My opinion of french estate agents is to say the least not high. I thought a lot of UK estate agents were pretty useless but compared to their french counterparts are absolute marvels.
My main grumble about french estate agents are as mentioned before they take no notice of your listed requirements at all. Describe a complete wreck as needing a little work and charge an exhorbitant fee for this wonderful service. If I am looking for a property I would like a few picture of inside the property not just the surrounding fields, woods or streams!
One of the first properties we visited to view was grossly overpriced when I mentioned this to the agent he said I know it is! The sooner french house sellers realise France is in a recession the better and estate agents tell their clients so.
Thank you again Andrew for your comments.
Still waiting eagerly for input from agents but nothing as yet. Ever the optimist, I'm hoping that someone will eventually respond on some forum or other. This morning I did get one local agent asking how my sale was going. She is always very polite and so I thanked her for her comment. I have in fact had 10 visits and two offers close to the asking price in just under two months when I started to sell my house. So I suspect that I am doing better by far than if I had been with agents.
I agree, the two systems are very different. But I can't help wondering where the differences started. Surely, if French agents charged a more reasonable fee for an "exclusive" deal? and then subsequently, really worked at selling their properties, word would soon get around. Naturally, if agents have high fees, vendors will prefer selling their properties themselves if they feel they can.
So where did it all go wrong? When did French agents start to charge so much, finding it hard to sell and then not really bothering? Is the situation similar in other countries? Is the UK the only country that has lower estate agency fees?
others in the trade - there are a few here who work as agents and I'm sure they'll through in their views at some time. The two markets and ways of working can't really be compared. What would the UK market do if half of all sales were private...? I'm not an agent but know people who are and almost worked for one but stuck to what I was doing at the time (language teaching and translating - which is why I clicked on the link on the site - I thought it was your translation.) I usually (6 places bought and sold here in France) buy and sell privately and buyers/sellers have always been French apart from one occasion, so I've never been put through the days driving round with agents "being shown what you don't want but what they want to sell you because they haven't got what you want" !
Thanks for your reply Andrew. I do use Le Bon Coin quite often and if you are interested in selling to the French market, I agree, it's definitely the way to go.
I'm glad that you have found that "most agents do work" although your experiences have clearly been different from mine. I was interested in your comment about leaving it "to others in the trade to answer" regarding whether or not they work hard for a living. Interestingly, I have placed this article on several forums, have asked dozens of French agents to read it and have asked them to comment. I am still waiting for a single response.
Yes, the agent did say the property was "on the money for the current market" which was the price I had suggested, but that was the last I saw him. He never asked to fill in a mandat, take photos or phoned. I wonder if he didn't feel he could add his fees on top? I agree though, the way I have written that is ambiguous. Thank you Andrew for pointing that out.
My Website is in fact written in English and is aimed at the English speaking market, Americans, English, Australians etc. I suspect that what you have seen in French on the site is in fact Google's attempt to translate automatically for readers from non-English speaking countries.
Thank you once again for joining the debate Andrew. Your opinions are much appreciated.
Really glad to know I am not the only ones to feel the same way! But will things ever change?? And will anyone in a position of power ever do anything about it?? I think not! In the meantime, if we want our houses sold for the market price, then we will just have to do the job ourselves!! Thanks for your input Chris! Much appreciated!
Mark, put an advert on leboncoin.fr I've bought and sold several using that. Agents and the market work very differently here (and most agents do work but I'll leave that to others in the trade to answer!) once you accept that things are easier! ;-)
Have another look at what you've written : the property was "on the money for the current marketā
and I'd avoid using google translations for website, or anything else for that matter (not being a smart arse, just trying to help as what's on the site isn't French)
No Mark. I am sure you are far from alone. When my wife and I looked for a property in the Tarn 10 years ago we were appalled by the total lack of professionalism. How many times were we dragged across country to properties which met NONE of our criteria? We lost count. Clearly, they didn't read our letters and had little care about wehat we actually wanted. Somehow, eventually, we did buy a house. Now ten years later, my sister started house-hunting, mainly in the Gers/Haute-pyrenees area. Is her experience any better? Is it heck.
I shan't go any further for risk of litigation, but clearly most agents don't expect to have to WORK for their money. Many of the "agents" you meet are actually sub-agents or even "house-visitors" sent by the lazy agency to meet the client for the first viewing. They know nothing and care less. And as for the websites: most are poorly designed.
Mark, I have been studying this for a while. First the French market has a lower volume and financial leveraging is not really possible. Second there is a view that foreign buyers are idiots and have lots of money, so there are many houses put on the market awaiting an offer that is acceptable to sellers. Third the agents are on a commission so they add that to the house price and then negotiate down with the buyer. In this way the impact on their commission reduction is minimal as it is geared to a higher amount.
Many houses marketed by French agents are not effectively marketed outside France. Just some comments.
I feel your pain, I faced the same problem. I met a real estate agent in Marseille who canāt answer properly any of my questions! Buying a home became a really complicated quest. I thought real estate agent should simplify the process, but he didnāt! A friend of mine recommended me one business broker which cooperates with allegedly the best French agencies. There is a good listing of homes, and now I want to try. https://tranio.com/france/ At least I couldnāt find some bad requests about it. Maybe, you have heard something about the agency?
British based realtors do the same. They fail to register properly or mess about their british clients.
if you want the whole horror story read this. They are not alone. Banks and notaries too.
Here
sorry pdf does not upload
mail me at
baud24@hotmail.com
Hello everyone, this is a very interesting conversation. I have been looking at this area and have studied why it is like this. There are many reasons. First, the technology and information systems in France are many years behind. Second, the adoption of English as the international language is also behind the curve. Third, there is a perception that foreign buyers have a lot of money and the house prices are set to hope to attract one of these buyers, they are therefore largely overpriced. Lastly, because the agents act on a commission basis but are not usually effective in contacting foreign markets they are often sharing their commissions with another agent in France, or abroad. All this means that system does not work as well as in many other places and the costs are high. I believe the commissions are coming under pressure and the internet, is, of course, disintermediating and increasing competition and eventually will increase efficiency and reduce prices as it has done in other sectors like the airline industry.
what will reduce prices is the abundance of offers in every region as the sellers do move to cities for job opportunities. In the rural areas farms fold down oldies move to retirement homes and the youngsters expatriate to the capitals for jobs. Desertification of the countryside quite advanced. I am not talking of cities but regional places.
plus the credit squeeze for mortgages for the french population...
Claudia, that is a trend, but there is also a trend for sellers from the larger French cities to move to the rural areas and cash in as there is in the UK.
I worked as a commercial broer in New York City. When my wife and I looked at properties in the South, one agent, in the course of an afternoon, was responsible for more lies and exageraions than I had heard in 20 years in the business. Further, he showed us several properties that corresponfded in NO way to the parameters we had given him. On another occassion, talking with a French agent she asked what I had done in NYC, when I told her, her responsewas, "sale boulot!"
hi
i bought via the notaire brillant service and as the owner used them as his notaire the fee's were reduced to 3000.00 the house i sold the agency fee's were between 6% and 8% i sold the house myself privately i do not understand what you get for 6% or above that the Notaire does not do for his 3000.00? and if they can reduced the fee's why not do this at the beginning?
When we moved here nine years ago Leggetts couldn't have been more helpful.
The good ones are the exception that proves how bad most of them are.
My wife began working for the estate agency voted best in France for the last 2 years - I knew she would be a success because she is a "people person", totally honest so tells it how it is on the basis that no house is perfect, gives feedback to the vendors after every viewing, gets offered houses to sell on the basis of recomendation after doing the job for less than 2 years,negotiates her fees if it helps to clinch the deal and works 7 days a week - often until about 10.00pm each evening!
Yes the fees are high compared to Uk but after deduction of TVA her share is relatively small and she has to run her own car, mobile & house phone, computer, printer & cartridges etc etc.
Today 2 of her properties are being filmed for the "Place in the Sun" TV programme!
I think she earns every euro of her commission!
yes disenfranchised urbanites wishing to live off the land without clues about what it takes but the trend is move to the cities all over the world
the anti capitalist rant...
But everybody hates America for the 2008 slump. It comes exclusively from them and all the european banks followed suit like sheep.The money was too good to resist