How to earn money through Real Estate as a beginner

Hey people,

It’s been a while and I thought to share my knowledge as usual. There are obviously many ways to make money on and offline and Real estate is definitely one of them. I have been doing a bit of real estate for a while and so I am talking from experience. Now we all know that real estate is one sure way of becoming a millionaire. Having the right contacts is a great way to start but what if you are totally new in the field?

For a start, you will need to equip yourself with the necessary training needed to sell real estate. The simple reason is that it would definitely be easier to sell something you are knowledgeable at. There are many ways to gain knowledge and they include online or offline trainings, seminars and webinars. For some countries you would need to get all the necessary certification and registrations before you can practice as a real estate agent. In this article, I will be shedding more light on the terms used in real estate and hopefully you can learn a thing or two before considering going into the real estate business. It’s important to note that there are two major ways you can go into real estate: you can start as a marketer which simply means you earn commissions on real estate sales. Secondly, you can start as an investor by just investing in real estate which includes buying landed property, houses and plain land and then selling or renting with the sole aim of making a return on investment. Please note that you can also market real estate while also investing. With this third method, you are bound to make a lot more money. It however doesn’t mean you cannot make a lot of money by just marketing and selling real estate. Like I mentioned earlier, knowing your product and service is important to succeed not only in the real estate business but in any business out there. Also, understanding the terminologies help you gain balance while prospecting.

Now let’s talk about plot sizes and measurements:

Plot means a portion assigned to a person or client either in full, quarter or half. Plots are measured either in square meter or feet. The standard measurements of plots of land in real estate are classified into the following:

A Master plot which is 648sqm(60ft X 120ft) or 600sqm(50ft X 100ft)

A Classic plot which is 450 sqm (45ft X 120ft)

A Basic plot which is 324 sqm (30ft X 120ft) or 300sqm (25ftX 100ft)

Title Documents and meaning

CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY(C OF O)

A Certificate of Occupancy, also known as the C of O is a document issued by state governments to landowners and property buyers as a legitimate proof of ownership. This document also spells out what the land can be used for ie residential, commercial or mixed development.

The government is constitutionally mandated to issue the Certificate of Occupancy because all lands in the state are vested in the Governor of the State. This is clearly spelt out in the Land Use Act 1978.

I will dwell more on C of O and Survey while explanations on others will be brief

Benefits of the C of O

1.It makes the person named on the document the exclusive owner of the land

2. It prevents a situation where a single property is claimed by multiple owners

3. It prevents the government from repossessing the land or property, but this is ultimately subject to the overriding control of the state government

4. It is acceptable as a security or collateral for loans from banks and other financial institutions5. *It is a widely used to resolve land disputes that arise from ownership tussle

5. It is a very crucial document during mortgage transactions

DEED OF ASSIGNMENT

This is a legal document which shows the transfer of ownership from the company to the buyer. It is an agreement between both parties showing evidence that the company has transferred the rights to the buyer

GAZZETTE

This is an official record book where all government details are spelt out, detailed and recorded.

A Gazette shows the communities or villages that have granted excision and the number of acres or hectares of land that the government has given them

GOVERNOR’S CONSENT

This is the approval that must be given by the governor of a state or his delegate in any transaction that has to do with the transfer of ownership or Interest over land or landed property in order to make the transaction valid

EXCISION

This simply means taking part from a whole and the part which has been excised will be recorded and documented in the official government gazette. This means that some parts are given to the community to sell while government takes some parts

DEED OF CONVEYANCE

A deed of conveyance is a written instrument through which the title of a property is passed from the owner of the property to the buyer.

SURVEY

This is another important title document that helps to reveal the true ownership status of any land.

It is a document that shows the boundaries and exact measurements. There are two types of survey:

Ordinary survey:

It is the blue copy of a document after charting the land.(blue copy) and it means it hasn’t been passed to the ministry

Registered survey

It is the red copy of the document after the surveyed land has been passed to the ministry of environment for approval.

A survey plan must contain the following information:

1. The name of the owner of the land being surveyed

2. The Address or description of the land being surveyed

3. The size of the land being surveyed

4. The drawn out portion of the land surveyed and mapped out on the survey plan document

5. The beacon numbers

6. The surveyor who drew up the survey plan and the date it was drawn up

7. A stamp showing the land is either free from Government acquisition or not.

 It is important to note that in a land survey, the shape or the boundaries are not defined. It could be any shape which comes with coordinates. I would also want to point that the terms and definitions are region dependent. The ones I talked about are for my area or region and can differ from region to region. Apart from understanding the and knowing your product, there is the aspect of creating awareness through one on one discussions, paid advertisements and so on which I will probably discuss in another article.

I hope you found this article useful. Feel free to drop your comments in the comment section.

Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash