Features of good property are numerous. However there are a few basic qualities good property should have and we shall share a few of them with you. Those features are not based on your tastes but on what every building should have all over the world.
The first of the features of a good property is security. It is no use having a palace in an unsafe environment and that includes robberies, kidnaps or group invasions. Security covers safety from conniving domestic staff as well. A modern facility should have at least CCTV cameras to monitor movement around your house and the immediate surroundings.
Security should also have to do with security men who are polite and brisk without being friendly. They are not employed to make friends. At the same time, they are not there to vent their frustrations. There are too many cases of security personnel who are easily distracted and easily swayed.
Do you know that a few years ago in Abuja, a child was kidnapped by the help who was employed barely three weeks before. The security guards were so comfortable with her going out with the child that none of them called her back. If not for the CCTV cameras which caught her boarding an auto-rickshaw at the estate gate, the child would have gone forever.
The truth is that your security can not be compromised. Let your home be a place you can sleep with your doors open just like we could a few decades ago. A motivational speaker was talking about how the security personnel in his estate ignored him when he was driving out because he was not driving his exotic car! What that implies is that when an exotic car drives up to the gate, your security is compromised.
What of group attacks? During the COVID-19 lockdown, two high end estates were swamped at their entrances with starving citizens. So for their own safety, residents came together to share relief materials to them. What if they were armed? Would they have to send negotiators to intercede for them? Maybe they would have rushed in and attacked the residents. Now how safe is that?
Another of the features of good property to look out for is supply of good water. What use is a home if there is no potable water supply? If we all remember qualities of good water, it must be colourless, odourless and transparent. And of course must be available all the time. If you are unable to check this out before purchasing your property, you have yourself to blame. Plus you are going to be really, really miserable.
Finally for today, check out the community you are going to be retreating to after a hard day’s work. Or better still after a long and tiring business trip or day. If you can not visit the area during work hours, read about it or come there at night. That is because some areas seem serene and peaceful because everyone has gone to work or school. By evening and night time, you can tell who your neighbours are going to be. They may be private and quiet, cantankerous and hostile, noisy and dirty or worse.
Recently read that in the 1890s Britain passed a law forbidding men from beating their wives after 10pm. One can only imagine the kind of areas they were and the sleeplessness the neighbours suffered daily.
We would share more tips next week. Cheers
