quick house sale ideas?

[nelleflo]

hello,

does anyone know whether there are any companies who buy houses for quick sale in france, as there are in the uk? i have a house in central brittany, but due to increased workload, etc, i now don't have any time to go there. so, sadly, i need to sell the place, and could do with realising the capital quickly... any ideas?

[mint]

I have sent you a PM.  If you click your PM button, you will be able to see my message.

All the best

[Clair]

NellFlo, click HERE to access your Private Message box.

[mint]

Thank you, Clair, for explaining MUCH better what I mean to say.

You know, I couldn't desert this Forum if I wanted to and join another one, unless YOU'RE going to be there as well!

[bubbles]

I am intrigued, Sweet 17.

We too have (almost) decided to sell our house in France.

Any chance of giving me a few tips too?

[mint]

Bubbles, I will pm you and give you some sites to consider, OK?  Puter being a bit temperamental en ce moment but I will send you a message, possibly after we have had dinner.

[AnOther]

Anything will sell at the right price.

I believe in some cases Notaires will buy properties but presumably only if they think they can turn a profit, which of course comes back to price.

Don't forget also to adjust for the exchange rate when you bought. If you bought when it was €1.45/1.50 you may be able to afford to sell at a considerable € loss but still make a £ gain so instead of thinking what it might be worth in € concentrate on what you need to realise to get your money back [;-)]

It all depends on how desperate you are to sell.

[mint]

Too right, Erns-Ano.  Same thing if you want to buy:  look for the bargains and for the folks who need  to sell or have already returned to the UK.

Might sound calculating but that's the way of the world. 

Also, if buying, look at it this way:  if you don't take their property off them, they remain desperate to sell.

If you are selling, look at it like this:  a few years down the line, 10 grand more or less ain't going to make that much difference!

[Quillan]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

Too right, Erns-Ano.  Same thing if you want to buy:  look for the bargains and for the folks who need  to sell or have already returned to the UK.

Might sound calculating but that's the way of the world. 

Also, if buying, look at it this way:  if you don't take their property off them, they remain desperate to sell.

If you are selling, look at it like this:  a few years down the line, 10 grand more or less ain't going to make that much difference!

[/quote]

Oh too true Sweet 17. I was talking to an agent at the rugby on Sunday and as she said the days of the seller setting the final sell price have gone round our neck of the woods. Houses are being sold at between 20 to 25% below their asking price and in one case she told me 30% for a very quick sale. Sadly thats the way of things at the moment particularly among those Brits that want to pull out and go back to the UK quickly.

Having said that you could be worse off and be in Spain. Both my brother-in-laws who live at different ends of Spain have seen the prices of houses drop through the floor. People with mortgages are simply walking in to the banks, handing their keys over and flying back to the UK. It really is a terrible thing.

[mint]

Q, you are so, so right about people desperate to sell.

As you know, we have been looking at buying another property as somewhere to park some sterling for a couple of years or so.

With 4 out of 5 properties we have viewed, either privately or with agents, the properties have belonged to Brits desperate to go back or indeed have already done so, leaving their properties empty.

As you say, it's a terrible thing and desperately sad.  I, personally, have never seen people with such hard choices to make.  If your OH is ill, disabled, etc. your income (such as it is) is barely sufficient to pay your way, you feel estranged in a country where you struggle to understand what's said to you (especially at the hospital), your own children are begging you to go live near them, what do you do?

You might well  have to sell your French property at a discount, write off your losses, go back to a UK that itself is an uncertain place to be but, at least, you can understand everybody when they speak to you and your children, if you are lucky, are glad to have you back for a spot of babysitting and general helping out with family life.

Not a happy, sunny picture, is it?  But then, that's what I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears in the 6 months or so that I have been househunting.

[cooperlola]

There aren't enough Brits around us to affect house prices that much hence the one couple I know who have returned got more for their home in sterling terms than they paid for it two years ago.  And they sold within three weeks of putting it on the market (well, they'd got a buyer - the process took longer of course) so it's not doom and gloom everywhere.  But as Sweets says - it's the sterling value you need to consider, thus in euro terms you can offer quite a bargain if you're realistic.

In the short term, o/p, is letting your place an option?

[NormanH]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

Q, you are so, so right about people desperate to sell.

As you know, we have been looking at buying another property as somewhere to park some sterling for a couple of years or so.

With 4 out of 5 properties we have viewed, either privately or with agents, the properties have belonged to Brits desperate to go back or indeed have already done so, leaving their properties empty.

As you say, it's a terrible thing and desperately sad.  I, personally, have never seen people with such hard choices to make.  If your OH is ill, disabled, etc. your income (such as it is) is barely sufficient to pay your way, you feel estranged in a country where you struggle to understand what's said to you (especially at the hospital), your own children are begging you to go live near them, what do you do?

You might well  have to sell your French property at a discount, write off your losses, go back to a UK that itself is an uncertain place to be but, at least, you can understand everybody when they speak to you and your children, if you are lucky, are glad to have you back for a spot of babysitting and general helping out with family life.

Not a happy, sunny picture, is it?  But then, that's what I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears in the 6 months or so that I have been househunting.

[/quote]

Your post sums up many things I have said before, and should be read by anybody thinking about buying a house in France as a place to live permanently.

I for one feel that France has nothing to lose by the return of these immigrants (often Health tourists) to their council flats.

[KathyF]

[quote user="NormanH"]Your post sums up many things I have said before, and should be read by anybody thinking about buying a house in France as a place to live permanently.

I for one feel that France has nothing to lose by the return of these immigrants (often Health tourists) to their council flats.
[/quote]

I do wish you would get off your hobby horse about health tourists, Norman. My experience is that it is often the onset of ill-health which makes people want or need to go back to the UK, despite the excellent French health service. Others go back because they ca no longer make ends meet or because of the pull of family. And your snide remark about council flats is simply unworthy of you.

[NickP]

Sweet 17, you wrote, " your income (such as it is) is barely sufficient to pay your way" come on if somebody can't afford to live in France then they certainly couldn't afford to live in the UK.  and "if your own children are begging you to live near them" ,why did you come here in the first place. As for illness, that I understand, but personally I would rather be ill in France than the UK

[Russethouse]

 Why do you think people with their own property in France came from Council flats ?

And by the way its more likely a housing association property now...

 

[Quillan]

Well Norman I am probably one of those 'health tourists'. I needed to lead a less stressful life and I knew I needed excellent health care and after doing some research my wife and I decided France was the best place to be and I have no intention of going back to the UK. I never lived in a council house and quite frankly if you don't like it tough luck [:D] .

[krusty]

I used to live in a council flat as a child ............ but no one is going to send me back (I hope ) [Www]

[Scooby]

[quote user="NickP"]Sweet 17, you wrote, " your income (such as it is) is barely sufficient to pay your way" come on if somebody can't afford to live in France then they certainly couldn't afford to live in the UK. 

[/quote]

We reckon the cost of living in France is at least twice that of the UK - maybe more and french health care isn't so wonderful.  I seriously injured my knee while in France 18 months ago.  The french doctor - although visiting very quickly - prescribed no treatment and diagnosed a 'strain'.  It transpired I had ruptured my anterior cruciate ligament, severely torn my medial ligament and fractured my knee cap.  I returned to the UK 48 hours after seeing the french doctor and was in a UK operating theatre within 24 hours for emergency surgery to staunch the bleeding into the knee joint.  The UK orthopeadic surgeon's comments on my french health care aren't repeatable. Granted people may have different experiences - but mine wasn't so good.

[Cendrillon]

Sweet 17 said

"If your OH is ill, disabled, etc. your income (such as it is) is

barely sufficient to pay your way, you feel estranged in a country

where you struggle to understand what's said to you (especially at the

hospital), your own children are begging you to go live near them, what

do you do?

You might well  have to sell your

French property at a discount, write off your losses, go back to a UK

that itself is an uncertain place to be but, at least, you can

understand everybody when they speak to you and your children, if you

are lucky, are glad to have you back for a spot of babysitting and

general helping out with family life."

In addition, remember that these people would also find it easier to apply and receive benefits if they return to U.K.

[Bob T]

[quote user="Scooby"][quote user="NickP"]Sweet 17, you wrote, " your income (such as it is) is barely sufficient to pay your way" come on if somebody can't afford to live in France then they certainly couldn't afford to live in the UK. 

[/quote]

We reckon the cost of living in France is at least twice that of the UK - maybe more and french health care isn't so wonderful.  I seriously injured my knee while in France 18 months ago.  The french doctor - although visiting very quickly - prescribed no treatment and diagnosed a 'strain'.  It transpired I had ruptured my anterior cruciate ligament, severely torn my medial ligament and fractured my knee cap.  I returned to the UK 48 hours after seeing the french doctor and was in a UK operating theatre within 24 hours for emergency surgery to staunch the bleeding into the knee joint.  The UK orthopeadic surgeon's comments on my french health care aren't repeatable. Granted people may have different experiences - but mine wasn't so good.

[/quote]

Does one case make the whole health care system rubbish?

[Russethouse]

 LOL, It often seems to when the boots on the other foot [Www]

[NickP]

Well Scooby, I don't know what you put in your shoppong basket, but it's obviously  not the same as goes in ours.We like to  think we live to a reasonable standard, and as we spend half our time in France and the other half in the UK. we feel that we have a pretty good idea of relative costs in the two countries. For you to say "the cost of living in France is double the UK" is your take, but isn't our experience. As for the health system, well The UN says that the French health care is the best in the world. I am sorry that you had a bad experience but that doesn't make "the system" all bad. My better half  was an SRN, who worked in Hospitals in the UK for years, indeed was a tutor nurse, and before retiring was a Practice Nurse for ten years at our local surgery, had the misfortune while we were in France to develop Peritonitis. She says that the care and treatment she received during the illness and after was the best that you could possibly get, so our take is, we think the French system is wonderful.

[Scooby]

I don't know which part of the UK you are comparing France with but I'm guessing it must be Mayfair!  France is horrendously expensive compared to the UK.  For example - we bought what we thought was a turkey breast joint in Intermarche last week at 5 euros for 500g.  It transpired it was the dog ends of gristly leg meat cunningly disguised as a turkey 'joint' - think Baldrick in the trenches....  This week I just spent £4 for a 575g piece of solid turkey breast meat in Asda. 

Then there is the hairdressers.  I went to the local (village) hairdressers for the first (and last!) time a few weeks ago.  Colour, foils trim and blow dry - 96 euros.  Same treatment at my local hairdressers in the UK - £28.  Even excluding the recent dive in exchange rates the price is double.

I think many refuse to acknowledge the price differences because it might suggest that (a) France is not the nirvana they like to tell everyone it is...and (b) the UK isn't as black as they like to paint.

[KathyF]

[quote user="NickP"] .....come on if somebody can't afford to live in France then they certainly couldn't afford to live in the UK...........[/quote]

I would take issue with that, Nick, especially for the retired.  The free-at-the-point-of-need NHS is worth its weight in gold to me with my regular prescriptions for two chronic conditions.  In the UK I can visit the GP and get any prescriptions I need free of cost to me and I don't have to make any annual contribution or buy a top-up. If I feel my utility bills are higher than they need be I can switch provider at the click of a mouse to get the best deal and if I subsequently find a better one I can switch again. Food is certainly cheaper nowadays in British supermarkets, even leaving aside the poor exchange rate, and the choice is much wider.

A relative of mine is single, retired and on a very low pension. In the UK she gets housing benefit to pay the rent, council tax benefit, winter fuel payment and extra if there's a very cold snap, and guaranteed pension credit to give her enough (just) to live on. Would any of these be available to her in France?

Lots of things are great in France and we love spending time there. I doubt however we would be better off there in the long run.

[NickP]

Scooby, I think that we had better agree to differ on this subject. My experience of the UK is West Sussex not Mayfair, and in the Loir Et Cher they don't pay silly money for haircuts,  they look at the price list first. As for your example of buying scrag ends well that's your choice. P.S. I thought a banker, as you described yourself in an earlier posting, would  know that 500g @ 5Euro is not quite double of 575g @ £4. Having said that maybe that is why the banking industry is in disarray.