•Real Estate Coach Tells City People
Spark Ovadje is one of the youngest Real Estate Coaches in Nigeria today. He’s an award-winning coach who has partnered with about 259 companies in just 4 years of coaching.
He doesn’t get it wrong with his ideas and skills and this has endeared him to many property players in more than 20 states in Nigeria.
Coach Spark, as popularly called is a graduate of Computer Data Engineering and Data Processing Management Techniques, System Analyst, Business Analyst, System Engineer, I.T trainer, Real Estate Consultant / Real Estate Coach & a Lekki Lagos based I.T Professional who believes in Self Integrity and Self Discipline.
He is humble and a God-Fearing & Loving Person.
He was rated top best real estate trainer in Nigeria in 2017 and now rated among the top 5 best real estate coaches in Africa.
He was also involved in some extra curriculum training and workshops of teachers in Lagos State in some public schools and has done several community development programmes for youths, market women and businessmen in Mosques & Churches.
Coach Spark Ovadje is among the Top most popular I.T professionals and Real Estate Coaches in Nigeria. He has a network of real estate consultants in Lagos, Portharcourt, Ogun State, Akwa Ibom, Calabar, Abuja, Nassarawa Lafia, Ebonyi State, Delta State, Ekiti, Kebbi, Jos.
A few weeks back he spoke to City People ISAAC ABIMBADE (08155107955), about his real estate journey and what he’s done so far in the sector. Below are the excerpts.
You are regarded as one of the best real estate coaches in Nigeria: how do you feel about it?
It’s not been smooth as a journey but it’s been beautiful because that’s what we’ve been paid to do what we love to do. What actually made me unique in the industry is the practice; practice in the sense that it’s more of practical.
When we started this real estate coaching, people thought it was just about motivational speech but it wasn’t like that for me. It’s more of sales and what could drive sales. It’s just like a ministry now.
We are not one of those trainers who claimed they want to teach people how to make money and you don’t make money. So, what I’m trying to say is that what you are trained to achieve, you will achieve it. It’s a reality. It’s the reality of what we preach in our minds.
When did you start this and what drove you into it?
I went into it to impact lives and that was about 4 years ago. It all started by training people. At first, I didn’t really know much about real estate. I studied Computer and Engineering in School. I was known then for digital marketing. I was the Director of Lekki Computer Institute and I left there to become fully independent. Coming into real estate is more of a passion for me. So I was training people from time to time and I realised that I needed to know more. Imagine you are doing content management and you don’t have the knowledge of land documentation and other things about real estate, so I had to go learn the nitty-gritty of real estate. I learnt all these things deliberately, privately so that I can be able to coach and teach publicly.
What have you discovered so far in the sector?
I have won the award as a National Real estate coach in the country. I’m still rated no 5 in Africa by Google. I have been to 21 states in Nigeria and from all those states things have improved in their real estate sector compared to when they started. About a year ago, I was in Portharcourt and I did a lot there and it further opened their real estate sector. People shouldn’t just think I went there to share fliers and all that. It’s beyond that.
We told them how they can leverage on hands-on tools. We built materials that could help them to promote their products the way they want.
For the benefit of our readers, can you share with us some of these scopes you teach your students on how to market real estate products?
Why I usually ask people who come for training is that, do you understand land title because the land title in Lagos is different from Anambra or any other state. There are more titles in Lagos than in many of those states. That is the first thing to study before you can now bring in the skill aspect.
The use of social media, which is very sensitive. A lot of people want to market real estate and their social media handle is telling people they are selling bags or something different entirely. I’m not saying you can’t do those businesses by the side, but if you want to do real estate then you should consider branding. What I mean is that you must study the business part of real estate and after studying that part, choose a name; a brand. If your name is Taofeek, you can coin it to Taof Properties. You don’t need to register it at the beginning; you can start from there. How much does it cost to register a company? Maybe 15 thousand naira! It’s easy. Start from somewhere but start with a brand name.
So what I am trying to say is that, aside from the foundation part, they should make use of social media. And also, every marketer or realtor should look into the area of research. It’s very, very critical. What is researching? A lot of the clients will actually think it’s far to get, but they are really online. There are databases online that you can get the Governors, Senators, Bankers, Engineers, Doctors. I have them. It’s online.
Let me shock you with one! Anybody can go to www.finelib.com. This is a website that has the contacts of schools, doctors, pharmacies, companies that you can get contacts and their email addresses. So what do you do with those contacts, you go back to the use of bulk SMS and email. These are ways to go about it. But they shouldn’t start all those things until they have a brand name.
Let me tell you, it’s the result that has made me grow. This is a guy that used to live in an uncompleted building. That was about 6 years ago. So, if things like this can transform my life, it can also transform yours.
People actually think I have a real estate company but that’s not true. I partnered with 259 companies in Nigeria and I know all of them. I never had a real estate company but I have always been known for consultancy.
What is your secret?
Personal salesmanship is the secret. What is personal salesmanship? It’s the ability to sell yourself right. There a lot of people who are far better than me. I know I’m the best because God made it so but apart from that, I still have it in mind that there are people better than me, but they have not made known to the public what they can do. Every little thing I do, you will find them on social media. I have a lot of activities on my page, and when people see that you are consistent, they would work with you. Content is king but consistency is queen.
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