Hi everyone.
Has anybody tried to sell a property themselves through one of the websites designated to private sales without an agent. How complicated was it and was it succesfull.
Or if selling with an agent if they say their fees are 5 percent is it normal to try and negotiate that down. Thank you.
We sold our last house by setting up a website with really good photos. We then advertised on VivaStreet etc (LBC didn’t exist then!) with a link through to our site. Our first house we also sold privately - that was word of mouth! They were both very straightfoward - just contacted the notaire who did all the comprimis etc.
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Have bought and sold 5 privately over the last 15 years using leboncoin, gets round agents fees which can be as high as 8%, for info 5% doesn’t sound too bad for France 
Hi. Approximately how long did the paperwork take with the Notaire on these “private” sales. We ask as we have one to visit end August and would prefer to complete before YE should it meet our needs and price. Salutations. R.
PS. Appreciate Covid can impact all of this.
No longer than any other time. One we were in a hurry and the notaire got it done in 6 weeks.
@ Rob - FYI if you are buying a house that has over a certain land area it will have to be offered to SAFER first. Their response as to whether they want to purchase the land or not can take upto 2 months thus delaying the purchase process. To accelerate SAFER’s response either the seller or the buyer can pay 100€? via the Notaire. Good luck in your house hunt.
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Rob, please would you update your details to show your full name as it is a requirement of this site. @Stella will do it for you if you post your full name here.
Thanks
Izzy x
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Done.
YahooMail
Hi Rob…
Please can you please confirm your full name …
First Name: …
Last Name: …
and I will amend your registration.
At the moment your full name is simply “Rob”
You have chosen “Chidders” as your Username…
cheers
Stella
Hi Stella,
I thought I had gone into the website and updated my details???
As per below
Regards. Rob.
YahooMail
ha ha… I’m not sure what is going on…
as per below… and then there is nothing…
Not sure what you’ve done on the website but your registration is unchanged.
OK… Simple question
Is your full name: Rob Chidders
if so… I will amend accordingly… if not, please give me the correct info…
cheers
Hi Stella,
-
I’m sure I updated my details on the website. Clearly the save function has not worked as thought.
-
In you previous email you asked for the details in a summary table, so I added my names into that too !!
-
If we’ve still failed to get you the required information, my full name is: Rob Chidlow.
Salutations. Rob.
YahooMail
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Cheers Rob… I’ve now amended your Registration…
all present and correct… 
Hi Anne, I would suggest ALWAYS negotiating (downwards) the agent’s commission. If she wants to make the sale they will probably agree … unless they are not a ‘real’ agent immobilier but rather an agent commerciale who works for a real agency. Then they will be dependent on their agency which will probably refuse any negotiation.
I set up my own agency 9 years ago for this very reason: I felt that agency fees in France were way to high. I now charge 3% or 4% at the most … but nobody appears to pay any attention until we are all sitting around the table at the notaire’s and they realise that someone is going to have to stump up the commission!
Thank you Simon.
For selling à very large property would an immobilier tend to raise his commission or reduce it ?
It all depends on the asking price. As a rule of thumb an agent should not ask for more than 4% if the price is above €500k, but you might get them down to 3%.
Below €500k you will be lucky to constrict them to 4-5%.
The actual ‘size’ of the property makes no difference: 200m² or 20 hectares will be the same commission.
Simon thank you. That very usefull info. I have lived here more than 20 yrs and never tried to sell a property.
Did you build the website? I was asked about building a website for a French company, e-commerce site but I do not have time. Would like to find somebody that maybe able to help.
It is my husband, I’ll talk to him and send you a PM tomorrow.