Gitesforsale

I think we should make the distinction clear between "agent commercial" and "agent immobilier". An agent commercial is someone - without any specific qualification - who registers as such with the Greffe du Tribunal de Commerce and who then works for one or several agents immobiliers. They go around promising the world, chatting up buyers and sellers and even running their own websites. The "agent immobilier" however, is the professional. He/she usually has to create a limited company (SARL), get third party insurance, put up a financial bond and get, above all, a licence to trade. This is the famous 'carte immobilière' which every estate agent must possess. These licences are issued by the local préfecture after a long process of registration where conditions laid down in the founding law (loi Hoguet 1970) - aptitude, qualifications, experience - are checked and evaluated. It therefore often turns out that the sort of scam described by 'Aly' is the work of either an unscrupulous 'agent commercial' or of a foreign agency using the internet to work the French market. If it is the work of a real, French-registered Agent Immobilier, it is all too simple to complain directly to the préfecture where that agent is registered to obtain satisfaction. He/she may lose their licence ... that's why they don't normally engage in these sort of practices. These sanctions against real estate agents mean that more and more people are setting up nebulous 'finders agencies' or simply 'property portals' on the internet where, freed of the constraints imposed on real estate agents, they can promise the world and charge what they like. The moral of the story is: find out who you are planning to deal with. Ask them first off who they are: agent commercial, agent immobilier, property finder of simple publicist? If an agent commercial then ask to see his/her card associating him/her with an estate agent. (compulsory). Then ask for their rates of commission. If you find them too high then attempt to bargain. (My agency's rates are 4% for a property under €500k and 3% for properties over that). There is no reason today to charge higher than these rates. 

I wouldn't keep this thing in your house: you could find all your untreated woodwork infested in no time. Petit ou grand capricorne = petits ou grands dégâts!

Two words in your post merit analysis. 'Independent': did I ever claim to be independent? No, I clearly indicated (through my link) that I am an Estate Agent. The other word is 'teach'. Did I set out to teach you (I don't even know you) anything? No, my aim was to set out the law as I know it and the situation as I have experienced it. That's the whole point of a forum. Other participants are then expected to chip in with their reading of the law and their experiences, n'est-ce pas? Just making sarcastic comments is not terribly constructive. As for the 'first post' ... one has to start somewhere!

There is a lot of nonsense talked about this. "Special prices for foreigners" - what tosh! This is impossible under French law. An individual or an agent selling property in France must clearly indicate the asking price on his adverts, web pages etc (unless he doesn't really want to sell) ... and that's the price for everyone. If someone (a Brit, a Thai or a Parisian) is willing to pay the asking price then he gets the property. The owner can be compelled to sell it to this person. If he refuses (for whatever reason) then it is a 'refus de vente' and the courts will ORDER him to sell the property to the person offering to pay the asking price. The confusion lies in the cases where the seller does not really want to sell - and has indicated no asking price -  and a buyer makes an offer. Then one can get the impression that he is favouring one or other of the offers he gets. But these are marginal cases. In the vast majority of property sales there is only one asking price and the first person to meet this price gets the property. It's no more mysterious than buying a coffee in a French café: the prices MUST be displayed publicly and these are the prices paid by everyone: French, Thai, Australians or Irish.