The Hustle of House Hunting: My Nigerian Landlord Chronicles

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I think one of the hardest and most stressful tasks ever is to be house hunting especially in this part of the world just like job hunting which is also tedious. At times I just wish it can be easier and at some point skip certain processes, I can remember when I was in that position, I had to move from my previous house after staying there for about 3years and it was kind of boring to me and I started having landlord issues who wouldn't fix or renovate the house but he was ready to increase the house rent because other landlords were doing the same thing. At least, before deciding to increase the rent, do something tangible and beneficial to the house but no he just wanted to keep eating the money since he owns the house and his lawyer wasn't helping with matters.

I decided to move to another town entirely with the hope of getting a house through my friend's agent so the stress could be reduced but the agent couldn't secure an apartment for me, instead he referred me to other agents which turned out to be big mistake. From collecting a registration form to moving from house to house. They asked for my budget, the kind of house I wanted but decided to give me the opposite, they knew the game they were playing, they always tried to give you old houses that didn't suit your taste just to keep extorting from you. The shocking part was that, one agent would have several agents behind him and whatever you are giving that agent, he will be sharing it with other agents.

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Apart from the agent, the landlords, landladies or caretakers are also another problem. I got to a particular house, it was manageable though and I said Ok to the agent until we met the landlady and she started asking questions, the house rent including the total package was really high, she told the agent while I was there that "I told you I don't want a yahoo guy in this house" and I asked myself silently, you don't want a yahoo boy, but your house rent is this high, how will a salary earner even be able to afford the house comfortable, after the agent cleared her doubts, she started asking different questions as if I came for an interview are you married, what do you do, do you have friends, you need to be home before 8pm, no friends, no different girls in the house etc. I just laughed and after we left, I told the agent NO.

When I want to select an apartment, there are things I do look out for apart from the obvious things which are distance to the main road, stable and clear water, security, how conducive the place is, friendly neighbour, I always make sure I check how stable the area electricity is, if the current is low or too high, Network testing is also important because as a gamer, I need a good network to run different stuff especially for streaming movies and the important part is if the landlord/landlady stay in the compound. I must say these people are really troublesome and don't always mind their business, it is really rare to see one that is kind and won't interfere in your business. I have a friend, his landlady is like a thorn in his flesh, after giving him different rules, it is mandatory to greet her if you come out of your room, you are going out or come back home etc, if you see her and you don't greet even through her window, there will be problem or she will be keeping malice with you, Currently in his landlady blacklist.