Pre-Purchase Checklist: 10 Crucial Steps Before Buying Property

1. Never buy a land or house based on an image, flyer, or video sent to you. Try to visit the property PHYSICALLY so that you can decide whether you like it or not.
2. The majority of images you see online at the end of the day, it’s always a case of what I ordered vs. what I received.

Send a member of your family, a friend, a work colleague, a lawyer, or a surveyor to look at it on your behalf if you are unable to see it yourself. If you cannot find anyone to view it for you, forget the property. You might be saving yourself a future headache by doing that.

2. After viewing the property, the next thing you must ask for are copies of the title documents for the land or house so that you can investigate them.

A title document here refers to the proof or evidence of ownership of the land or house they intend to sell to you. That land or house did not fall from the sky. It was acquired from either another person, group of people, community, or government.

The title documents the land seller must possess may come in the form of A deed of assignment, survey plan, purchase receipt, excision survey, letter of allocation, contract of sale, will, letter of administration, C of O, Governor’s Consent, Memorandum of Understanding, layout, deed of rectification, court judgment, etc. This list is not all-inclusive.

3. Anyone that intends to sell a parcel of land or house either as a personal seller, omonile or real estate company MUST hand over photocopies of the necessary title documents of the land to you to investigate.

Any seller that declines to provide you with copies of that document so you can verify them is a potential land or property con artist. Any illogical reason they give you for not revealing information to you to aid your investigation is a warning sign and red flag; you MUST walk away.

4. As soon as they hand you copies of the title documents, give them right away to a property lawyer so they may review them. Many seasoned property lawyers, like myself, have examined thousands of land documents over the years and can advise you whether to move forward with the verification just by looking at it or to terminate the transaction right away.

For example, my 17 years of experience as a specialist property verification lawyer has made me know how to identify fake C of Os-(Certificate of Occupancy) fake Governor’s Consent, or forged Deeds of Assignment right away.

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I have seen too many wayo, too many fraudulent, and too many questionable documents to make me know if the seller is trying to defraud you or waste my time. If I am not too sure if it was a fraudulent document, that’s when I would recommend further verification on the property.
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5. A property verification must include one or more of the following

i. Investigating the land physically

ii. Verifying the title documents at the land registry

iii. Conducting a site search at the surveyor general’s office

iv. Visiting the Courts as appropriate to determine whether the property or seller is involved in any pending legal proceedings

v. Visiting the community to determine if there is an outstanding dispute or court issue

vi. Visiting the probate division to verify a will or letter of administration

vii. Check the Cabinet office to ensure the Gazette and Excision are authentic

viii. Visiting the surveyor general’s office to verify the authenticity of the coordinates and location on the survey plan

ix. Knowing the complete profile of the seller to know if you are dealing with the appropriate person that has the capacity to sell or not

x. Investigating the previous owners of the property to know if the land was properly transferred to the seller.

6. Once these steps are vigorously taken by the property lawyer, a search report must be given to the potential buyer detailing the search process, what was investigated, where it was investigated and the final report of the investigation.
7. The property lawyer MUST now advice the potential buyer whether to buy the property or not. The person conducting the search must also be an INDEPENDENT LAWYER that has no affiliation or ties with the Seller.
8. It would be a terrible idea to use the same Lawyer as the seller because there would be a conflict of interest. If something bad happens to the land, who would the lawyer represent or protect? The Seller or You? undecided
9. Endeavor to always obtain a search receipt from the lawyer after the search fees have been paid. This would guarantee that the Lawyer has an obligation to perform professionally or risk his NBA practicing license.
10. Avoid asking a friend lawyer, co-worker lawyer, or family lawyer to conduct the land verification search on your behalf because, 95% of the time, the results are either always vague, time-consuming, or done sloppily. Most importantly, if something goes wrong, who is to blame?

One more word of caution:

Money is hard to come by these days due to the challenging economy. Owning your own land or home is a need in life, and working hard and being determined to save money to do so is a testament to those qualities.

Avoid ruining everything by making a rash property purchase without first ascertaining the ownership or status of the land or house.

In exchange for a piece of land or a home, you would be writing a stranger the largest check of your life. Don’t hand over your life money to a dishonest real estate company or property seller con artist who convinced you to purchase a doubtful property with fake or forged title documents. Losing your land, home, and money would be too painful, stressful, and horrifying to handle.

Your friends and family would blame you. Your colleagues will pity you in your front and laugh at you at your back. The Jealous ones would be ecstatic that you were suffering, just like they were, and they would thank their village people for making you suffer. When outsiders hear your story, they will use you as an example to verify their next piece of property or home so they won’t do something similar.

Police and lawyers would chop you finish when they finally know you have entered their trap and once they’ve emptied your wallet, you won’t even get your money back in full. undecided

The worst part is that the dubious seller would use your hard-earned money to flex, travel around the world, gamble recklessly with your money on nairabet, lavishly spend on girlfriends, marry a new wife, pay for his own children’s school fees, use your money to pay his rent or complete his own house, buy a new car, pay an outstanding loan or debt he is owing, invest your own money in his business or even pop numerous bottles of champagne at clubs or parties.

He would even use your money to post bail at the police station and settle the same police with your own money when you finally get hold of him.

If you act responsibly, use caution, and thoroughly investigate the property you are interested in, you can prevent all this suffering.

Self-help is not recommended since, nine times out of ten, you will overlook something vital and your case file will land up on my desk or at Panti Police Station.