TO BE AN ESTATE AGENT IS TO BE A HUSTLER..

You might look at the above title of this article and wonder how that came about? But seriously if you think about it, Estate Agents have to understand when and where there is a market and who to target. An estate Agent may show ten clients twenty properties in a week spending 30+ working hours, and not sell or let any. The job is not as financially rewarding as many may think although if you do strike it lucky you may pocket in one day what you have struggled two years to make. You have to be persistent, you have to be patient, you have to have a thick skin, to be smart, intuitive and have a hustlers mind. It is not a job for anyone who does not like “wahala” because sometimes the “wahala” knocks you on the head when you are least prepared for it.

For example, recently a fellow Estate Agent I know received a brief from his “friend” to find some office space on the Island for a US based company that wanted to set up in Lagos. The friend gave him specific details of floor plan requirements and price range. All this was done over the phone with nothing in writing. The Estate Agent set out to get all the information he could on luxury office spaces in VI, Ikoyi and Lekki. This took about a week to get all the information together. He asked his friend to instruct his company in writing, but nothing was sent. He went ahead to send his friend the information he had gathered, only for the friend to say that the company only wanted old Ikoyi. You might wonder what role the friend who was sitting back and sending the Estate Agent running all over the place would take in all this. The friend had instructed at least three other Agents without any of them being aware of the other.  The fact that nothing was put in writing should have been an indicator that this brief may not be straightforward.  The Agent went back to look for suitable properties in old Ikoyi and found four that he sent to his friend. The friend took the property list and instructed one of the other Agents to double check and shortlisted to one property which an offer was made on. The lease was accepted and signed for 5 years without the first Agent knowing. His friend pocketed the fees which came to almost half a million USD and gave the second Agent one million naira.  Meanwhile the first Agent waited to hear from his friend and when he did not hear anything after a month, rang his friend who did not take or return his calls, so he rang up the management companies of all the shortlisted properties and found out that his “friend” had closed the deal on one of them and the property was now occupied by the US company.

His “friend” will not talk to him so he is considering legal action but has been advised that there is no evidence to prove his allegations so will more likely not have a case in court. What can he do? This is the brutal world of Estate Agents that many do not see