Yesterday my friend and I went on a business meeting with one of our clients. He took us to his latest acquired assets and it was a 40 years old dilapidated mansion located in one of the high brow area in Lagos state Nigeria.
As a real estate Consultant what i did was to first take a tour of the property to know why it is worth so much money apart from the fact that is located in Victoria Garden Estate(VGC) which is one of the oldest and best estates for the high networths in Lagos island. Getting to the backyard of the property I found my answer. The property is a water front property and that makes it worth every dime and penny.
It is a known fact that there are many houses like this in that estate that are abandoned years ago by the owners who are mostly living outside the country. Some of them are gracious enough to put someone in the house who will be cleaning the compound for them while others are totally abandoned and the worse is that the real owners are not ready to sell off such a huge asset. My client was very happy that the owner decided to sell and he was opportuned to add such huge asset to his portfolio.
I asked him what was in his mind when he made this investment because I want to know whether he bought the property commercial purpose or for his own use. I also reminded him that if it's for his personal use it would be a huge liability on him because apart from renovation works, he would be spending a fortune monthly on the maintenance.
Why not use it to make more money for yourself instead of it taking money from you?
He agreed with me and consented that the reason he bought it was solely for investment. The master's bathroom is so spacious just like a living room. The walk in wardrobe is mindblowing infact everything about this old house exudes old wealth and class.
There are many ways he can make money from this property and the first is to renovate this building and turn it into a top notch apartmant or airbnb. The property can take in another duplex and also be used as an apartment/ airbnb. This can generate atleast $50,000 annually.
Second he can tear down the old house and build 5 units of semi detached duplex in it and rent them out at about $12,000 each annually.
This property right here is a very expensive but good investment and I am very happy for him.