WE are from NZ and want to buy but who can we trust???

[Dreamweaver<P>"Strangers are only friends you havent met yet]

Have been reading on the posts and it all seems a bit of a minfield for foreign buyers.

We are coming to France to live and want somewhere nice, with good schooling, lively and a lovely area.

We think the South is for us but have no real preference yet. Who will sell us a house and who can we trust to not get ripped off?

As we are so far away its not so simple to just "nip across" so we are appealing to the knowledgeable masses in these forums.

Anyone have a 4 bd + house for sale? Am I allowed to post that?

Paul NZ

 

 

[zeb]

Welcome Paul -

I think you really have to see before you buy. There are so many folks now offering propertyfinding services but how do you really know what area is right for you unless you visit?

Why not arrange to stay for a long-let (over the winter period?) in someone's gite whilst you look around? This will give you time to arrange another rental period (French owned are cheaper) or a purchase. You can always put your stuff into storage and have it shipped over if you find that France is for you.

Good luck.

[Mpprh]

Hi

There are quite a few kiwis in France.

You may get the advice you need here : http://kiwis-in-france.tripod.com

Bonne chance

Peter

[sophie.b]

Greetings from a fellow Kiwi living in France!

As far as areas are concerned, you really have to visit to get a feel for the areas.  I live in the Limousin (Central France) and moved here after ten hectic years in London.  I came out here on a cycling holiday four years ago and just fell in love with the area; I suppose it kind of reminded me of New Zealand - wide open space, green rolling hills and lots of sheep and cows!!

With regards to who won't rip you off, estate agents are the same the world over!  However, if you make sure you're using a registered agent, you will have to pay fees but it should be all above board and clearly outlined in any documents. 

Unless they're actually registered to work with the individual estate agents, "search agents" are illegal in France and may charge you an extra (illegal!) fee on top of the existing agency fee to put you in touch with the agents that you could probably find anyway in a couple of hours on the internet!  Asking to see their "carte gris" (registration documents) will weed out these people if you come across them.  With more and more buyers from the UK, most agents worth their salt (and especially those in the south of France) will have someone in their office that speaks English if you need them.

[Val_2]

For my money I would only use a French notaire who is a government official especially when living so far away. They can arrange everything for you,even the signing of paperwork from overseas and other legalaties such as wills etc and as for agents,reading on another forum about one in central Brittany who has gone belly-up this week,people are understandably a bit concerned where deposits paid are concerned about getting them back. Obviously there are good and well established agents but as previously mentioned,check their credentials very carefully and be wary of those who deal only by internet means.

[Will]

Being close to the agence immobilier business there doesn't seem to be much sign of things going belly-up in neighbouring Normandy, though one or two agents seem to be opening new branches which are sure to either fail themselves or put existing agencies in the same town out of business. Our local paper had an article quoting a notaire about English not buying any more, but it was so full of errors that you couldn't take it seriously and it's quite the opposite to what we are seeing at the moment.

You should never pay any money to an agent anyway, unless it's for an extra like a survey which the agent arranges. Pay the deposit, and the balance afterwards, to the notaire, who will then pay the agent's fees. Some agencies have secure accounts for holding clients' money but if they are good agents they won't object to you sending deposits to the notaire.

We have a good friend who bought in a nearby town - she's a Kiwi and had no problems.

[sophie.b]

Even if you buy property from a French Estate Agent you will have to use a Notaire as they are the ones who do all the legal paperwork (like your lawyer would in NZ) so you will have someone to look after all the legal work regardless of who or where you buy from.

Notaires charge a separate fee to the agent, hence the reason that you have to pay Notaires fees AND Agency fees when buying in France.  Have a look at www.notaires.fr or www.immonot.com for more info on what they do.

You can buy properties direct from the Notaire and therefore not pay the agent fee as well.  However, you can only do this if you are buying one of the properties the Notaire has for sale or if you go direct to the vendor by calling as a response to a private "For Sale" on a house and they are happy to use the notaire direct.  Don't think you can save money by going direct to a vendor after you've viewed a house through an agent - if the agent finds out, they can come after you for their fee anyway.

The only problem with buying straight from a Notaire is that the properties they have can be quite limited - they're really only the ones that people have inherited and don't want so they ask the notaire that dealt with the will to just put it on the market.  Also, as being a notaire is one of those professions that they seem to enter for life, many of them are not spring chickens and they aren't exactly surfing the information superhighway.  The amount of notaire's properties floating around the internet is only a small proportion of what they actually have so you really need to visit them in person....

[Will]

Sophie, don't forget that you still pay a negotiation fee (sales commission) to a notaire, albeit at a lower rate than you would pay to an agent.

[Dreamweaver<P>"Strangers are only friends you havent met yet]

Thank you all for your replies.

Its nice to know that there are people out there! It really looks as though we will have to bite the bullet and make a prelim trip and have a good look around the areas that we are interested in - Aquitane, Languedoc, etc (South anyway). Any other suggestions gladly accepted.

[scotty]

[quote]Have been reading on the posts and it all seems a bit of a minfield for foreign buyers. We are coming to France to live and want somewhere nice, with good schooling, lively and a lovely area. ...[/quote]

We are having a new house built in Lot et Garonne (47). We have bought a plot of land 2500 (sq metres), and the builder's English- speaking architect is a bonus. We picked our own house design and the architect drew it up. The builder submitted all the paperwork to the Mairie and even took us to the notaire to sign for the land. We also have a testimonial from another Brit who is already in his house. It's another avenue for you to explore.

Scotty

[Cris at Migron]

Another kiwi replies: obvious choice for a kiwi is to try to find a place by the sea. Something in the blood, most of us miss it when we're away from it.

I wasted a few years looking around the coast to find "home" (part time, I'm UK based). Trying, I guess, to replicate the sandy beaches and coastal feel of NZ. However, the coast in Europe will never match what you leave behind; parts of the coast are breath-takingly lovely but crowded as hell in the summer; cars, buildings, people. So my suggestion is to go inland where you get something you can't find in NZ: old stone buildings and land which has been cultivated for thousands of years.

Much cheaper, too.

Also, do your research on the climate maps; we found a region (near Cognac) which has the highest sunshine hours after Provence, but also has enough rain to keep a garden and grass.

You could have a great time if you rent a gite for a few months, line up 10 estate agents, and visit three houses a day until one shouts "me!" at you.

You're spoit for choice in some regions, I fell in love daily.

Good luck.