In a pickle... can't find work

So pleased for you :grinning:

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Congrats ++

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sounds good

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Thatā€™s excellent news - just at the right time.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate the support.

Things certainly can turn around surprisingly quickly! I didnā€™t expect to feel so positive about taking a job thats going to pay me appropriately 1/3 of my previous salary but hey hoā€¦

I now have to find a bargain basement but decent running 2nd hand car in the next 2 weeks! From looking the last time, its a tall order to find something on a budget of 1 000 - 1 500ā‚¬ around hereā€¦

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As one door closes then slowly but surely another opens.
Very pleased for you.

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Good news!! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Oh I hear you on the salary, I was a midwife, working for the state health system in Oz. Pretty much the Same rates for teachers. Iā€™m now working for Education National here and on 1/2 the pay, even 1/3 on a good month!

Thatā€™s great news and gives you breathing space as well. A bit less stress might stimulate all sorts of opportunities.

It does seem a huge shame to have to leave your forever home. Especially as one never seems quite to end up with what one had hoped for once all the costs, charges and taxes are paid for. Capital gains here is punitive as will be charged on the business property. Iā€™m sure youā€™ve looked at the figures from every angle, but might this breathing space allows you to have another look? Is there any other way to make more moe y from your existing property to bridge the gap? Lodgers? Events? A pop-up something for the summer?

The stress reduction is only for the 8 months that the pole emploi will continue to top up my salary, extended from the 5 month ā€˜panic periodā€™ that we had before. Then my income will drop so dramatically that there is no way we can cover the costs here. My salary wont even cover our 2 mortgage payments, let alone the rest.

Weā€™ve fallen out of love with this house anyway. Weā€™ve worked so hard on it and thereā€™s more to do. After 10 years, weā€™ve had enough.

We need 3 500ā‚¬ a month to cover all our current costs before food, petrol and living costs and thatā€™s what I earned net when I was a cadre in Paris! The gite income covered the rest but it was still no frills living, no holidays for 10 years, no new clothes etc. Just survival and investing lots in the property.

Now my income is going to drop to less than 2 000ā‚¬ a month. Thereā€™s no way we can make up that kind of shortfall every month.

Lodgers pay much less than gite clients and we have no space for events, also weā€™re surrounded by immediate neighbours and its not practical.

We definitely need to pay off some of the current debt to bring our costs right down.

Iā€™ve spoken to the Notaire about the plus value and depending on whether we sell before or after December, which is 5 years since we bought the larger gite house, we will pay little or no plus value tax.

Silly question, is your French fluent? And CONGRATS! on the Adecco job. Am looking around myself.

Hiya,

Yes, Iā€™m fully bilingual.

Little update for all :

The Adecco job didnt last long, I was dropped at the end end of my 2 month CDD due to ā€œsudden and unforeseeable downturn in business activityā€ ā€¦ so that was that.

Didnā€™t have much choice but to start looking back in Paris, swallow the return to almost daily minimum 4 hour commute ā€¦ but a half decent wage. Not what I earned before, but enough.

Needless to say my back is not happy with me doing all that running around in public transport and the long train journeys. Has only been 2 weeks and Im already in agony. Same as before my redundancy, even with some days on teletravail.

Still only had 2 visits to our house after nearly 4 months of marketing and only 1 of those is still thinking about it, the other decided not to pursue it.

We dropped the first 2 mandated agents who achieved 0 visits in 3 months, have mandated 2 new ones (still no visits from them either) and put it on Le Bon Coin and PAP (which resulted in the one serious interest we have).

Not where we expected to be at this stage!!

Have you tried the ones that focus on British - Leggets and GreenAcres?

Or ones that specialise in gƮtes like https://gitesavendre.eu/, or even things like Le Figaro which has an eclectic selection? I think GƮte de France also have a section for selling/buying gƮtes.

And your own website?

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Hi,

Yes, Leggetts were one of the two initially mandated agents who seemed very keen and competent during the pre-mandate process then totally devoid of interest once they had it.

I havenā€™t tried the others but will look into them in terms of cost and coverage, thanks!

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I think itā€™s very dependent on the agent for the area with Leggetts, as when I used them a couple of years ago to sell a house, the local person was great and got alot of folks through the door and finally sold the place to a French couplešŸ‘

I really know nothing about the French housing market outside Brittany - but here it has changed beyond recognition since the pandemic. 5 years ago it was dead - especially in rural areas away from the coast. In our local village estate agent houses were very cheap and didnā€™t move for months. Go down there now and it has literally turned upside down - everything always seems sold or sous compromis.

People I guess are feeling insecure in the face of climate/ecological breakdown and looking for more isolated rural properties - preferably with a bit of land - and further north.

It has been very dynamic here as we are only 80kms from Paris and ā€œruralā€ but within reach of the capital by train and with all amenities in the nearby towns and villages. Also only 110kms from Dieppe, so is practical for ferry crossings.

There has also been a severe shortage of quality property on the market - agents have been fighting and scrapping amongst themselves to get hold of stock (and were knocking on our door every other dayā€¦)

We have 2,000m2, main house, 2 gites with 33k income pa and a stretch of river at the bottom of the garden.

It ā€œshouldā€ tick all the boxes for someone with a multi-occupancy project or looking for a good income propertyā€¦

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Have you tried selling the business rather than just the property? With a business sales rather than estate agent?
We bought ours as a ā€˜going concernā€™ business - complete with gites clients actually in situ!

Yes, we took this approach from the beginning as the business adds value.

Capifrance, who are one of the currently mandated agents, actually have 2 mandates - for sale as business with main residence or private residential property only - and its therefore on both the relevant sections of their website (and associated marketing channels).

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