₦airaland Forum

Ekwerekwus seems to be one of the biggest Landlords in Ontisha. I personally went to see the late father of this Harold, who was a seasoned SAN then with my Dad for Landlord transaction in Nkisi layout.

After paying, that land became so problematic that my Dad had to abandon it and bought another in housing estate layout. Anambra land matters no be here.

nabiz:
I can give you something far better than this if you can pay for the cost at 6,800 per square meter. Many Nigerians love Good job but dont want to buy quality materials

What are the make up of this cost? All materials - sand and cement inclusive or just the chemicals to be used?

zuraking:
something like this without color hardener

Zuraking, who did this job? Is this Nigeria? It looks neat and strong and not those ones that looks like what they poured children's poster colours

Every politician becomes a seasoned adviser once he leaves office. He was once a powerful president and castigated governors Tinubu Of Lagos and Mbadinuju of Anambra on issue of state police.

Why didn't he support the call then?

n3xt:
In architecture, form follows function. So when we do home design, we need to rethink the why, the how and the what?




Has anyone seen the new Jude Okoye (P-Square) house? That's a house!

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Before meets After!

Pic 1 - A well designed house with Pillars, Quoins, Concrete Fascia, Curves, Round Pillars, Gerald, and even red carpet for the red cap chief
Pic 2 - Clean lines, no ugly and fugly burglaries (same naija where people dey spend fortune on burglar proofs)...

That Jude Okoye's house na home. If your estate is well secured, abeg leave those ugly burglaries out. It distorts the beauty of houses.

KIDfurniture:
Avoid bad tenants by accepting only 2 years rent upfront or even 3 years. Bad tenants made my own father sell of his property 4 flats.. they all refused to renew rent fir 2 years. He got a mouth watery offer and old the building plus the tenants. The new owner a well known mad army with solid rank... collected the rents and kicked them out...come and see different juju items from all tenants including pastor o.. use ur property for school , hospitals , restaurant, motel , guest house or even ashawo biz

You are right. I have experienced tenants problems a lot. Right from when I was living with my uncle after my NYSC in the early 2000s. He stays in a duplex and has a 2 storey building with tenants adjacent.

Collecting rents was usually fraught with anger and quarrels. The annoying thing was that these tenants seems to be doing well going by their status and life styles. A case of deliberate and wilful default.

He finally handed over the building to one no-nonsense lawyer that was recommended to him. An Ogbomoso man with heavy tribal marks on both cheeks of his face.

The agreement was that each year, he would pay my uncle the whole money from his pocket and follow up with tenants for his money. My uncle agreed to collect 450k each flat from him while he would collect 550k from each tenant.

My brother, when the lawyer showed his true colour, no be person tell those tenants to pay. The lawyer was practically behaving like a native doctor. Some paid, some left and he immediately brought new tenants.

Since then, my uncle has been quietly enjoying his retirement and his money.

n3xt:
Smiles.

The project will be a huge success.

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I have guys who can make school furnitures at the most affordable price though. That really helped me on the project.

I was just doing shakara as if I’ve spent billions

Sure, once we go into full throttle, I will hit you up. Furniture plays an important role in this kind of thing. Smooth, clean and nice aesthetics are the hall marks of any furniture.

I like your ideas up there. Looks lovely. She has seen some ideas on pinterest and houzz as well

n3xt:
I understand you completely. What I've found out over the years is that women don't think the way we do. Don't be surprised the school might pick faster than imagine. Unlike men, women support themselves more on projects. I cannot count the number of my wife's friends helping to drive publicity.
They recently came up with a school bus idea and how they intend to fund it. I just went blank and mute. But in all, I am happier seeing her do what she really wanted.

While you're looking at recouping some funds, she's focused on something totally different - change of status (Proprietress/Directress).

I pray God will provide for you sir

You know their way . She is using all her connection - church, alumni, choir group, town union, instagram and other social media as she is into online sales of wears. Even though the project has not started, she has drawn plan of action. I am just helpless in this situation as I wouldn't want to be an obstacle. But no matter how, if success locates her in that project, she must be paying me rent for that building no matter how small Na baba Ijebu I be.

The thing has just distorted my whole equation. My only consolation is if her project will be the solution to keeping off potential unruly tenant, no wahala. She wants to avoid tenant issues at all cost.

Any way, lets see how it goes. Bro, I appreciate you. Thanks for the heads up.

n3xt:
Those folks fall into the class of “What do Builders really do?”

There are slap-and-fix houses and there’s home. It all boil down to owners choice.

Oga, make I take style dey save your pictures. Your pictures wey I don save for my laptop don plenty. Are the first and second pictures real or internet pictures? The last is clear. It is a real work, going by the wires seen there.

n3xt:
Even in my estate where tenants are scrutinized by the home owners association and stringent conditions are attached to house rental, people still default.

I agree it takes time to break even but here’s what we did. We started small. You don’t have to go all out and put in all the monies at once.

When we wanted to start, some folks almost discouraged my wife with the it-takes-time-to-breakeven story. I told them “Whether we do it now or in a decade, it’ll still take time. We can solve this by giving time some time. Time heals everything. It’s our house and we aren’t paying rent to anyone. That’s a big plus!”

I personally hate tenancy issues (no pun intended) and avoid it at all cost so I’m just about the wrong person to support your move on this sir.

If the prospect is high around you, I’d suggest you support madam. I know it ain’t easy taking up another capital intensive project after your build..

She so much believe in the prospect of this school thing. My greatest fear is sinking your fund in what the outcomes seems unknown. I bet you the promise of a fund assistance from a family friend in US is not going to be much. I know my family over there and money. There own aka-gum no be here. You will be shocked that the so called support may not even pass $1k or $2k and she seems so excited about the prospect of the so called support, thinking that it would be substantial.

That project will warrant paying people that will work for you for certain periods before the investments starts yielding result and as I mentioned, I am seriously fund-constrained to wait out except if a break through happens in the future. Why all these issue came up is because of the interior works of the building that may likely start. It is either we start with the interior designing of the building for school purpose or design it for tenant occupation. She still insists on the former. Though all the expenses on equipment and children's things will be on her own account.

I agree on the tenant issue, despite all the vetting and I don't know why it usually happens here. You will see someone doing very well and finds it difficult to meet his obligation to his landlord, thus seeing the landlord as an enemy, which I detest so much. The truth is that I still need to recoup some money, no matter how small.

Her adviser had already mentioned that since she is using her own building, the major cost, which is building has been taken care of. But these women don't understand that if you want to know the true financial position of your business, you need to amortized the supposed rent you are to pay for the building if it were to be rented.

Anyway, thanks so much. I appreciate. I may likely take up this with you off line not to derail the intention of this thread.

Enyinne:
Crèche location plays a vital role , if u locate in an obscure area , just know that it will take alot of time to make tangible progress /profit . A similar thing hv played out of recent . A New building opposite my house was being rented 1.6m yearly for 3bedroom flat , the man hv rented 3 out 4 flats . The wife hv insisted opening a crèche in the 4th flats , after pleading with the woman to consider rental and collect 1.6m but she said she must open Creche . 5months down ,only 2kids are there . Everyone blames them for citing creche in such estate . Pls check ur location, the kind of people living there before taking such decision.

Hello Enyinne, I discussed these points you raised with her and her adviser, who happens to also owns a school. The adviser said that having 2pupils after 5months of starting a preschool/primary is not out of place. In her own case, she had just 7 people after 12 months (1 year) and then increased to 43 pupils and 11 toddlers after 5 years when she finally broke even.

Most times, you don't break even after starting a school and the break-even point is mostly after 5 years. Our experience with tenants in our current place is not encouraging her at all to rent the new apartment again to any one and she seems willing to wait out the gestation period of this school idea.

For me, I am not ready to wait out any shit as this builds has costs me a lot and if I should put a tenant there, the person must be thoroughly scrutinized and vetted to avoid any issue or willful default.

n3xt and EgunMogaji2 and other members, your inputs are still needed. MY sincere apologies to the whole members if I am diverting the intention of this thread away, which is not about school and business. Both we have seasoned analyst here, who have seen it all compared to other threads.

Enyinne:
Crèche location plays a vital role , if u locate in an obscure area , just know that it will take alot of time to make tangible progress /profit . A similar thing hv played out of recent . A New building opposite my house was being rented 1.6m yearly for 3bedroom flat , the man hv rented 3 out 4 flats . The wife hv insisted opening a crèche in the 4th flats , after pleading with the woman to consider rental and collect 1.6m but she said she must open Creche . 5months down ,only 2kids are there . Everyone blames them for citing creche in such estate . Pls check ur location, the kind of people living there before taking such decision.

Hello Enyinne, I discussed these points you raised with her and her adviser, who happens to also owned a school. The adviser said that having 2pupils after 5months of starting a preschool/primary is not out of place. In her own case, she had just 7 people after 12 months (1 year) and then increased to 43 pupils and 11 toddlers after 5 years when she finally broke even.

Most times, you don't break even after starting a school and the break-even point is mostly after 5 years. Our experience with tenants in our current place is not encouraging her at all to rent the new apartment again to any one and she seems willing to wait out the gestation period of this school idea.

For me, I am not ready to wait out any shit as this builds has costs me a lot and if I should put a tenant there, the person must be thoroughly scrutinized and vetted to avoid any issue or willful default.

n3xt and EgunMogaji2 and other members, your inputs are still needed. MY sincere apologies to the whole members if I am diverting the intention of this thread away, which is not about school and business. Both we have seasoned analyst here, who have seen it all compared to other threads.

gbadexy:
You are absolutely correct sir. However the wall may not be screeded if the plastering is smooth.
However, the wall would still need to be primed before painting.

Good points you and Rotech pointed out there. External screeding may skyrocket my costs equation. The primer mentioned here may be the choice now. The building is some how big and I may totally take out the screeding cost of external wall and prime it before painting. But internal screeding is a must sha. Nothing beats a well screeded, sand papered and well painted interior walls.

rotecch77:
Thanks chief
We are trying to see how we can reduce uses of outside screeding for the purpose of wall (smoothing) in most of our work to save clients some cost. Unless if it’s for another purpose.
Bcs I can see that most screeding now is to correct walls that are not well plastered.

And come to think of it, you hardly see such in old building and there wall finishings are superb.

Here are some pics of our diff site location plastering work.

I thought that screeding of external walls also brings out the smoothness and finess of paints. When walls are not screeded, the beauty of the final painting work tends not to be that smooth.

Screeding also helps to ward off retention of rain splashes on the wall. I stand to be corrected.

Enyinne:
My estate is well built at the heart of sangotedo but how many working class women are willing to drop off kids at crèche? Most having househelp will keep them at home until ready for kindergarten as cost of living is bitten hard on every Nigerian. Obtaining a Montessori training and educational training courses will pay her off at the long run and establishing preschool to primary classes than crèche. Patience is key in establishing such so to get it right once and for all .

Thank you Madam. Pre-school and primary classes are the main thing she wants to start. Creche is just an added services. The business plan is that some of the creche babies will later move to pre-school and primary.

Thanks for your insight

n3xt:


Big Boss!

I hope madam already have a formal training.

If no, let her get started as soon as possible. It takes 6 months.

If yes, proceed to the next step. Commence plans for the crèche, It doesn’t take long time to get the business off ground.

I’d do anything to make my madam happy. This is one of it.

We started ours during the last quarter of 2020 and we already had 2 classes filled. It actually cost us some money but it’s worthwhile cos that what madam love.

Between last October and this moment, we’ve realized what we’d have charged for rental of the property from tuition fees paid.

I’m already considering repurposing the whole house for this project because everyone who visit the school loved it at first sight.

Kai, you will always represent. Very nice and clean. She wants to start off on it immediately because of a promise of fund and assistance from a friend in US.

However, I still maintain my position that renting out the apartment is still the best and not pre-school. Competition in that space is stiff. As for qualification, she has B.Ed qualification and social work training.
Thanks

Enyinne:
Crèche location plays a vital role , if u locate in an obscure area , just know that it will take alot of time to make tangible progress /profit . A similar thing hv played out of recent . A New building opposite my house was being rented 1.6m yearly for 3bedroom flat , the man hv rented 3 out 4 flats . The wife hv insisted opening a crèche in the 4th flats , after pleading with the woman to consider rental and collect 1.6m but she said she must open Creche . 5months down ,only 2kids are there . Everyone blames them for citing creche in such estate . Pls check ur location, the kind of people living there before taking such decision.

Very valid points. The place is well built and inhabited. I still prefer the rented option but women no dey hear word

My people, I need your opinion as we are in decision stage.

My build is a 4 -bedroom duplex in front (3-bedroom up and 1-bedroom down) and a 3- bedroom duplex at the back (2- bedroom up and 1- bedroom downstairs)

I intend renting out the back for an initial period and would later repurpose it as a daycare/preschool - this would be after some years and after the first tenant may have vacated.

We may likely commence interior works for the buildings once the funds are available and I have been advised to go directly with designing and setting the back build as daycare/preschool immediately instead of putting it for outright renting and coming back later to repurpose it for crèche business, which is the final ultimate goal of the build.

We were told to forget about renting it out if the final intention was to still make it a preschool. My woman has already bought the idea but I told her that school takes time to mature and you may continue to incur costs running it in years to come. I would prefer outright renting for the main time, as the rent may likely fetch a reasonable sums based on the annual rental charge within that estate and neighborhood. Then in years to come, we may consider repurposing it for preschool and crèche uses, respectively.

What do you suggest? Our business minded folks like n3xt, EgunMogaji and other key guys, please what is/are your take on these two options?

Horlardorjah:
This is a joke abi Chief, don't let us sue you Oh. Clients decide alot when it comes some stages like this, so please don't generalize oh.

Shebi u no see my apologies before?

I know say na clients dey decide.

CalliDora1:
When you started training them the butty way before what were you thinking or expecting? If it were abroad, I'll say cool because everything is serene and calm over there but in naija where it is every man for himself kinda lifestyle that is predominant. Its not easy to blend in.

Anyways, taking them to govt school will not be a good idea because their academic performance will drop and it will affect them badly because of the low standard.

I'll say, enroll them in other children social gathering or groups where children from all works of life belong. Thats the only societal change you can make.

Secondly, let them learn to run errands to short distance places with instructions and guides to crossing the roads and knowing how to walk by the side of the road away from the vehicular lanes. Make sure to go with them a few times before letting them go alone.

Nice points you raised there. For now, I would not be comfortable sending my seven year old daughter on errand across the road. They involve in all social activities with kids, especially in their school. I am taking them to a catholic run school instead of government public school.

Activist001:
Focusmind, just send them to a good government boarding school when they're ripe for secondary school. That's the best and easiest way to toughen them up.

You can also reduce some of their comfort like AC and constant car rides. Make them only use the AC when you and your wife are around, send them on errands, make them walk to church for the most part and stuff like that.

I was also a big ajebo before attending a government boarding school for 6 years, my life changed after.

Good observation. I have already started all that you mentioned and I am very happy with the outcomes. I intend putting them in a catholic school instead of government. I attended catholic owned schools from nursery to primary and to secondary.

n3xt:
The truth is I want to build a house that will outlive it’s owners. Not a house that’s dated.

The architect so hate me ehn cos I redesigned and took over about 4 of his projects. It wasn’t intentional though but who no like better thing.

The interesting thing is good design and a bad one cost almost the same amount to build.
I’m very sure they don’t sell cement/bricks for a nice design more expensive than they sell for boring designs.

Do it right the first time! The major issh is most architects focus more on money than providing excellent services.

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See fantastic designs, especially the second from top. Urban prime properties are also good with their contemporary home designs with glass walls.

apatheticme:
Very true observation!

Most of the hatred/crimes committed against women and children are poverty inspired!

Most truly comfortable men (notice I didn't say rich) are not violent!

I am telling you. One woman I know has been bearing the unnecessary aggression of her husband. Hardship and poverty have combined to make the man a monster and an aggressor, ready for a fight on flimsy excuses.

n3xt:
You’re not wrong.

Here’s something designed for a client here by an architect in one of the most popular estate in Lagos.
When the client gave me the plan, he knew I’d definitely not be comfortable working with the design so he asked me to tell him what I think.

We did a lot of back-and-forths and came up with something a little bit more comfortable.

Though I’m not an architect but I always design 99% of my builds. My architects do the detailing.

I always do so because I notice a lot of naija architects are not so creative and lack concepts.



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Pic 1 - Clients Original Design
Pic 2 - New Design Concept by NextHome fleshed by Architect Phillips Akalawu of MagicTouch

I trust you bro. You belong to the contemporary designers. Just imagine the difference between the two? Normal architect will give you the first one.

I am not hating on long roof. Everyone to his own.

CodeTemplar:
You make them Ajebo then want to put them in street to drive home a point. Just be prepared for the hating the less privileged kids will hate on them.

My worst fear bro! Poverty makes Nigerians to be unnecessary angry and easily transfers aggression.

I am not considering public schools again. Most likely will be in a private school being run by Catholic church. They just completed one near my neighbourhood.

Myself, I attended catholic nursery, primary and secondary schools and the quality of education and formation was superb.

Davash222:
Allow them continue with the school but always take them to the village when they are on holidays.

They will meet their mates there in the village, they will play together and one day, fight go burst!!



Your kids then would know there's a big difference between six and half a dozen.

Nice one Davash. They enjoyed themselves during the Christmas. We have a very large compound in the village which provided them ample space to ride their bicycles with other kids from the village.

Most of the village neighbours were coming to our compound just to play with them. I love the bond they built with them and they have been asking me when we will be going to the village again to see those their friends.

Going forward, travelling to the village for christmas is going to be a must now for us. I enjoyed the villa wella and they did also.

Coolbite:
The best book to help your child learn how to read, spell and write in English language in the shortest possible time.

Do you have this type of book for kids to also learn French? I want to support my kids literacy in French language.

xcelpro:
Please don't change their school rather allow them to mingle with SERIOUS MINDED POOR KIDS from your church/mosque or neighborhood.
If they are up to 10yrs and above you can allow them visit them at home with your CLOSE EYES on them (your kids).
I have seen many rich kids who know what it means to live in naija. They know and understand what an average Nigerian child undergo.
So allow them to mingle with children who are from a lower class family and make sure you keep a close on them.

Very important. I want them to understand the Nigeria's sense of thinking and doing things

Emperordynasty:
Sir you intentions are very clear and reasonable but it could backfire and end up truncating the lives of your kids,your kids are not aware of the roggedities of life which is not really so bad,

Enrolling them in a public school could turn out to become the worst mistake you can ever make in raising ur child, they are already very naive so it would be easier for them to be influenced negatively.

A peace loving and naive ajebutter is faaaaar better than a hardened notorious and street smart ajekpako.

Don't expect your kids to turn out successful just because you did while growing up in the street region.selah

Good! How did I miss your comment? Well said bro

saydfact:
I'm an Architect - Rephrase your statement

My apologies. But you will agree with me that the design is a common Nigerian Architects' signature.

What about flat and contemporary roofs? We miss Skimanski, darlynx, I hope I go the moniker right and other architects that gives modern designs.

I know it will always boils down to clients' choice. The architect should also educate the client on modern designs.

saydfact:
Exactly what I was thinking - Makes the bungalow look ugly.... (in my opinion sha)

It is the signature of every Nigerian architect - High roof and two front pillar - designed houses

Poverty is a disease. Crimes and wickedness are common among the poorer segment of any community.

I feel and share in the pains and discomfort of struggling wives, families and homes. Poverty induces an unmatched anger and makes the victims to commit an unimaginable act.

Being poor, being a Nigerian and being angry at the same time are deadly combination. That's why a lot of people are unnecessary angry here and vent their bottled up anger on their dependants and subordinates.