Does the internet make it easier or harder to move and live in France ?

[alittlebitfrench]

Yawn ET ????

You been out clubbing again in rural Normandy ?

Or was it 'Soiree Loto' at the local salle de fête?

I love those rural events. 'The festival of the tomato' !!!

[woolybanana]

Perhaps you should try the festival of the Molotov Cocktail over in Seine St Denis. Always goes with a bang so it is said!

[idun]

LOL you have just reminded me when, for the first time I was obliged to go to a Lotto for the rugby club my sons were members of, a fund raising thing.

Never ever played bingo, and in spite of having been in France for a number of years, singularly lacked 'lotto vocabulary'. I was dreading winning as I was so stressed forgot to listen to how others shouted out.

I did not win.

Fortunately, the club never organised another one either. And I still don't know how one shouts a 'win' in french and don't need to[Www]

[EuroTrash]

I did go to the theatre last night as it happens, but I wasn't back particularly late. The yawn came more from seeing that yet another thread, which I thought started off with the potential to be quite interesting, had sunk back down to another diatribe on "All Brits are suckers because they all buy their houses through Greenacres and ALBF is the only smart cookie in the biscuit tin".

(Oh and for the record, no you haven't touched a nerve because I bought my house direct from the seller.)

[alittlebitfrench]

@ Et

I started the thread...so I can do what I want. You could start a thread yourself you know !!!!! But you won't.

...and also you do the same on other forums. I have read your posts. Maybe not about property, but you are down of down when it comes to threads about Brits moving to France. At least I am trying to help in the most important bit.

@ Wolly

I would rather sit on my balcony and watch my car being touched than go to the 'soiree de crêpe' at the local salle de fête. Don't get me started about 'concours de table tennis'. LOL.

[EuroTrash]

You could have the best of both worlds - leave a few eggs on the bonnet of your car and hey presto ! your crepe will be prepared for you and tossed up to your balcony to land in your lap when the tank goes up.

TBH I haven't visited the green place at all this year, it started getting me wound up with dodgy advice being dished out as if it's gospel. I visit another blue place where there are a couple of "characters" and a bit of banter and leg pulling, (I didn't know you went there...!) and now and again it seems to attract dreamers looking for the land of milk and honey so yes I do try to encourage them find out a few facts first. I don't see telling them how to buy a house as the most important bit at all. What strikes me as far more important is the long term plan and should they be doing it in the first place. In spite of the wonders of the internet there are still people who think they can move to France, work here and keep paying NICs and tax in the UK or not work at all and keep getting free healthcare, or find a job here within weeks even though they speak no French because English speakers are so rare and sought after in France, or buy a ruin for sixpence and renovate it yourself for tuppence and sell it for a king's ransom, etc. If they move believing that, then never mind paying a few thousand over the odds for a house, they risk getting themselves into a nightmare and ending up miserable.

[Chancer]

I didnt move here believing all that, I just came without any planning but it made me laugh to read it because you have just about charted my time in France in a couple of lines [:D]

I have turned down several job offers since being here despite making it 100% clear that I dont want to work, not interested, not available, this never used to happen in the UK.

First week a Parisien lady speaking superb English who I did not know from Adam wanted me to decamp to Normandy or Brittany to spend a year renovating their Holiday home, money no object, she firmly wanted a British artisan.

First year please come and teach English to the Airbus cadrés, if you dont we will lose the contract.

Please come and run my aérospace machining factory based on no more than that I appeared to be interested and knowledgable when having a guided visit by the MD and despite that fact that I had been out of industry for 3 décades.

Please come and be a battlefield guide, we have far too much work and will lose a contract if you dont, really pushy despite my saying I had no knowledge (doesn't matter!) nor interest (doesn't matter again!).

There have been others that I cant recall at present plus loads and loads of come and build an extension, rewire our house, do our plumbing, block paving, pretty mush all the trades, all I need to do is pick up a different tool and work and people think that I am experienced [:@]

I dont kid myself that any of the above is because I am gifted, just appear to be competent in stark contrast to what they are used to.

I did not pay over the odds for my property either, it turned out to be a fantastic bargain with potential that even I had not seen, I could however have been paying well over the odds I had no idea of prices, it was just an impulsive purchase that for once I did not regret.

Editted, I forgot the most recent job offer, please come to the lycée pro and give English lessons to all the classes because the professeur is off sick and doesn't want to come back, if you dont then none of them will get their BAC [:(]

[andyh4]

ALBF, I think your analysis of the statistics is a bit off.

you wrote:

At the date of the book (October last year) they had 940,764 listed property. Seloger 815 k but of course you will find the same property often listed on both sites.

Furthermore, according to notaires 40% of transactions are now between individuals rather than through estate agents.

So if 40% are not via estate agents, 60 % are through them - so already LBC can at best only hold the 40% and not the 50% you claim.

As you say SL is a good second best and there could be a lot of overlap, but that means they must be eating into LBC's potential 40% if 50 % of the properties are shown on both sites then LBC's share falls to 29% - assuming there are no other ways (other sites and simple word of mouth) that allow buyers and sellers to avoid an agent.

I don't think it is unreasonable to estimate that LBC's share is somewhere between the 17% that your quick Eymet analysis revealed and perhaps 25%. Certainly not the 50% you have claimed. However 20-25% is not to be sniffed at and clearly this is a good resource for finding property.

[Chancer]

Andy, most immobiliers after getting you signed up to pay 6% = loadsamoney then put an annonce with some K-rap photos on Leconcoin [:-))]

 

People get really pi55ed off about it but more fool them, even as an immigrant with little language skills they could place an ad themselves for zero cost and probably make a more appealing one.

[andyh4]

In most of the bits of France I looked at the sellers' fees were zero and it was the buyer that paid. However I don't doubt that some agents use LBC and SL as cheap ways to merchant their sales.

Quite how that would skew the stats is not possible to guess without some more statistical info.

[grumpyaudeman]

Does the internet make it easier or harder to move and live in France ?

Daft question how does the internet make it harder lets have a few examples