Ramos Adeyinka

A gentleman had written this question somewhere in a note. He was in the midst of what society would call success: closing deals in a booming real estate market, running a business across two countries, and building relationships with wealthy clients. Yet… something was missing. He could not name it, but it was there. Then one of those clients advised him: go solve a problem. That should have slid off…but no, it didn't. The gentleman sprung into action.

A tiler puts down his tools in frustration. He had been asked to measure the lines before laying, and to cut the tiles with a machine instead of judging the edges by eye. He told Ramos that this was a white man's job. Not his. Then he walked off the site angrily. He was the second tiler to have done so. The first tiler had already come and gone, mentioning he couldn't do the job asked of him. So Ramos stood on a half-finished floor in Lekki and weighed his decisions. Find a third man who could lay tile properly, cost him extra resources and time, or call the second guy that left, and have him lay tiles that wouldn't meet up to his expectations. Ramos hired a third tiler. He disagreed that a slightly crooked line is what a Nigerian floor looks like.

“I'm building dream homes for people. So I'll bear the pain, from the tiles, to the structure, up until the finishing, just to ensure it's the top 1% standard.”

Before becoming a property developer or getting into the real estate market, Ramos was a young man selling Forever Living products and discovering something about himself that would decide his next fifteen years. He was good at the art of selling, and he would show up from 6am to 11pm. He would scout real estate properties every single day of the week. And then, at night, sit in the videographer's house and edit the footage together. Post it. Sleep a little. Do it again. It all paid off soon enough. So much that Ramos could close eight properties in a single day. And the morning after a day like that, he was back on the streets scouting, shooting, editing videos.

“When things started working out, when I started closing lots of deals, I didn't get too excited and think I was on top of the world. I'd still go back and keep doing that basic task.”

After selling several hundreds of properties in Nigeria, Ramos realized he could build better houses and offer clients more value. He developed his first property in Ajah, which he sold at a record breaking price. Next was building semi detached properties in Orchid, which sold higher than other properties in the same area and location. The hard part was people. Finding the right engineers, bricklayers, and artisans for the job.

“I'm very obsessed with quality. I went through 3 tilers before finding the best person for the job. Artisans here don't care much for details. You have to spend a lot of time and resources to find the best people.”

Adeyinka Samuel, popularly known as Ramos… had everything going on well for him. He was closing several properties in a day, and was already making a name for himself. Yet on an introspection to do something different, Ramos sought to test the waters elsewhere, in an emerging real estate market. It was a new challenge for him to learn. And it changed how he builds at home: when people see his properties, many notice the 'Dubai effect', and he's had many people tell him he's building properties with a Dubai standard.

“My dream has always been global. Not just to be a local champion. After some research I realized Dubai was a better pick because the real estate and tourism there was booming.”

Ramos' experience selling houses in Nigeria, to developing his own buildings, and then moving to Dubai shaped his mentality to understand what he wanted out of life. This led him into tech. There was a point he started feeling something was missing, and after a conversation with someone that had walked down that road, he was advised to solve a problem and create value. Ramos was already solving problems, but now he wanted to solve problems at scale. It was then Expert Listing came to life. A proptech platform in Nigeria that solves the problem of house hunting.

“Pain shouldn't be normal. It's why I like Steve Jobs so much. House hunting in Lagos doesn't have to be painful. My goal is to make house hunting in Nigeria simple, and to serve more people at scale.”