Among other areas of speciality, conveyancing, Property Sales and Development is one of our area of expertise and through this experience I believed it wise to create this article to warn other Nigerians both local and Overseas in what they have to know before buying or selling properties in Nigeria. 

Unfortunately, I will not prefer to overwhelm you with a lot of information, however, if you should be of any concern, do call me at appropriate time; I may well be more than pleased to answer your questions.

In doing so, I will require to generally share some personal and professional experiences with buying, selling, letting or renting properties in Nigeria. Things are very tough now making some individuals to become ‘fake'estate agents being an umbrella to commit fraud.

I need to honestly say there are good and genuine estate agents and surveyors in Nigeria however the bad agents will be the once destroying the estate agents 'business in Nigeria. The question is how can we dictate a fake estate agent? 

To slice the story short, I will share only few experiences and will not name the concerned agents and the so-called surveyor in this article.

In 2014, a very reputable client instructed us to purchase land for property development. We sighted the first document for the land as well as the plan. The issuing is how to understand the document is real or clone. Appropriate searches were conducted through ministry of lands housing and survey, However, reading the program, everything did not seem directly to us. To ensure that our client will not be at an increased risk with the proposed property purchase, we carried out an additional and third surveyor. It transpired that the land demonstrated to us was not the particular land on the program making the sale illegal and fraudulent. 

Obviously, the agent and his surveyor did not realise my profession and level of experience in Nigerian real-estate, but seeing me with another foreign buyer, their main motive was to commit fraud. I monitored them very closely until their plan was uncovered through evidence.

There are plenty of stories to share with, however in order to not scare you, it's necessary to hold out a suitable due diligence through reputable and trusted estate agents.

It can also be necessary to ask for other identity of owner to be able to eliminate fraud. Through legal cases, there have been many cases where people sold land that belonged to someone else. The vendor believing that he/she had acquired a legal and equitable fascination with Land would start an immediate property development on the land simply to notice at a later stage that the land was fraudulently sold to him/her. Consequently, two innocent people would end up in a very expensive litigation to find out the rightful owner of the land. This really is very awful and something you've got to avoid when possible by taking a suitable due diligence.
Please make sure you instruct your own surveyor and not only the seller's surveyor.
If you're in doubt concerning this please contact me for proper estate agents'referrals or assistance in buying, selling, letting, managing or renting accommodation in Nigeria. Once proper steps are taken to avoid this mess, you will surely be happy to purchase Nigerian Real Estate. 
For more information and inquiry contact: CITY GOLD PROPERTIES AND INTEGRATED SERVICES. ADD: km 8 Ring-road behind Palms shopping mall IBADAN.. 08104967138. BBM:293FEEA5
Twitter: @olumuyiwaG

This is yet another prime example of how the government has failed to provide adequate social services to the populace.

Though your eloquent article did not do so but innocent buyers should not be blamed for fraudulent con artists.

For those of us without the direct knowledge of real and professional agents and other service providers for land transactions, what should we watch out for? Is there a licensing organization with a list of approved and credentialed professionals?

From the comfort of my home I should be able to search a database of licensed Realtors, Agents and Surveyors. I should be able to rely on those professional to tell me via Title Companies on who exactly owns the land.

So here we are, what can the consumer do to wade through the "Nigerian system"?