A Risk Worth Taking, or a Mistake in the Making?

Life itself is a risk, and I'm sure we all can attest to that. We literally wake up each day to the uncertainty of what the next minute holds or has in store for us, yet we still move around, try our best, show up, and hope for the best. Among all the choices we make on a daily basis, there are some risks that stand tall and unforgettable, even life-changing and shaping, that can go either way. One of the most recent of such was an asset I invested in a few months ago despite not having all the necessary paperwork to attest to how safe it is to delve into such. I'm certain you'll be wondering if it was worth it in the end. Well, if you read till the last full stop, you'll find out about how it turns out.

So since I relocated back to Lagos State, I've always had the desire to erect my own house here, and to do that, one must first purchase land, get the necessary documents, and start building, but while it sounds so easy to type, the same isn't the case in reality, because you've got to be wary of the land you're buying so it won't be government acquisition land or one that has multiple family issues. Basically, to figure out if land is safe, one needs to do a survey plan and also get a certificate of occupancy for the land so you can be safe no matter what.

While I'm aware of all these and knew I needed to get those documents, I'm met with the reality of how expensive it is to get that, so I had no choice but to invest on instinct in a place already occupied by other people, with the mindset that if they didn't have to build there, then it's possibly not government-acquired land, and I won't have cause for alarm from different family members, and that's how I ended up getting one in a place where people already live, although it was quite expensive compared to a place where no one lives or has built a house yet, but in my opinion, I'm guessing it's safer.

It's actually a huge risk for me to invest millions of naira in such without some necessary findings, but as those ones like surveys and C of O also run into millions, I can't afford them for now, and I can't help but be afraid, especially because I've witnessed how some of my lecturers during my university days invested in landed property and built houses on it, only for it to be destroyed by the military after so many years, because according to them, the land belongs to them, and you can only know which land is safe when you do a survey and get the C of O.

Anyways, I spoke with some of the residents of where I got the land and was told he had a survey plan of the place and also got his COfO showing that the vicinity is safe, so for now I'm calm at the intelligence of his own findings, but then, it's my hope that it'll be safe and trouble-free, because I'd love to start work on the site and build a safe place for my family that we can call my home. Well, for now I'm in talks with some friends to find out how much it'll cost to get those two necessary documents so I can be at peace with this investment.

I understand some would say, Why not just get the land from a real estate agency, since they usually get all those documents and give one peace of mind? Well, the truth is that I've done my research on real estate and how investing with them is more like a lifetime agreement to keep paying for numerous things, from service charges to maintenance and the like, even if they fail to do any. Looking at my source of income, I'm just a teacher and don't have the financial capability to withstand what their demands might rise to be in the near future, and that's why I'm going with what I went for.

So is it worth it in the end? The truth is that for now I don't know, but I have convictions within me that it is, and I hope it truly is.

All photos are mine.