Red Flags of Fake Agents in Lagos (Why You Should Never Pay Before Viewing)

House hunting in Lagos can be incredibly stressful, but desperation is exactly what fake agents prey upon. To protect your hard-earned money, you must learn to identify the red flags of a real estate scammer before you part with a single kobo.

Red Flag #1: The Inspection Fee Demand

If an agent tells you, “Pay ₦5,000 for the form and ₦10,000 for inspection before I take you there,” walk away immediately.

Legitimate agents earn their income through agency commissions after a successful transaction. Fake agents, however, make their living by collecting “inspection fees” from 50 different people for a property they don’t even have the keys to.

Red Flag #2: Extreme Urgency

Scammers use high-pressure tactics to bypass your critical thinking. They will tell you:

• “Five other people are coming to pay for this flat in an hour.”
• “The landlord is traveling tonight, pay the deposit now.”

A legitimate agent will allow you time to conduct a proper search, verify the documents, and read the tenancy agreement. If you are being rushed to transfer funds blindly, it is almost certainly a scam.

Red Flag #3: Refusal to Disclose the Exact Location

If an agent refuses to give you the exact street name or landmark for the property until you meet them, be highly suspicious. They often do this because the property is a “phantom” listing stolen from the internet, and they don’t want you going there independently to discover the truth.

Red Flag #4: No Traceable Office

If an agent insists on meeting you at a bus stop, a fast-food restaurant, or outside the property itself, and cannot provide a verifiable office address, you are dealing with a ghost. If they run away with your money, you will have nowhere to trace them.

The MyEasyAgent Promise

We created MyEasyAgent because we were tired of seeing honest Lagosians lose their savings to these exact red flags.

We enforce a strict Verified Before Payment standard. You will never encounter a fake agent demanding inspection fees on our platform because every professional here has been rigorously vetted and verified. We hold ourselves and our agents to the strictest standards so you can rent with total peace of mind.