30th April 2017

What a week. First, personal  Last Saturday we held our Vide Maison. We'd decided that, because we had bought a very small, modern house in the UK, the large, classic French furniture here needed to be sold. I'd advertised it nationally, via the ubiquitous LebonCoin site, and locally via the familiar card on a board in our local Intermarche. First I had to deal with the downright rude responders on LebonCoin. For those who understand what this says, please don't repeat it to your mother-in-law: 'va te faire f......, sale cons.'  Clearly, she wasn't happy with my prices (3 - 100 euros for each piece). Oh well, can't win them all. The day dawned and TG loads of people arrived, carting away absolutely everything! Thursday the UK removals van arrived, taking with them the mainly bedroom furniture that we'd arranged. And, surprise, surprise, two of our previously-hostile neighbours turned up to give me a kiss on both cheeks. Pleased to see the back of us, you think??
Secondly, the French elections:

Just look at all those dark blue NF areas, including this Departement (81)! Yes, as expected, the dreaded Mme Le Pen is through to the second round on 7 May. To be clear, an outright fascist has just achieved an alarmingly large share of the votes in this modern democracy. Just goes to show what so many francaises really think.Am I gonna sit around as so many decent Berliners did back in the '30s? What d'you think - I'm outta here and fast.

14th August 2016

House sale blues!  The French property market in this region is impossible - no buyers anywhere!  I know what you're thinking.  It's no good saying 'houses aren't selling in our price range'. Just lower the price.  But, what to do if you've already lowered the price drastically and still nothing?  So, we currently have no less than 5 local agents, English sites plus a private ad on Leboncoin (a sort of French ebay: https://www.leboncoin.fr/ventes_immobilieres/1004554664.htm) but with them unless your price is 100K euros or less, there's not much interest. French estate agents aren't worth the huge commission they get:  c.6% of the asking price - way more than the English ones receive! Him indoors says the word immobilier is onomatopoeic : immobile! It's certainly helpful when they vet prospective buyers and come to the notaire (solicitor) with both buyer and seller, but my cynical mind says that's to ensure we actually all sign on the dotted line!  But at least sellers in France don't pay anything to either the agent or the notaire. Meantime I'm busy keeping chez-nous up to scratch: tidy, clean and 'well-staged' with flowers, table-setting etc......just in case.

18th September 2011

Selling a house in France? Sounds easy, doesn't it? Go to your nearest estate agency, sign up, then sit back and wait for the cheque.  Well, no.  It's a veritable minefield.
Last February we signed with one agency. We waited and waited and waited. Nothing. I asked for some feedback and was told 'we have too many houses to do that'.  French agencies in our price range take a minimum of 9000 euros (compared to only 1.5% in the UK); one wanted 15000 euros. (Him indoors says he now knows why they call themselves immobilier: they're all immobile!). By May we signed with 3 more French agencies and waited. After lowering the price, I took matters into my own hands and placed an ad in LeBoncoin.fr. A bit like ebay. Immediately I received enquiries. Difficult though. If you have a fosse septique, a new law requires sellers to provide a certificate of conformity to the law (67 euros), and if you have a gas citerne and the new buyer doesn't want it, the seller has to pay the gas co. 300 euros to take it away, and everyone must provide an energy report costing 400 euros. And notaires deduct automatically any capital gains tax for the treasury. Still want to sell your house? Him indoors says: if you make a capital loss, do they pay you??