How to sell a house in France (help for British in-laws edition)
September 18, 2017 12:55 AM Subscribe
Can any mefites help - my parents in law are British citizens currently living in the area of Lot-de-Garonne (close to Marmande) in a beautiful two-bedroom house which they are struggling to sell and I don't know how else to help them.
They have been in France for past 11 years but their health is deteriorating and they want to be closer to family and come back to the UK, there is also the big unknown of Brexit which adds to the urgency. They need to sell the house to be able to come back, the house has been on the market for close to two years and nothing, not a bite. Their agent appears bit useless, there have been a couple of viewings but no further interest. All their agent seems to come up with is the idea of dropping the price which my parents-in law cannot afford because then they won't have enough to live in the UK and myself and my wife do not have the ability to buy property for them.
They are increasingly feeling like they are stuck in France, my mother in law has never really wanted to live there, their French is really poor and it was my father-in-law's idea to up the sticks 11 years ago and live abroad, like quite a few British people did. So it's a two-fold question:
1. how can we practically help our parents-in law sell their house in France? Apart from maybe helping them find a better agent, what else is missing? What would make the house more sellable apart from dropping the price which is not an option?
2. how do I support my mother-in-law who is getting increasingly depressed about the situation and stuck in a country she doesn't want to be but there seems to be no way out because they are unable to sell the house?
any help would be appreciated!
They have been in France for past 11 years but their health is deteriorating and they want to be closer to family and come back to the UK, there is also the big unknown of Brexit which adds to the urgency. They need to sell the house to be able to come back, the house has been on the market for close to two years and nothing, not a bite. Their agent appears bit useless, there have been a couple of viewings but no further interest. All their agent seems to come up with is the idea of dropping the price which my parents-in law cannot afford because then they won't have enough to live in the UK and myself and my wife do not have the ability to buy property for them.
They are increasingly feeling like they are stuck in France, my mother in law has never really wanted to live there, their French is really poor and it was my father-in-law's idea to up the sticks 11 years ago and live abroad, like quite a few British people did. So it's a two-fold question:
1. how can we practically help our parents-in law sell their house in France? Apart from maybe helping them find a better agent, what else is missing? What would make the house more sellable apart from dropping the price which is not an option?
2. how do I support my mother-in-law who is getting increasingly depressed about the situation and stuck in a country she doesn't want to be but there seems to be no way out because they are unable to sell the house?
any help would be appreciated!
If you are a seller with a house in the UK then you will normally scout about for an estate agent and choose one. If they are useless then you might change to another. The estate agent will collect fees from you for setting up the work and then a commission from you on the sale. Estate agencies will have exclusivity clauses in their contracts which prevent you listing with more than one. Agencies will be very explicit about saying exactly where a property is and buyers can hoover up these details as well as information on local sales and previous sale prices on the house in question.
You should be aware that the French do things differently. First of all it is the buyer who pays the estate agent (often a lot by international standards). For this reason many sellers will normally list with a number of agencies - they have nothing much to lose by doing this. However - the agencies have a lot to lose if you work out where the property is and go and approach the seller directly - so they will often be very coy about listing too many details that would let them do so.
So - in apart from house dressing, and setting the price realistically - get more than one agency in competition with each other. And if they can do so contractually, putting up a sign in the garden saying the place is for sale - is also a good idea - prospective buyers can then avoid agency fees altogether.
posted by rongorongo at 2:11 AM on September 18, 2017 [5 favorites]
You should be aware that the French do things differently. First of all it is the buyer who pays the estate agent (often a lot by international standards). For this reason many sellers will normally list with a number of agencies - they have nothing much to lose by doing this. However - the agencies have a lot to lose if you work out where the property is and go and approach the seller directly - so they will often be very coy about listing too many details that would let them do so.
So - in apart from house dressing, and setting the price realistically - get more than one agency in competition with each other. And if they can do so contractually, putting up a sign in the garden saying the place is for sale - is also a good idea - prospective buyers can then avoid agency fees altogether.
posted by rongorongo at 2:11 AM on September 18, 2017 [5 favorites]
First and more importantly, the price of property is that which people are willing to pay. So your in-laws should start living with the fact that they may not get as much money as they'd really like.
Second, they should dump their current real estate agent and list the house with at least two other agents in the region, with no exclusivity clause.
Third, where you can truly help is to pay for minor repairs and home staging services (approx. 2% of the sales price). Here's a list from around Marmande. Or better yet, if you have an interior designer in your immediate circle, buy them a free vacation to France and send them off to rejuvenate the place.
posted by Kwadeng at 2:25 AM on September 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
Second, they should dump their current real estate agent and list the house with at least two other agents in the region, with no exclusivity clause.
Third, where you can truly help is to pay for minor repairs and home staging services (approx. 2% of the sales price). Here's a list from around Marmande. Or better yet, if you have an interior designer in your immediate circle, buy them a free vacation to France and send them off to rejuvenate the place.
posted by Kwadeng at 2:25 AM on September 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
Be aware also that properties in the French countryside are often more popular with foreign buyers than they are with locals -so agencies that specialise in an international client base may be worth approaching (do some web searches to look for a property in this area to look for those advertising in English - then consider approaching them). These more international agencies may not have an office in the local town - but they will be more used to dealing with people who are in the same state as your in-laws.
They would probably benefit from enlisting a fluent French speaker with experience in buying and selling houses in the local market - by this I mean somebody that they might know locally or somebody you might know. Nothing like having such a person on the ground to help set things up.
posted by rongorongo at 2:33 AM on September 18, 2017 [3 favorites]
They would probably benefit from enlisting a fluent French speaker with experience in buying and selling houses in the local market - by this I mean somebody that they might know locally or somebody you might know. Nothing like having such a person on the ground to help set things up.
posted by rongorongo at 2:33 AM on September 18, 2017 [3 favorites]
3. A little bit of home-staging can go a long way. Is the house cluttered? Is the wallpaper outdated or dark? Try to give the walls a white coat of paint, rearrange the furniture to give the illusion of more space.
If they are planning on moving anyway, have they started the "house move junk clearing"? Like, get rid of stuff they aren't planning on taking back to the UK now, instead of waiting until after the sale. Obviously some furniture and day-to-day stuff can stay (because they'll still be living there for now), but all that random junk that can be trashed or sold can go now. Stuff they want to keep but isn't useful day-to-day can be packed up ready to move and put somewhere out of the way (garage, attic, self-storage, etc). The clearer the house can be of "personal decoration" (family photos, ornaments, etc) and clutter the better. Maybe you can go over for a long weekend and help with that? Packing/clearing is one of the more depressing/boring parts of moving so it's nice to have help.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:35 AM on September 18, 2017
If they are planning on moving anyway, have they started the "house move junk clearing"? Like, get rid of stuff they aren't planning on taking back to the UK now, instead of waiting until after the sale. Obviously some furniture and day-to-day stuff can stay (because they'll still be living there for now), but all that random junk that can be trashed or sold can go now. Stuff they want to keep but isn't useful day-to-day can be packed up ready to move and put somewhere out of the way (garage, attic, self-storage, etc). The clearer the house can be of "personal decoration" (family photos, ornaments, etc) and clutter the better. Maybe you can go over for a long weekend and help with that? Packing/clearing is one of the more depressing/boring parts of moving so it's nice to have help.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:35 AM on September 18, 2017
Their agent appears bit useless, there have been a couple of viewings but no further interest. All their agent seems to come up with is the idea of dropping the price which my parents-in law cannot afford because then they won't have enough to live in the UK and myself and my wife do not have the ability to buy property for them.
It sounds like you might not have the whole picture here. If the house is indeed priced well above market, and your in-laws are unwilling to change that, the agent's hands are tied in generating interest. The agent may have given excellent explanations of what the current state of the market is, how to tell what an appropriate price is, what the trade-offs are in listing it higher, etc.--but he/she can't actually change the price, and will respect your in-laws' apparent wish to simply spend much longer trying to sell. If your in-laws aren't willing to listen this is all going to filter to you as "this agent is useless!"
posted by cogitron at 4:11 AM on September 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
It sounds like you might not have the whole picture here. If the house is indeed priced well above market, and your in-laws are unwilling to change that, the agent's hands are tied in generating interest. The agent may have given excellent explanations of what the current state of the market is, how to tell what an appropriate price is, what the trade-offs are in listing it higher, etc.--but he/she can't actually change the price, and will respect your in-laws' apparent wish to simply spend much longer trying to sell. If your in-laws aren't willing to listen this is all going to filter to you as "this agent is useless!"
posted by cogitron at 4:11 AM on September 18, 2017 [2 favorites]
What sites is this house listed on? If it is only being marketed locally in France, this is a mistake. Right Move is the obvious UK one, but because Brexit, I would include Daft for Ireland, and whatever the german one would be that has a foreign properties section.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:51 AM on September 18, 2017
posted by DarlingBri at 4:51 AM on September 18, 2017
Their agent appears bit useless,
To add a slightly different emphasis to DarlingBri's point: really he is the prospective buyer's agent - not your in-law's. An agent who takes his buyers to visit properties that are over-priced, under-staged, in need or repairs or (most of all) not a good match for what the buyer is looking for - will be out of business before long. The local immoblier in Marmande might be somebody like these guys - note that the site is in French only. Customers will probably be locals mostly - no so much the Dutch, Irish, German or even British clientele who may be most interested in the place. But if I google "French properties for sale near Bergerac" then I will get some more promising prospective agencies to work with.
posted by rongorongo at 6:37 AM on September 18, 2017
To add a slightly different emphasis to DarlingBri's point: really he is the prospective buyer's agent - not your in-law's. An agent who takes his buyers to visit properties that are over-priced, under-staged, in need or repairs or (most of all) not a good match for what the buyer is looking for - will be out of business before long. The local immoblier in Marmande might be somebody like these guys - note that the site is in French only. Customers will probably be locals mostly - no so much the Dutch, Irish, German or even British clientele who may be most interested in the place. But if I google "French properties for sale near Bergerac" then I will get some more promising prospective agencies to work with.
posted by rongorongo at 6:37 AM on September 18, 2017
How much have they anglicised the house? Carpets, curtains, electric showers*...? I know British-owned houses in France, but not so much the selling of such, so I don't know if this is an issue. But if they're trying to sell it to locals, things Brits expect in a house might take work to fix, and who knows what other hidden 'quirks' it has?
posted by Helga-woo at 4:24 AM on September 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Helga-woo at 4:24 AM on September 19, 2017 [1 favorite]
Looking up the prices in the Marmande region, it seems that a 2-bedroom house is cheap, somewhere in the 90-150 k€ range, unless it has a pool or/and a large garden. The average price near Marmande is about 1200€/m², which is in the low end, which means that there's not a lot of demand and not a large degree of freedom for sellers. Unless the agent is a complete idiot and doesn't even try, almost no visits in 2 years means that it's indeed too expensive for the quality/location. People look at the ad on the agent's window and swipe left. It's just not attractive but it's hard to tell why without seeing the ad of course. Also, 2 years is long but not unheard of in France (average time is about 3-4 months): the apartment I bought had been on the market for 2 years, and so did the apartment below mine, and again the problem was the price (a least there were visits).
posted by elgilito at 7:47 AM on September 19, 2017
posted by elgilito at 7:47 AM on September 19, 2017
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2. You don't set a price according to what money you need. You set the price according to the market. The fact that there has been only a couple of viewings in two years suggest that people are turned off by the price. Find similar houses in the same area that have actually been sold and get the price in line with those.
3. A little bit of home-staging can go a long way. Is the house cluttered? Is the wallpaper outdated or dark? Try to give the walls a white coat of paint, rearrange the furniture to give the illusion of more space.
posted by snakeling at 1:33 AM on September 18, 2017 [13 favorites]