₦airaland Forum

It is so tiring especially in lagos.

useless agent only after ur registration money and they will just ghost you.

Some will show a picture and video of a place that is no more available jsut to collect money from you
.


There is no end this menace of house agents

See my siggy please....

That means almost all the agents you would meet are fake.

My brother even if u use your leg find ur own house. The wicked landlord go refer u to his agent

When a house agent in Lagos tells you to pay inspection fee and transport for every house you guys inspect.

... And agent fee is more than 10% of annual rent.

These tips will help me as I'm about to go look for an apartment.

The agents scare me a lot.

You can manage to take 600k go to them and won't get a good self-con apartment in Lagos.

Just go with a lawyer or police/soldier too.
You'll be fine.

I remember when I was looking for house in Lugbe, Abuja in 2007/2008. I met one agent, he took me to a very dirty and old house, badly maintained and said I should take the house, that all previous occupiers usually build or buy their houses within few years of being tenants in that house.
My elder brother who had not said anything all through the conversation, cynically asked him if he had his own house, he said no and he asked why didn't he move to the house, so he could own a house and move in, just as the tenants he was testifying about

All these one still won’t work. Because most of these agents do all these.

Most of them are not necessarily fake, just dubious. They can even collect inspection fee from you and take you to go see a house they know very well that another client has paid for.

You will ask them for their total package (rental + agency and commission and any other fees) and they'll insist on you paying for inspection first before disclosing it to you.

Are they really fake or rather exploitative.

I wonder why landlords rely on them.

It appears being a house agent in Nigeria is as lucrative as being a Government contractor. Does one need a license to become a housing agent? We do have housing agents in Cameroon but I don't think its anything like the ones in Lagos.

THE BLACK COLOUR MAN DO THIS, ANYHOW INDIVIDUALS CASHING OUT FROM SOMEONE PROPERTY, BECAUSE THE SYSTEM REMAINS ERROR,

He barely has a direct brief, he needs to always call people

lagostrendboy:
https://eyesoflagos.com/2025/06/25/how-to-spot-a-fake-house-agent-in-lagos/

apart from maybe demanding for upfront inspection fee, none of what you listed here are clear indication of a fake house agent.

No smart Agent is going to give you the exact address of the apartment/building until they're sure that you're serious and not a corner corner agent doing inspection too.
A lot of low end agents will pose as a client and try to find out location of an apartment that are for rent, so as an agent you have to be smart about giving out your asset. Also there are dubious clients who will want to go behind your back to meet the landlord and strike deals with him thereby eliminating the middleman (The Agent). So if you give your client the correct address they might double cross you... Because let's be real, no one wants to pay agent fee and everyone will do whatever they can to dodge it.


Just because they don't have an office or identity doesn't mean that they're not legit! I have worked with lots of Agents who had none of these and they brought sure clients for business. The Agent that brought Solid star to me had none of these, he was just a normal estate facility staff. The man who brought the former AIG of police to me no sabi anything but somehow he got the connect with the AIG and brought him to me and I showed them our houses which were for sale and we closed the deal within a week!
Do you think it's easy to register a company and rent office spaces in Lagos, especially Lekki axis? In fact I prefer to deal with these low end agents than the established ones.


Price of the rent has nothing to do with how legit the agent is. You're blaming the wrong person here, blame the landlord who will not fully disclose the nature of the rent and the dues that comes with it. The agents work is to show you the apartment and connect you with the landlord ( if that's necessary) but the rent amount itself is the landlords decision. It's all about how good someone is in marketing a property.

Again, pressuring you to pay immediate foes mean that they're not legit. They are probably not the only agents bringing people to the property and if another Agent is close to closing a deal, your agent might want to pressure you to pay so that they don't lose out on that commission. It happens with both established and low end agents. I work with both so I understand the whole thing perfectly.

Omo if an agent tells you that one don go.... He's likely telling you the truth. Like I said , he's not the only agent bringing people to that property, you're not the first client to visit that property and if you don't like it or act fast you will not be the last one there.

Why would an Agent give you free access to the landlord or property owner just like that? Are you even serious? It was this same stupid mistake that cost me and my guy 10m in 2019, when we took one fine girl to see a house that was available for purchase. My guy Mohammad was mesmerized by the girl's big nyash and stupidly used the girl's phone to call the developer. Long story short, she struck a deal with the developer behind us, she was even an agent who posed as a client, and got her client to buy two houses in the estate and we lost! Yes. We got nada all because my guy was looking woman nyash 😂. Till today we still dey use that thing to yab ourselves .
No agent in their right senses will give you access to the landlord or property owner unless they're sure of who and what they're dealing with. If you're an agent and you do this, hunger fit kill you for Lagos 🤣.

I am into property development and estate management in Lagos, lekki, and I deal with different kinds of agents both big and small, I have contact with Jidetaiwo, PWAN, PropertyNG, the only fake Agent is the one who lures you to a location to harm you. Apart from that, my brother everybody na agent for Lagos oo! Even security man dey do Agent, chef dey do Agent, electrician dey do Agent ( as a matter of fact, my Electrician is an agent for those looking for house help)

When I was looking for a house, I never paid agents inspection fees before seeing the house. It is after seeing the house. Another smart thing, I did was to request for video and pictures of the house and made it clear to them that if they show me a house different from the one they sent in video/pictures, I will not pay inspection fee. One breached this rule and I did not pay him the inspection fee. The others kept to my rule and it went fine. The essence of the pictures/videos is to help me know whether the house is worth inspecting or not in the first place. Shine your eyes in Lagos.

But you are the one that suppose to pay transport na. What do you expect before?

AngelicDamsel:
When a house agent in Lagos tells you to pay inspection fee and transport for every house you guys inspect.

Coder2Client:
These tips will help me as I'm about to go look for an apartment.

The agents scare me a lot.

You can manage to take 600k go to them and won't get a good self-con apartment in Lagos.

If Ikorodu is not too far for you, I have room and parlour self contained.

I am the owner of the ppty

Lol!

It will scare the house agent.

Personally i will not advice that.

esivue007:
Just go with a lawyer or police/soldier too.
You'll be fine.

Can you explain more please.

What do you actually mean?

Inspirer1:
He barely has a direct brief, he needs to always call people

I have a question please.

Why did you say we should never inspect a property alone?

Inspection fee should be scrapped. ....its pure scam... any serious agent should earn through agency fee... the client inspection is no different from an employer interviewing a prospect... u don't tell employers to pay u interview fee ...

Number 8. They are always on a phone call.

15 more characters needed

No Office, No Identity, No Evidence

No Office, No Identity, No Evidence

No Office, No Identity, No Evidence

Most people fall into this because they feel all those legit agents with offices will bill them large but it isn't true bc those ones will never take more than the legit fee because if they do and they are reported they can lose their license to practice by their association but you see those unregistered agents can do and undo because they don't have anything to lose, they charge more than the Landlord self, even the registered one don't make money like those fake ones do. They showed me shege when I newly came to Lagos and was searching for accomodation until a friend introduced me to her friend who is an estate agent in fact I didn't pay a dime for inspection and I was like can this be true bc for each inspection, then I was made to fill form and pay money but this real agent did not give me form to fill until I showed interest in the one I inspected and thank God I was able to get a good one. My advise is people should stop patronizing agents that are not licensed.