danny Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Thinking of selling the house and moving further south. Had several immos around most of the prices were about the same except for one immo whose name starts with a part of the lower half of a persons body. They really knocked the price down. We got the idea that they wanted to get their commission (6%) quickly at our expense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 Danny, this has been talked about extensively elsewhere. Why not act as your own immo and sell it yourself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickles Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 I suggest that you do your own comparison of asking prices for similar properties in your area, and take account that these will be optimistic. Prices generally are lower than they were a few years ago (apart from some obvious locations). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 I watched out of curiosity more than anything else the new series of Place in the Sun yesterday teatime which featured the Dordogne. The prices had dropped hugely, one owner taking a huge loss because he paid a high price when he bought it several years ago and it seems some are dropping their prices by tens of thousands so they can move on. I'm sure the presenter said one person was dropping his price by €380,000 so goodness knows what he paid for it! Immos are having a bad time, many are going out of business weekly and they are all fighting for the same morsels it seems. Going through a Notaire if you don't want to DIY is cheaper and protected but nothing like doing your own advertising and showing around I would have thought and buyers are not wanting to pay thousands to an immo in commission which could tip them over their loan limits if they can help it for sometimes very little effort put in by said immos. My friends have just sold within a few weeks but they just wanted to go back to the UK and did, leaving the house empty and in the hands of a local Notaire and they reduced the price to €73,000 when others of the same spec are asking over €150,000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickles Posted October 6, 2014 Share Posted October 6, 2014 [quote user="danny"]Thinking of selling the house and moving further south. Had several immos around most of the prices were about the same except for one immo whose name starts with a part of the lower half of a persons body. They really knocked the price down. We got the idea that they wanted to get their commission (6%) quickly at our expense.[/quote]D'oh! Took me until now to work out which immo you meant! More so than other immos, that one seems to me in many cases to be essentially providing its umbrella (and little else) to work-from-home agents, some of whom are hardworking and honest, and others of whom are ... not.You may find that some agents will basically quote back to you the price that they think you want to hear to sign you up, and then, when it is still unsold some time later, try to get you to reduce the price to what they really thought it ought to have been all along. Look at price per habitable square metre, and bear in mind that this tend to go down for larger properties.If you are living there, then it may be worthwhile to advertise directly yourself as suggested by others. Be aware though of the approach from the "mandated agent" who has a "sure-fire dead cert" buyer, who tries to get you to sign up to them "just so that they can show the property to their client". Sometimes the contract proposed is actually for them to market your property more generally, not just to the one client, who may or may not actually exist. Sometimes the correct limited contract is proposed, but sadly the client doesn't want your place, but if you sign the marketing contract then they have others that only they are in touch with ...We've used an immo because we are not there much of the time. The one we have chosen is one that we know well, and who works for their (obviously not insubstantial) fees. They are also prepared to go the extra mile to get the sale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britannicus Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 [quote user="danny"]Thinking of selling the house and moving further south. Had several immos around most of the prices were about the same except for one immo whose name starts with a part of the lower half of a persons body. They really knocked the price down. We got the idea that they wanted to get their commission (6%) quickly at our expense.[/quote]Interesting you should say that. After 17 years in the Languedoc we are now preparing to sell and return to the UK, we are in no desperate hurry and have placed the house with (this after a totally fruitless attempt to sell via RightMove, PaP and Le Bon Coin, which in all has cost the best part of €1000) local agents, one of which, French orientated, has done a lot of tooth sucking and promised us results if we abated the price, needless to say without a sniff of a buyer. The other more outward looking has produced one viewer who, after giving precise details of requirements to the agent which our house matched exactly (modern, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, views, garden etc) turned it down as too small!So thinking to broaden the coverage I emailed said lower extremities and received no reply, I looked up the local office and phoned leaving messages for call back which never came. So I phoned to a very unfriendly reception at head office and was promised action which was noticeable by its' absence. Eventually I phoned the eponymous lower extremity herself and was assured that they were terribly busy selling property and would have the local rep call me, the local rep did call me and told me a sob story about having three people off and leaving me with the final promise "I will get back to you before the end of the day without fail". It did, of course, fail. I rather think they are without one to stand on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pommier Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 How did you spend £1,000 on private adverts? I know Rightmove charge, but even for a house worth over a million, it's less than £500 for 12 months, PaP and Leboncoin are free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Pommier, I did pay about 17 euros for extra photos on leboncoin [:D]I could have spent only 8 euros but I found some super pics in OH's camera and changed a couple of photos and renewed the advert before the 2 months were up; Should have been a bit more patient and could have saved myself 8+ euros[:D] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pommier Posted October 22, 2014 Share Posted October 22, 2014 Oooooooh Mint, you spendthrift! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnOther Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Maybe the best idea is to decide for yourself what you want or need to realise for the property and pitch in at that ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 There was an article on french news a few nights ago about house prices and their decline. Lots of french second home owners are selling up so lots of properties for sale and not much demand. When we were selling we tried all sort of methods to sell ourselves. In the end we were with an agent immobilier, got them to reduce their fees, they did find us a buyer, but I cannot say it was a happy experience for us, between the AI and the notaire, they ended up costing us and it still smarts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Plus lots more people around here are trying to flog land they have had in the family for generations for people to build on, most of the ones I have seen on LBC will be refused because of the change in rules as they are well outside village centres.I believe I heard on the national news the other week that land people own which is constructable and just sitting there are going to be taxed heavily per m² unless it is used, I maybe wrong but it did show a village in the mountains whereby lots of folks have plots of land their families have owned for generations and which is deemed constructable but because no one wants or can afford to build, it is just dormant as the owners are not farmers.One lady said her land would cost more each year in a new land tax than her pension twice over!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickles Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Fingers and toes here are crossed, as our sale seems to be progressing. As stated earlier, we have used one immo, exclusively, on the basis that we knew and trusted them, and that no-one has exclusive access to clients, and that they were prepared to work with other agents (and in fact do so on a regular basis). This has reduced the hassle factor for us. The immo took a hit on his fees to make the sale (we'd dropped the asking price as well). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britannicus Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I did not say I spend a £1000, I said the best part of a €1000. RightMove for 6 months with a Premium listing was 325 pounds or 420 euros PaP is most certainly not free and has to be renewed every 2 months and Le Bon Coin whilst ads are free any departure from the norm is charged for as are alterations when adjusting price and the necessity to move the ad "up the column" is also costly.[quote user="Pommier"]How did you spend £1,000 on private adverts? I know Rightmove charge, but even for a house worth over a million, it's less than £500 for 12 months, PaP and Leboncoin are free.[/quote] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britannicus Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I've looked at land and build costs and have pitched my price at a negotiable level above the current costs. It comes out at €259000. I thought that this was an acceptable figure especially as the house next door has just sold for €400000. Yesterday we asked the agent who had sold that house to pay us a visit, imagine our chagrin when, after being told not to say what the other agents were asking, were presented with " I don't think I could sell it, in todays market, although it is a €325000 property, for more than €275000. Bring them on!![quote user="Val_2"]Plus lots more people around here are trying to flog land they have had in the family for generations for people to build on, most of the ones I have seen on LBC will be refused because of the change in rules as they are well outside village centres.I believe I heard on the national news the other week that land people own which is constructable and just sitting there are going to be taxed heavily per m² unless it is used, I maybe wrong but it did show a village in the mountains whereby lots of folks have plots of land their families have owned for generations and which is deemed constructable but because no one wants or can afford to build, it is just dormant as the owners are not farmers.One lady said her land would cost more each year in a new land tax than her pension twice over!![/quote] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Yes, this business of building land which is not being used being taxed is thanks to the last housing minister who has done more to destroy the housing market in France in her short tenure than anyone since the 2WW. But then she is a Commy/Green who flounced out of office when she did not get her own way on something and then proceeded to slag off Hollande and some others to sell her book or 'Revelations'.Somehow the government is trying to unpick her bill to get some sense back into the market.By the way, the dormant building land thing is only meant to apply in and around big urban areas; applying it to villages is an aberration.Which also suggests that, what shall we call them, local businesses see work coming their way if this land is developed, so go to the Mary and moan that there is no land to build on, get it taxed and developed and split the winnings with their friendly Mary, or his cousin, or his uncle.Me cynical, nooooooooo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I wasn't really paying a lot of attention to the story until the poor woman with over 3000m of spare land was in a bad state being a pensioner, living in a tiny village of only about a hundred people and being charged something like more than twice her entire yearly income and more. Talk about shooting a country in it's foot to raise revenue and doing so much damage to future votes,the economy and the housing market. Even the maire of that tiny commune was up in arms about it because he could not make people build nor attract any businesses due to the remote situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolybanana Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Thank a fanatical Catho/Commie Green minister! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 This has been in the news for quite some time now. Same same with a bloke I believe on the Ile de Re who said that he would have a bill for more than his annual income every year.Maybe they want these people to give their land to the state? That is what I thought at the time and still do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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