I think that you have made a wise decision Paul, once a vedor has a price ‘firmly fixed’ in his head and refuses to negotiate then its best to walk away.
I have seen quite good properties left to tumbe into ruin for the simple reason that the owner/s refuse to negotiate because they have heard ‘tales’ about the British/Belgians/Dutch who will buy ‘anything’!
Have you tried asking at Mairies in your chosen area, they often know if x has a property for sale, if y has died and the family are considering selling ?
Notaires too have lists of property on their books, they generally give you the details plus address so that you can have a recce !
Hello Ann. Thank you for your helpful reply. Yes we have tried the mairie route but with limited success. In this area which has lots of empty ruins one would assume they would be trying to encourage inward migration of younger people to rejuvenate the area. Some mairies have been more helpful than others. The problem with many ruins in the landscape is that it is difficult or impossible to trace the owners. We have tried this approach several times and in all cases they did not want to sell or we could not make contact. We have tried the notaires route too but that has drawn a blank. Unfortunately in this area many vendors sell off the land of a property to a farmer (who have a voracious appetite for land) before putting the house up for sale. As we want a a hectare or so of attached land it severely limits the choice. Oh well, we keep on keeping on as they say.
I started this thread hoping for some helpful advice on how to negotiate for a property with French vendors…that is all really. Some people provided helpful replies and yet others see a thread like this as an opportunity to be critical? I don’t understand this mentality? I thought this discussion forum was to help people? For the information of those that were critical, I showed over 50 photographs and cadastral plan of the property we are interested in to two different local estate egents. Both said that the vendor was being extremely unrealistic with his valuation and based on the condition of the property a realistic market value would be €90-100 at the very max. I think I would prefer to follow their judgement than that of a man who has taken on his dream rural property and then failed to to the very basics of renovation in a 6 year period of ownership (new roof and fosse). He is trying to sell a 20-30% renovated property as a completed project.
We have now heard back from the owner and he has absolutely no intention whatsover of negotiating his price. In fact he intends to advertise the property with agencies which if he sticks to his own €150k valuation will see any buyer having to cough up in the region of €170k. We move on. There will be other properties.
I think you negotiate with French vendors in exactly the same way as you negotiate with any vendors, by speaking with them in a frank and dispassionate way, explaining what your possibilities are.
Often French rural vendors (indeed any rural vendor selling to a foreigner from wherever) have the idea that they are seen as bouseux and that the buyer is trying to rip them off. Absence of common cultural assumptions doesn’t help.
I don’t think discussion is ever a waste of time, if only to dispel misapprehensions and misunderstandings on both sides.
I’m sorry if this isn’t an instant solution leading to a happy dénouement but it might help all the same. Removing from your discourse anything that smacks to the vendor of snooty foreign judgement helps too.
As Véronique has already said, negotiating is the same everywhere. There is no difference in France. Sometimes, the vendor’s expectations may seem unrealistic. If that is the case a polite offer that is realistic to oneself is all that one can do.
When we were looking, not too long ago, we came across many tnat were absurdly priced. Some were so full of “potential” that the vendor felt it had to be paid for. Some had a large family who had to share the inherited property, each person wanted a large sum from the sale. There were houses that had been bought by northern europeans, who seemed to want their purchase price, everything they had spent on the property and 5%-10% extra back. We know of more than one of these that finally sold for less than the offers we had made, which were rejected at the time.
Many were so outrageously priced that we told the agent we would not be making an offer, but to keep us informed if the vendor became more realistic. Although a vendor may say “never”, another season of paying for upkeep on an empty building can have a sway.
There were other properties , houses whose asking prices were in line with their condition and age. Those we found sold very quickly, the more accurate the asking price, the quicker they sold. I read somewhere that the average time taken to sell a property is around 5 years.
Good advice, Veronique. We tried to reason with the vendor but he will not negotiate. I guess we don’t have much experience of negotiating. The first house we bought in France we paid the asking price of €70k including all fees, but then for what it was it was very reasonably priced. Anyway we have moved on. I expect the owner will “make a rod for his own back” by advertising through agencies thus adding considerable fees which any potential buyer has to meet. With notiares fees this will push a (market value - €90k-100k) up into the realms of €170k
Have you looked at the high Jura? If you are looking for wide, open spaces, we have them in quantity. On a quick look tthere are some unrealistically priced wrecks too, but perhaps some gems hidden if you dig?
Thank you for the link Jane. We have built up a network or friends and some clients where we are in the Plateau Millevaches, so we prefer to stay in this part of France. Can’t face anothe big move…you should see how much stuff we have!!
