•Real Estate Expert, Coach SPARK OVADJE Reveals
Spark Ovadje is a certified real estate coach, a certified business coach, and a renowned pubic speaker who has impacted over 10 million lives positively. He is currently rated among the top 5 real estate coaches in Africa and he is a member of several professional bodies in 9 countries. He is the MD of Coach Spark Consulting Inter.
In 2021, he bagged the award of Most Enterprising Realtor Coach of the Year and Most Influential Real Estate Coach 2021.
He also won the Most Active Real Estate Coach of the Year 2022 and the Most Influential Real Estate Coach in Nigeria 2022. He has won cars, lands, and vacation trips from real estate companies in Nigeria.
He was also involved in some extra curricular trainings and workshops for teachers in Lagos State and has engaged in several community development programmes for youths, market women and business men in Mosques and Churches.
He has trained over 7,000 youths, free of charge on skill acquisitions such as ICT, Secretarial Computing, Desktop Publishing, Information Technology, Autocad for young architects, Computer Graphics, Computer Engineering, Blogging, Vlogging and Video Marketing, Digital Marketing, Computer Networking, Business Management, Be Your Own Boss Entrepreneurial Workshop and other vocational trainings.
Coach Spark Ovadje was recently on an Instagram Live chat where he talked about what Realtors need to know about acquiring land without stress in Lagos. Enjoy it!
What is freehold?
The truth is, land titles are becoming very critical lately. We also found out that there are so many things going on out there that are not genuine. There are many freehold titles that you are hearing about and they end up not being genuine.
What does freehold title mean?
When we say the land is freehold, is it that the land is free from government encumbrances or what? However; there is a mandate that says you need to go and apply for something. Because, if you apply for nothing, you cannot hold it. So, it is free from all government encumbrances but you can hold it by perfecting it. So, all freehold properties need perfection and the rest. If any company is telling you they have freehold properties, if they did not go and do registered survey, or perfect what we call C of O, they will definitely have issue with that property tomorrow. It’s like a man who is interested in a woman, he is in love with the woman but never asks her out or tells her what he really wants, either friendship or marriage. One day, the lady will present to him her wedding invitation. It is the same thing with freehold properties. It may be free now but it will not be free if it’s not held by application.
There are some documents that are imported when it comes to that. If you are buying freehold from the community, you have to carry the government along, ensuring the portion you are buying from that piece of land is registered in your name or there is a deed of assignment that transfers the portion that is sold to you legally. Many people also carry Deed of Conveyance thinking that it is Deed of Assignment, they are not the same. Deed of Assignment is different from Deed of Conveyance. Deed of Conveyance is more like an unregistered Deed of Assignment. You can imagine someone now saying he has Deed of Assignment whereas what you have is property stamped by the government.
Can an exhibition be revoked by the government?
When an exhibition is granted most times, it’s given and there are terms and conditions. It’s not supposed to be revoked.
If there is any issue, they can sit and resolve it amicably, not that it will be revoked.
What are the land titles one should go for when selling a land?
One very sensitive part is the registered survey. I know lots of companies that say they have lands here and they have C of O. I have seen people that have Deed of Assignment and it’s showing that they own that portion but they have not done anything there. As a realtor, the No 1 thing you look out for is their Deed of Assignment, that shows the proper transaction and transfer of ownership. Then, you need to check the big survey of the community to know if they actually own it too; because you cannot transfer what you don’t own.
You can’t give what you don’t have. Apart from the survey and Deed of Assignment, you must also understand the plan of the company for the future. Not many companies are ready to develop, they only claim the name development. They need to have a structure and layout. If there is no plan, then we can’t find the future with them.
