Hey, I’ve been writing some code to check potential properties against all the potential traps that I may fall into pre-offer while I’m shortlisting houses, and I’d love to help others and test it on more properties.
If you’re looking at a house (or houses) right now send me the listing or the address ideally and i’ll run it and send you back a one-page summary. It takes in 14 government sources: PLU zone and whether you can actually convert that barn, monument protection zones, flood/landslide/clay/radon risk plans, closed industrial sites nearby, the DPE register, and what similar places actually sold for so you can see what the realistic price should be. Everything will be referenced.
Would also love some feedback on this summary as anything i’m missing i can look at adding. Thanks!
What a wonderful idea. We are currently looking at houses. Being new to France we are looking in the SW and have been wondering how to do this and Voila, you appear.
Will be asking you in the near future. Cannot believe someone is doing this.
Thanks Ian. Ah just send me the one you’re most tempted by right now, even if you’re not sure about it. Those are the most useful to run because they’re the ones where a surprise costs you a viewing trip. DM me the link or address and I’ll have it back to you in a day or so. Where in the SW are you looking, roughly?
Before we get going, have you established a fee for your service?
we are basically looking in the Occitanie region.
Found Gers to be a little more expensive and more work needed than others in surrounding areas.
We have looked at lots of listings but only a couple of actual viewings. I believe going into property viewing with expectations, could lead to big disappointment.
So I will find a few we have seen the listing but not the property.
This one is further afield and FSBO. We are waiting on him to get a few things done before our visit.
No fee for these first few, I’m still testing and your feedback is worth more to me than the money right now. If it turns out to be useful I’ll charge eventually, just tell me honestly what you’d have paid for once you’ve seen it
Happy to run these two! Do you have the link for the mirandol-bourgnounac one? Also very much agree on not getting your heart set on anything too early
This is the mirandol one. Personally I’d check very carefully for damp issues and ask question about the roof, look carefully at the roof space, and the fosse septique.
Ian, I need one more thing for both: the lieu-dit or road, or the cadastral parcel reference. Two of the checks (PLU zone and monument protection) need the actual plot.
Most of that came in the huge tome of papers from the Notaire when I bought this new house in 2022. It listed everything to do with the property and location and you have forgotten the Archaeological inclusion too
Yeah the notaire’s dossier is the definitive version, but it arrives with the compromis, after you’ve picked the house, paid for the trip and made the offer.
But getting it now means you can drop a listing from the shortlist, instead of finding out the red flags at the notaire’s.
The archaeology one is a great catch thank you, ill add it to my list
There are charges to pay on the archaeological search by the developer/builder if new build and not for the buyer to pay. If the property is well established in a built up area, there should not be too much to be worried about as you can find out from the Mairie if any big urbanisations or voirie projects are in the pipeline. I and a fellow municipal councillor used to hold a meeting for the public if we had things to report in that direction so folks were warned
Hi Billy, i have not but theres no money involved, I’m running something i built for my own search for others as i think it may be useful. @cat, happy to take this down or move it if it’s not right for the site just say
Hi @philip_b - I think it is a service that potentially has legs and could therefore absolutely be of interest to our (extensive!) readership both here and on FB and podcast listeners.
I can absolutely see that you need to Beta test this and have offered a FOC service to a couple of people. That’s fine and I am happy to let the post stand. However, should it work and you start charging people then I would of course classify this as being a commercial post and hopefully advertising on SF will work for you.
Hope this clarifies things and do let us know how you get on!
Best ,
Cat x
If it’s easy to expand then perhaps enlarge pool of potential clients by including real (not estate agent) info on distance to schools (maternelle, college, lycee) transport and other useful stuff. For the house we have just moved to we also looked at election results, rainfall, geology and a host of other things.
