|
Everything you always wanted to know about France - from France |
|
The Mandy Rice-Davies School of SalesmanshipTonyI am interested and have been for a number of years in purchasing property in the South of France. I just haven't quite worked out how to go about it. I have visited several exhibitions but get bad vibes from hard sales & one company only shows. I have looked online at many agents both French and British but do not feel I should trust anyone who claims to provide the "whole package". Most recently I visited a show by Macanthony Realty but when I did a Google search got loads of mixed messages regarding just about every aspect of the process of buying one of their properties. At the show they drew my attention to a leaseback property which did look great in the brochure but I am concerned about getting legal and financial advice from the same source. I suppose the question I want to ask is where do I start in the buying process? Are leasebacks a good deal if I am happy with the amonut of personal use I am getting? Can you trust one company to meet all my needs? I am personally attached to the amount of money I have and I would hate to lose it through ignorance of the system! I would appreciate any help you can offer or any reading material that would enlighten me. Thanks in anticipation. Sara === Hello Sara For something as important as buying a home, you must have complete confidence in the people you are dealing with and feel comfortable about anything you look at. I am directly involved in real-estate in France, so I suppose I am also saying that you must look very carefully at anything I write and that I will have an ulterior motive in anything I tell you. My advice is to question everything you are told and to assume that people will not always be telling the truth. Only believe what you can see to be true and preferably can check. Try to get references and recommendations. In my last newsletter I reviewed a book called "Buying Property Abroad" - it has checklists of things to consider and covers briefly most of the aspects of buying property, but it does not make any recommendations. What it does do, and what I believe is the vital point - it tells you to get independent professional advice on nearly every page. You raise several very important questions which would take a lot more than one email to give an answer to, but I will make quick comments - please remember this is my opinion and some may say "well he would say that wouldn't he?". Your feelings are absolutely correct - do not trust anyone who claims to offer the "whole package". You need expertise in legal, financial, property, valuations and many other skills before you find the right property deal, but importantly, you need these "experts" working for you, not for the person selling to you - it is true that a good agent will know of other, independent, good legal and financial people, but shop around until you find people you like and trust. Exhibitions are a very bad place to buy and you should never agree to anything in such an artificial, hyped up, sales environment. They can be useful, look and listen, take notes, you are likely to find places you had not thought of and learn about property. Never believe any sales pitch which says "buy now they are going fast" - so why are they there if they are so good. I can assure you that any real bargain never gets through the net to find a place on an exhibition stand, if it was such a bargain it would have been snapped up by one of the tens of thousands of people looking "on their feet". Leasebacks have been sold in the UK and Eire on a high pressure conveyor belt recently - I started to investigate and report on them five years ago - they have been around for over 30 years and are a good, safe, low interest, investment only if you are a high level French tax payer saving for your pension. They are not - I repeat not - a way you get a holiday home which pays for itself and in 20 years can retire to. Leasebacks are like an investment bond, do not, I repeat, do not expect any capital gains. I can offer you leasebacks to buy in most of the good developments in France. There are some "soft" leasebacks which give longer use for yourself, but overall these are investment properties to give a fixed return. Ask yourself why it is that the French owners hope the managing agents will renew the lease after the first 9 to 11 years and the English buyers hope they will not. Yes, you own the freehold, but the management company owns the lease and if it is profitable for them they will never let it go, under French law they can keep the lease indefinitely unless you pay huge compensation for their "loss" - this is the law, ignore what they say on their sales literature it is usually very misleading and "economical with the truth". Purchase and slae of property in France is always dealt with by a Notaire, in many cases the Notaire will have a list of property for sale and can be an excellent source of real-estate for sale. A lot of homes (it was about half) in France are never put in the hands of immobilier (estate-agents) and are sold by word of mouth. The properties listed at exhibitions and by non-French Internet sites and "specialists" are in the majority of cases only those properties already listed by French agents. The English (Irish or American) "agent" is acting as a "stringer" and shares the commission with the real licensed French agent. Cut out the middleman, go to the source, nearly all properties they list can be found on Google under another French agent who they have to go through by French law. Some companies, like VEF, (see my article in the newsletter) add on a lump of money (in their case over 7,000 euro) as a "fee" - their "managers" in France also get a slice of the French agents commission (do not believe what they say on their website) - you are paying this on top of anything you could have found out from Google in a few hours. There are a few British estate agents registered in France. They are easy to find and you should ask for proof of their Carte Professional - without this they are not agents and will be sharing commission with a real agent. My advice, to start the buying process, is to spend time in France exploring and decide where you would like to buy. Once you have found the area, spend time looking in the towns and villages until you find a short list of those you really would like to live in or have a home in. Once you have found the place - then start looking for property. Not only the agents, but also ask in the cafes, the boulangerie and Mairie, visit the Notaire offices and chat to any ex-pats you find on the Internet. If you choose Languedoc, bring round a bottle of wine and chat to me. I could write for hours on this subject, but I hope this helps a bit - trust me ! Bonne Chance Tony There are over 2,000 features and articles on this site about French life and living in France. You can search from the search box above. Do browse through our website and please use the advertising links, they help pay for the site. I do try to reply to all mail - Contact Me - most is about property or living in France. I publish comments in this newsletter which I believe are of interest and may help find answers for people wanting to come to France. I hope readers will go to the adverts which help support our overheads. |
|