In Africa, the real estate sector is plagued by a certain paradox. Although a promising area in terms of investment needs on the continent, real estate still suffers from certain prejudices. Misconceptions that are generally conveyed by uninformed laymen on the subject of real estate.

This observation can only call out to a real estate expert like Salomon Mbutcho, who, in his book “The wholly book of Real estate”, dismantles certain untruths about real estate.

Real estate is not only a matter of selling or buying a building

Because they are not involved in this field on a daily basis, some people are tempted to reduce their conception of real estate to the most common actions, in particular those related to the acquisition of land or a house.

To this reductive conception of the thing, Salomon Mbutcho gives answers on the etymological level. With regard to the origin of the word real estate, which comes from the Latin “im-mobilis” (which cannot be moved), its’ name does not only show the “immovability” of the thing (building in legal terms) acquired, managed, sold or exchanged, but also shows why it is used as a guarantee at the level of all financial and para-financial institutions, and shows at the same time, the solidity of the “thing”.

It is not because an estate is not real that they do not call it “real estate”, it is simply to make a difference between any other estates, and the ones that can be mortgaged and given as strong collaterals in the banking system.

Salomon Mbutcho specifies that the professional dimension of real estate goes far beyond the sale and purchase. In reality, it is a whole panoply of trades that include real estate development, rental, management of all or part of a property, as well as the approval and regulatory bodies in the domain.

Anyone can have a career in real estate

Another prejudice stuck to real estate tries to present it as an environment that is difficult to access. Anxious to share a passion for real estate that he inherited from his father, Timothée Mbutcho (first indigenous real estate agent in West Africa), Salomon Mbutcho demystifies the work of real estate.

To do this, he explains that contrary to what some would have you believe, real estate is not an elitist sector. No need to be “a genius, an aeronautical engineer, or a student from the biggest schools in the world to do real estate”, he says. The domain is accessible to any interested person, whatever their origin or social status, with the exception of the approvals required in certain countries.

However, it is necessary for anyone interested in it, to know and adopt the qualities that help to stand out in real estate. It is essentially a question of knowing how to show intelligence, that is to say, “the ability to find practical and adaptable solutions whatever the situation and the degree of complication” according to Salomon Mbutcho, to have moral, intellectual, spiritual and financial probity, to know the preliminary requirements of the trade, and to build a good professional and financial reputation.

So much rich advice to discover in the smallest of details in Salomon Mbutcho’s “The Wholly Book of Real Estate “.