BEGINNERS TIPS ON HOW TO START A REAL ESTATE BUSINESS IN NIGERIA

Do you have passion for real estate and want to own a real estate business?. Do you have skills required to run, maintain,
 sustain and grow the business to a competitive level with others?.


Are you ready and capable of taking risk and facing challenges that accompany real estate businesses?.

Are you ready and capable of sacrificing your time, resources, money, and manpower for the good of the business?. Do you have good implementable plans, marketing and advertising ideas and strategies that would beat your competitors and ensure success in the business?. If yes are all your answers, then this article is for you as a guild on how to start.

Starting a real estate business like every other business is not that easy. The business would require your time, capital, resources (both human and technological ) ,hard work, dedication, and patience to succeed.

In my little experience working and building friendships with some real estate professionals , I realised that where they are today is as a result of persistent adoption of these required factors that create success in the venture.

Real Estate business is one industry in Nigeria and Global that offers good financial gains based on the fact that apart from the risk, it's values never depreciate but rather appreciates. This is one of the reason many are venturing into it.

In my opinion, I categorised two groups of people that are in the real estate business. The first group are the inexperienced who have no formal education on real estate a  and have little or zero knowledge about it while some have formal education in other profession and are into the real estate business for the purpose of making money since it is a lucrative business. This group engages is selling, buying, letting and leasing of real estate which are not up to the taste and standard required of the client and get a fee for poor service delivery making the client upset and unfulfilled.

Although under this group, there are some which I have personally met and worked with who have such credible ability, ideas and strategy towards satisfying clients and get their fees at ease. This individuals have no formal education in real estate but are quick learners and learn from practical experiences on everyday home service delivery to clients. hence have a good relationship and understanding of the clients demand and the nature of property market in that city. My advice to such an individual if you are reading this is to get a formal education on real estate to equipped you for the changing trends in the future of real estate.

The second group are the experienced ones known as professionals who have attained great height in both formal education and professional practical experiences in real estate. They gives advices, ideas and suggestion to government and private sectors on how to solve problems in the real estate sector of the economy. They are estate surveyors and valuers, estate or property managers, corporate real estate managers, and real estate consultants. This group ensures that in as much as professionals fee is necessary, clients satisfaction is the priority in the business.

Now my question to you reading this who might want to start a real estate business is, which of this groups do you want to belong?. I would say choose the first group to gain recognition and value in the business.

Starting a real estate business differs from one country to another. In Nigeria, you have to understand some factors like legal,socio-economic , cultural, political that contribute to the growth of the business and the economy.

The following are the basic steps to take to start your real estate business in nigeria:

• DO PROPER RESEARCH

To start and succeed in the real estate business, you should conduct proper research on the nature of business you want to venture into. This would give you knowledge of the business to think critically, set up plans and strategy towards providing unique services to your getting and keeping your clients in continuous business relationship and to beat your competitors in the future. When a good service is delivered to a client, more referrals can be generate from that source. So try as much possible to understand the real estate market and what others are doing to succeed effectively in the business.

• PREPARE A BUSINESS PLAN AND STRATEGY.

This is simply formally writing down your proposed business goals and how to achieved them in the business. Doing this will put your business in the path of direction and focus that will attract investors and sponsors to be part of it especially when seeking funds or financial support to start. Therefore, this is imporant because I am yet to see a successful business mogul who does not have a business plan and strategy.

• HAVE A UNIQUE REAL ESTATE NICHE: 

This simply means have a unique real estate business name that is related to what you do. The advantage of this is that it will differentiate your business from others in a way giving you a brand of your own. Also when designing a website for your business,a unique real estate niche with a good search engine optimization marketing strategy gives you a plus where your website have a chance to rank first on the internet and get more leads  to your business.

• GET THE NAME OF YOUR BUSINESS REGISTERED: 

Getting your business name registered in Nigeria can be a bit cumbersome due to long procedures that are involved. But recently there was a plan which is yet to be adopted towards reducing the rigorous procedures of 6 weeks to 2weeks to get your business fully registered. This is as a result of the increase in business start ups and entrepreneurs in Nigeria.The advantage of registering your business name is mentioned in our article How to get your business registered in Nigeria that it gives your business legal recognition in the eyes of the law. An entity which is liable to sue and be sued.

Registration of business name in Nigeria is at the office of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). To do this, a fixed Sum of money would be required to be paid with availability of copies of certain document before you are issued a valid certificate with a CAC number tag to operate at ease as a business entity in Nigeria.

After registration, ensure to be a member of the association that relates to real estate to gain recognition, build a long lasting business relationship, get deals,keep up with trends in real estate through attending seminars and workshops occasioned by the association. An example of real estate association is Nigerian institution of estate surveyors and v aluers (NIESV) and Real Estate Development Association of Nigeria (REDAN).

• SECURE A STARTUP CAPITAL.

Every business requires capital and real estate businless is not an exemption because it is capital intensive and requires huge investment outlay. Therefore a loan is required which can be secured from banks that gives long term loan with little interest. I  would recommend Federal Mortgage Bank of NIgeria (FMBN). Presentation of good business plan and strategy to sponsors and investors can equally secure you a good capital for the business. By borrowing from friends and association with mutual understanding on payback terms and interest. And finally by partnership with someone who has the capital and ready to invest.

• GET AN OFFICE SPACE.

In as much as some real estate business runs their business in a virtual manner with a virtual office that has no address and not be located. It is adviseable to have an office for clients, investors and partners to locate you and your business easily and build up trust to invest in your business. Such an office should be equipped in an office setting which can either be rented or built.
[Also read:TENANTS GUIDE: What to consider before renting an office space in Nigeria].

• EMPLOY OTHER PROFESSIONALS.

For your real estate busines to progress, there should be division of labour and good teamwork . Here different professionals handle tasks in their own area of expertise with contribution that is geared towards achieving the goal of the business. So a Secretary, marketers, business development strategist, builders, architect, lawyers, land surveyors and engineers would be required for a large real estate business to function effectively.

• HAVE A BEAUTIFUL WEBSITE TO KEEP YOUR BUSINESS ONLINE

 It is important that every real estate business start-up have a reliable website. This will ensure your business is visble to large audience that seems unreachable. And this can easily get clients to reach out to you.

• CREATE YOUR CUSTOMER BASE.

 By this I simply mean increasing your real estate portfolio inorder to generate revenue to your business. And this can be achieved through concrete and implementable digital marketing plan such as use of social media, search engine optimization, direct marketing,sourcing and follow up as well as advertisement plan to reach out to prospective and interested clients that are ready to trust their investment into your hands with confident.

We sincerely hope that this post has been helpful to you in starting your own real estate business.

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