The Good Life France Magazine




The Good Life France Magazine brings you the best of France - inspirational and exclusive features, fabulous photos, mouth-watering recipes, tips, guides, ideas and much more...


Published by the award winning team at The Good Life France

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2 years ago

Issue No. 14

From Paris to the Loire Valley, and everywhere in between, how to live like a millionaire in Nice on a budget, French island hopping, a fairy tale chateau and Monet's Garden in Giverny. Everything you want to know about France and more.

French It needn' By Tim

French It needn' By Tim Sage, Pro Over the last year we've looked at the general process of buying and selling a home in France*. The process involves two main parties, the seller and the buyer but to make that process work there is a large group of people working behind the scenes. The Agent Of all the people involved, the one person who will be common to both parties is the agent. Not only the link between the parties but also between them and the rest of the team working on the process. They have a special rôle (a good agent will see it as a privileged rôle) in overseeing and bringing together all the strands that make for successful selling and buying. The agent will start the process with a visit to the seller to take an instruction to market a property. Selling a home can be a fairly sad occasion for the seller (it usually comes with a lot of good and happy memories even if the reasons for selling are very positive) and the agent will treat the meeting with due regard for those feelings. Along with gaining hard facts about the property, the agent will also want to know any history behind it, special interest, work that has been done recently etc. The hard facts are needed to create an exact "product" to market, such as the land references (cadastrale), the layout of the property (number of bedrooms, bathrooms), any planning permission that has been granted etc. At this time the agent will probably take measurements of the rooms to establish habitable surface area (a different measure to the total surface area). By checking the price per square metre in the local area this will give a guide price. If the obligatory diagnostic checks have been made there will be an accurate measurement already by the diagnostic technicien. Throughout the process, the agent continually assesses the changing market conditions and can give advice on any action to take and of course the allimportant viewing requests. For the buyer, the agent is the first point of contact and while showing you around the property or properties that you want to look at is one of the most important aspects, their help to you will be of more value if they know what you are really looking for. It is worth looking at your agent as a sort of matchmaker - trying to bring you together with your dream rather than a tour guide. Expect your agent to ask for information about your hopes and ideas. At the end of the meeting there should be mutual trust, respect and potential friendship.

Property Report t be a puzzle… perty Expert and Agent The Process Once the agent has successfully brought together the seller and buyer and negotiated a price that is acceptable to both parties the real work begins. The first step is to draw up the compromis de vente (initial contract) either through the notaire or with an in-house legal team. More detailed information will be needed from along with copies of documents to give proof of ID. Then there's liaison with the diagnostics provider to ensure that all the surveys are up to date - and if not have them re-done. While this is going ahead the agent will also be processing any finance that is needed and contacting companies involved to obtain paperwork for the compromis. With or without finance and whether you are the buyer or seller, if the money is coming from or going to a country outside the Eurozone your agent will also put you in touch with a currency expert to get you the best possible exchange rate. If moving permanently to France rather than buying a holiday home you will need advice on pensions and tax planning; your agent can help with recommendations. At the very end your agent will be there to agree the utility readings and assist in setting up the new contracts and bank accounts. Marketing, legal, technical, finance, currency, lifestyle – just a few of the areas of the process that your agent is there to assist with. The day of completion (the Acte de Vente): your agent has finished the juggling act and successfully kept all those balls in the air throughout the process. There's one last thing to do – the best of all of them: to wish you all well in your future. Your celebrations can start now, the agent will slip quietly out of the notaire's door (and most likely with a fairly moist eye). For them it might be moving on to the next one but each one is special and completion day is the end of a long relationship. As always comments and questions can be passed through the team at The Good Life France or directly to me: tsage (@) leggett.fr; tim.sage3 (@) gmail.com *Access free archived copies of The Good Life France Magazine for more info.