Before You Buy That Plot

Preface

This book is a checklist. Not a story collection. Not a scam catalogue. A checklist.

Every chapter gives you specific verification steps for one aspect of a Nigerian property transaction. Seller. Documents. Land. Government status. Omo-Onile risk. Agreement. Payment. Each step has a cost, a timeline, and a clear pass/fail outcome.

Chapter 9 pulls everything into a single master checklist you can print and carry to every property viewing, every meeting with a seller, every lawyer's office.

If you follow every step in this book, you will either complete a property purchase with full confidence – or you will walk away from a bad deal before losing money. Either outcome is a win.

Who This Book Is For

• The buyer who wants a systematic approach – no guesswork, just verification
• The buyer who has read Don't Sign That and wants the action steps – this is the execution manual
• The lawyer or agent who advises buyers – a standardized checklist to share with clients
• The diaspora buyer who needs to tell their representative exactly what to verify and in what order

What You Will Walk Away With

A complete, verified property transaction – or the knowledge that the deal was not clean, discovered before you paid. Every step is specific, actionable, and tested against Nigerian property market reality.

The checklist no dey lie. Follow am.

The Checklist That Would Have Saved Her Millions

Nneka is a doctor. She works at a private hospital in Ikeja, Lagos. She earns well. She saves diligently. After eight years, she had ₦22 million set aside for a plot in the Ibeju-Lekki corridor – the area everyone said was "the future of Lagos."

She found a plot through an estate agent. The agent was professional – he had a website, a registered company, and testimonials. He showed her a plot in a developing estate. The price was ₦22 million for 600 square metres. He produced a document he called a C of O and a survey plan.

Nneka did three things: she visited the plot, she showed the documents to a lawyer friend (not a property lawyer – a commercial lawyer who glanced at them and said "they look fine"), and she paid.

Here are the things she did not do:

1. She did not conduct an official search at the Lagos State Lands Bureau.
2. She did not verify whether the C of O number matched the Lagos State records.
3. She did not hire an independent surveyor to confirm the plot boundaries.
4. She did not check whether the land was under government acquisition.
5. She did not verify the estate agent's company at CAC.
6. She did not check the excision and gazette status.
7. She did not investigate the Omo-Onile situation in the area.
8. She did not use an escrow arrangement for payment.

It took six months for the truth to emerge. The C of O was genuine – but it covered a different plot in a different area. The estate was built on land under government acquisition that had not been excised. The "estate agent" was not the developer – he was a broker with no authority to sell. The Omo-Onile in the area demanded ₦3 million in community levies. The real developer had been sued by the actual landowners.

Nneka lost ₦22 million. Eight years of saving.

Each of the eight steps she skipped would have cost between ₦10,000 and ₦200,000. The total cost of all eight: approximately ₦400,000 – less than 2% of the purchase price.

This book exists because those eight steps should be non-negotiable. This chapter introduces the system. The next eight chapters walk you through each step in detail.

What You Will Learn

• The eight verification steps that protect every Nigerian property buyer
• The cost and timeline for each step
• How to organize the verification process efficiently
• Why each step matters – with specific examples of what goes wrong without it

The Eight Verification Steps

• 1. Verify the seller — Ch. 2 — Identity, authority to sell, CAC status — ₦10,000-50,000 — 3-7 days
• 2. Verify the documents — Ch. 3 — C of O, Deed chain, survey plan, gazette — ₦20,000-50,000 — 7-14 days
• 3. Verify the land — Ch. 4 — Physical inspection, independent survey, boundaries — ₦50,000-200,000 — 5-10 days
• 4. Verify government status — Ch. 5 — Excision, gazette, acquisition, zoning — ₦10,000-30,000 — 7-14 days
• 5. Verify Omo-Onile situation — Ch. 6 — Community claims, risk level, engagement needed — ₦0-50,000 — 3-7 days
• 6. Verify the agreement — Ch. 7 — Sale agreement clauses, conditions, protections — ₦50,000-200,000 (lawyer) — 3-5 days
• 7. Verify the payment channel — Ch. 8 — Escrow, payment staging, documentation — ₦0-100,000 — 1-3 days
• Total — ₦140,000-680,000 — 3-6 weeks

On a ₦20 million property, the total verification cost of ₦140,000-680,000 represents 0.7-3.4% of the purchase price.

The cost of skipping verification: 100% of the purchase price.

How to Use This Book

Option 2: Jump to Your Urgency

If you are already in a transaction:

• About to pay? Read Chapters 2, 3, and 8 immediately (seller, documents, payment).
• Negotiating? Read Chapter 7 (agreement) before signing anything.
• Looking at plots? Read Chapters 4, 5, and 6 (land, government status, Omo-Onile).

Option 3: Use Chapter 9 as a Standalone Checklist

Chapter 9 is the master checklist – every verification step on one printable page. If you have read Don't Sign That and understand the concepts, Chapter 9 gives you the execution tool.

Watch Out For – Chapter Summary

1. "The documents look fine" is not verification. A lawyer glancing at documents is not the same as a Land Registry search. Visual review catches obvious fakes. Only official verification catches sophisticated ones.
2. No single step is enough. The seller might be genuine but the documents fake. The documents might be real but the land under acquisition. Each step catches different problems.
3. Verification is not expensive. The total cost is 1-3% of purchase price. Skipping it costs 100%.
4. Speed kills. "The seller is in a hurry" is the oldest pressure tactic in Nigerian property. A clean deal can wait three to six weeks for verification. A fraudulent one cannot. If dem dey rush you, na the first red flag.

Your Move

Before you turn the page:

1. Budget for verification. Add 3-5% above your purchase price for due diligence costs (search, survey, lawyer, consent processing).
2. Set a timeline. Due diligence takes 3-6 weeks. If you are not willing to wait, you are not ready to buy.
3. Identify your team. You need: a property lawyer (not a general lawyer), a licensed surveyor, and the Land Registry. Line these up before you find a property.

What is Next

Chapter 2 starts with the first verification: the seller. Who are they? Are they who they say they are? Do they have the authority to sell? A surprising number of Nigerian property scams could be stopped at this first step – if the buyer bothered to check.

Verify the Seller

Before you look at a single document, before you visit the land, before you discuss price – verify who is selling.

This is Step 1 of your due diligence checklist, and it catches more fraud than most buyers expect. A surprising number of Nigerian property scams could be stopped here – at the seller stage – if the buyer bothered to check.

The question is simple: is this person who they say they are, and do they have the legal authority to sell this property?