Your safety comes before your money.

• See it in person first. Never send money for a place you haven't stood inside — or had someone you trust stand inside for you.
• Confirm who you're dealing with. Get the agent's full name and a number that answers. A real agent is happy to be identified.
• Read the area, not just the listing. Check our neighbourhood guides for the flooding, security and traffic picture before you commit to a street.
• Get it in writing. Rent, fees and what's included belong in a signed agreement — not a voice note.
• Know what every fee is for. Ask what each charge covers before you pay it. If nobody can explain a fee, don't pay it.

• Go in daylight, and bring someone. Arrange viewings during the day and take a friend or family member along.
• Meet at the property. Not a filling station, not a car park — the actual address you're there to see.
• Tell someone your plan. Share the address and the time with a person who isn't with you.
• Don't pay on the spot. No deposit, "reservation" or "hold" fee at the viewing. Walk away and pay only once everything checks out in writing.

Most property scams share the same tells. Treat any of these as a reason to stop:

• The price is too good. A flat well below everything around it is bait, not a bargain.
• You're rushed. "Someone else is paying today" is pressure designed to stop you checking.
• They won't let you view. Excuses for why you can't see it — the owner's abroad, the keys are lost — before you pay.
• Full payment to "hold" it. Being asked to pay everything upfront to reserve a place you haven't inspected.
• Off-the-record payment. Cash to a personal account with no receipt and no agreement.

If something feels wrong, it costs nothing to pause. Message us on WhatsApp and we'll help you sanity-check it.

Some listings here are posted by agents and landlords who use Aurban, not by Aurban. Where a listing shows their own phone, WhatsApp or Telegram, you are dealing with that person directly. We have checked their ID. We have not checked the property, and we are not part of any deal you make with them.

• The fake landlord. A caretaker, a departing tenant or a relative collects rent on a flat they do not control — sometimes from three people for the same flat. Ask to see the title or the head lease, and pay the person named on the agreement, in front of you.
• The inspection fee that buys nothing. Five to twenty thousand naira a head, collected from dozens of people, for a place that is not available or that the "agent" has no relationship with. If a viewing has to be paid for, book it through this site so there is a record and a named slot.
• Land sold twice. A photocopied survey plan or C of O is not a title. Take the survey plan and the title number to the state land registry yourself — Lagos land registry at Alausa, or your own state's — before the payment, not after.
• The family that comes back. On land especially, ask who else has a claim — family, community, an omo-onile group — and get the answer written into the agreement rather than promised at the gate.
• Agency and legal fees to "reserve" it. Ten per cent plus ten per cent, upfront, on a place you have not stood inside. See Spot the scams above.
• An account name that isn't the name you were given. Money moving to a third party's account, or to a "company account" nobody can show you a certificate for, is the last moment you can still walk away.

If something feels wrong, it costs nothing to pause. Message us on WhatsApp and we'll help you sanity-check it — including the ones you found here.