Survive France Property Shop chat

What kind of thing are you after Liz ?

Liz: most of the properties we have sold over the past three years have gone for up to 20-25% less than the asking price. This represents more than €150k off in some cases! My advice is to view as many properties as possible - without really looking at the prices too closely - and then make an offer on the one that interests you. The offer should be based on what you can afford ... and what you think the property is worth. Get to know the agents you are working with and, over time, they will give you their estimate of the property's real value.

Above all, tell vendors and agents alike if you are a cash buyer: this can change everything. Someone who needs a mortgage or is waiting to sell an unsellable property ... and expects to have a low offer accepted is wasting their time. Low, but serious, offers from a cash buyer will often succeed.

Just a suggestion to Neil Whitehead, your property details do not have any pricing on - this would be helpful to us potential buyers as we need to have an indication of pricing - we tend to write-off any details as we have no idea whether or not to be interested. We have been told by French estate agents that buyers overvalue their properties and how difficult it is for them to convince them of a realistic expectation with the current high level of properties available in SW France particularly. One agent sent us details of a property well out of our price bracket with a note saying that the owner was in fact prepared to accept a much, much lower offer - we are all confused - both buyers and sellers! Another property we had imagined again to be above our limit subsequently sold for over €100,000 less than the current (then) advertised price! Another was part of a bidding war and sold for €55,000 over original asking price....In the UK, we can find out the prices of properties sold, what the property was originally purchased for by current owners etc. so have a clear idea where we all stand - Wish there was a similar situation in France.

That's the next part to tackle; our original sale site is : www.northofpau.wordpress.com.

I'm working on our holiday site as well (we are on A-gite.com which translates details into 6 languages which helps).

That's the way to go, Neil. marketing, marketing, marketing. Create the product, create the demand and give people ideas and projects they can relate too. Buyers are not just looking for 'nice properties': they want a lifestyle change and everything that goes with it: self-sufficiency, different culture, income-generating gites.chambres d'hôtes, whatever. Now, if your new site were translated into French ....

Simon, we reduced the price of our property by 50,000 which brought it into a lower price bracket and we soon had 6 viewings all of whom said it was too large with too much land! So we searched for a USP. We bought the property because we wanted to run art holidays in the heart of the countryside and have decided that the self-sufficiency market is one we could address directly which is what we are investigating now.

www.selfsufficiencyinsouthwestfrance.wordpress.com

Sorry Hilary, I'm confused...as someone hoping to sell here and return to UK, it would be to our advantage for the pound to be weak against the euro, as in when we arrived here years ago, we received €1.45 to £1. I must be missing the point of your thread, if you could elaborate :-)

Hello,

just a in the early thought, in the early hours.....

Potential sellers should be aware, that it may be a 'falling market' now, but the pound against the euro has already being making significant gains recently and because of the UK recovery making progress (and already huge price hikes in a limited supply of property), over there, this is likely to continue.

Methinks, if one doesn't have to sell now, then the environment for doing so may be considerably better in a couple of years, with the return of really good exchange rates of the pound against the euro.......

I know I haven't posted on here for a few days (and I haven't read ALL the threads) but I would be happy to pay a small fee to find a suitable rental property or when the time comes a house to purchase. I have contacted a few of the 'Estate Agents' that we have made allies with but until you are in the country and continually present I feel that we are not being taken seriously at all, apart from an exceptional few. So this site would be invaluable.

The success of this thread proves one thing: a lot of people are desperate to sell their property. Whether SFN is the best place to sell it is another question. Yes, if it is read by thousands of non-members in English-speaking countries anxious to move to France. No, if it is just the committed members stirring the pot. James should have a pretty good idea concerning the former: his site stats should tell him where visitors are coming from and what they look at.

I would be pleased for him (and the rest of us) if he can get members to pay for property ads on the site: it may cut down the number of other annoying ads that slow down solution times.

But frankly, I don't see it working. Speaking as an Estate Agent (albeit specialised in just gites, gite complexes and B&Bs) I find that property which sells is property that is priced correctly. If it doesn't sell then it's over-priced. Obviously vendors want to get their money back. But in a falling market (like today's) this is unrealistic. The buyers are out there - I'm speaking with them every day - but they are waiting for prices to fall even more. It's a buyers' market, god-dammit!

The other factor is that these buyers are not necessarily English-speakers. In fact, most buyers (of lifestyle properties) hail from Paris, the Riviera, Belgium and Switzerland. Not many Brits around.

Your decision, James!

Nicole Simms -- yes, I for one am selling, but I will not be leaving France. For a number of reasons, it's time to start the next chapter. I'm sure this is the case for many other sellers, which is also true in (for example) England.

Thanks for your suggestions, I'm sorry that I can't respond to each one individually but I do appreciate the feedback and it will be taken in to consideration when/if I create the site.

Hello James,

What Sarah has suggested seems fair....a small a(5 or 10 euro) annual fee, free basic propery ad but with a small fee to upgrade. Take a look at Spareroom.com......works very well and allows people who are looking to register their interest...(much better than the property pages on Gumtree,...which seems to be going to pot....)

People are selling up for a variety of reasons Nicole. I need to downsize as a five-bedroomed house is a bit OTT for a single man !

Another thing that I would add, I have various blogs and a presence of Facebook, I find that what gets the most "likes" or gets read the most is items about property.

Hello James Higginson, yes I would be prepared to pay a fee but only when the property sold through you. You can see details of my house among the early comments below. My village, Canet d'Aude, is 12 km from Narbonne in the direction of Carcassonne, 1,400 inhabitants, small enough to be cosy, big enough to have essential shops like a pharmacy, 1km from the river Aude, 2 km from the Canal du Midi. My house looks on "la place" by the church. many thanks.

Oh, plenty who are not, either, Nicole :)

Based on the number of replies and adverts here it appears a big percentage if not most of the members are selling up!

Hi James, yes I'd be interested in help swapping or selling our cabin, but estate agents charge that fee already because they advertise the property all over the place and their agents do all the hard work like taking photos & arranging viewings. I guess it depends on where you are proposing to advertise it, and whether you'd be linking the adverts to other adverts, so if it's just within the group, and if each ad would have outside ads linked, then I'd expect it for free.

Oops sorry, Peter, I'm more in line with Sarah. I think requiring a subscription fee would lose SFN members unless they joined purely to post a property. I too already pay and I'm happy to do that (otherwise I wouldn't!) but that's my choice. I think Sarah's definitely on the right lines with a small fee for property ads as an upgrade or additional service. It may also help deter a plethora of agencies trying to grab free advertising.