When buying a plot of land, what are the guidelines to follow in determining what to pay a lawyer to draft the purchase agreement. I know the unwritten tradition is 10% - but really 10% of what?

Consider the scenario below:

- I saw a plot of land outside Lagos which I'm interested in.
- I've contacted a lawyer to do  due diligence on the plot of land to find out the authenticity, seller's claim to land, state ministry of lands checks etc - all these at an agreed price covering just the due diligence alone and with an understanding that if the land checks out ok, we'll move to the agreement stage for which the lawyer has indicated he will charge 10% of the total cost of the plot of land.
- From all indications, the due diligence checks out ok and we are on this next stage hence my question.

Not to underrate the importance of a lawyer in drawing up a purchase agreement or argue blindly on the justification of the professional fees for drawing up this legal document and execution but should this fee simply be a percentage of the total price of the land being purchased or some reasonable figure negotiated with the lawyer?

Assume for instance for someone buying a plot of land worth N5m, the way I see it the lawyer will come up with the legal document (10, 20,30 pages etc) representing the purchase agreement and charging 10% means being paid N500k for this agreement.
Now let's say along the line, the owner decides to increase the scope of the purchase to include an adjacent plot thus making 2 plots at N10m, should this automatically increase the lawyer's fee to N1m for drawing up and executing the same purchase agreement despite that the amount of work involved has not really increased (it's still the same 10,20,30 page-agreement  ).  I know we cannot exactly quantify the lawyer's fee this way but this na naija and money is quite hard to come by these days which is why I'm trying to understand how other people have been doing this.

How have you guys done it, please share your thoughts.  I don't want to believe that the 10% mark is cast in stone.  What should be a typically reasonable fees range for a lawyer to charge for drawing up and executing purchase agreements for lands between the N1m to N10m price range?

to be honest with u 10percent is the customary charge for land related matters by lawyers but when the sum is much and the clients pleads ,most lawyers will concede to 5percent or even less.but i must confess to u that i might actually turn out to be one of them .

to be honest with u again.the only sure way a nigerian lawyer will be fabulously wealthy and will emerge really wealth over and above his colleagues is to be very successful in property practice and u need advice your relatives who are lawyers of this very fact now.lol

i know next to nothing about criminal cases but if its efcc cases ,u get as much as 10percent too.most efcc retained lawyers too are wealthy.

Like almost everything in life, the fee you pay a lawyer for preparing the conveyance is negotiable. As you pointed out, 10% is adjudged customary, but you get a lawyer and negotiate. There are thousands out there, fresh into practice, who need money. Negotiate, mate, negotiate. dont necessarily do percentages, just offer a figure.

please enlighten me on "Land Agreement". Why is it needed? How can I get it?

Idris 08026248258

Well as a lawyer its unethical for me or any other lawyer to opine on whether the professional fees a colleague charged a client is good or bad.My only advice is that you should negotiate with him.He has done searches and other preliminary findings on the land and hence for the purposes of drafting he knows that property more than any other person