How to Become a Successful Real Estate Agent in Nigeria

Have you ever dreamt of becoming a successful real estate agent in Nigeria but found it difficult to start, maybe you think it’s gonna be a hell of a task or a non-profitable business? Well, no matter what you had in mind before you landed here, I will tell you how you can embrace and excel in the real estate market in Nigeria.

BUT let start with the most important question here;

Is Real Estate Business Really Profitable in Nigeria?

Yes, the real estate business is very profitable in Nigeria. You can make more than N1 million in a month if done rightly. This business has changed the lives of millions of people across the world for the better. Real Estate business is known to cover ⅔ of world treasure.

READ: How to Start Real Estate Business in Nigeria

If you’re thinking of becoming a real estate agent in Nigeria, you have nothing to lose. Even if the economy goes down totally, the price of the property will keep rising and that’s a profit for realtors and real estate agents.

Here is another benefit;

If you have a job like being a banker, doctor, teacher, carpenter, or student, you can still become a real estate agent. There’s no law in Nigeria that forbids engaging in a side-hustle. So, you can say becoming a real estate agent in Nigeria is a source of passive income because you don’t need to quit your job (if you have one) and who knows, real estate might become your only business in the future when you start making some pretty profits.

What Does a Real Estate Agent Do?

A real estate agent helps people to buy and sell property such as land and house. Some smart real estate agent is now engaging fully in the real estate business as they don’t want to help others to sell their properties, but they are also buying and selling.

But, how can you start in the right way and make that crazy profits? Let talk about that;

How to Become a Super-rich Real Estate Agent in Nigeria

The following are what’s needed to become a real estate agent with or without quitting your job;

1. Enroll for Real Estate Courses

This is the first step before you can ever become a successful real agent in Nigeria or anywhere in the world. But you might be thinking that this is not necessary because you see most people in your area without any formal knowledge about real estate but yet, they’re making money.

Well, I understand. But how successful are those people? They have a house and maybe a motorcycle or car. But is that the type of success you want? 

Going for rich-courses on real estate is an investment that you will never regret.

There are some FREE courses available online and also, you can go for PREMIUM or paid courses. But make sure you learn the nitty-gritty of real estate before you think of investing in the business.

After completing each course, you will be offered a certificate and this will really boost your portfolio as a real estate agent in Nigeria.

You can check out this https://schoolofestate.com/, they offer real estate programs and certifications.

2. Obtain Your Real Estate License in Nigeria

Remember I told you that I want you to become successful not ‘just rich’. The second step to achieve that success is to obtain your license.

Most self-acclaimed real estate agents in your area don’t have a license, all they have is a certificate and with that, they can’t do bigger things in the real estate market. But your dream is to conquer the real estate market in your town, city, state, and across Nigeria. Even, you want to be recognized internationally… right? If yes, you need a license that proved that you’re legit and experienced.

Nigeria’s real estate industry is regulated by The Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria. You need to be recognized by them and this will give you an opportunity to connect and learn from top bosses in the business.

If you reside in Lagos or want to deal with properties in Lagos state, you can obtain a license from the Lagos State Real Estate Transaction Development (LASRETRAD) or go here >> http://www.lasretrad.com/Licensing.aspx

3. Define Your Business Model

This is another important stage in the course of climbing the ladder of success as a real estate in Nigeria. Ask yourself, do you want to deal with buying and leasing or selling of properties only?

Or do you prefer to be a middleman, introducing customers to the property owners and you earn commission on each sale you make?

I know you’re just starting, you can start by being a ‘standard’ middleman till you are able to start buying properties.

I will explain further in steps 9 and 10… Let’s go to the next step!

4. Choose a Unique Business Name

The next big deal is to choose a name that is unique.

When choosing a unique business name, the following needs to be taken into consideration:

• The name must be catchy and easy to memory or pronounce 
• The business name must be available to be registered on the domain marketplace
• The social media usernames must be available for your business name
• The business name must not be competing with any other business name
• The real estate business name must have a call to action like “Stephen Realty” etc

You need to do your research thoroughly before you settle for a business name.

5. Register Your Business Name

If you have chosen the best business name, someone can still claim it by registering it before you. Yes, it is very possible.

The only thing you need to do is to register that unique business name before anyone does. To register a business name in Nigeria is quite simple but you don’t just jump into it without a guide.

So, here is a complete guide on how to register your business name in Nigeria.

6. Get an Office

This is necessary if you really want to position yourself as a professional real estate agent in Nigeria. You don’t need to spend money on a luxury office, for now, you can rent a shop in a good area and set it up attractively.

Later when you start making money, you can decide to rent an office in a luxury complex or maybe, build your own.

7. Join Big Real Estate Firms

Are you not confused, that I’m suggesting you join another real estate firm? Well, because you’re just starting your real estate career, you need to make some money before you can establish yourself fully (unless you have some millions of Naira to buy properties yourself).

Don’t get it wrong, you’re not working for these ‘big real estate firms’ but you’re working for your own commission but as “an affiliate” with those firms.

What I mean is this;

First, you can join many real estate firms as much as possible. And second, you make money if you help these firms sell a property and you’re paid according to a commission on whatever you help sell the property for.

Let’s say they list a property for sale at the rate of N2m and the commission for any agent that sells that property is 10%, that’s N200,000 for you. 

READ: How to Start Junk Hauling Business in Nigeria

The more expensive such listed property is, the higher your commission will be.

If you can draw a goal or plan to sell at least five properties per month, you could be making N1m naira every 30 days. Apart from the commission, you may be eligible to win a luxury car or a paid trip abroad (that’s when you reach a great milestone with that firm).

Can you see that you can definitely become a successful real estate agent in Nigeria if you know your onions?

In one of my upcoming articles, I will get you the best 10 big real estate firms that pay good commissions In Nigeria, so subscribe to my mailing list in order to get notified.

8. Buy House, Renovate & Sell

Now that you’ve been making some cash, you can thrive. I mean you can start establishing your own firm. To that, you need to start small and don’t leave the big firms you’re working with.

Look for uncompleted and abandoned buildings, find the owner and negotiate with that person, then finally buy.

Note, before you buy any building, make sure you have your lawyer guiding you in the process. And also analyze if the building is worth buying at the owner’s tagged price. Don’t forget to complete the transfer of ownership and other necessary documents.

If you don’t have enough money to buy the property, you can go to the bank for a loan, explain to them that you need it for real estate investing, and show them your license, business certificate, and other requirements.

After that, renovate the house and make sure that’s more attractive. Depending on the type of house, ensure that the water system is working and other things are in good order.

You can now decide to sell the house. If you decide to sell, calculate all the money you’ve spent and add your own to it, then sell.

Let’s say you spent about N5m, you can place the property for N12m and settle for something around N9.5 Million after negotiation.

This is getting more interesting, right?

9. Invest in Buying Lands

The land is said to be the most important natural asset in the world. Whatever we want to do, we need to do it on land. A lot of smart people are making millions of Naira by simply buying and selling land.

Because your dream is to become a successful real estate agent in Nigeria, I will advise you to heavily invest in buying lands. You can buy a plot of land for N500,000 today and in the next 6 months, that land may appreciate up to N1.5 million. 

If you want to buy land, buy from an under-developed or developing area. There are chances that you will triple the capital in a few months or years.

You can go to a farming area and buy land at a very cheap price, then leave it to appreciate it for some time.

10. Lease Properties

• For house

You can make more money leasing out properties than selling them, but it’s going to take a while before you can see all the profits. 

According to HuffPost:

If you put 20% down on a property, you will still receive rental income based on 100% of the property value, making it a great return for your 20%. Say your property is worth $100,000 and you charge $750 in rent with $500 in mortgage, taxes and fees. You have a $250 profit on $20,000 down

Let’s say you bought a 3-bedroom flat and renovated it to become 3 different “a bedroom self-contained” with N5 million.

You can choose to lease them out, depending on your area and the amenities, you can lease it for N80,000 – N150,000. If you lease for N80k, that will be N240k/year. If it’s 150k, that will be N450k/year. So, this depends on your area and the unique amenities in your house.

• For Land

If it’s land, you can lease it for the shop or kiosks owner. Let’s say you bought the land for N800,000. If the land can accommodate like 15 – 20 kiosks, you could charge them to pay 20K each and you’ll be making N300,000 to N400,000 on that land while at the same time, the land is appreciating.

11. Get a Property Listing Website

Your journey to success as a professional real estate agent in Nigeria is missing without having a property listing website.

I know you would have seen some examples of these real estate websites, either public or personal one, you see how it’s easy for people to buy or get the details of each property you have without much talk from you.

If you think this is important for you as a real estate agent, you can hire my parent digital agency. I am the owner of GbolaByte Web Solutions and we have built a lot of websites for our clients including the realtors and real estate agents, eCommerce store owners, etc.

You can hire us and we won’t disappoint you. Okay, let go to the next step;

12. Go Digital With Real Estate Marketing in Nigeria

Now. you need to combine your offline method of marketing with digital marketing. Embrace the use of Influencer marketing, social media ads, etc.

You can also use SEO (search engine optimization) to rank your website and do local citations for your business if you want to rank high in your area. For example, searching for “Website Designer in Ilesha or Osun State”, GbolaByte, my digital agency will be featured at the top in Google results. I can help you do that for a token.

Make sure to advertise all your listed properties online, in order to get more clients.

13. Help People to Sell Locally

This is one of the top 1% reasons you’re called a real estate agent. You need to build your portfolio, by helping more people to sell or lease their houses or lands.

Another way to make money locally as a real estate agent is to build loyalty and connection with people. With that, they will be able to recommend you to property owners and from there, you can be entrusted with people’s property.

You can as well reach out to property owners yourself, but make sure you always approach them with good presentation and proof that you’re the right real estate agent for their property.

14. Employ Sales Reps.

You should have started doing this for a while, but if you haven’t, it is high time you start employing sales representatives. Of course, these sales representatives are not going to be walking from house-to-house in order to help you sell, but you can allocate them in different areas across your city and your state at large.

The more effort and investment you put in, to expand your business, the more profits you’re going to make.

Conclusion: Step-By-Step Guide to Become a Successful Real Estate Agent in Nigeria

Don’t just stop, make sure you rinse and repeat all the processes, especially from step 6 to 13.

If you don’t skip a step, you’ll definitely become a successful real estate agent in Nigeria. If this blog post helps you, you can help others by sharing on social media platforms by clicking on the floating social media icons here.

You can as well subscribe to my mailing list in order to be notified when I publish content like this. Finally don’t forget to write down your comment below and I will be glad to read how helpful you found this.