how to sell your property

[stephane]

We want to sell our property in Gordes.

Can we sell it on or own, or do we have to go to the immobilier?

[Opalienne]

You can do it on your own through Particulier a Particulier (www.pap.fr) or just put up a notice with your phone number on it (though they may not approve of this sort of thing in Gordes.........)

[Grays]

The answer is of course yes you can sell your house / property privately without having to go through any agents/ immobliers.

plenty of free and charge  sites to place ads can be found if you search using keywords like french property   another way is to make your own website .

You will of course still eventually need the services of a Notaire once you have a buyer.

[Will]

There is no legal reason, as others have said, why you cannot sell a French house privately. If you do this, you have to value the house, place the advertisements, deal with enquiries, arrange to show potential buyers (and many time wasters) round, answer all their questions, negotiate price, arrange notaires, termite/asbestos/lead/drainage etc certificates and do all the other things that an agent normally takes care of, or at least helps you with.

The financial benefit of doing it yourself - usually zero. In most of France the buyer pays the agency charges, and will expect at least the equivalent amount - probably considerably more - knocked off the asking price for a private sale.

[Brilec]

When we were looking, in one immobilier there was a notice, or poster on the wall, with information on what percentage of properties were sold by immos, notaires etc. Something like 50% were sold privately.

[Gastines]

When the Immo's rate comes down to a more reasonable level, perhaps more sellers will use them!! 8-9% might have been OK when the house prices were low,and the turnover rate was low as well. Now that prices are  so much higher I can't see that you get any extra service for the thousands of euros charged. Add to that the much greater level of properties being sold and it might explain the proliferation of Immo's. With the Notaire's charge plus the Immo's cut, you are putting approx. 18% on the price.Logically this is bound to limit the number of buyers with a fixed budget,plus it seems that many are still taken by surprise that the buyer is liable for these charges. I believe that a private sale can cut these charges to around 5%.With regard to the survey needed when you sell,the Notaire or Mairie will give you the phone number of the accredited surveyor, the charge being in the 200euro region.

Regards.By St.Malo

[Gastines]

As an add on to this and the subject of CGT. I have written to P. Mandleson. M.E.P. to query [sorry about the use of that word, no pun intended.] why the French tax system, wont allow bills for UK workmen/materials. I thought that was what the EU was all about?

Regards.

[Renaud]

Do you want to sell your house to locals or to a Brit?

I ask because I remember a property that was on the French Property News website a couple of years ago.

The linked English language website selling the house (it was not that far from you) was terriffic. It showed good photos of each room and gave a rough plan.The price included the fittings, furniture and even a car and a moped. The well written, chatty style of the website told you all about the house, the land the area and even the farmer who cut the grass.

The important thing that the site sold was the idea that the purchaser could walk into a ready-made life-style. It created a lot of interest and an Irish couple flew over and bought it within 10 days.

Even if you don't want to do all this, I still would write a nice description and put it on the French Property News website as a private sale.

[stephane]

It doesn't matter to me who will buy the house.

I'm building now a website (see http://www.masdeslavandes.co.nr) to attract some people and plublish my site on the French Property News website.

Is it wise to go to an immobilier for an exclusive contract and go for a lower rate, or go for more immobiliers and go for a higher rate of costs?

[Will]

Forget all you know about estate agents in England, the French system is totally different. You get the same money regardless of how many agences immobiliers are involved.

The more agents, notaires, private sale ads, websites involved then the better your chance of selling.

You will come across agents in France that offer you a high valuation in return for an exclusive agreement. Forget them, your overvalued house will be one of many similar competing in a stagnant market against other houses valued closer to the true market value, so you will be lucky if you get any viewings and if you do you will have to be prepared to consider silly offers (say 30% under the asking price).

If you go with too many agents then buyers will think you are desperate, but if you instruct a carefully selected number and fix a sensible asking price you should have little trouble selling, particularly if you back it up with private ads (the reason a high proportion of houses sell privately in France is that this is how the French traditionally buy. Agents are a comparatively recent innovation, at least outside the big cities and snobby coastal areas).

[stephane]

How much estate agents you would go for?

[peteward15]

Hiya

A very close family friend of ours had the same trouble.  Wanted to sell his properties in the Lot but didn't want to pay the massive immobliers fees.

To solve his problem I built a website to enable to the sale of his properties - this working swimmingly and they are now sold!  However the site is now gathering dust.

If any readers would be interested in using the site - let me know!

Peter Ward

www.houseforsale-france.co.uk