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Dismal quality of real estate listings - agents, lift your game!


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[quote user="Mrs KG"]BIB wrote "I’m not quite sure what you are saying. Most British residents would consider 5% commission to be huge. "

I've just lifted this from Agence de la Tour

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Maison de ville a vendre-Lassay les Chateaux

Nous vous proposons a l'achat une charmante maison de ville sur 3 niveaux ,située dans un cité plein d'histoire.Cette maison vous offre un pièce de vie de 31m²,une cuisine,trois chambres un grenier et un cave .Vous profiterez en plus d' un petit cour orienté sud ouest. Classe énergie: D. Son prix est de 79750euros dont 4750euros ttc d'honoraires d'agence (6,33% -soit 75000euros hors honoraires) à la charge de l'acquéreur.Pour plus de renseignements n'hésitez pas à contacter l'agence La Licorne Immobilier de Bais au 02.43.01.08.88en précisant la référence de l'annonce: B12643LB3 dont 6.33 % honoraires TTC à la charge de l'acquéreur.

Référence annonce : B12643LB3

Le prix indiqué comprend les honoraires à la charge de l'acheteur : 6,33% TTC du prix du bien hors honoraires

Prix hors honoraires : 75 000 €[/quote]

That certainly hasn’t clarified anything. What was the point of your copied and pasted post? To prove that 5% commission is low? Last time I had any dealings with UK estate agents their commission was less than 1% but that 1% was much more money than the nearly 10% I paid when I bought my French house.
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The photos can be hilariously bad. Some agents make no effort at all to show properties at their best, although the vendors don't seem to help themselves much

[IMG]http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd192/Alzoff/Desirable%20residence_1.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

(Haven't posted a photo for some time, so hope this has worked....)

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A friend was looking at properties in an Immobilier’s window only last week and asked about the fees being charged. There the fees on the cheaper properties were over 10%, falling to about 4% on the most expensive. Five or six percent is not bad for France but way out of line with the much lower rates that UK estate agents manage on through their higher turnover of more expensive properties.
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Maybe French estate agents don't bother with detailed descriptions and quality photographs because they are used to most of their prospective customers having short attention spans and being interested only in the approximate location and square metrage.

We showed our previous, village, house to a few French prospects before handing it over to an agent. They asked only how many square metres, and took no notice whatsoever of the many improvements and additions we had made in the ten years we had owned it at that time.

It was sold 8 years ago, and I visited the new owner a few days ago.

The expensive air conditioning system I installed has never been used since the day we sold the house. The guy we sold it to said he didn't like it cold - fair enough - but he said the heat was "the wrong kind of heat" for the winter.

The current owner said it's too expensive to run. I told her roughly what it would cost, as she is sleeping on the floor downstairs with everything closed in this hot weather, and that it was far less than the cost of any other form of heating during most of winter, but her eyes were glazing over.

The hardwood framed windows and new pinewood shutters I installed have never been re-varnished or re-painted, and are starting to rot.

No decorating or maintenance has been done since we sold the house, except that the brand new ~ €2000 pellet stove I installed immediately before the sale was scrapped and replaced after only 5 years.

We would have been far better of if we had done nothing at all to the house, provided we could have put up with living in it as it was when we bought it, for ten years, as what we spent made absolutely no difference to the sale price.

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Thing is, and, hands up, my experience of French agents isn't that current, they don't do much for their money. There are many whose attitude seems to be a bit lax, to say the least. Assuming they need their inflated commission to survive, you'd think they'd be a bit more anxious to earn it.

Ok, the UK market moves faster, is more buoyant and is probably overall dealing with more expensive properties, but most agents there will make an effort.

I've visited French agents who, from all impressions, really couldn't have given a stuff about trying to sell me a house. I pity the poor suckers who had entrusted them with the sale of their house.
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nomoss wrote : The hardwood framed windows I installed have never been re-varnished, and are starting to rot, as are the shutters, which are only pine.

When we were first house-hunting .. ignorant as I then was .. I, too, was dismayed at the condition of many of the houses we were shown .. and this was in an affluent and popular area.

But some words stayed with me when I asked about the state of the wooden windows in one house .. answer : rip them out .. everyone has upvc/alu here anyway, no maintenance needed.

Things are different here. We have learnt to live with it.
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I have a couple of observations on immo fees and the generally poor quality of immo service.

Some of the properties are at some distance from immo offices, so you need to factor in their cost of travelling and, OF COURSE, the cost of their lunches in a resto if they are not near enough to base for the all-important déjeuner!

Then, the houses on their books could be kilometres apart.  It's not like in the UK where you might see the name of the local agent on all the neighbouring streets and a few minutes walk or drive from the agency.

If they employ "negociators", most of these are not properly trained and qualified.  ALBF will tell you, as he has done in the past, that all the English-speaking ones were Tesco check-out staff and Quick-Fit tyre changers back in the UK!

 These negociators then have to have their percentage of the fees as they are normally on a no sale no commission basis and still have to keep a car and a mobile phone, internet, etc.

For nomoss, I have seen and heard for myself, that the French often think that les anglais over-renovate their houses and also that the renovations are "not to their taste".  Maybe they mean that the prices are too high as sellers try to recoup their expenditure and buyers are reluctant to pay what they see as over-priced.  In particular, they are not really into less is more, clean and neutral interiors, even minimalist, that we so like.  Also, NOT all those bathrooms and loos.....why would you need so many and why one for each bedroom?[:D]

Many agents, in a depressed market, have hundreds of properties lurking on their books, some having been there for several years.  So they have no in-depth knowledge of the properties and they are really only interested in selling those where the buyers are prepared to accept much less than comparable pricces for comparable houses or the properties that are the easiest to sell.  So, not a "pile of stones" in the middle of the countryside, according to ALBF.  BTW, I am not having a dig at ALBF because he is capable of hitting the nail on the head and he does tell it like it is!

Most immos and sellers also have no idea of "targeted marketing".  I asked a friend (in the throes of selling her French house) who she perceived as her possible market and she looked at me totally nonplussed.  So I said, who do you think will buy your house, retired, with kids, professionals, commuters, who?  You don't need to be a candidate for Best Immo in France to know that targetting would be the basis of your selling strategy and you would write your blurp accordingly, n'est ce pas?

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[quote user="mint"] ..................  I have seen and heard for myself, that the French often think that les anglais over-renovate their houses ..........................[/quote]

You can say that again.

Many of the houses we have looked at, and that's a hell of a lot, looked inside and outside like something one would see in a film or TV set for the Middle Ages.

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[quote user="You can call me Betty"]And don't forget tongue and groove everywhere. A house is not a home unless it looks like an abandoned sauna.[/quote]

Ah, yes. Les lambris.

And don't forget crépi on every flat surface not covered in papier peint.

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[quote user="BritinBretagne"]I’ve gone to a lot of trouble to create that effect in my home. I could have hidden the seventeenth century fireplace behind placo and laminated flooring but I believe that it deserves to be seen as do the other period features of the house.[/quote]

I am just about to convert our 16th grange 'monument historic' into a cinema room.

I am not sure you would approve BinB.

I will keep the stones walls though. LOL
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