In this issue, I had found it necessary that you should read this before you do anything concerning real estate investing on your own, especially if you are a first time investor or concern about not burning your fingers.

It is no news that man’s basic necessities of life remain food, shelter and clothing, hence the innate yearning for these things by all of us.

To own the roof over our head has remained one of the most sought-after and desired dream of most individual whether immediately possible or otherwise.

Sad to say, for some it will always remain a dream, and for others even when they can economically afford to realize this dream, it won’t happen.

No thanks to the tricks and practices of land speculators/Omo-Oniles and others in the field, especially in the cities and major towns.

A lot of people- some you know and others you don’t, have invested money in real estate and live to tell sorry stories of how they either were defrauded or their properties sold off before they could commence any construction on the parcel of land.

It is altogether not surprising that even corporate bodies are not left out as would be seen in the accounts related below.

Are there lessons to learn? Oh! Sure, quite a handful. And as I often would say, the first rule of buying land especially in places like Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Benin, e.t.c is to trust absolutely no one and to remain relentless in your search for the truth and authority of ownership.

This does not guarantee not being duped, but it will amongst other things reduce the propensity for being defrauded.

When a colleague of Tolu Adegbayi* walked into the office with the news that a teacher colleague of her mum who is a member of the Nigerian Union of Teachers knew someone who had helped the teachers’ union purchase large expanse of land at Mowe/Ibafo and he could also help anybody who was interested get land.

It sounded like good news from heaven to Bayo, Harry and Gbemi. Of course, Tolu was the first on the list.

“I can’t tell you how elated I was at the news, because for me, the issue of trust was immediately resolved.” Recalls Tolu.

Meetings were set up with the Omo-Oniles to buy two acres- one for Tolu and his colleagues in the office, the other one for a pastor friend of his. Little did they know they were playing into the hand of dupes.

“Everything went on very smoothly till after we made the first installment –my colleagues and I on one side and my pastor friend on the other parted with N360,000 each.

We wanted to do something on the land before paying the rest – we just wanted to play safe and smart. Thank God we did”.

After they made payments and even going as far as asking the family to write the name of military organization in a bid to discourage any attempt at being dupes, troubles still ensued.

“Trouble actually started when we decided to clear the land, we got a surveyor to survey the place. The workers were stopped and we were called to a meeting.

In fact the elderly man (Baba Deolu) that had been dealing with us from the first day was very upset – saying that our actions would make the family feel he had collected the full payment from us without the knowledge of others, since we hadn’t completed payment we had no right to start clearing the property.

We explained our motive to him, but he wouldn’t buy it; instead we were told to come back for another meeting.

Apart from this meeting, nobody showed up again for subsequent meetings that we initiated. We had earlier dealt with three people- an estate agent who brokered the transaction, the family representative and another Youngman.

It was when someone else intimated us that he knew the original buyers of the property that we suspected we might have been duped.

I spear - headed the matter being taken to a police station – in fact the DPO of the first station – the Ibafo Central police Station that we originally took the matter to was very prejudiced.

We made no head way until we transferred it to Mowe and involved some military personnel.

After about three months of going back and forth, and several detentions of Baba Deolu and the others, the sum of N400, 000 was later returned to us in bits and pieces.

But not without the Baba confessing that he was lured into the deal by the younger ones knowing fully-well that his family had truly sold the land to someone else.

I cannot tell you how disappointed I, particularly felt – that a man of seventy – plus would disdain the respect of his years and the dignity he is supposed to have simply because of money.

To be continued.

Yours in success,

Olabode Oruku

Offer last while stock last. Call/text me (08033205456) now for more details.

This free seminar on ICT is designed for people interested in building careers and running businesses in the ICT industry.

You will be exposed to opportunities in the following fields:

* Computer engineering/networking (A+, N+, CCNA, CCNP, MCITP/MCSE/MCSA) * Web Design, Web development Using ASP.NET/PHP web development with joomla & drupal * Advanced graphics (3D Animation and video editing) * Building a Successful Business Using the Internet

Venue: Oak Computers Ltd, 39, Ogunnusi Street (Old Isheri Road), Beside County Hospital, Ogba, Lagos.
Date: 30th March 2012 (Friday)
Time: 12 – 3pm prompt

For comments by faciltators and attendees on our last Free seminar which was held last January, and have a feel of our hall Click Here

Due to limited space, you must send text to 08033205456 with the message "please reserve my seat and your name" so we can reserve a space for you.

I hope you find the information useful?

Yours in success,

Olabode Oruku

Mobile: 2348033205456

For More Of Such Articles, Click Here