jamikins

Hi there,

my hubby and I would love to buy some property in France (not now, but within 10 yrs). Would I be able to email you some questions...we are trying to wrap our heads around the process.

If you are willing, you can email me at [email protected] so that you dont have to post your email address.

Sorry to everyone else, I'm not sure how else to ask a particular person a question.

Thanks so much!

Jamie

StCirq

jamikins:

I'll be happy to e-mail you in just a few minutes. And for the record, I've posted my e-mail address here many times and don't mind doing so: [email protected]

rex

Personal correspondence will surely be useful. Entire books are written on this subject (and one that I have read makes it sound very daunting). Here's a reasonably priced one (not the one I own - - I can't find that particuar one on amazon.com) - -

Buying a House in France
by Andre de Vries

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/off...?condition=all

Best wishes,

Rex

cigalechanta

this is very helpful:

http://www.frenchpropertyreport.com/

Underhill

A lighthearted précis of this topic can be found in Peter Mayle's "A Year in Provence."

jamikins

Wow, thank you all for your help! We appreciate it!!!

StCirq

Again, for the record, I didn't find it daunting in the least. It was a heckuva lot easier than buying my home in the USA. Notaires are a godsend.

rex

To clarify what the book I have read impressed on me: much more daunting to sell than to buy. And potentially a horror story for your heirs if you happen to die before you sell.

But I have no personal experience to support that impression.

Corky

Last Saturday the Daily Mail had a booklet in it's week-end edition called
"Passport to a new life in the sun"featuring buying a home in France that was directed to U.K. residents.
Check out www.dailymail.co.uk under promotions.
It was a 96 page book 5x2 ins.that contained a lot of info. that may assist you.
www.latitudes.co.uk a company selling property will give you some ideas about location.

Michel_Paris

StCirq, I'd be interested in any information you may have. I'm located in Canada, which may change some of the tax implications.

Without trying to promote any company,I have been on their mailing list:

http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/FPI/WFPIE6P2/

They have seminars in Paris and visits to regions of France to look at real estate. Probably best for people looking to buy soon. I'm also trying to understand what the french 'lease back' program is all about.

Good luck with the dream!

Hope this helps.

StCirq

The absolute Bible when buying property in France is the Guide du Logement series published by De Particulier à Particulier. You need to be able to read some pretty technical French to get through it.

It is definitely essential to understand the inheritance laws and to have your notaire put "clauses" in your purchase contract if you intend to do anything other than let normal French law take over when you die.

I find that a lot of those real estate guides aimed at U.K. citizens are only marginally helpful to Americans because British law is different from American.

Michel_Paris

Perhaps best to ask this via e-mail....
Without prying ...but can you share what kind of arrangement you made for your real estate? Buy out-right, buy out-right and rent out, lease, etc..Did you pick a certain region and look there, or pick a price range/house type and find that only one region was affordabe,etc...Need a lawyer, need residency, need bank loan from French bank...so many questions..
Thanks!
Mike

StCirq

Michel:

I'm on the agora mailing list. I would be a bit wary of them, though I think it's a legitimate business. IMO, there is no good reason to spend the kind of money they are charging for seminars and such. It really is easy to find good real estate agents and so forth in France, even English-speaking ones, and with a bit of research and a good notaire (whom you are paying 10 percent of the price of the property for just such services), there's plenty of resources to walk you through the process. Just my opinion.

StCirq

Michel: Feel free to e-mail me, but essentially we fell in love with the Dordogne after 20 years of traveling in France, went over there a couple of times to look at properties, stumbled upon one (while on a walk, not looking with a real estate agent), contacted the owner, asked a zillion questions, decided to buy, negotiated a price, got a mortgage from a French bank (arranged by the real estate agent), and bought it. We didn't have a lawyer, only a French notaire (a required part of the transaction). We don't have residency (though I do have E.U. citizenship as well as American - but that didn't even figure into the equation).

Michel_Paris

Thanks for the info.
I fell in love with Ile St Louis, but I my budget may not allow me to consummate that relationship I'm glad to hear that the process sounds simpler that I thought it would be.

I feel the same way about Agora, included the link more for information that anything else...used to get their newsletter but found it was misrepresented as a travel newsletter when it should have been an international real estate letter.

Mike

SuzieC

I don't want to intrude... but this too is one of my dreams (Probably Annecy for my country home and Ile de Cite for the Paris flat...whatta hoot..whatta dreamer I am!), anyway, parlerparis.com is all about this sort of thing, newsletters, ex-pats that give seminars, listings, advice on all levels...and a UK publication entitled "France" shows pictures and descriptions...

AlanM1

Does anybody have any good real estate websites for Paris? I am having a very hard time finding any, except for Sotheby's!

Lutece

My husband and I bought a small apartment in Paris last year and we used Paris Real Estate Finders. We couldn't be happier with the results. There is also ample info on their site for those interested in reading up on the process.

http://www.parisrealestatefinders.bigstep.com/

StCirq

Here's the website for De Particulier à Particulier:

http://www.pap.fr/

AlanM1

Thanks for the tips!