Every diaspora buyer who has lost money on Nigerian real estate can usually point to a moment, in hindsight, where something felt slightly off and they proceeded anyway. Distance makes it easy to override that instinct, because you can’t verify things the way you would if you were standing on the land yourself. So instead of instinct, use a checklist. Here are the patterns worth taking seriously.
Urgency that doesn’t match the price. “This offer expires in 48 hours” is a sales tactic before it is a market reality. Genuine scarcity exists, but legitimate sellers rarely need to manufacture panic to move a property that’s fairly priced and properly documented.
Reluctance to share documents before payment. If a seller or developer wants a deposit before you’ve seen the title documents, or delays sending them repeatedly with vague excuses, treat that as a direct answer to the question of whether the paperwork will hold up.
Prices significantly below comparable properties nearby. A deal that looks too good relative to everything else in the corridor usually has a reason, and the reason is rarely in your favor. It might be a title issue, a family dispute, or land that’s earmarked for government acquisition.
Payment requested to a personal account. Legitimate developers and agencies transact through corporate accounts tied to a registered business. A request to pay a “personal account for now, we’ll sort the paperwork after” is one of the clearest signals to walk away.
No verifiable project history. For off-plan purchases especially, a developer with no traceable record of completed projects is asking you to fund their learning curve with your capital. Ask for names of completed developments you can independently verify existed and were delivered.
Vague answers about the exit. If nobody can give you a straight answer about resale demand, rental yield, or how liquid the asset actually is, that’s often because the honest answer is unflattering.
Everything moving through one person. Legitimate transactions involve a solicitor, a surveyor, the Land Registry, and often an independent valuer, each acting as a check on the others. If one agent or one contact is positioned as your only source of information and your only path forward, you have no independent verification of anything they’re telling you.
None of these signals are proof of fraud on their own. But when two or three show up in the same deal, that’s not a coincidence you should ignore. Due diligence exists precisely for the moments when a deal looks good enough that you’re tempted to skip it.
