Selling property in France experience
Discussion
Yes as you say it was a very good opportunity sell in these times.
It can depend so much on where people are based in the uk as to the drive down. My neighbour lives one hour from Portsmouth,so it's an overnight ferry and a quick 6 hour drive at the most for him.
They have been doing it for 12 years.
But if you're in say Manchester etc it's a fair haul and worse if still working,due to ferry and arrival times.
By the way being in you're 50s is no age to stop renovating etc.
It can depend so much on where people are based in the uk as to the drive down. My neighbour lives one hour from Portsmouth,so it's an overnight ferry and a quick 6 hour drive at the most for him.
They have been doing it for 12 years.
But if you're in say Manchester etc it's a fair haul and worse if still working,due to ferry and arrival times.
By the way being in you're 50s is no age to stop renovating etc.
magooagain said:
By the way being in you're 50s is no age to stop renovating etc.
I've just about finished mine now, just a few things to be done and I'm in my 70's but don't feel like it as all the work seems tokeep you young!!
House is up for sale and now awaiting the promised offer and that's not because we're fed up but because the rest of our family, 3 grand children all born in Limoges, mum and dad are all now in New Zealand and the place is huge and empty without them plus the fact that our other daughter in the UK has just divorced her husband and is struggling and the mrs feels we should be there to help.
C'est la vie....
Renovating in my fifties isn't a problem , building from scratch on my Todd is ! Many times I stood back and questioned what I was doing , I definitely wouldn't have bothered if Id had to buy a piece of land , I'd owned that piece for a while and it was like it was free as I'd split it off the house next door .
And as you mention , the journey down there in a car is a pain in the arse now , I was taking up to 6 hours in England allowing for roadworks then another 8 hours through France plus the crossing . It was even worse in the old cab star !
And as you mention , the journey down there in a car is a pain in the arse now , I was taking up to 6 hours in England allowing for roadworks then another 8 hours through France plus the crossing . It was even worse in the old cab star !
Interesting thread
I'm in the position where i'm only tempted by the idea of buying somewhere there, no family there, don't speak French particularly, but siblings do and I'd like to learn more.
Sounds harsh with taxes on sales appearing very high, and the losses you all discuss, I didn't realise it was so gloomy, but it could from a buyers point of view, allow an advantageous purchase price of somewhere.
I'm just a poor guy though on the Wirral, so will have that very long journey down, and still open minded where to start at 51 years ha. I had another property on the Isle of Wight which went in 2012, and my father has since passed who lived there, so less reason to go and re-invest there, and France just appeals, bit of an adventure maybe? I like the idea of being able to provide a holiday home which we too can use, as tried before for a limited time.
Oddly Limoges has an appeal, I don't know why, but it appears from maps, images, etc to be somewhere a motorcyclist could enjoy riding to/from and around, and if that is the case I need to go see I guess haha
I could look a little further south I suppose. My fathers partner is going back to Portugal so would be nice to be between options for visiting.
I'd also like to do what my Father did on the Island and build/convert/restore something but can't see it happening on my own, my daughters would muck in but wife wouldn't haha. I'm not afraid of some graft and good with my hands etc, but as my username suggests, not my usual thing haha.
Anyway, just enjoyed reading through, found it interesting. Hope the pending sales finalise.
I'm in the position where i'm only tempted by the idea of buying somewhere there, no family there, don't speak French particularly, but siblings do and I'd like to learn more.
Sounds harsh with taxes on sales appearing very high, and the losses you all discuss, I didn't realise it was so gloomy, but it could from a buyers point of view, allow an advantageous purchase price of somewhere.
I'm just a poor guy though on the Wirral, so will have that very long journey down, and still open minded where to start at 51 years ha. I had another property on the Isle of Wight which went in 2012, and my father has since passed who lived there, so less reason to go and re-invest there, and France just appeals, bit of an adventure maybe? I like the idea of being able to provide a holiday home which we too can use, as tried before for a limited time.
Oddly Limoges has an appeal, I don't know why, but it appears from maps, images, etc to be somewhere a motorcyclist could enjoy riding to/from and around, and if that is the case I need to go see I guess haha
I could look a little further south I suppose. My fathers partner is going back to Portugal so would be nice to be between options for visiting.
I'd also like to do what my Father did on the Island and build/convert/restore something but can't see it happening on my own, my daughters would muck in but wife wouldn't haha. I'm not afraid of some graft and good with my hands etc, but as my username suggests, not my usual thing haha.
Anyway, just enjoyed reading through, found it interesting. Hope the pending sales finalise.
Well, we now have two lots interested. Just this afternoon had a visit from a cash buyer who is looking for a small holding (he's a farmer in the UK who has just sold his largish farm) which this was until we turned it into a "garden estate" also there's loads of land available around us since the old farmer next door died and the land has just been left to overgrow so there are possibilities for our "prospects" to either buy or rent all the land they would need. The first lot are still sorting their finances out and have this week put their house in the UK on the market. I'm hoping they both come in with offers at about he asking price but then again they could both just drop out and go somewhere else!!
Limoges is a direct flight a few times a week from Liverpool or Manchester , it's a bonus as it's a boring 6 hour drive from the tunnel to Limoges area , I live on the Wirral as you may have guessed .
Perik , I've only just got paid out from the transfer company I used , the French bank , the one that's apparently popular ! messed about as soon as they realised we were using a third party company instead of a straight forward bank to bank transfer , probably as they were losing about 4K euros on their unfriendly exchange rate . If your bringing money back to the uk keep it in mind and appoint a transfer company and sort out all the paperwork before you leave , it will be a lot easier . Ironically we've ended up with a little more money in sterling due to the exchange rate going in our favour during the hold ups !
Perik , I've only just got paid out from the transfer company I used , the French bank , the one that's apparently popular ! messed about as soon as they realised we were using a third party company instead of a straight forward bank to bank transfer , probably as they were losing about 4K euros on their unfriendly exchange rate . If your bringing money back to the uk keep it in mind and appoint a transfer company and sort out all the paperwork before you leave , it will be a lot easier . Ironically we've ended up with a little more money in sterling due to the exchange rate going in our favour during the hold ups !
Hi Paul,
Yes, we're giving that some thought at the moment and had heard from somebody else (the agent has it happens) that ta recent client had been messed about with by the bank as they didn't want to use them. We've got a euro account already set up in Germany as the result of something else so will likely transfer there first and then sort out when we'll transfer to the UK - probably in stages, we're also trying to get an appointment with the notaire to sort out the SCI business as that is actually complicating things at the moment as we have children who are shareholders but as they don't live with us anymore it makes a difference as to how they will be treated CGT wise (we won't be subject to CGT as it's our main and only residence), it may be possible for them to gift their shares to us then it won't be an issue.
Yes, we're giving that some thought at the moment and had heard from somebody else (the agent has it happens) that ta recent client had been messed about with by the bank as they didn't want to use them. We've got a euro account already set up in Germany as the result of something else so will likely transfer there first and then sort out when we'll transfer to the UK - probably in stages, we're also trying to get an appointment with the notaire to sort out the SCI business as that is actually complicating things at the moment as we have children who are shareholders but as they don't live with us anymore it makes a difference as to how they will be treated CGT wise (we won't be subject to CGT as it's our main and only residence), it may be possible for them to gift their shares to us then it won't be an issue.
Not like France to make things complicated!
If I was selling again I'd set everything up and stay in a hotel until I could get a balance out of the ATM that confirmed everything was done . I stayed an extra few days because of the stories about the notaire and it proved worthwhile as I was able to chase them every day until they transferred funds , but I wasn't expecting the run around off the bank .
They wanted to know the far end of a fart in order to deal with the transfer company , that said it's probably a good thing security wise .
Just make sure you stay in France to keep on the case until it's completed to your satisfaction.
I can't imagine how much hassle it would be if I was depending on the money to buy another house elsewhere , I was lucky in that respect as it was just a holiday house .
Good luck with the offers .
If I was selling again I'd set everything up and stay in a hotel until I could get a balance out of the ATM that confirmed everything was done . I stayed an extra few days because of the stories about the notaire and it proved worthwhile as I was able to chase them every day until they transferred funds , but I wasn't expecting the run around off the bank .
They wanted to know the far end of a fart in order to deal with the transfer company , that said it's probably a good thing security wise .
Just make sure you stay in France to keep on the case until it's completed to your satisfaction.
I can't imagine how much hassle it would be if I was depending on the money to buy another house elsewhere , I was lucky in that respect as it was just a holiday house .
Good luck with the offers .
Well, we've agreed an offer on our place which is 30K below the ideal figure but only 5K below our lowest-limit, we thought it's best to accept the compromise rather than wait maybe another year. We also had two other offers this month but they were 60K and 70K below the asking price. The good thing is that the buyers don't want to complete until 31st July and that suits us as we are away January to early April in NZ. As usual it's not straightforward and we've agreed a date of 30th April for the deposit to be paid as the buyers have to sell their house, if not, then all bets are off and we are free to market it again.
We are waiting for contracts to be drawn up to reflect the deposit delay and we also have another meeting with the notaire at the end of this month regarding the SCI as again it's not straightforward as two of the 4 shareholders no longer live in the property (daughter and son-in-law) so there is a question whether or not there will be CGT on the plus-value to be paid on their 40% share although they haven't actually contributed and finance since the original purchase, the notaire is seeking advice (from our accountant as she couldn't read the accounts) on any plus-value and hopefully the accountant will confirm that there should be no plus-value as we have trades invoices that come to just over the purchase/sale difference.
There is some question whether our original accountant got everything listed in the correct places but we do have copies of a lot of the invoices and some were lost when he moved office from Limoges to Toulouse but that's another long story that I won't go into but could come back to bite us.
We are waiting for contracts to be drawn up to reflect the deposit delay and we also have another meeting with the notaire at the end of this month regarding the SCI as again it's not straightforward as two of the 4 shareholders no longer live in the property (daughter and son-in-law) so there is a question whether or not there will be CGT on the plus-value to be paid on their 40% share although they haven't actually contributed and finance since the original purchase, the notaire is seeking advice (from our accountant as she couldn't read the accounts) on any plus-value and hopefully the accountant will confirm that there should be no plus-value as we have trades invoices that come to just over the purchase/sale difference.
There is some question whether our original accountant got everything listed in the correct places but we do have copies of a lot of the invoices and some were lost when he moved office from Limoges to Toulouse but that's another long story that I won't go into but could come back to bite us.
We are finally on the market! http://www.immo-maispasque.com/1574-Maison-de-110m...
Puggit said:
We are finally on the market! http://www.immo-maispasque.com/1574-Maison-de-110m...
not to far from us really. Hopefully have ours on the market next year nowJust a small update on the original topic , matey sent me an email with his new English address yesterday . He didn't go into any detail apart from it was a French buyer and said " it cost us a lot to get back ! "
It's taken a couple of years but at least they got sorted and left themselves enough money to buy a bungalow in England .
It's taken a couple of years but at least they got sorted and left themselves enough money to buy a bungalow in England .
We will apparently be signing the compromis next week sometime. I say apparently because our buyers have requested a clause that says that they have to sell their house in the UK by the end of May and achieve at least £700K and seeing that it's been on the market since October last year with no interest I'm taking it that things will not progress with them, I think they were extremely naive to think that their house would sell in a few weeks just because a house in a neighbouring village went days after coming on to the market . We spent quite a bit of cash towards the end of the year getting everything prepared for the sale (inspections, modifications and repairs) and then went off to NZ for a couple of months fully expecting the compromis to be sent to us in Jan for signing but they have stalled because there's no interest in their place. I really don't see the point of signing anything until they have a buyer (who pays the naotaire if nothing happens by the end of May, they surely will want some money for the work they have done?).
My wife’s Aunts house didn’t sell in the end.In the last few months we did get an offer from a French couple who knocked 60k off a house on the market for 185k.
No way were we paying for their modifications and were told so,needless to say we didn’t here back from them.
On the other hand a bloke I know in our village sold in 3 days.
No way were we paying for their modifications and were told so,needless to say we didn’t here back from them.
On the other hand a bloke I know in our village sold in 3 days.
My wife’s Aunts house didn’t sell in the end.In the last few months we did get an offer from a French couple who knocked 60k off a house on the market for 185k.
No way were we paying for their modifications and were told so,needless to say we didn’t here back from them.
On the other hand a bloke I know in our village sold in 3 days.
No way were we paying for their modifications and were told so,needless to say we didn’t here back from them.
On the other hand a bloke I know in our village sold in 3 days.
smifffymoto said:
My wife’s Aunts house didn’t sell in the end.In the last few months we did get an offer from a French couple who knocked 60k off a house on the market for 185k.
No way were we paying for their modifications and were told so,needless to say we didn’t here back from them.
On the other hand a bloke I know in our village sold in 3 days.
We finally received an offer of €80k on our €150k asking price - again citing all the repairs that are needed. I appreciate that's the French way of buying, but I think they are playing a game based on Brexit. No way were we paying for their modifications and were told so,needless to say we didn’t here back from them.
On the other hand a bloke I know in our village sold in 3 days.
Told the Immobilier that it wasn't a serious offer.
Paris up.7.5% in a year. Slightly less on the outskirts, but still annoying, I've been looking in 77!
https://immobilier.lefigaro.fr/article/immobilier-...
https://immobilier.lefigaro.fr/article/immobilier-...
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