Buying Guide
Inspecting a Lagos duplex: the walk that saves you millions
Two hours, a torch, and a willingness to be impolite
Most viewings are conducted like social visits. You are shown the kitchen, you admire the kitchen, you leave. A proper inspection takes two hours and requires you to open cupboards, lift covers and ask questions the agent would rather you did not.
Start outside and underneath
Walk the perimeter. Look at the ground level against the damp course, and at where rainwater lands.
Open the septic and soakaway covers. Ask when it was last emptied.
Look at the roof from the compound and from a neighbour's upper window if you can.
Check the borehole: depth, pump age, and whether the water is treated.
Then the services
The distribution board tells you most of what you need to know about the electrical installation. Unlabelled circuits, mixed cable colours, and evidence of repeated modification all point the same direction. Run the generator. Switch the changeover. Watch what happens to the lights.
In a resale duplex the roof, the plumbing stack and the electrical installation are where the real money is. Everything else is decoration.
Finally the finishes
Only once the expensive systems check out is it worth caring about tiles and paint. Doing it in the other order is how buyers fall in love with a kitchen in a house that needs rewiring.
Bring the right people
For anything above a certain value, a builder and an electrician for a couple of hours is trivially cheap against the purchase price, and they will see in ten minutes what you would miss entirely. Go back a second time, alone, and just stand in the rooms.