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Languedoc. Wanted. Winter let near Bezier


SimonR
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Hi,

My wife and I are travelling in the Languedoc and are keen to find a winter let north/north west of Bezier. We're looking for a 2/3 bedroom place from the beginning of November for 5 - 6 months.
- Broadband is vital, a wood burning stove would be nice! Plan is to base ourselves here while we look for a property.

Can you help?

Simon and Monica

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Sorry, just sold mine ( in Roquebrun) to local people in two months.  (Barrel 2 for wooly banana)

One tip if you are buying, ignore the ridiculous prices asked by some agents with a mainly Dutch/Belgian/German client base.

I bought mine from locals 12 years ago, and have sold  back to locals.

They know the market, and the banks know them so they had no problem with getting the credit.

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[quote user="NormanH"]By the way it's Béziers

with an accent on the é and an s at the end

Or Besiers if you prefer the old Occitan spelling (no longer used )

[/quote]

Amusing banter guys but how about some help finding a property?

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Simon, Monica

I do not think that basing yourselves anywhere for six months will add much in your search for a property.

The way to go is to have a very clear idea as to what you want (size/condition/location/price), and what you intend to do with it.

We spent hundreds of hours on the internet researching possible candidates. Armed with a list of about 12 we set aside one week for our property search and stayed in a cheap hotel. In all we visited about 20 properties.

So my advice is spend a couple of days compiling your list of must haves, become a computer nerd, and make a couple of short visits to introduce yourself to agents/Mayors/Lawyers.

Driving around an area looking at ‘for sale’ signs can also help.

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Simon & Monica, I'm afraid I'm no help to you either.

Welcome to the forum; if you've been lurking here for a while you'll know that sometimes things get tangled up with people having little digs at each other etc.

I think it's a very good idea to spend the winter close to where you think you'd like to live. If you still like the area when some of the businesses are closed out of season, and when the weather might be cold and wet and still like it, you'll know more or less the worst it can get. Many places are attractive places to be in season, but close down for the winter, so that you have to travel for things you need. Good luck. [:)]

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Another thought, as friends of ours are considering.  Come and book into a hotel, and then you can hunt for rental properties in situ - much easier than trying to find anything suitable on the internet - there are tales of people coming unstuck that way.    And unless you know the area out of season, it is very sensible to try out, it is not unknown for a complete change of location to take place after a couple of months of a French winter.  And even down here in the south (we are about 30 mins drive from Beziers) the weather is not as warm as the pundits would have you believe, even though we hope last year was an aberration.

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[quote user="NormanH"]Sorry, just sold mine ( in Roquebrun) to local people in two months.  (Barrel 2 for wooly banana)

One tip if you are buying, ignore the ridiculous prices asked by some agents with a mainly Dutch/Belgian/German client base.

I bought mine from locals 12 years ago, and have sold  back to locals.

They know the market, and the banks know them so they had no problem with getting the credit.

[/quote]

Just missed a place in Roquebrun. Shame - it looked like a good place. Don't happen to know of any one who's letting out there?

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[quote user="Braco"]Simon, Monica

I do not think that basing yourselves anywhere for six months will add much in your search for a property.

The way to go is to have a very clear idea as to what you want (size/condition/location/price), and what you intend to do with it.

We spent hundreds of hours on the internet researching possible candidates. Armed with a list of about 12 we set aside one week for our property search and stayed in a cheap hotel. In all we visited about 20 properties.

So my advice is spend a couple of days compiling your list of must haves, become a computer nerd, and make a couple of short visits to introduce yourself to agents/Mayors/Lawyers.

Driving around an area looking at ‘for sale’ signs can also help.[/quote]

Thanks for advice but surely you can't get a feel for an area operating from an hotel for a few days? My fear was that a house can look perfect on the internet but the surrounding area/ village could fall short. Our plan is to do that research over the winter months. We'll see how it goes.In the meantime, we're still looking for a winter let......

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Hi SimonR

I think that the points I made are valid. Looking for a property before you have a feel for the place is taking things in the wrong order. Once you have a very clear idea as to what you want then the internet is the perfect tool for eliminating the properties and areas that do not meet your criteria and identifying a few possibilities.

 

We knew the exact area and type of house we wanted before we went house hunting.  

 

The cheap hotel was chosen as I was there for the one and only purpose of viewing properties, and did not want any distractions. Not even lingering over a good breakfast.

 

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