You decided to spoil yourself with your dream house one day. This house is to be buried in fantastic designs soaked in the most sophisticated artistry your mind could birth. The air of luck and success have united to visit your destiny. Your pocket and, perhaps, bank account have been fattened enough to start something. Elated, wouldn’t you? Now, where do you start from? Buy Land! Follow me for a few seconds as we dive into a simplified way to buy land and secure not just your money but your peace. I will try as much as I can to tailor this article around the laws of Ghana in plain and layman’s terms in order not to create confusion. I will not mention any law, just be calm.
When buying land, one thing you should recite on your lip, mind and heart is VIGILANCE. There are lots of land sellers out there. Among these sellers are
- those who own no lands,
- those who have no right to sell and
- those who, though had lands to sell, have already sold their lands or parts of them and have none to sell to you at all.
It will interest you to know that all these categories of sellers are willing at any given day and time to sell you lands. People have bought lands on papers in Accra only to later learn the land is in a village elsewhere. Sometimes, the lands you see on the land titles you will be shown, when surveyors take proper coordinates on the ground, are actually on the sea. Funny as it may sound, this can happen.
Do not hesitate to ask as many questions as possible to satisfy yourself whether or not what you seek to buy exists and is actually owned by the person who is offering it to you. By all means, ask of those who live and own lands around the place and from whom they bought their land. Make further enquiry who actually owns the land in question. You must try as much as possible to inquire as to who frequently visited the land and why. It is by information from those living in and around the location of the land that you can take a further step on the acquisition of any land.
You must note also that the location of the land in question is highly relevant in this approach. A land in a prime location must be purchased with extra caution and vigilance. A purchaser of a land in East Legon or Airport Residential Area in Accra must not conduct the transaction in a manner akin to a land purchaser in Bodwease. The reasons for this are two. Firstly, the quantum of money you risk losing must invoke your mind and attention beyond “It is a good land, I like it.”. Over there, we are dealing in lands the price of which can build mansions elsewhere.
Secondly, it is easier to ascertain the true ownership of those lands as they mostly fall within places where a simple check at the Lands Commission can and often does offer leads as to who has the authority and ownership to sell a piece of land. For this reason, do not buy any land, especially within a prime area without asking for documentary proof. Thereafter, allow professionals such as surveyors and lawyers to verify the authenticity of the documents as well the truth in the information contained in it. A good document has relevant information enough to assist a professional to do this.
Finally, do the final but very important requirement of physical due diligence. This stage involves the physical inspection of the property. Do not take the story of the seller as final no matter how honest they appear. There is this proverb in the Akan language that translates as “He who has been bitten by a snake fears even worms”.
It is better to be more careful than unnecessarily confident, which might metamorphose into gullibility. Do not wait to be bitten by a snake before you fear worms.
Be put on alert by any physical unnatural structure or item you see on the land. Be it cement blocks, iron rods, foundations of buildings, temporary structures and even farm crops. You should know that it is not in the nature of lands to grow cement blocks or foundations of buildings. Again, you should know that it is even not in the nature of lands, especially virgin lands or prime lands, to start growing certain crops. Even the mere fact that a land has been weeded should also put you on alert. Lands do not weed by themselves. It is only after your enquiries and searches point to the person offering to sell the land to you that you should part with your money.
CONCLUSION
It is good to buy land but be careful. Lands are everywhere, yes. Sellers of lands are everywhere, yes. But you should know that the number of sellers of lands, especially in prime arrears far outweigh the available lands. It is only by extreme vigilance and caution that you may be able to separate those desperate for money from those who want to sell what they have. I admit that you may be reckless and still get good lands to buy from their true owner. However, from where I stand, such stories mostly, though not always, end in tears. You may equally be vigilant and get scammed if your predator is more vigilant than you are.
It is worthy of note that people have bought lands under the influence of desperation only to go home with nothing but slaps. In some extreme cases, people have been slashed and others shot. If you are not satisfied with the answers you get to the questions you asked, then by all means flee. Wait! With your cash!
