Find and buy a house in France
Looking for a house in France, of course you will start checking out the offer on Immogo and the other real estate sites, like our sister-site Zorro Immo. These sites often have a clever internal search engine allowing you to search on key words like building plot, water mill, B&B, tourist business, holiday, mansion, ruin of castle. Or you could search for particular hobby-related words, special properties or city names: golf, fishing, ski, kayak, cross bikes, pond, vineyards, South-Burgundy, bread oven, Louhans, Macon or Quimper. This way you have more chance to find the house that fits your needs. And anyway... searching on Immogo and Zorro Immo you can be certain you only find houses for sale by the owner.
Buying ‘entre particuliers’
If you’d rather not use the services of a real estate agent, you find yourself in good company of many French, seeking to buy directly from the private owner. Real estate agents ask up to 9% commission. And even though these are costs for the seller, it does make a difference in the negotiation margin. No wonder in France almost half of all real estate transactions take place without passing through an ‘agent immobilier’.
Regional press
In the local press and the free distribution newspapers like ‘paru vendu’ and ‘Bonjour’ you will find many real estate classifieds. If there is no mention of an agent, ort it says "part. à part.", "agences s'abstenir" or there is just a phone number, it usually means that e private owner wants to do business without an intermediary.
The estate agents
Still... for a complete overview of the entire market it is hard to go around the agencies. If you do want to work with a real estate agent, please remember he will usually show you only houses for which he has been commissioned to sell. If you want to get an insight in the total offer in the region, you will have to visit several agents.
Fortunately, more and more agencies have an internet site. So you can compare their offer and their prices before knocking on their shop doors. Once you start visiting houses with an agent who is nót asking you any fee, please keep in mind that he was hired by the owner and will be paid to sell as quickly as possible for the highest possible price. So stay critical and keep your cool.
The notary public
In France, many notaries see the real estate trade as their core business. They advertise in local media and on www.immonot.com. If you find a house through the office of a notary and you actually decide to buy, the owner will have to pay an extra ‘negotiation fee’, that will come out of the margin. This is generally about 3,5%. Many notaries have less commercial motives than the estate agents, and sometimes they have surprisingly good deals. Certainly worth house hunting visit.
Getting a mortgage
If you need to get a loan for part of the investment in a French house, ask a specialist. We like IPF - International Private Finance. Do you want to know how much you can afford? IPF have a special online mortgage calculator.
