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looking for british agents to sell house.


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Hi there,

I'm looking for British estate agents to sell a property I own.  I was wondering if you have seen, or heard of an agent that deals with mid range property (not millionares) in France?  Anybody have any advise about selling a property here in france with a UK based estate agent?

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Most of the UK agents who advertise in the glossies are merely acting on behalf of French agents. So you would do best to go initially to an English-speaking agent in France.

Be wary of parting with money or entering into exclusive deals at present with any agent, particularly UK-based. Several high-profile ones have recently gone out of business or cut right back.

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Hi,

Only 1 agent went into liquidation on the French property market (VEF). All the other ones are still active and you can trust highly reputable companies. If you ask them kindly they will put you in touch with their local estate agents (if you give your property address and contact details).

This post has been edited by the moderators as it broke the forum code of conduct.
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[quote user="Pierre"]Hi,

Only 1 agent went into liquidation on the French property market (VEF). All the other ones are still active and you can trust highly reputable companies. If you ask them kindly they will put you in touch with their local estate agents (if you give your property address and contact details).

This post has been edited by the moderators as it broke the forum code of conduct.[/quote]

Three firms  with shops in my neck of the woods (  14/50 Calvados/Manche) have vanished overnight!

Leo

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if you live in the house in france full time you could advertise your property on the internet like french property.com then when you find a buyer you get an english speaking notaire to do the paper work, why bother using a uk based estate agent or any agent if you dont have to, keep it simple keep it sweet

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If I were the OP I would go round the local (French) agents and find one that somebody who speaks English. In my experience a lot of French agencies have at least one person that does.

When I bought my house 8 years ago I stopped dealing with UK agents because as somebody else said in most cases they don't actually have property themselves they use French based agents much to my dismay.

The other route is something like French Property News (magazine). My friend sold two properties through them very quickly. Mind you there are not a lot of English buyers around at the moment.

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I think the OP will find, as I intimated above, that using solely a British agent to sell a house in France will fall foul of the laws and system in France. The sale has to be handled in France - you can certainly do it privately, and appoint a French notaire. But as the OP specifically asked about an agent it would appear that they themselves don't want to, or are unable to, handle all the things like advertising, marketing, showing potential buyers around, answering numerous questions, dealing with time wasters etc etc.

Even the most 'British' of the British agents, VEF, used franchised agents immobiliers in France. I would suggest looking at British companies who advertise prominently in the press (La Residence would be an example) or those who come well up on Internet search engines (1st-for-french-property.co.uk seems to do well in this respect). They might be able to put you in touch with a French agent in your area with whom they deal, or you may be able to work out who the agents are with houses on the British company's books. Then if the British agent finds a buyer the commission will be shared between them and the French agent, so you will have nothing to pay and the whole thing should run seamlessly.

As far as actual sales in France go, Judie (Mrs W) is still getting enquiries, and achieving sales, for the agency she runs in Normandy (albeit mostly at the lower end of the market) to non-French buyers, so if your pricing is realistic you will be able to sell. She usually recommends going with several agencies, and advertising privately too, to maximise your chances - don't be tempted by hype and high valuations from agents looking for exclusivity agreements, which seldom achieve what is promised.

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[quote user="Fay"]Blimey! Hadn't heard that VEF had gone to the wall! How are the mighty fallen...[/quote]

Surprised me too - but perhaps the usual - got too big for boots applies here?  Once tried to get a job with them .... glad I didn't get it - now!  Or is it just that all things, including sometimes, good companies, have a natural lifespan, after which, they die???

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If you search rightmove for international properties you may find a French agent in your area who advertises in the UK as well.

However, with the exchange rate as it is you may have a better chance of selling in France.

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Hi Glacier 1.........We have just bought privately in Charente from an English seller. She did have to drop her price to a realistic level but the property sold quickly. We saw the advert on 1st for French Property which seems an excellent website. There were a number of people interested in the property in the UK but we were able to travel at once. Buyers are out there!

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Hi,

When I sold my house in rural Brittany last year I deliberately went with the local French Agency from whom we had originally bought the house in 2002, I decided that I would get the best response from using them. (Would a French person go into a British estate agency?) All viewings were accompanied by the same person, who spoke excellent English,. and it was sold to a local couple. They also arranged for all the necessary checks to be made.

I could have used the internet, but because of my particular circumstances I didn't want to show strangers around my house.

Best of luck, in what ever method you use. At the end of the day it's what you feel most comfortable with.

 

 

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Hi, we bought our house from an english agent who lives in france but not because he was english but because he had the house we wanted which as it happened was the last agent we saw and the last house we viewed. Originally we contacted La Residence who made appointments for us with 2 french estate agents and 3 english estate agents (all live in france). I would definately recommend La Residence for brits looking to buy (and sell) in france. Perhaps the only downside from a buyer's point of view is that some of the cheaper properties we wanted to see were already under offer when we arrived in france for the viewings, however, that was 6 years ago and things are much slower at the moment.

Chris
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We bought from a French/English independant company and we were not aware it was owned by both a French and an English lady. We went into the Immobilier as they had the property we wanted in their window. The English lady dealt with us and the company were excellent even accompanying us to the Notaire on several occassions and organising the change of ownership with the utility companies for us as our French at the time was poor. I would highly reccommend this private compny to anyone. No one can blame an agent at this time if a property does not sell as the market is slow but this company sell to the French as well as to English people.
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