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What price to offer in the Dordogne?


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Hi All,

Flying down in a couple of weeks to look at some properties in need of work in the Perigord Noir.

I have a question regarding price - I have noticed several properties listed with multiple agents that appear to have been on for some time.  The weird thing is they often list different prices for the same property - often as much as 30% differnt on the same house! 

If I make an offer on one of these, would it be correct the seller is "keen" and open to offers?  I don`t wish to offend the owner/agent with an unduly low offer but at the same time as a Brit I`m aware the agent may view me as having deep pockets!  I figure on a property listed at 100,000 euro a starting offer of 75,000 euro would be a good place to start?

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Look at the different advertisements for the same house. If advertised prices are different, make sure the packages are identical - e.g. does one ad include outbuildings, another not? Does one include fees (agent and/or notaire) and another not (notaire prices generally have to have the notaire's negotiation fee added as well as the legal fees and taxes)? There are many different reasons for variations in price, the most common being that the seller just hasn't bothered to tell all of the agencies about a price adjustment.

So make your offer based on the lowest price you find. As Dog says, it's what it's worth to you that counts. Remember that acceptance of an offer of 30% or more below asking price is not the norm, although forums like this seem to perpetuate that myth. It merely means either that the place was grossly overvalued in the first place or that the seller is getting really desperate for cash (10% or so is a more usual discount, so if you want the place and the asking price looks realistic, 12-15% is a better starting point). Unlike in England, an agent is not legally bound to pass on all offers to the seller; an offer that the agent knows will not be accepted may be ignored, and you could be marked down as a time-waster. By all means ask the agent how negotiable the price is; although not all will give you a straight answer you should be able to make a good judgement from the reaction. The agent wants a sale, after all, particularly when other agents have the house on their books.

Despite the multiplicity of optimistic valuations, there are still sensibly-valued houses around, and these can attract plenty of interest in an otherwise over-priced market and sell quickly. So if you find one of these, remember that the first offer received at the asking price secures the sale, and it is still all too easy to lose out on your ideal house for the sake of haggling over a couple of thousand euros. The French system is intended to prevent bidding wars and gazumping (though it doesn't stop some trying it on).

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We are about to complete on a house in the Dordogne. We offered about 20% below the asking price but that was because work was needed and before we made an offer the estate agent arranged for a builder to join us on our second viewing. We waited for his estimate of the cost of the work required, added a bit more for contingencies and then deducted that from the asking price. Since the estate agent had already pointed out to the sellers (getting divorced) that their failure to look after the property and do running repairs would impact on the value of the house they were already aware that it would not make the asking price and they accepted our lower offer. May be different if the family do not need to sell .
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When we were looking for a property in 2006 we found that a number of agents would tell us what the seller would accept - from memory one priced at 250k the owner would accept 200k (euros).

I presume this was in the agents interest to get a sale, so you could ask the agent initially to possibly get an idea.

Paul

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You can always go up with your next offer, if it's not enough, but never down. I would hate for my first offer to be accepted, I would forever wonder how much lower I could have got it for.

You only get one shot at this per house, get it right first time, then happy days, pay too much and forever kick yourself. 
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I think that must depend on the Notaire.

We bought (in 2002) using Immonot as our research tool (amongst many other property sites). I contacted many estate agencies by email. The Notaire was the only one to pay attention to precisely what we were looking for and then only send us details of properties that met our criteria. All the others either did not respond or did a scatter gun approach of sending details of every property on their books.

Irene

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I can well believe that what takes your heart is not what was on the checklist - I fear we all imagine a stunning old farmhouse with a couple of acres, stunning views, walking distance to a reasonably priced Michelin starred restaurant, oh, and on the banks of a river.....

I have checked Immonot but nothing in my chosen location but what is on there is very well priced so I shall keep an eye on it.

 

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Thanks Leo, I have spent many hours mouching (is that really a word?) around JB`s site  - though as ever you have to read between the lines - I loved the nice looking village house, full of character, stream etc. just needs a new roof as there is a hole in it - looking at the pics it appears the hole was made by the property going up in flames!

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We wanted a lock up and leave property. We then fell for a lovely renovated place in a small hamlet in an area we visited a lot in the Drome. We're so pleased we lost it to somebody else!It was very beautiful, but far bigger than we wanted - our hearts can really lead us in the wrong direction sometimes! I think we'd have been bored stiff by now, too! We now have a small apartment in a place we've known and loved for years, that's fully open all year and has lots of clubs etc for walking groups, concerts etc when we want to join in.
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