Getting Questions Answered by our France Estate Agent

019 This week we reach out to our Estate Agent Andrew Merchant and asked all the questions we wish we’d known when we were searching for a house in france. We hope this video is useful. for you.

Thanks again for watching,

Michael and April

Andrew Merchant’s Contact Information:

https://www.propertiesinlimousin.com

https://www.agencenewton.com/

0033 55 56 01 026

propertiesinlimousin@hotmail.com

Description of Us:
We are a couple of American Francophiles who have come to truly appreciate so many things about French culture. We love the food, wine, art, and history of France, but especially the people we have met along the way. Join us as we make our dream of living in France a reality. Follow us as we explore the French living and exploring a new life there with our beloved dog, Bernice. We enjoy learning about stone house renovation, wine, cooking, brocante shopping, and the French community we are now a part of.

In this week’s video April interviews are realator to answer one of the many questions we’ve been asked how did we buy a house in France as you’ve likely guessed we have returned to California and are now left with just dreaming about the day we return meanwhile this gives us a chance

To answer some of the questions we’ve been asked about the buying process who better to ask than our realtor Andrew Merchant an expert who guided us through through the somewhat complicated process when putting together this interview we said to ourselves we wish we had this information when we began our search

Enjoy the interview we will see you next week okay good morning to Andre Merchant um the well in our opinion best French realtor um but uh we have through this little YouTube channel have gotten um probably the most questions about um how do we do it and um so in

Our French class people have said I didn’t imagine that that was something I could do until I saw you guys do it and we always have to pause and say well but it was a lot easier because of um Andrew so uh I hope it’s okay but we have some

Questions that um we wanted to just find out some more about you and about the house process um so if it’s okay we’ll get started yep no problem at all let’s go um so um tell us about you and the services you provide how long have you

Been a real estate agent where do you sell homes and then um we also wanted you to talk about the amazing translation services too okay so as April’s always said my name is Andrew Merchant I’m the regional director for new mobilia uh so I’m actually based in the Lian region of

France which is the Cent Banks back in the center of France however our company has two separate degrees we have the central France we have the southern part of France and we also have the northern part of France so as an agency we have somewhere around 30 aant commercials

Working nationally there is areas within France we don’t cover which we’re building on now um but we do have a very good National cover between North and South so I’ve been a an estate agent for 20 years in France arrived in France and did all my qualifications and I’ve

Actually been based in the same town for the past 20 years excellent um and what advice would you give to someone from America if they were interested in purchasing a home in France okay so as you’re aware I have quite a lot of American clients and have

Sold to many American clients over the years one of the main things we come across a lot of the American clients do want to buy properties blind I am really against that I don’t like it um sometimes it’s a success story other times it’s not so my main

Advice I know America’s a long way away from France but really if you do want to come out here do what do what April did and come and view the property first before committing to buy it because you don’t know how honest the estate agent

Is going to be with you VI via video calls and I think too one thing that we realized was that things can look a lot in a picture than they do in in reality and seeing it and um and that can work to your benefit and to your detriment

But um I Concur and it also helps to have an idea of the type of the area around where you want to buy to I think you have to um well either be super lucky like we were or uh do a lot of research or and

Do a lot of research um so is it difficult for Americans to get financing in France financing side is really difficult at the moment and I’m not just saying this isn’t just Americans This is the French banks at the moment like everybody else you know France has gone

Through covid there’s been a lot of problems with the finances within the company within the country so what we’re finding is the banks generally over the last couple of years have been pretty closed doors and that’s even for the French so the problem with financing I’m not saying it’s impossible but buy

Coming over here there’s a lot of things that Americans would need to prove to be able to get a mortgage and most of it’s income related and nine times out of 10 the French banks won’t accept the various tax documents from America so I’m saying it’s not impossible but it’s

Hard work it’s hard work yeah and we we um we had heard many stories even though you know we had come kind of with a a budget and and we knew that we had a certain amount of cash to use but um we still hear you know stories of how

Difficult it is to um get a bank account and get utilities and um well again you super helpful you absolutely instrumental with that so um I was I was going to say I you know you know that I can do that I can get your bank account I can do your utilities

I’ve done it for you the you know there is horror stories out there about not being able to get bank accounts but it’s all about again down to the agent being able to tell you what relevant paperwork you need to bring with you to actually open that bank account and you know I

Advised you before you came over we went there and we opened the bank account very smoothly yeah and and to be honest I think that your community connections too were a huge um benefit to us like just you knowing who to reach out to and

How to do that um was pretty powerful um so experience again you 20 years of experience in the same area so yes of course I’ve built up a network of Trades and I’ve built up a network of of different companies that I work with that I can you that I can guarantee and

I know they work going to be correct so yeah it’s down to the experience and the network I’ve built up and that brings up a really good point like if if let’s just say you don’t stumble upon an Andrew and or an agent Newton what’s the

Best way to to find a property in France what do you recommend so initially it’s that’s a really hard one because as you know in every industry there’s good and bad um so I would take what we’re doing here for example a video call you know your recommendation

Is to use me I think anybody should take a recommendation on people they’ve used previously um because the recommendations are so important because there is some bad estate agents here and they’ll cost you money do you um or do agents act as um Brokers for buyers even

If they’re not the ones who list the proper property generally no it doesn’t come within the territory of what we do we can occasionally depending who the other agent is we have what’s called a delegation of mandate now if for example somebody finds a property you come to me

And say I’ve found this property it’s on with such and such that agent might be approachable that we can go to them and say right we have a client who’s interested in your property are you prepared to share the Mandate with his the commission some of

Them are going to say yes some are going to say no you know if they say yes it’s fine yes we can broker and you know work with a client and the other agency to make sure everything’s done correctly gotcha oh thank you um what the again these are questions

That we’ve gotten what um taxes can a new homeowner expect to pay on like a 100,000 Euro home okay so from a Purchase Tax point of view so if they found ,000 EUR property that includes agency fee they’re then going to have to pay approximately another 8% which is the

Government Purchase Tax and includes the not’s fee the not not’s administration fee is normally about 23% of that that total so altogether if you’re looking at property 100,000 you’re looking at about another 8,000 EUR on top for purchase taxes including not fee after that taxwise we have what’s called tax font

Tax volier is a government tax um it’s based on the size of the property the size of the land everyone has to pay that if you’re living in France there also there is also what’s called tax habitation tax habitation is not for permanent home owners here we don’t

Actually pay it however secondary home owners will pay it however we can’t give you that fig of state agent we don’t know it’s a personal tax and it’s calculated after you’ve bought the property okay so we’ll have to look ours at so that we can can share you will fine it

Will come to you it probably that’s it was it will siphon its way through probably about October this year yeah yeah we’re looking forward because I think that at that year mark we’re going to get you know a recalculation of several different parts of the bills um

So that’s we’re we’re interested um so what can people expect the inspection processes to be in France what’s required what from start from start when they first come to visit a property yeah so initially various agents work in different ways you know I work totally different to everybody else a lot of

Agents will refuse to see people to visit properties unless they can prove that they’ve got funds in place to purchase I’m actually not like that you know every every client has to start a journey somewhere you know that Journey we could be the first couple of years

Into it we could be right the final stage before the raise to buy so as far as I’m concerned anybody that walks through my door whether they’re in a position to proceed immediately or whether they’re just starting their Journey I’m quite happy to see and visit properties with I think initially you

Need to work out the area you want to be in um the area is really really important and then start see searching around that particular area and really nail it down to a very very small radius of maybe five maybe 10 kilometers which I think is actually what you did

Eventually you actually narrow it down and narrowed down you actually got to that very very tight kilometer Circle where you wanted to be that’s true um so um when it comes to the house purchase and you have to like verify the conditions we in America they they talk about it being like due

Diligence right like you you have to go in and make sure that it’s safe and that things are um livable were are those contractors arranged by the seller or they arranged by the buyer both okay so we have um I’m not sure I don’t know the process

Particularly well in America I know the UK version we don’t have what’s called structural surveys in France they actually don’t exist I’m not saying you can’t have it done there is actually contractors there is surveyors that come over from the UK that are registered to to do so however the actual structural

Survey doesn’t naturally exist so something that you have to pay for or organize however within the buying process there is Diagnostics now Diagnostics will tell you will give you a good idea the condition of the electrics it would tell you if there’s a speu at the property it will tell you if

There’s lead at the property now we’re not talking lead pipes here like in the UK we’re talking we’re talking lead in the paint so paint pre1 1948 that needs to be taken care of if you’re going to sand something down wear a mask and don’t lick your fingers for

Example um you’ll also get what’s called attct to risk and pollution which gives you an idea of whether the property is on a flood plane whether it’s sub whe has subsidence around the area all the different natural risks that are possibly available at that house it will

Give you information on that as well and most importantly as everybody’s aware of it now we have What’s called the DP which is the Energy Efficiency um obviously that’s become a global issue now that everyone needs to run their properties efficiently so the DP is based much the same I imagine in

America on an a to G basis G being the lowest a being the highest so realistic if in this area because it’s Old Stone farm houses and old houses if you can achieve somewhere around an e you’re doing well very good um is it difficult to find contractors to work on properties in

France good contractors yes like America yes so yeah good good contractors same again it’s the same as a state agent it’s Word of Mouth you know listen to people that give recommendations because they much the same in any industry that’s good and bad um and I think if a builder came along

She said oh I can start tomorrow I would run a mile because we don’t want anybody can start tomorrow because it means they got no work if Builder says you got to wait six months or a year we know that build is good because he’s full of work

Right right that makes sense um so what do you see from like the estate agent side as being the biggest challenge to purchasing a home in France I never have any challenges because I do it for everybody um good good there is no challenge because say

That’s what I’m here for that’s what my job is you know my job is to make any transaction go as smoothly as possible without complication so yeah nothing is a challenge to me there’s always if there’s ever a problem there’s always a solution yeah and and always is solution

I have to back you up on that Andrew you you you made it absolutely as easier easier than you know any of the homes that we purchased here in the US which was um completely unexpected so I can I can back up I think I think you

As an estate agent and it’s it’s important transparence transparency all the time with your clients totally because transparency builds a good relationship you your clients can then trust you and you know this is the main thing all clients would be vendors all purchasers have to have a confidence in

The person they’re dealing with and that has to be built around trust so yeah that’s that’s the only challenge I have is building up that initial trust with any client so what’s the what would you say is the hardest part of your job honestly um I have difficult clients

Sometimes I I also have extremely nice c as you know I’m actually talking to one at the moment oh thank you yeah I mean I can see that um so what’s the part that you love the most about your job besides being I I abely love it all and otherwise I

Wouldn’t have been doing it after 20 years you know every property is different from a property that’s to sell for 10,000 or a property that’s to sell for 100 million you you know what I sell I sell properties from low end of the market up to Luxurious Shadows MH and

Everyone gives me the same excitement gives me the same motivation to wake up in the morning uh it’s nothing particular I love going around different houses and seeing different things I like going back to houses after people have bought them and seeing what they’ve done the transformation you know the

Transformation on your house already just by putting a log burner in has made so much difference it really has it was it was most welcome we we um we just uh you know little by little it’s becoming ours I think think it we’re going to you

Know be back for for a couple of months in the summer and so we have some more things planned it’s exciting um but you know we um there’s so much that we want to keep original because well as you know at that house it was just so it’s

So historic and and um such a cozy little space um so Andrew I want to say thank you and I want to um make sure that we let everyone know that we’re putting a link to to your agency and to you in in the uh description below so if

People want to um reach out um to see it and and contact you um they can do that but uh we just really appreciate you and appreciate you taking the time and um I want to just tell you we’re going to invite you back to have some wine and

Just relax with us this summer we’re looking forward to to seeing you again the wine sounds brilliant yes right from I remember anyone wants to contact me at all you know you don’t even have to be in a position that you want to buy if it’s general information

You’re even at the start of the journey just contact me I have no issues with with dealing with people that are well at the start of their journey and seeing it right through I’m dealing with clients here and that I’ve just sold a house a couple of weeks ago I’ve been

Dealing with these clients for four years um so yeah I have no worries about anyone at the start of their journey and that’s what I’m here for thank you Andrew it’s so good to see you we appreciate you so much thanks for taking the time today no problem you take care bye bye

Bud