Minouette Posted June 6, 2005 Share Posted June 6, 2005 HiI have a French mate who, due to divorce, needs to sell his house. He is quite keen to sell privately, rather than pay commission to an immobilier or notaire, and even keener to find a Brit (or other ex-pat) buyer. The French might moan like stink about the 'English invasion' but they change their tune when they have property to sell! He is also savvy enough to realise that his mostly-renovated (he is a very good builder) house with all its pierre apparent would appeal more to a Brit than to a local. He asked my advice on the best places to advertise, either in France or in the UK, but I have no idea what to suggest! I bought my house privately but it was a case of being in the right place in the right time... I just happened to spot a guy doing some work on a house and it turned out he wanted to sell it. So I bought it! So, did anyone here buy their house privately and, if so, could you tell me where you saw the initial advertisement?Many thanksMinou Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
le val charente Posted June 7, 2005 Share Posted June 7, 2005 HiWe have seen places for sale in bars, supermarkets and boulangeries; if the ad is worded in French and English, it should appeal to a foreign buyer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco Posted June 7, 2005 Share Posted June 7, 2005 We got to know an elderly French couple because my parents were hoping to buy their house via a local notaire. Unfortunately the old man couldn't bring himself to move in the end, so my parents lost out (ended up buying something much more suitable!) However, we kept in contact with them and then last year, when they decided that it really was getting too much for them they asked me how they could advertise it to British buyers (yes, another savvy old French lady who knew she'd probably get more from a Brit).I put an ad on French Property News for them (which at the time was £45 for 6 months) and they had loads of interest. Depends whether your neighbour has a computer or whether you're prepared to do it for him. We now know the new owners too and we're all 8 going out to lunch together later this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minouette Posted June 7, 2005 Author Share Posted June 7, 2005 Thank you Val (twice! ) and Coco. All good ideas. My mate doesn't have a computer so I expect Muggins here will have to be involved in that side of it! He also doesn't speak much English so I imagine asking me for advice was only the first stage of his plan! Acting as translator for any prospective buyers hasn't been mentioned yet, but I can see it looming on the horizon! Thank you.... and if anyone else has any thoughts, please keep them coming.......Minou Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Opel Fruit<P><BR>Opel Fruit, Dept. 53<P> Posted June 7, 2005 Share Posted June 7, 2005 Try www.accessfrenchproperties.comSite is in French and EnglishEffective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weedon Posted June 7, 2005 Share Posted June 7, 2005 In 1999 when we were looking for a property we quickly went off the idea of going through an agent because you have to view with them. We preferred to have 4 or 5 private sales at a time so that we could look at the locations on our own during a weekend. We looked through Daltons Weekly, Exchange & Mart and just generally looked at weekly publications that had overseas property sections. We also looked at French Property News and Living France magazines but we found that monthly publications were very often out of date with their property by the time we looked at them.For us another plus for a private sale was that we could talk to the owners who could give us lots of information about their properties to potentially save a wasted journey on unsuitable ones. They could also give us good directions on how to find the properties as the ones in the country can be difficult to locate.Hope this helps.weedon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minouette Posted June 7, 2005 Author Share Posted June 7, 2005 Once again my thanks, OpelFruit and Weedon. I must admit I would never in a million years have thought of Exchange&Mart or Dalton's Weekly..... and me a London lass, as well!Weedon... could I ask another question? It would be very helpful to know what sort of questions you asked both before visiting a property (in order to weed out the no-go stuff) and when viewing the ones you thought suitable. I'm going to try and second-guess what these might be, in order that I can get the answers from my mate and have them ready translated for when the buyer calls start flooding in (!), but I'm sure there will be heaps of things that I won't think to check up on. My method of buying was about the equivalent of sticking a pin in a map, but you were obviously much better organised! Many thanks to everybody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mops Posted June 7, 2005 Share Posted June 7, 2005 Why not suggest that he use something like 'French Property News'. Sellers pay a one off fee of about £50 for 6 months and many people are buying this way directly from private sellers. I sold my property through them last year after two days of it appearing on their site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minouette Posted June 7, 2005 Author Share Posted June 7, 2005 Yes, Coco mentioned French Property News earlier so it's already on my list.Thanks anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
just john Posted June 8, 2005 Share Posted June 8, 2005 Without wishing to state the obvious, we drove around the area we were interested in, looking for signs, which introduced us to a few properties with agents (another story) and a couple of private vendors, who had simply put up a sign with a telephone number & AV. We arranged to see one of these and made an offer and then found a notaire who spoke good english and was prepared to translate. Eventually we completed (yet another story) but despite everything no commission was paid to either an agent or notaire. We found nothing to be afeared of Notaires!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weedon Posted June 8, 2005 Share Posted June 8, 2005 [quote]Once again my thanks, OpelFruit and Weedon. I must admit I would never in a million years have thought of Exchange&Mart or Dalton's Weekly..... and me a London lass, as well! Weedon... could I a...[/quote]The questions we asked were to fit our own criteria and they would be the sort of thing an owner would know. For example, it had to be not in a village but not more than a couple of miles or so from a village, about a couple of acres with some outbuildings, the house preferably would not be up against a boundary, with no immediate neighbours, how far the nearest neighbour was and what sort of road led to the property.Access to a fax or email is usefull so that you can send pictures.Apart from the above you need to know about water, electricity, the good old fosse septic and whether it could suffer from flooding.Just as a matter of interest we did in fact buy the property as a result of an advert in Daltons Weekly. We used a chap called O'Connor in Tonbridge (advertises in Living France magazine) to check the paperwork and we used the same notaire as the sellerweedon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minouette Posted June 8, 2005 Author Share Posted June 8, 2005 Cheers Weedon, you've got my brain started! I've also found an old book of mine about house-buying now so I'll be able to put together a pretty comprehensive questionnaire for my mate to fill in. My purchase was a complete impulse buy and I'm sure I did everything wrong.... but I'm learning! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilly Posted June 13, 2005 Share Posted June 13, 2005 If I remember correctly it is not the seller that pays the commission to the immobilier but the purchaser, it might well be that he would not recieve the amount advertised but he could agree a amicable arrangement with the agent first ...perhaps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dordogne Granny Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 Hi there, The best place to advertise in France is the magazine "de Particulier à Particulier". They have a website www.pap.fr where you can find lot of properties (and other goods) for sale. Hope that will helpSabine www.en-toutes-saisons.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minouette Posted June 14, 2005 Author Share Posted June 14, 2005 [quote]Hi there, The best place to advertise in France is the magazine "de Particulier à Particulier". They have a website www.pap.fr where you can find lot of properties (and other goods) for sale. Hope...[/quote]Thanks Sabine but do you think this is something widely read by Brits, either resident in UK or France? As explained in my first post, my friend prefers to sell to a Brit basically because he thinks they will pay a higher price than a French person would. It may be cynical, it may be two-faced but I think he is probably right. And as the sale is due to his divorce (ie he will only realise part of the value) he needs to sell at highest possible price in order for both he and his ex-wife to be able to buy new properties. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dordogne Granny Posted June 17, 2005 Share Posted June 17, 2005 So Living France Mag and his competitors (French property news for instance) seems to be the right places for your friend to advertise on his own. Lot of my clients has found their properties by this way. RegardsSabinewww.en-toutes-saisons.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Llantony Posted June 23, 2005 Share Posted June 23, 2005 [quote]So Living France Mag and his competitors (French property news for instance) seems to be the right places for your friend to advertise on his own. Lot of my clients has found their properties by this ...[/quote]Slight side issue: sometimes books/articles suggest going to a notaire rather than an estate agent. Do they also charge commission? Is it less than estate agents? Why would sellers use a notaire as they don't pay the commission anyway - the buyer does?I know you can't legally buy without a notaire and he will naturally charge fees as well as collect the required tax from you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted June 23, 2005 Share Posted June 23, 2005 Yes the notaire charges a commision which usually is less than an estate agent. The actual notarial services and taxes are separate costs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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