purelyfrance

When we bought our property in 2002, (where have those 8 years gone?!) the real estate advertisement made a big thing of the property featuring une ancienne gloriette.

We couldn’t quite see what the fuss was about as most of la gloriette was buried under  a mass of trees, vines, creeper, blackberry, rocks, stones, and tiles. Cared for, it decidedly wasn’t!

When we looked up ‘la gloriette’ in our well worn French dictionary it translated to a gazebo. 

Hmm, we thought, this overgrown morass doesn’t look much like a gazebo, ancient or otherwise.

So we asked around some of our French friends who commonly labeled it une serre, which is a glasshouse.

This made much more sense as the rusted iron frame was clearly visible and it faced south presumably to maximise exposure to the sun.

It has been well made with an iron ladder on the side leading to a platform which ran along the top of la serre. We guess this was to either train plants or perhaps to enable the glass of la serre to be cleaned easily. Needless to say there is not today one pain of glass to be seen, so no cleaning required there!

All of that is really by and by. La gloriette/la serre has sat there in its untidy, mangled state for the past 8 years.

That was until a couple of weeks ago when old friends Peter and Dianne Elmsly came to stay. They are keen gardeners (I mean who brings their own gardening gloves on holiday!) and motivated by their generous nature they very kindly set about uncovering said serre.

So out came all the rocks and stones some of which could only be levered using a steel rod - goodness knows what they had been doing there, they were too heavy for even two of us to lift. And out came the aforementioned, tiles, blackberry, creper, trees, and vines.

After the first day I think Peter and Dianne wondered what they had started, particularly as the mercury shot up to over 30 degrees and stayed there!  But they are made of sterner stuff and manfully, and womanly, stuck to their task.

We did wonder if we would make any exciting discoveries as la serre was cleared, like a tombstone perhaps. But other than an almost unmovable stone sink, a 20-25 yr old looking grape vine and an egg, no other treasures were to be found.

The egg is a bit of a mystery, we still don’t know what it is or what to do with it.

So now we have a beautifully designed serre, its iron frame crying out to be brushed down and some anti-rust applied to it.

I wonder if Peter and Dianne will think to bring their painting gloves next year?

A Bientot, Bruce.

Time to roll the sleeves up!

After your recent French property purchase, hopefully you have had a champagne celebration (when in Rome……..)   The next step means putting aside momentarily the romance of your adventure and focus on any renovations your property may require.  They normally do!!

For each of our three purchases, we have always taken the approach of buying a property that was currently being lived in.  This lowers the risk of unpleasant surprises; usually means water, sewerage, electricity are at least in working order; and unless you plan major changes any structural reconstruction is of a ‘minor’ nature.

If you can live ‘on site’ when the renovations are being carried out, so much the better. The sub-contractors then know if they are scheduled for work ‘chez vous’ you are going to be there expecting them. It also means you can react immediately to any questions that arise (there will be many!) and be involved if some minor changes come along during the work. This also usually happens.

Even seemingly small tasks such as the placement of a power point can be managed straight away, having them placed exactly where you want them.  Consider this conversation Anne had with Franck, our electrician:

F. Where in the kitchen do you want your spots?

A. I don’t want spots.  (Anne thinks spot lights have a place in a home, but not in her kitchen)

F. How many spots do you want?

A. I don’t want spots.

F. Do you want two spots or three spots?

A. (emphatically) I-do-not-want-spots - merci.

F. It is summer now and it is light, in the winter you wont be able to see to cook.

A. (resignedly) Three spots s’il vous plait, right here above the window, right in the centre.

For renovations involving plumbing, electricity, knocking out walls etc we recommend you employ an architect.  Yes it will add to your costs, around 10%, but there are many advantages, particularly as he/she acts as a Project Manager.

1. They will select the sub-contractors. We would not have had a clue as to who was good bad or indifferent.  An architect has a professional reputation to protect so he will select subbies who are going to do quality work. They will lay out the work spec and request the devis. (quotes)

2. They will co-ordinate the sequence of the subbies work and therefore save you time. There is nothing more frustrating than waiting two weeks just for a plumber to come to disconnect a pipe before other work can proceed.

3. Often they will make suggestions which will save you money. And they can be quite inventive. Our lady architect in Provence completely transformed our kitchen in a layout we would never have thought of.  Here in Burgundy, our architect located an exterior drain by using a ‘diviner’ stick. I kid you not!!

4. The work completed under their jurisdiction is guaranteed, so you have some degree of security that the work will be completed to your satisfaction. And actually completed!!

As you receive each ‘devi’ read through them carefully, with a French dictionary beside you if neccessary.  We made a point of always asking questions - not that we expected to have the price reduced but we thought it was good practice to make everyone aware we were keeping an eye on the ‘devis’.

We found that  the costs were generally within or confined to the prices quoted. The biggest challenge is ‘time’ and this becomes very important if you are creating a Bed and Breakfast or self-catering holiday accommodation.

Your season for guests starts around Easter each year. So you want all your work done by then. However, the prime selling/booking season starts straight after Christmas, so ideally you want all your renovation work completed by the end of November. You need at least a months lead time as you need to take photos, activate your website and/or  arrange to be listed in some of the internet based directories. So if you estimate you have 3 months of renovation work in front of you, allow 6 months and you will be close. Don’t forget, as we did (twice - slow learners!!) that no work will be carried out in August, so you need to plan for that being a ‘lost’ month.

After that, all you need is the 3 P’s mantra - patience, persistence and perserverance.

Bon Courage!!

A Bientot, Bruce.

The Legal Process

Once you have an agreed price for the property you are going to buy, a meeting is arranged at a Notaire to sign the Compromis (draft sale) document.  Apart from yourselves, in attendence will be the sellers and also the Real Estate agent.

We think the Notaire system is very good and provides you with a great deal of confidence.  Their prime responsibility is to ensure that the transaction is completed in accordance with existing French law, and that the correct amount of taxes are applied. (and collected!) So essentially they are independant, not acting for you or the seller, but for the French government.  If you are a non-French speaker the Notaire must arrange for a translator to be present.

You are quite entitled to appoint your own Avocat to represent you but we have never felt a need to do so.  The only exception was when we bought our first property and we we couldn’t be in France when the final documents were signed. We provided a Power of Attorney to an Avocate who signed for us. To this day we have never met her - she was away on holiday when we called by her office to collect the keys!!

I should mention here that this article is a very broad brush of our experiences and a guide only. You should of course seek expert professional advice for any property transaction you undertake. Particularly as the laws appear to be modified quite frequently. You can find excellent information at www.notaires.fr including an english version!

The Compromis is wordy (naturally!) but many of the subject headings are the same as what you would see in your own country. One very important set of clauses are the Conditions Suspensive. Here you must insert any ’subject to’ conditions you wish to apply, such as raising a loan, or selling an existing property. Once you have signed the Compromis, and if all the Conditions Suspensive have been fulfilled then the sale must proceed. Otherwise you forfeit your deposit. (usually 10%)

Once the Compromis has been signed there is usually a two or three month gap until you sign the final sale document, the Acte de Vente. During this time the Notaire undertakes the neccessary searches and checks. The seller must also present a report detailing the whereabouts of any lead, termites and asbestos on the property. They are not compelled to remove these, merely make you aware of where they exist. The Notaire also advises the local Mairie of the transaction as usually the town/village/commune has the right to purchase the property at the agreed price!!

A few days prior to signing the Acte de Vente you will need to have paid the balance of the purchase price into the Notaire”s bank account. After you have completed signing the Acte de Vente (this can take two or three hours) the Notaire will present you with the keys to your new home and you become the proud new owners from that time.

We were intrigued with the imprecise possession date applied to our existing property. We took ownership of the keys on the 20th of December, two months later in February the previous owners were still removing various items from the property!!  They are a lovely family so we didn’t at all mind, were just amused by it.

A Bientôt, Bruce.

 Cutting the ‘deal’.

We had found our ‘dream’ home, here in Chaudenay, Burgundy. Now the fun started, making the offer and clinching a deal. It is always the most difficult decision, what price to offer. When it comes to property buying, there is a little bit of  a ‘trader’ in most of us and of course one always wishes to avoid ‘over paying’ for a property. 

Our own experience in France is that the difference between the ’settlement’ price and the ‘asking’ price is somewhat narrower than what is often the case in our home countries of New Zealand and Australia.  Yes, we have been told of transactions where the property was bought at 50% of the asking price (I told them I was in town for 24 hours, I can write them a cheque sort of thing) but within a band of 5% to 15% seems to be more common.

When we sold our village house in St Remy de Provence we received our asking price, and in Nice when we sold our apartment we also received our asking price. In both cases some negotiation occurred over fittings.

As you would anywhere, we sought out any negotiating ‘angles’. Why were the owners selling? (ill health) How long has the property been on the market? (two weeks, so that didn’t help us!) How many owners are there? (6 families - quelle horreur)

We sought guidance from the Immobiliere. We reminded ourselves that real estate agents are the same the world over - their goal is to complete a sale. He counselled us not to make a ’silly’ offer, which seemed to be valid advice.

Pushing against all this was our strong desire to purchase the property. It met our spec, was in good condition, had an excellent location and stood up to a key consideration, resale value.

The offer and acceptance process is reasonably straight forward.  The Immobiliere may ask you to complete a simple ‘offer’ document or in our case we forwarded a fax making our offer.  After some minor negotiation, a price was agreed and the deal was done. This photo may give you a better idea of what our half a million+ euros bought!

Attention!!  Fittings/furniture are nearly always negotiable.  It is most important to undestand that ‘fittings’ have quite a different definition in France. The seller is quite entitled to take with them all curtains, floor coverings, light fittings, ovens etc and even cupboards. We learnt this the hard way with our first purchase in St Remy, the house had been stripped bare, naked wires hanging from the walls, a lone free standing kitchen sink was all that remained in the whole house!

So be careful to specify each ‘fitting’ that you wish to retain. There is also another advantage, fittings and or furniture are able to be set aside from the property as a seperate agreed cost and this can create some minor tax savings for you.

So, once you have your agreed price you march off to the Notaire’s office. I will cover this in the next Post of this series.

A Bientot,

Bruce.

Property search - cutting through the morass

I use the word ‘morass’ as a polite term for ‘les conneries’ which in itself is a polite word for ‘merde’. (I think!)

How to find and select your dream French property, without being driven to drink? (that can come later)  By now you will have chosen which area of France appeals to you most, and if you have been diligent you will have nutted out a property spec. (see previous Post)

Our next step was to undertake some research via the internet. There are obvious advantages in this; it is relatively quick; uncostly; gives you an independant ‘feel’ for what is on the market within your budget; you can do it wearing your slippers; and you can find property sites in english if you have a need for that.  We ended up with a list of 24 properties that we thought would be worth inspecting. Location ranged from Chablis in the far north of Burgundy to the area around Cluny in the south.

The major downside of being guided by the property descriptions are the descriptions themselves.  As most people are aware, a special University exists from where real estate agents worldwide graduate with a P.h.d. in the ’science’ of writing property descriptions. These descriptions of course bear no relation whatsoever to reality.  ‘Charming’ usually means the property needs total renovation; ‘panoramic views’ equals the house has no endearing features; ‘good development opportunity’ will normally require huge amounts of capital and 3 years of your life. I am sure you are all adept at interpreting such descriptions.

So, armed with our internet list we set out to view the properties in person.  I must say we generally found all the ‘immobiliers’ to be helpful, patient and reasonably efficient.  Like anywhere in the world they were keen to ‘make a sale’.  A number of them continued to feed us information on further properties after we had returned home.

Of the properties themselves, as you could expect they were a real mixed bag. Some we crossed off the list as soon as we walked through the front gate, others were discarded when we could see how much renovation was required. We saw one pristine property with a number of outstanding features and at an excellent price but its isolated location made us nervous. It stayed on our list but was eliminated later on.

In spite of all this analysis and research, ironically we literally tripped over the property we bought.  We were rushing to a rendezvous with an immobilier in Beaune. As we passed another immobilière, (haven’t quite worked out what there are most of in France, boulangeries, coiffures or immobilieres) Anne caught sight of some photos in their front window. A visit was hastily arranged for the next day and voila, it was one of those scenarios where we knew immediately this was the property for us.

Our search was relatively painless, it only involved three weekends. So our homework, analysis and research all played an important part in narrowing down our search. However, as you read in the final outcome, nothing beats being on the spot, wearing out your shoe leather and keeping your eyes and ears open.

Creating a Property Specification - it pays dividends 

This Post talks about drawing up a Property Specification.  We recommend you do it. At the very least it could save your marriage or friendship!!  A Property spec also provides a number of benefits.  It acts as a good discipline and a base document to refer to; it is helpful when you need to provide information to Immobiliers (real estate agencies); and importantly it ensures that there is total agreement between spouses/partners as to your expectations!!

Here is the spec we created when we were searching for our Burgundy B n B property, which we originally bought in partnership with another couple. In italics, I have indicated how we actually fared against our initial desires!!

1. Location - within 40 kms of Beaune, or  within 20 kms of Cluny, or within 20 kms of Chablis/Auxerre

As we were going to create a B n B, our starting point was to be located somewhere close to a Tourist attraction. People don’t come to an area just because you have a B n B!!  We saw one beautiful property, a Chateau, which would have been ideal and was at a very good price, but its location was far too remote so rightly we resisted the temptation.  We ended up 15kms from Beaune.

2. Situated - in a village or very close to a village

We are on the fringes of a village. We would have liked the village to have more services/facilities, so we compromised on this one.

3. Property - with character or memorable appeal, a grande maison, moulin, small château, etc

Our property consists of an elegant Maison de Maitre, extensive outbuildings and ‘extra’ features such as a 16th c wine press and an ancient Swiss oven room.

4. Possibly an existing chambres d’hôte or small hotel or has potential to be operated as one

It was a private home when we bought it but it clearly had potential as B n B/Gite accommodation.

5. 10 - 12 bedrooms

It had 5 bedrooms in the ‘Maison’ (just as importantly, 3 existing bathrooms) and potential to create 3 further Gites.

6. Property Condition - little or no significant restoration works required

We always recommend buying a property that is currently being lived in. Unless you have lots of money and three years of your life to spare!! Not always of course, but it does lower the risk of any ‘nasty’ surprises. Our property required a lot of renovation, some installation of second walls to minimise noise, and a rework of bathrooms. It had however been built with quality materials and was in good condition. It still took a year to complete!!

Nice old house to renovate said the Advertisement - I don’t think so!

7. Owners Accommodation - required for two couples, can be apartments contained within the main building or separate outbuilding (dépendance)

We managed this with two apartments located in the outbuildings.

8. Terrain - preferably 2 - 4 hectares

In retrospect the size of land was a bit ambitious, we ended up with 1 hectare (2.5 acres) which is more than ample and that takes enough time to keep maintained!!

One of the major advantages of having a written spec is that it enables you to very quickly eliminate a lot of properties, even without sighting them, therefore saving you a lot of time and frustration. We definitely recommend you create your own, it worked really well for us!

A Bientot,

Bruce.