So your heart is set on buying a property in France and you have an idea of where in France you would like to relocate or buy your holiday home but what do you do next? For most people the first port of call for finding a property in France is by trawling as many internet sites as possible to try and prepare a shortlist of properties before they depart or to contact as many agents as possible asking them to send over properties matching their wish list. This is a good idea initially as it will give you an idea of what you can expect to spend to get your little slice of happiness in France and shows you the different architecture found in each area to allow you to hone your search requirements. Many house hunters acting as they would if searching for property in the UK then proceed to ask for more detailed particulars on the properties in question and for further photos. Nine times out of ten the response from the agent is that there are in fact no further photos nor do they have further particulars on the property. You may approach it another way and have a whole host of questions for each property which you find are not answered or not to the extent you had hoped. This is again common in France as for most agents 95% of sales are to French residents who will be happy to pop into their local agent, ask what’s available and then go on an afternoon’s viewings with him- they do not ask for the sort of detailed information that UK buyers are used to and therefore the agents in France are not used to it. This can be extremely frustrating for house hunters who are trying to get as much information as possible so that they don’t waste time viewing unsuitable houses during the limited time they have available.

Another frequent annoyance for property hunters in France is that they see a property which they like on the internet then enquire about it only to be told that it has just been sold. Worse still you may have made the trip to France to view this property you found on a website only to be told when you get there that it has just been sold! The reason behind this happening so frequently is largely down to the system in France which allows vendors to place their property with an unlimited number of agents and often ends up with about 5 or 6 different ones. Add to this the fact that in France there is a huge market for individuals selling property to each other directly totally by-passing agents and you quickly see that it is hard for each agent to know exactly what is available and what is not. The law is written such that if the vendor sells his property either by himself or through an agent he is supposed to immediately inform all agents mandated to sell the property of the sale so that they can take the property off the books. However quite often you will find this doesn’t happen, especially if the sale is quite recent. You end up with agents having property on their books which has in fact very recently been sold and the agent doesn’t find out until he calls the owner to pick up the keys or arrange a viewing. For a French buyer this is the norm and as he is usually quite local it is not really a problem and he can pop down for viewings at any time. For foreign buyers unfortunately this is not the case as their viewing dates are fixed often 2 or 3 weeks in advance during which time the property they came all that way to view has in fact just been snapped up by someone else!

The best advice is to book appointments with agents who you trust, who are in the area you are looking and who have a good selection of the sorts of properties you are after. This way you know that whether or not that one property you selected has been sold you will be shown other suitable property and it will not be a wasted trip. This is especially true for agencies that work on a partnership basis with other agents and therefore actually share all their portfolios. Booking with an agency with many partners will give you heaps of choice but also means that the all important feedback process will be utilised and a rapport with the agent will be built. Leapfrog properties is one such agency with over 1500 partners across France and 200,000 properties covering every region of France and offers its clients a fully comprehensive service from start to finish at absolutely no extra charge to the client! Their bilingual consultants not only guide you throughout the process but also spend time analyzing your criteria, speaking with suitable partner agents and organising a highly targeted itinerary only with agents who have exactly what you are looking for. This in fact not only saves the client time and money but also takes the stress out of having to organise the whole trip themselves with lots of different agents. People who benefit most are those whose French is not fluent and who cannot ask the correct questions in French to make sure their requirements are fully understood by the agent.

Nick Dowlatshahi of Leapfrog Properties comments that clients are immediately seeing the benefits of this way of searching for property and are indeed often booking entire weeks with them for property viewings. They have the peace of mind that they don’t have to spend hours trawling through pages of property websites or magazines while getting confused or frustrated with the process but can sit back and know everything is being done for them with only one point of contact that crucially speaks English.