty sure you would have heard these many times. Carrying out due diligence when you want to buy real estate in Nigeria entails getting the documents verified. Documents such as the survey plan, can be verified in the Lands Registry in Alausa, that is if you are buying your property in Lagos.
- Avoid cheap property: I won’t deny the fact that you can buy some properties below market value. However, this is possible if you buy untitled land from a reputable company that can deliver their promises as to getting the land a title.If you are buying cheap property in lagos, it is vital to research the prices of property in that location.
- Avoid paying cash: The reason for this is to ensure that your transaction can be traced if anything happens. Having, mention all these buying real estates in Nigeria might be complicated if you do not go through the right way and it is also vital to carry out your due diligence by requesting the necessary documentation. Kindly comment and share this post with your loved ones