12/08/2026
**LAGOS STATE REAL ESTATE INSIDER — EPISODE 3**
This is again from the Lagos State Real Estate Insider.
This is the third episode, and in this episode, we want to talk about some of the factors that can make a real estate transaction go south, especially when dealing with our clients and prospects living abroad our diaspora clients.
The thing is, because they live abroad, they often want a second opinion. They have been away from the country for a long time, and naturally, they have people back home they trust and can rely on.
So, you hear things like, “I want to involve my lawyer.”
“Let me ask my brother.”
“Let me ask my cousin.”
“Let me send a friend to inspect the property for me.”*
But in some cases, this can actually work against the transaction.
Why?
Because the person they send may not always have a genuine interest in representing them in the way they should.
Let me share some of my real-life experiences from the field.
In one situation, a client sent a lawyer to inspect a property on their behalf.
Now, the lawyer had his own interest.
Apart from the legal fee the client was paying him, he was also interested in the agency fee. So, if you are the realtor or agent representing the owner of the property, and the lawyer comes in making financial demands and you are not willing to give him something he can actually spoil the deal.
He can go back to the client and discourage them from buying simply because he was not included in the sharing formula.
That is one scenario I have personally experienced.
Another situation is when a client abroad sends a childhood friend who has been living in Nigeria for many years to inspect a property.
The friend discovers that his friend abroad is interested in buying a property, and instead of objectively inspecting the property, he starts discouraging the client from buying it.
Why?
Because he has his own property that he wants to introduce one he believes he can make money from.
So, the original agent gets cut out of the transaction.
I have experienced another situation that really stood out to me.
The client was extremely interested in a property and had already sent her lawyer to inspect it. She was even preparing her draft payment.
But the lawyer lived in **Ikoyi**, where this particular property was located. It was a very high-net-worth property.
Now, because this lawyer lived in Ikoyi, he had been passing that property almost every day. Yet he didn't know that the property was for sale.
An outsider someone who didn't live in Ikoyi had introduced the property to the client.
The client was interested, and suddenly, this lawyer felt uncomfortable that someone from outside his neighbourhood had come into his area and was selling a property to his client.
So, he discouraged the client from buying it.
And he went as far as telling the client:
“If you are going to buy this property, my hands are off the deal.”
And that is where things can go wrong.
This is why, especially for diaspora clients, you have to be very careful about who you send to represent you when buying property back home.
