we want to buy a property

[Ksh]

Hi there

I hope someone can help with (what may be) a really stupid question. Having fell in love with the country we have finally decided to take the plunge and buy. The problem is that we have the finances to buy a run-down or wreck of a property outright and could renovate in stages (we have done this before in the UK)but, my husband being the impatient sort, wants to live the dream now so we have considered paying more for a property with less work, if any, to do.

However, this option would probably mean a french mortgage and i would like to know if anyone can tell me exactly what paperwork we would need to take with us, ie for income proof, credit check/references as we will be taking a couple of months looking for the house,renting whilst there, and ideally i'd like to have the correct paperwork with us if possible

Hope someone can help
KSB

[Bones]

Depending on who you use for your mortgage you need your life history plus three months Bank Statements. (We used Banque Woolich)
We also had the implulse and only spent two weeks in France with an idea of what we wanted - could not find anything that matched our ideal so bought a habitable house in a Bastide town that was cheaper than some of the dilapidated farmhouses that we first saw. We are very happy with our purchase and look forward to moving as soon as finance permits.

[Lbannister<P><a target=_blank href="http:www.carolynbannister.com">http:www.carolynbannister.com<A><P>]

Abbey national France will send out a mortgage pack if you ring them, can't remember number of the top of my head. The pack is very clear and self explanitory, gives a complete list of everything you need, we just folloed this and didn't have one query, and our finances are far from staight forward!! Even if you don't use them the pack is very informative and their rate is very good, we have just completed with a 4percent mortgage, best the agent could come up with was 6.5. When I told her the rate we had been quoted she was astounded, apparently this rate is only for Brits buying in France not regular french people, didn't know that at the time, not very fair I know but thats the way the cookie crumbles
Hope this helps

Lyn

[Jilly]

Kim

Can't help about mortgages but can give some info about finding rental property. It is very difficult unless you are going to pay full holiday gite prices. If you want to know about my experience e-mail me.

Jilly

[Laurens]

We too went on holiday in September and came back with a house! However we got a flexible advance on our London house, at 4.7% which is pretty good. This pays for our french property and leaves us with 22 000 to spent on 1st stage of renovation (so we can live in it!!). Then we plan to move, and my husband will transfer to a french company. Hopefully we can get a french motgage to finish off the house. Hope this helps.