7 Reasons Your Property Investments Takes Very Long Time To Sell or Rent Out

7 Reasons your house takes a very long time to sell or to rent in Owerri Imo State.

But why would you develop a Block of Flats, Bungalows or Duplex in Owerri For Rentals and it takes a lot of time to get Tenants renting it?

Well, In this article we shall touch almost every angle of these problems with facts and examples without managing words. So, relax and read.

1. Location:- The Location you build your property investment in Owerri is actually one of the major factor for you not getting tenants in your property, It is true people are different and and an area Mr. A doesn’t like, Mr. B will like.

but building a house in the center of a bush without putting high level security measures and in an area that seems unsafe might take you so much time to rent out, see an example bellow

That beautiful property is standing tall up there on its own surrounded by bushes and uncompleted buildings. there is no doubt in the next two year that area will be looking different but for the next one year the Owner has to be patient as he wont get tenants as fast as he expected.

Some landlords also need to consider accessibility when building, build where there is fairly good roads as no one wants to rent a house where the roads are like a mini lagoon.

I understand some of you abroad never knew where your property is is that bad as you just sent money to trusted persons to buy Land for you, and also sent money to build the project for you which is why you should always work with a reputable sincere Real-estate Consultants like MC CAPITAL Properties who will open up facts as a Property Investment Advisor and advice you on the Best places to buy property and to invest in Owerri Imo State.

 

2) Price:-  Some landlords fix exaggerated prices on their properties you wonder what they have in there, only to get disappointed when you go inside and see it doesn’t even meet the basic stands of a house that worth’s half the price they are asking for.

In this case you see a property sitting in the market while newly built ones all around it keeps renting out even before being completed. putting your property within market price is very important to help speed up your rent.

Imagine the property with the photo above and you are putting a rental price that is above the average rental value for the area where the property is located, that is the reason your property will remain for a longer time in the market.

Don’t forget that the earlier you rent it out the better, imagine you calculate your rents by days, how much will you lose keeping your property vacant for months?

 

3) Finishing:-  Some landlords have the most horrible finishing on their properties and yet want to get a high rent off it.

We understand most cases you guys abroad send the money for a very standard houses but the fault is some greedy engineers or relatives whom you send good money to handle your project with best quality materials but they end up buying way cheap materials and build crap houses for you, and you be giving your rental price bases on what you believe you spent.

Another fact is, some landlords developments are disappointing, when you build a house without kitchen cabinet or wardrobes, or you have your shower standing right on top the toilet sitter in some narrow bathroom with no water heaters, yet you are expecting fast rents.

Some landlords even tend to be picky, and selective of tenants they want in such low standard houses/apartments, which is still ok, but you forget that tenants are also very selective and picky of not moving into a crap house where they have to start upgrading and building or hitting walls to install wardrobes and kitchen cabinets, or even have to buy their own water heaters to install.

Let me ask you Mr. Landlord & Landlady, can you live in such a house? if No, then why not build for your tenants, at least the basic kind of house you can live in?

Some landlord’s houses are built so cheaply in this 20th century they can’t even make the ceiling and paints look nice.

Who builds with Ceiling Board again in this modern age? and still expects fast tenants? people left this for PVC way back in the 90s though, so what’s it still doing in the 2020s ?

You don’t have funds for POP? It’s fine, but at least put in a nice PVC, nice paintings and nice lights, remove old Kpako (local wooded door) doors if you want fast rentals and a good rental price in rent.  but you cant expect the same rental price as a house with good POP.

 

4) Engineers, Family Member, Caretaker, Security Man:  This part must sound like a shocker to you right? But I’ll break it down.

4a) Engineers; most building Engineers, after building a house they take advantage of that work and begin to charge commission from Agents.

Then this compels the Real-estate Agent to increase the Agency Commission to double its standard rate of 10%.meaning the Prospective Tenant has to cough out 20% commission (against 10%) which would be 200k for a house renting for 1 million. so on this platform, the Engineer takes a whopping 100k for doing absolutely Nothing, then the Real-estate Agents (many as they might be) are left to argue and drag over 10% commission of which doesn’t matter if they are 7 of them involved, they’ll all have to share 100k while the engineer celebrates with 100k.For this reason, very few clients will be willing to pay for such property, and the rental will drag for long while the landlord is losing money daily.

 

4b) Caretaker; The Caretaker does exactly the same as the Engineer.
The two can lock up the full building restricting any access for clients to inspect if the Agents don’t bow to their rules of Commission sharing.

Well, what do they care? After all, the Landlord doesn’t know what is going on.
And in some cases, the property becomes an object to defraud people of their money.

This issues like some family members goes the same as engineers and caretakers they  also contribute their quarter in their way of sharing agency fees which makes most Agents either refuse to show their clients their property or they double the agency commission which scares clients away.

In such cases, the more worried person is the Agent, just as I drive around Owerri having such experiences and seeing so many nearly completed Blocks of flats on a halt and I feel so worried, but some of you your brother or sister or mother or father or relatives doesn’t care about the house but what they want from it and from you.

4c) Security Man; I will start with my personal experience,
Some time ago, I took my clients for a house viewing at World Bank by High-count Road near Federal Secretariat New Owerri, the house was a Twin 4 Bedroom Semi detached duplex put on rent for 2.5 million Naira.

I met the security guy or caretaker (who was occupying one of the big bedrooms in the Duplex) and I told him I am here with the husband and wife who want to view the house for rent, to my shocker, the Security-man refused to open the house for us. he insisted that we must pay him 2,000 Naira before we can go in.

I asked if the Owner knew about this but he said he doesn’t care.
there was a primary agent whom i later found out was also the Engineer, but Sadly, when I called the Engineer/Caretaker he said we have to give the security 2k,
and I asked what if we don’t have? He said then we have to leave the inspection till anytime we have 2k we can come back.

It happened that they were both in on it and shared what ever money that came out. by the way, why would anyone think a security who comfortably occupies a master bedroom of a 4 bedroom duplex will want the house rented out? think about it.Sadly again, this is someone’s hard earned money put in as an investment and people she/he thinks are helping to get it rented are busy holding the investment/business down.

In Owerri, it is almost a normal thing for security men to lock an Agent and their clients outside while he demands money for access, vehemently refusing to open or else the money is paid to him. they cares nothing about your investment but only cares about his pocket.

The strange thing is, he is given the security house to live in for free and he is paid monthly salary.
And for the caretaker, some probably are given a full apartment to live for free by the Landlord and this is how they pay him back by putting their selfish interests first.

4d) Family Members: Almost same pattern with the above but slightly different and classy in there own ways.
The thing is, if your block of flats are property is 90% completed, and you have a relative living in one of the flats, you most probably will have a big problem renting that property out.

The reason is because that family member who is living for free wants to be the only one occupying the entire building for as long as they can. they gotten so used to being alone enjoying a massive compound of 6 units of 3 bedroom flats that they don’t feel any tenant should pay and move in and begin to re-organize thing as anyone who pays for rent should.

But I will tell you for free that the moment you hand your uncompleted property to someone in the name of caretaker to occupy, be it a block of 20 Flats or 5 units of Duplex’s, you are on a very long road to making a dime out of it. it will really take a while and might not end well for either you or them. I see it always.

One of the things I do when I work/scout for new properties is to visit nearly completed block of Flats or Houses to check how I can reach the Landlords and encourage them to finish developing their property, and assure them we shall get it rented out for them and they’ll smile happy with their Returns on Investment. everyone smiles when they get something out there investment, don’t they?

Now, I have been to so many of such near to finish houses and I hit the rock when it’s a family member or a so called caretaker occupying a place there.

The more I try to appeal to them to link me to the owner of such pinned-down property investment, the more they raise numerous hilarious excuses (that is if they don’t get upset and walk out on me like some do) why the house is still vacant or incomplete. they actually see me as an enemy of there peace and comfort. 85% of such houses the landlords base abroad so its very easy for them to frame lies or to manipulate him to slow down that he will waste money and wont get tenants.

So some of them tell me the Landlord is not in a hurry to rent, and i am like “oh, if so then why build it up to 90% completion if he is not in a hurry? Like, who isn’t in a hurry to get a return on their investment?

Some say they Landlord doesn’t want to rent at all. and I am right there looking at a fine block of 10 units of 3 bedroom flats like WAAAAAWW!!  So, who builds a block of 10 units of 3 bedroom flats and wants to live in them all?

Some of them even rent out the uncompleted flats for cheap without the Owners knowledge and use the yearly rental money to enjoy life.
While some go as far as discouraging the Landlord from renting at all while they living there RENT FREE.

The truth is, an 80% completed block of flats can be rented and finished up in less than a month.

If your property looks great there are some people are willing to put a down payment for you to use and finish up there choiced unit then they pay you complete cash once it is ready.

on the other hand, do you also know some Banks can give you loan to finish the property and you pay them back when you rent them out?
So, which is better? burry your investment (vacant) for over 5 years or you get a bank to help you finish it and you pay back for a short while with the rental income?
You chose!!

 

5) Some Lawyers:- I have met lots of wonderfully good Lawyers and I’ve met few greedy ones.
An honorable man like Bar. Nelson (I won’t mention his full name) whose office is in Owerri is an amazing respectable lawyer with integrity on the aspect of dealing with property agents.

He gives you the breakdown and doesn’t mention the agency fee because he knows a laborer deserves his wages. and any property he has hardly spends up to 2 weeks vacant.

Another respectable Lawyer is one in the person of Bar. Nwanchukwu (I won’t mention his full name) is another great person of integrity in dealing with Brokers.

He Has no such time to talk about your agent’s commission. there are lot host of them in Owerri i have met, amazing honorable men and women here. just a few greedy ones who makes people think otherwise.

Lawyers like the above two good lawyers mentioned are one I can refer clients to or advice landlords to hand there properties over to with confidence because those are the kind of lawyers the real-estate Brokers always rush to work on their properties.

Some lawyers are the reason most houses stay Vacant for a long time in Owerri, mostly the houses whose landlords base abroad leaving the lawyers to sit on it as Alfa & Omega which gives some the leverage to Triple the Agreement Fees.

Meaning if a property costs 2 million Naira, instead of demanding the standard 5% Agreement Fee, they don’t just demand 10% of it (which is actually double the standard charge) but they demand 20% fee on 2 million Naira which is 400k.

And which Tenant will want to pay an amount that can be used to rent a 1-bedroom flat in Owerri Town as Agreement fee? That is one part of the problem.

Then you have some Lawyers who wants to take 5% of the Real-estate Agents Commission in the guise that they are Agents too or they have to pay there staff Agents Fee for doing just NOTHING.

It is ok to clearly NOTE that Rea-estate Agents do NOT take their clients to check properties that have such lawyers who want to take half of the Agents commission. no they don’t.

The Agents will rather de-market the property, give it bad name, bad image, share the information in there many Social Media and WhatsApp Groups, they will tell so many other Real-estate Agents about that Lawyer and such a property and all the Real-estate Agents will hands off leaving your property to the lawyer who can’t go into the streets himself to get clients who will pay you rent for your investment, and 1 – 2 years down the line your beautiful well built property is redundant, growing moot, termites and decaying from lack of tenants and you not getting any tangible reasons why.

I have seen this Firsthand on a block of 6 units of 3 Bedroom Bungalows that stayed Vacant for 1 year and 4 months until I was able to get hold of the Landlord and told him what his is really going on which he was totally unaware of, so upset he took the property away from that lawyer and handed it to one Bar. Chime who was upright and amazing, and within one 2 weeks the information spread out to the whole Agents group and the Next week all 6 units of Bungalows were all rented out supper fast.

So a property that stayed vacant for one year and 4 months got rented out in 3 weeks. which means the profession was not the problem but the handler was.

There are always people who have your interest at heart and there are those who have there own personal interest at heart.

The above cases are very rampant in Owerri and one of the major reason is because most Landlords base abroad so they hand there investments in good fate over to a lawyer. caretaker, engineer or family member and this makes most of them feel they have like full ownership to do as they please with it, caring less about the need or the condition of the property owner who built a house for investment.

FYI: No one cares much about your investment than you do. To some out there it’s just an opportunity for them to make money for themselves.

still giving you some reasons your property takes a longer time to rent out in Owerri Imo State,

 

Meanwhile, here is an example of what goes down with someone property in Owerri,
bellow was a 2-bedroom apartment, and the rent was 900k.
The agency fee was 90k
The caution fee was 100k
But the Agreement fee was 200k.  See screenshot bellow: 

And my question to the above was, WHY is the Agreement fee this ridiculously expensive?

the fee is 22% of the rent. just enough to rent a studio or 1 bedroom apartment in Owerri and you want a prospective tenant to cough that out such high agreement?

I could bet any amount that the owner of that property investment is based abroad and doesn’t even know what’s going on, which is why the lawyer can play with his investment and try to enrich himself with it.

It is no news to me that some landlords are desperately in need of there rental income money for something personal, for family concerns, but who cares? someone in-charge says let me make some money off this opportunity. while keeping the investor in a long deem hope.

Another lawyer once told me she manages a property which I contacted her for, so she is entitled to take half (50%) of our commission.

So I asked if she knows the difference between “management fee and agency commission?”  She either wanted to make some good chunk money from both ends or she didn’t know the landlord has to pay management fee (which is 5% of the rent) for managing a property, and there is a lot of work involved which can’t be handled by a practicing Lawyer which is the reason there are companies who focus solely on “Property Management”. Sometimes a Real-estate company like MC CAPITAL Properties can do same as well.

Similar to the above but even more funny was a lawyer who said my client will pay a service charge of 150k (after paying the usual rent, agreement, caution, agency fees) and also pay a management fee or 100k.
So I ask also what is a Tenant paying you management fee for? he doesn’t own the property you are managing so why does he have to pay you for managing a property that isn’t his?
happened he just wanted to make some extra bucs to the detriment of the patiently waiting investor. Anyway, the full block of property sat vacant another 6 months until the Landlord woke up from his slumber and changed to very good Lawyer who slashed off all unnecessary charges and it was rented out.

We currently managed this property at New Owerri, a block of 9 Flats

With our banner shining right on top of it

6) Landlords:-  Some landlords are so greedy they’ll ask the client to pay the Agency commission to them or demand to take half the commission which we totally object to.

I have negotiated on getting tenants for a landlord who’s block of flats had been vacant for over 6 months, then he said my client must pay him commission, but I asked, “Sir are you an Agent?” No, he said.  

So, if my client pays you commission how do I get paid? Or do you think I work for a “THANK YOU?” 

Surprisingly he said my client can pay me also my commission. And my question was “why does my client have to pay two Commission for one apartment?” I worked for my client, but You did nothing for them so why are you demanding Agency fee? Are you not supposed to pay me a fee for getting you a client too? In a sane country yes, you pay an Agent for services they render to you.  

And after a while he sent me the text in the screenshot below

 

The above text made no sense to me till date.

Firstly, the Apartment was put up for 1.2 million Naira, which means the Agents commission should be 10% of the rent which is 120k. 

Secondly, a landlord has no right to decide what the Agent demands as Agency Commission so long as the charge isn’t above the standard 10% that should be charged. which also means, the Agent can decide to offer free service and take no commission if he or she feels they don’t need the money or if the client is a friend or relative.

Thirdly, You are not even supposed to mention Agency fees because firstly again, you are not the one paying the Agents’ fee. Secondly again, you are not the one who rendered the service. 

If you have right to speak on any fee at all, it’s the 5% Fee you Landlords are required to pay to an Agent (it is to be 5% from Landlord and 5% from Tenant making 10%) for rendering services to you, but you don’t to pay (mostly in Nigeria) and won’t talk about it.

Another time you can speak about the Agency fee is when the Agent goes out of hand to charge above the standard 10% commission (which affects the speedy rental of your property) like some do, then the Landlord can come in and say “Heyy! No man, not on my property will you Real-estate Agent go greedy and demand above standards from my prospective tenants”. He is right to do that.

Another time is when the tenant tries to play a smart one by not paying the Agent there commission, the Landlord intervenes and make sure the tenant pays all he owes, because if he doesn’t act at that time, the tenant could end up doing the same to him as the landlord when his rent is due.

 

In the Real-estate Agents Community, We also have some Agents who for greedy reasons and some reasons beyond there control tend to double the Agency Fees in Owerri which is unethical and unprofessional, 

I site examples like this bellow from one of the Agents groups 

 

And you might be impressed to see that so many Real-estate Agents are totally against such practice as you can see someone rebuked such in the response bellow  

 

Then we came in and objected to the high commission demand and stated some reasons that might be, which I also mentioned in this article about engineers, caretakers or some lawyers. 

My response was this below  

 

To reiterate my stand, for the Real-estate Agents, 10% is the standard fee. Or else for commercial properties then it could go above 10% or the Agents fee can go according to how many years rent the tenant is paying for, which is mostly applicable to Commercial Property Lease.

Example, if a company is renting a commercial property and wants to pay 3 years lease, then Agency Fee can be 10% of the total rental amount, i.e. 10% of what is paid for the 3 years and this is also open for negotiations. 

  

7). Some Real-estate Companies:-  The standard Commission sharing formula between two Agencies is 50% / 50%. 

But sadly, there are about two Real-estate companies here in Owerri that insist they must take a whopping 7.5% out of 10% total commission when an external agent brings his/her client to any property they are handling.  

So, the Agent brings a tenant, and he is given 2.5% while this Real-estate company takes a ridiculous 7.5%.  

That is, they get 7.5% for just sitting in the office while the Agent who does all the job gets a chicken fees of 2.5%.  

So, if the commission is 400k, this company takes 300k and leaves the external Agent with 100k after all the work s/he did. 

Well, unfortunately I feel sorry for most landlords who hand there properties over to such Real-estate Companies because their property is in for a long stay in the market as most of these companies don’t do aggressive marketing and their Agents don’t go out to source for clients, reason being that they live on basic salary.

But the external agent lives on Commission, and it is either he makes a deal to get commission or he will starve, so he or she must be on the move 247 searching for clients to supply to properties.  

The reality here is, taking 75% for doing not much isn’t acceptable to the hustling real-estate Agents so they simply won’t take their clients to show such properties. And this makes the landlords property sit vacant for a long time in the market until some house hunter mistakenly finds i maybe 1 0r 2 years later after you have lost millions from it being vacant.

Otherwise, it has to be a hardworking Agent who finds the property and brings his client while they sit in office waiting to grab a whooping 75% of his money. No that’s outrageous and greedy. 

The question now is, which Agent will want to work for pennies? We Won’t. Many won’t. 

This is why when you hand some Real-estate companies your property it takes them ages to get it rented out because while they sit in the office waiting for the clients to located that hidden property which is mostly impossible, the Agents who are supposed to bring them the clients will refuse to work with them for the reasons stated above

 

So what should the Landlords based Abroad (or even in Nigeria) do to solve this great concern?

You can look up good real-estate companies with strong property advertising and marketing presence online and reach out to them, tell them about your property.

Its ok if you have a lawyer or caretaker or engineer in-charge, all you need do is put us in contact with that person, and from that point your property rental problem is 85% solved, because this will send a message to whomever is claiming control that they don’t have such exclusive powers anymore to play around with your investment.

And as we always say, that a Real-estate company like MC CAPITAL Properties we don’t just sit, we go all the way-out grabbing clients from all angles to make sure the landlords get a quick money back on their investments. We have loads of clients requests in our CRM and database poking us daily for what properties we have for them,

We are very liberal and cooperative as we work with other agents and sometimes we even give external agents 60% commission, which motivates them even harder to get there clients over to us for speedy rentals of our properties. marketing your property to other agents to get it all rented in even less than a week or two, so long as it’s within market price and you put up a nice development with good finishing. 

Other Agents are happy to work with us, no long protocols, just money in money out, Landlord Happy, Agents Happy, Tenant Happy, Everyone Happy. 

And the most of all is our marketing. Real-estate is 80% marketing, and we have that, we are probably one of the best if not the best in Owerri. 

You want to find out?
Just Google “MC CAPITAL Properties” and see for yourself how we are all over the internet.  We Grounded.

We are on almost all known Paid Real-estate Marketing and Advertising Portals in Nigeria, not even cheap ones.
We run quality video ads and promo for your property as you can find us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X-a and co.
This tells you we spend a lot of our own money and time to give your property the best exposure ever and get you the fastest and expected customers for that PROPERTY YOU WANT TO RENT or SELL.

We get the job done 

I mean, you built a house to make money not to keep it in storage, right?  

So, let’s help you make that money today.