@Bosendorfer Not sure this is always the case. One example is SUV sales. Nobody needs them, they are more expensive, and smaller cheaper cars could provide the same service. Still, they sell.
When I said it was a plus, I just meant you can buy a house without a second opinion , and before 2000 you could even buy a house without any diagnostics. It is an optional service I am thinking about, not something everybody needs, and probably a niche activity, I am well aware. Just as well, as I want to start slowly!
Good grief, Mike - talk about “too many words” ! As she has demonstrated that she is incapable of precise & concise thought, I wouldn’t touch her with a barge-pole (if I had one, that is).
My suggestion, Chris, was that you refine your proposed ‘offering’ to focus on what most buyers want (ie. not what you want to give them). Your example of SUVs in support of your view is erroneous - quite obviously people do want them, because they buy them, as you also admit. You evidently think they are wrong - but SUVs have become a staple, not a ‘plus’ minority purchase.
You’re totally right @Bosendorfer , and I am taking it all in. My first post was about exactly that, finding out what was wanted by people and why it was often an issue.
The negative feedback is clearly a warning, the concept is not mature enough and needs elaborating.
On the other hand, the number of replies and suggestions tells me I have touched a nerve somewhere.
If it was easy, someone would have done it already I guess!
Thank you anyway for your help, I really appreciate it.
Hello Chris. Had a house in Brittany but now sold. We did not want a house with fosse septique for obvious reasons. Notaire enquired of Mairie and received written confirmation that the house was connected to main drains. Fast forward 9 years and our sale and Mairie sends out engineer because they had no record of connection. Turns out we were on fosse all along. Had to spend €1800 to get connected. Understandably I was more than pissed off. In our experience the process of purchase and sale, while very different, was relatively easy. The kind of in depth investigation you propose will have a market, especially for the increasing number of people buying remotely who do not have the time or € to spend a long time in France checking out a number of properties. Hence your ability to determine essential criteria for the buyers, short list, and list pros and cons would be very helpful. Our house was sold OK but unseen by the buyers, who relied on local relatives to check it out. Good luck. Hope it works for you.
TBH that looks like a typical French sales pitch. Not actually offering a differentiated service at all I would say.
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How would you charge for your services?
Ah the compulsory diagnostic report would have discovered the problem as they test the drainage from the taps running to see where it goes. I sold in Brittany in 2022 and had to get Véolia to attest I was on the mains for the Acte de Vente even though it was reported in the diagnostic which cost nearly a thousand euros but was several hours in the investigation and many many pages thick.
A fixed rate would be ideal, with an additional fee to cover traveling, and possibly optional extra research and services. For very large properties, it would need to be discussed.
Too early for a precise estimation of the price!
Interesting, but it sounds like the Mairie was at fault then?
Many thanks for your encouragements.
Yes - very much at fault but no redress unfortunately.
It was one of the questions on the local search.
Could have been a simple admin mistake, or someone was supposed to connect to main drains but didn’t.
We were given three months to sort it out - by the Mairie!
All the best.
Someone replied to your post.
| Chrisgrim
2 June |
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ChrisCo:
Notaire enquired of Mairie and received written confirmation that the house was connected to main drains
Interesting, but it sounds like the Mairie was at fault then?
Many thanks for your encouragements.
I feel this definitely would be a good idea, provided you can get insurance especially if you miss something that turns out to be costly or affects the enjoyment of the property. We’ve just had our offer accepted on a large manoir and we’ve been searching for a while, I literally prepared a dossier on every property we were serious about before even deciding on a visit. For this one we visited twice and spent 3 days casing the area. I even surprised the imobillier by telling her the fireplaces were not working apart from one due to the chimneys being closed off. Now we built our own house in the UK and have a lot of land, so know what skills we can manage and what things we’d need to find, I knew the zone of the land, what can/can’t be done as regards planning, I’d checked what parcels of land were included, looked at the built form over time, investigated the fact that a local farmer presently gets a hay crop off the grass and what sort of agreement was in place so I could build that into a compromis. We negotiated a price a lot lower than asking in view of all this and I’m just not sure how many people would even know where to start or what resources are out there that can help them. But, I literally spent hours and hours doing all of this, so it might scare people off cost wise. What might be an idea is if customers specifically ask for certain things to be checked, e.g road noise, planning likelihood, business potential e.g gites then you can narrow the focus of your report and limit the risk you are exposed to.
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@Denise_Field This is a great testimony, thank you.
I agree that this type of research is time-consuming and potentially expensive if someone is doing it on your behalf, but in your case it sounds like it would have been well worth the money. It gives the prospective buyer leverage for negociation, saves time, avoids most pitfalls.
I really like the idea of an “à la carte” (customisable) approach, I need to think about it.
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I have been thinking for a while a “mini” handholding service would be good, not the full expensive service, but if someone needs a call made to a builder about technical issues, a doctors appointment, the mairee, school etc, you could charge for a call one fee and if a visit is required an additional fee, plus mileage. You could build quite a portfolio of mini services.
Isn’t that what friends, or even neighbours, are for?
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Of course, but I guess its nice to have that option.
Some of those things you mention would never be disclosed or even known about like road noise which a prospective buyer should see at time of viewing and take the view it would never get any quieter, planning is something which is for the mairie to disclose at public meetings if it will impact the locality, I know because I was on that commission for many years and sometimes we had to wait years for the prefecture to pass plans. Business potential is another item no one can forecast as people come and go and so do business ideas and pieces of land are sold/rented by the commune to start a business park to keep the commune in financial good stead. It is not the UK here where there is a lot of NIMBY stuff going on, people tend to accept or find out themselves by keeping, abreast of planning paperwork which is open for public perusal when the mairie is open, it is not obligatory to notify neighbours if you wish to extend your home or land, a notice has to go up and you have three months in which to object.
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I find it mind-blowing that people can make a commitment to being in France, substantial financial investment plus time and effort, and not be capable of such basic interactions in French.
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Our minds were totally blown yesterday chatting to assistant in local clothes shop while OH tried on trousers. She picked up on my accent but asked if I had been in France a very long time. Turns out her now ex-husband has been here over 15 years and still doesn’t speak French. And worse, their 14 yr old son also struggles with French despite being schooled in French system all his life. How bad is that!
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My father in law is in his 80’s and he struggles with organising himself in the UK, not everyone has the courage or level of family or friend support to help. He would likely get flustered and panic and then give up.