Property
Government should penalize unregistered Estate Agents- Nwaogazi
BY CHINWE AGBEZE|
Mr. Chinonso Nwaogazi is the Chief Executive Officer of Divine Star Properties & Co limited with nine years experience in Real Estate under his belt. In this interview with CHINWE AGBEZE, he speaks on challenges in the industry, measures to checkmate fraudulent practitioners and other matters of interest.
Excerpts
There is this general impression that Estate Agents are dubious. How has this affected your business?
Well, I don’t feel bad and I won’t blame people for believing that. Some estate agents gave them cause to disregard us because they are not honest. They know a property is not good and they sell it because they are after their percentage and feel nothing after the clients’ satisfaction and that is very wrong for Estate practitioners. We should protect the interest of the client, the landlord and then our own but it does not go in that order.
Some agents are more concerned about money without knowing that good name is more important than money. We have to make name first and be good before people can single us out and that’s what I’ve been doing. People who have done business with me in times past and know how good I am still patronize and refer people who need properties to me so I’m not worried.
An association exists for estate agents, are you a registered member? Yes, I am a registered member.
Is the association making any progress?
The association is not functioning well at all because our chairman is very weak. Our chairman is not motivating us at all and we want to impeach him because he is not acting. He responds when we have a problem in the police station but he cannot assemble us together to build our association and put it in order so that fraudulent Agents will quit soiling our name. People who are not registered members put up signboards outside calling themselves Agents and our chairman sees all these and does nothing to see they are dealt with according to our regulations governing the association. These roadside Agents are the ones that end up duping people and tomorrow everyone will say Agents are bad.
So, what’s the way forward?
Government needs to assist now since the association has not helped matters. We want government to make it mandatory that everyone must belong to a registered Real Estate association and those that refuse to join should be arrested and punished so others can learn. Fraud will further reduce because everyone will be very careful.
What’s your advice on how to identify genuine Estate Agents?
Most people try to avoid paying registration fees and in so doing the fall prey to people who end up duping them. Another thing is impatience because searching for property requires patience and time but most people are not willing to wait. It is always good to deal with Agents who are registered and there is evidence to show they are.
Which is the most serious problem you encountered in your job?
I took one of my clients that was transferred from Port Harcourt for inspection. I never knew the property was in problem and no one surfaced to say the property was in problem until after payment was made. After money has exchange hands, ‘Omonile’ because that is what is different in buying a property that has C of O and one that does not have documents. With properties that have authentic C of O, you pay ‘Omonile’ less than what you pay when you don’t have C of O.
How come you never knew the land was not sellable. Did you not conduct a search on the property?
I went for search and my client did so as well three good times but the Eldest man in the family assured us there was nothing to worry about. We also carried out individual search by asking people around about the original owners of the property. We did not go to Alausa to search because the property did not have C of O. What it had was family receipt and survey.
The property is in Richfield and all properties there do not have C of O because it’s owned by Federal Government through NAHCO and they are the ones to issue C of O. So, any property one is buying there is from the family and they will be given family receipt and a lawyer will make Deeds of Agreement to protect the interest of the buyer.
A member of that family resold that same property to another person. It became serious war and the police was involved. The case was later resolved in the interest of my client.
In every job, there are challenges. What’s yours?
Money is not flowing as before. I have lots of properties in Lagos, Abuja and I spend most time making calls and marketing but at the end, nothing comes even with prayers. These days, most people don’t like investing in properties because the lack ideas in Real Estate Investment. Their fear is that ‘Omonile’ will always find reasons to take over the land. The fear of ‘Omonile’ has chased away so many of our clients especially those who have had a nasty blow from them in the past.
Why the decision to delve into Estate Agency?
My entry into real estate was accidental. Someone approached me for a house nine years ago; I linked him to an estate agent and jokingly asked that they bring my own percentage which to my surprise, they did. I was shocked making N10, 000 just by referring a buyer to an estate agent so I decided that this business is going to be it for me. With the money in my hand that I don’t get in a week in my former business, I decided to give real estate a chance. Before then, I was dealing on male and female clothing but without much gain.
Compared to how the industry was nine years ago, is it any better now?
It’s not better and it’s not all that bad too. I get more customers then than now because so many people have joined agent work now compared to when I started. When all those ‘419’ and ‘yahoo’ work were no longer paying them, they trouped inside the business. Those days we were few so we had more customers because they were coming in their numbers and we will be the ones selecting but that’s no longer the case. These days we are the ones chasing them so the money does not divert to other Agents.