Pierre Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 "Bonjour" to you all!My name is Pierre (a real Frenchman but with no moustache I fear). I am wondering where might be the best places or ways to advertise a property for sale targeting potential British buyers. My elder brother is considering to sell his house in the Loire Valley due to a professional relocation.Thanks in advance for your tips / Pierrepost editedby a moderator: Please do not advertise your products or services on the message boards. Any advertising without permission will be removed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Coeur de Lion Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 Nice place.I would suggest http://www.frenchpropertylinks.com/ would be a good place to start. We found our house in France using this site when we lived in Oz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Posted June 11, 2007 Author Share Posted June 11, 2007 Thanks LyndaaandRichard for this info.[;-)] This site looks professional and a good place to start.What, if I may ask, is the information that a potential buyer from overseas needs to find in an add. What would make him or her want to investigate further (detailed pictures, sketch map of the property, contact number/e.mail, location on googlearth, general information on the area...). In your personnal house hunt, where you often disapointed between what was advertised and reality? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Coeur de Lion Posted June 11, 2007 Share Posted June 11, 2007 From what we have experienced, the standard of selling property in France compared to Australia is very low. We would like to have had rough dimensions of the property (which we did eventually get, but it was like getting blood from a stone from the immoblier), interior photographs seem to be at a premium on most adverts, and the general descriptions are very vague. Info on the town would also have been useful and I don't think you can ever have enough photo's.However, in our case when we did finally see the house (which was after settlement), we did find that the house was better than what we expected - in our opinion. We did expect the worst, but it was part of the adventure.We have just helped some of our French friends to advertise on frenchpropertylinks.com. We took photo's and did an English translation of their property which they have for sale, for them to place on the above mentioned site. This included a link to a seperate website which contained the full description and some more photo's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 British buyers are obsessed with prices when it comes to property. To please them you have to sell at a very low price so they can make a big profit when they come to sell it on in a few years. Sorry to generalise, but there is a lot of truth behind my cynical comment. 99% of them want cheap rather than quality.If you want to sell to the British is it because you have heard that British buyers will pay more than French buyers? No longer true I am afraid.The best place for French sellers to meet British buyers is through one of the agencies that specialises in English speaking clients, you will find plenty of names in French Property News for example. But you will need to accept their valuation if you want a sale, and also bear in mind the agency fees which may make the house look less attractive to the price obsessed British.I like your approach to getting round the forum's 'no advertising' rule by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marina Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 Lindaandrichard - be very careful. If you are offering a house or business for sale in France on behalf of somebody else you have to be profesionally registered as an agent immobiler or notaire. The authorities are hot on 'illegal agents' in some areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicos Posted June 12, 2007 Share Posted June 12, 2007 I agree that I would have prefered to have seen many more photos of the properties we considered looking at ( after all it gives a good idea of the house and gardens without having to spend time and money initially going to view the place). Most French estate agents present one (or two ) photos often with dirty washing piled on the bed and generally untidy/cluttered rooms ( a real put off!).Room dimensions never seem to be given and we Brits like to have a good idea of that sort of thing.Might be worth contacting a couple of British estate agents and ask them to post you ( or e-mail) some details of houses as if you are interested in buying a UK property. That would give you an idea of what info we are used to receiving? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Coeur de Lion Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 [quote user="marina"]Lindaandrichard - be very careful. If you are offering a house or business for sale in France on behalf of somebody else you have to be profesionally registered as an agent immobiler or notaire. The authorities are hot on 'illegal agents' in some areas.[/quote]I've edited my post to more accurately describe the situation. My wife and I purely responded to a friends request for assistance with English translation and photography. I can now see how my unedited post could have been read that my wife and I were the ones offering the property for sale, but in fact we were only helping to guide them through the process of offering their own property for sale on frenchpropertylinks.com.As we have a few French friends who have expressed an interest in the possibilities of advertising their property with frenchpropertylinks.com, I would be interested to know if our assistance to them could ever be seen as overstepping the line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owens88 Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 Do describe the house in very good detail. Sizes of rooms heating and condition. (To me decor is transient anyway.)View, aspect and outdoor areas.Any quaint french features (a garden 200 yds away, you can park but not at weekends etc.)AND Describe the village /town in great detail. Facilities within walking distance. Any life ? How far to travel for facilities ?Give a postcode and they can google earth to their own hearts content. Its the selling info that would draw real buyers (as opposed to browsers). Most agents will happily drag you to a visit then drop a bombshell like 'no shops for 5 miles' or ' the garage is actually shared' only after you have arrived. They don't mind wasting buyers' time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Posted June 13, 2007 Author Share Posted June 13, 2007 Thank you all for those very valuable pieces of info. which my brother will put to good use. Having lived and worked abroad, I agree with you that most French Real Estate Agencies lack of preofessionalism. I do not consider that they have an added value in rural areas and most of the people I know have found their houses via the gravepine rather that through "Agences Immobilieres". I personnaly found my house via SAFER, which is s state consular body in charge of facilitating the establishment of new farmers, something you definitively want to check if you are looking for a rural property.Alternatives can be local country notaries (notaires) which handle woes and family businesses, or door to door search... You have to know though that in France, the sale of a house can sometimes be irrational. I know of several examples where people refused to sell some houses and preferred to see them fell in rumbles... other owners giving a substancial reduction (up to 50%) because they liked the prospective buyer (oftern couple with kids who were looking for a round the year residence rather than a holiday home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monaco Posted June 13, 2007 Share Posted June 13, 2007 I am a sweet old lady who lost her home through no fault of her own - where I can I find these lovely people who will sell me their home cheaply because they feel sorry for me? I am a permanent resident of France. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Roberts Posted June 14, 2007 Share Posted June 14, 2007 Hi Pierre,I would also suggest IFP, I am currently looking at private property sales in France and I have found a good selection on their website.I hope this helps.Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cazeneca Posted June 30, 2007 Share Posted June 30, 2007 I'd also suggest a photo of the view if the house has one. The british are very keen on a lovely view, and don't bother with a photo of the loo (a favourite of french estate agents in my experience). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pierre Posted July 2, 2007 Author Share Posted July 2, 2007 Thanks once again to you all for your valuable input. I have set-up a blog/website for the property and advertised it today via frenchpropertylinks. I took their premium service which offers advertising for 6 months and up to four photographs. It costs me 84,83 Euros and the add should be online in a couple of days according to the automatic e.mail I received after making my payment.The whole process has been quite interesting indeed. Setting-up the website (which was a first for me) is not that difficult, but it took some times. It should be well worth it. I'll keep you posted about my progress.Best regards from sunny Ardeche / Pierre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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