The rise in the number of fake agents in Lagos and Nigeria as a whole is extremely alarming, and they are so good in swindling people’s money at a very fast pace.

Trust me, you would not want to work for months saving money to rent or buy that dream house only to find out that you paid to the wrong person and both the house and your hard earned money is gone. In other to avoid such experiences, below are 4 ways to identify fake real estate agent.

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One major characteristics of a fake agent is that they find a way to convince you to pay or just deposit a particular amount of money, even though they know you don’t have the remaining balance at hand to complete the payment anytime soon.

he fact is that they only need your money to settle themselves, then they start coming up with statements like, there are a number of other people who are also in line to rent the apartment, so just deposit anything so you don’t lose this apartment.

The point is 70% of real estate agents in Nigeria cannot be trusted with money, so it places you on a high risk of being scammed by them, because they know that there is a possibility of any of these three things happening to you after making an initial deposit. Integrityhomes.online

a) The money doesn’t come the time you planned it: You may think that the money will come in 2 weeks’ time but something came up and you were unable to get it and remember the longer you initial deposit stays with the agent the higher the probability of him/her spending it.

.b) By the time you get the balance another agent has brought someone else to rent the apartment and because the landlord wants money, he collects it.

c) This is the most tricky of all, some agents just have no intention of given the deposit to the landlord, so they use ‘sweet mouth’ to ensure you deposit something because they have an outstanding debt they want to settle which the person is already threatening them for. So immediately you deposit the money they settle the previous debt.

So when a real estate agent is so adamant of you depositing something to secure the property, it mostly a red flag of something fishy about the deal.

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One thing to note is that integrity is not a virtue you try to convince people that you possess, but your actions, behaviors in the face of challenges that proves if you are a man/woman of integrity. Integrityhomes.online

When a real estate agent start saying ‘I am a pastor in (A or B church), I can’t scam you’ is a big sign you should be more weary of them, or they say things like ‘I am a top person in this community, you can ask of me around’ then you must beware of them. All they want is to build trust so it becomes very easy to drop your money. Integrityhomes.online

That means no real estate agent should try to convince you that he/she is a person of integrity. They have to prove it by ensuring the house they show you is good, the money is paid to the landlord and you pack into the apartment at the said time.

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This is a very tricky aspect of renting an apartment because there are some houses that the landlord has given the agent the permission to collect the money from the clients and then pay to him but another side to this is that many agents use this to scam people. In short this is one of the biggest signal to know a fake agent.

Once you pay the money to them either by transfer or through cash, then they will not be picking your calls as fast as they use to before, they start telling you that the landlord has not being around for about 2 to 3 days, that’s why they have not paid the money to him. Integrityhomes.online

some will even go as far as saying they have paid the money to the landlord but he just travelled and he will be back in a week’s time, then when the week elapse they will tell you that they are doing some work in the apartment, before you know it, 2 weeks will become 3 and suddenly it is 4 and the story the agent will be giving you will be unending.

My advice is when you are about to pay, you and the agent should go together to the landlords place so you can witness him, give the landlord the money (also ensure that the person he takes you to is the real landlord and not some person imposing to be the landlord).

If for some reason you are not chanced to go with the agent, may be because you are out of town at that moment, then confirm from the landlord if you are to make payment to the agent and if he approves it, you can pay to the agent.

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There is nothing bad in trusting an agent to do what he said he will do after payment but it becomes suspicious if the repairs in the apartment cost almost 60% of the money you are about to pay. Landlord’s rent their houses because the need money, so if half of the money you are paying will go into the repair of the apartment just know the landlord may not totally agree with the agent on that, but the agent also wants money, so they tell you lies that, don’t worry just pay and everything will be fixed. Integrityhomes.online

There is a possibility of two things happening:

1. He absconds with your money without paying anything to the landlord.

2. He pays the money to the landlord and then, no repair is done in the apartment.

It is advisable to avoid renting an apartment that has too much damages and requires a lot of repair, because you may end up using your own personal money to do the necessary repairs in the building.

Have you had any encounter with a fake real estate agent before or have you being scammed by a real estate agent at any point in your life? You can share some of your experiences with us in the comment section.

For more information to rent and buy properties visit https://integrityhomes.online/