A Bed and Breakfast in France
June 26, 2007 by Tony · Leave a Comment
The dream for many people is to move to France and combine this with running a BandB or a Chambre d’Hote, and there is a very strong demand for good quality BandB accommodation in many parts of France.
Several properties we are offering from the real estate site on Coast and Country are ideal for a Bed and Breakfast operation.
It can be a very satifying thing to do, Carole and I did this for six years in our home in Nizas, although most of the time we rented as apartments rather than as a bed and breakfast.
I usually advise anyone considering this move to only look at offering top quality accommodation and not to go for the budget end of the market, this is catered for by the low cost hotels like Formule, Etap and Camponile with good clean ccommodation from 30 euro a night for up to four people.
If you offer something better then, depending on the level of comfort, the location and the facilities you can charge from 40 euro to 90 euro a night for two or three people
The key for selecting a property for a successful BandB is choosing the right location in the right town. I know I am stating the obvious, but I have seen very significant changes in the demographics of accommodation over the last fifteen years in France, especially in Languedoc.
What may have worked successfully in 1999 may be an uphill struggle now. It is not just that property prices have increased substantially, but there has also been a disproportionate increase in vacation rentals combined with a change in the type of accommodation required.
To buy a property and then make a living from it is difficult, to buy a home with five BandB and sufficient space for yourself and the clients, within half an hour of the Mediterranean will cost a minimum of 500,000 euro – the income for this at an average of 60 euro a night is a maximum of about 4 percent return on your capital assuming 100 percent capacity – in reality you would get less than 2 percent return on your total capital investment as a BandB and this includes your time, feeding and cleaning, but you do have a home and a lifestyle.
A case of wine and a garland of onions
June 25, 2007 by Tony · 2 Comments
After writing about our picnic on Sunday, I thought about the differences in social etiquette between France and the UK.
Last week some friends came round to say hello and to chat about life, the universe and anything – not a dinner party, they came before 7:00 pm – which means thay do not expect to be fed, but just for a drink and a chat.
They are local people so they came with a case of wine (a really good rose from their own vines) and a bunch of onions from their own fields. I am a great fan of the local onions – I can eat them like apples (no one kisses me anyway) – they are mild and crunchy, there is nothing like them in any supermarket.
It just occured to me that this is a lot nicer than a pot plant and a bottle of wine which may be from five thousand miles away – nothing wrong with that, but it is sort of more personal if you walk your dogs in the same fields that people bring things from.
A door groaning with food
June 25, 2007 by Tony · Leave a Comment
In every film about living in France there is always a scene where a large group of people are sitting outside, usually under speading trees in a rustic courtyard. They are sitting at a long table which is covered with baskets of bread, platters of cheeses and sausage and every other corner of the massive tabe is filled with bottles and glasses as if some hyperactive Tommy Cooper had been practising his magic.
And yesterday magic it was – something from a Breugel – something that has not changed for millennia. Our picnic was just north of us up on the Larzac plateau – if you think Luberon but with really great views, this is an enchanted place.
After living in France for nearly 20 years I still remember the first time we were invited to a picnic – not an improvised affair with a couple of sandwiches and sitting on a rug getting covered with ants and wasps – in France it is nothing less than a full five course meal starting with aperatifs and ending with coffee.
The difference from a formal dinner party is the singing, inpromptu dancing and the fact that we are sitting on wooden benches and eating off of the doors of the house which have been lifted off their hinges and put onto trestles in a long line across an unmown field.
The highlight of the afternoon yesterday was a walk down the hill from the farm to see the baby goats – all ninety of them. Cute is not the word for a flock of two month old angora goats (well goats which give angora wool I don’t know if they are called angora goats) – I doubt I can eat a meshui ever again.
Estate Agents in France and International Marketing
June 21, 2007 by Tony · 4 Comments
Selling your home is one of the most stressful things in life – this should be made easier by the professionals who you pay to advertise and find a customer to buy it. French Estate Agents charge a commission from about four percent and in some cases well over ten percent.
The Internet has shaken up many traditional ways of marketing very quickly, I remember only four years ago being told by directors of one of the largest travel companies in Europe that Internet marketing was not important or would ever be a significant sales tool – they were taken over the following year.
French immobilier (estate agents) seem to be in a similar state. Most do have a website, but they are among the worst designed and constructed sites in the world. There are also far to many of them all scrabbling for a slice of the same pie – in our department, Herault, there are three times as many estate agents listed as there are bakers, this is ludicrous.
So putting your dreams in the hands of most of the agents in France is often a frustrating experience. You would think that with so many of them selling, they would do a good job of presenting and advertising a property – far from it – there is very little synergy between them and a “multi listing service”, (where one agent will take sole and exclusive responsibility for selling the property and then network the information to all other agents, thereby focusing the marketing and being able to spend time and money of correct presentation and advertising) this is not happening and all agents offer the same properties but none show the full details, not even where the property is in most cases.
This is spam selling – chuck enough against the wall and some will stick. it is not good for owners as the properties are not correctly or adequately advertised and it is not good for buyers as they waste a lot of time seeing properties they would have elimiated much earlier.
I am working hard on developing some new marketing tools for selling property on the Internet and hopefully the inefficient and antiquated estate agants will slowly come to realise we are now living in the 21st century (and I don’t mean the agency).
Here is a mail I had yesterday…
==
Hi
We bought a small farmhouse and attached barn in the Creuse area
several years ago.
We regularly visit and absolutely love it. However my partner is retiring this summer and we’ve decided very reluctantly to sell. We’ve left the sale (about 9 months ago) to a local estate agent, but apart from a copy of the agreement we’ve heard nothing from them, despite a promise they would send on a copy of the sale particulars and information about where and how the property is being marketed.
We haven’t contacted them yet because the situation hasn’t been urgent and our French isn’t of the first order. After seeing a programme about buying abroad and the benefits of an “International” estate agent I wondered whether you had any thoughts or advice on selling or could recommend any helpful contacts.
Thanks very much
Peter
==
Hello Peter,
The two main problems with selling property in France is that there is no central “listing” system and that many agents have a paranoia of house buyers dealing directly with the seller.
This means that properties are very badly presented, often adverts will not show a picture of the front of the property, or even tell you which town or village a property is in. This is to prevent prospective buyers driving around and identifying the property and then knocking on the door.
Unfortunately, French estate agents have very little understanding of Internet marketing which is now directly responsible for over 70 percent of all property enquiries in other countries (I cannot get any figures for France yet). Some agents I deal with do not even have their own website and the vast majority use a service which lists properties for their own reference but is invisible on search engines of with any other way of presenting property to buyers.
Slowly there is a realisation with some real estate brokers that working together is a good thing, but this will mean a big cultural change in the thinking of French owners. It would be necessary for the seller to give one exclusive mandat (agreement to sell) to an agent for a fixed period of time (six months for example) and it would also be necessary for all agents to have access to a central database of properties so they could efficiently show all relevant properties to all buyers and share the commission. This is the way is works in the USA and in much of the UK and is very efficient.
Changes are coming and I know of some UK agencies making inroads into the French market. However, most of the websites selling to overseas clients are not true registered agencies in France – they are intermediary “portals” who in some cases work with local agents and in others simply take paid advertising from agents or owners. Some of these are very dubious – I have been threatened by one of these rascals when I exposed their deceits in a report.
I doubt if your local agent is actually doing any true marketing. There is a lot of property on offer at present and it is likely that you property just resides with scores of others in a file on their shelf and is dusted off when someone happens to call in their office.
Sorry to sound so negative, but I see this every day and I am conscious of the thousands of private dreams which are just flicked through and dismissed as the page turns.
If you can, my advice is to advertise yourself direct through some of the better portals – there are literally thousands of advertising sites, but in reality there are about ten which I know are good and that get results. The cost would be a few hundred euro, but you will need good photographs and a lot of sensible and accurate information.
I am working on a sales “pack” and website to help people do this for themselves.
I am also trying to get some of the legal and registered French companies to work together to generate a true International portal – this is taking a lot of time and meets resistance and apathy, but we will get it sorted.
Is the mandat you have signed non exclusive – (I assume it is as an exclusive mandat only lasts for three months) – if so you can sell direct or appoint as many sales agencies as you wish.
Do you have any description or photos you can mail me?
Best wishes
Tony
Fractional Ownership in France and rentals
June 18, 2007 by Tony · 2 Comments
For over a year now I have been working on the structure for a specialist Internet community for people wanting to buy Fractional Ownership property in France – as ever, delays and frustrations have hindered the work, but this is proving to be a strong advantage as we are benefitting from the serious mistakes being made in the few Fractional Ownership offers that there are in France.
With twenty years experience of being a stranger in this strange land, I am acutely aware of the strength and efficiency of the vast French beaurocratic machine – I have tasted the sting of the tax-mans lash and seen at first hand how this awesome (but fair) system works.
If you buy a property in France, you can rent it out simply and openly, there are no restrictions and it is straightforward. You must make a tax return on the income in France – there are fair allowances and it is profitable – there are tax agreements with most countries so you are not likely to pay tax twice.
However, (there is always a “but” in this sort of thing) if you buy a property in Fractional Ownership, this will be in the structure of a company, if the company is seen by the French tax authorities to be trading (that is to be making charges for a profit) then you will be liable for a tax of 3 percent of the value of the property per annum. This is in addition to any other taxes which will be liable.
The more complex the ownership of the Fractionally Owned property is, then the more the tax authorities in France will consider this as a “device” and persue the taxes due.
Our advice in all these situations is to keep the structure simple – use only a French registered company for the property shares, do not use the device of an overseas LLC, Ltd or Homeowners Associations – if you do it could be seen as a trading company.
But most importantly, make sure that the company rules do not permit any renting out of the property. If anyone rents the property to a third party then this will beconsidered by the French tax assessors as commercial use of the property and the annual taxation on the value of the property will apply.
You, your family and your personal friends can use your home of course, but avoid any Fractionally owned property where any income is shown or it is advertised for rental.
Do not risk taking the advice of anyone who tells you this is not the case – it is very simple, if a company rents out any property then this is considered a commercial activity and therefore tax is liable. The taxman can wait years and then claim all the back taxes and interest and you have lost all your money and your home in France.
A long time ago in a galaxy far away
June 17, 2007 by Tony · Leave a Comment
Many thanks to everyone who has written to me encouraging me to get the rentals site going again and for all the advice on Search Engine Optimisation.
I am treading water at present – waiting for something to come from the ideas and effort around me, hoping for the primeval Intenet dust to form into words, pages and websites. My biggest challenge is to construct the new leisure commmunity site for travelers. This is to replace what I lost with my old sites at RentalsFrance, 1stVacations and about fifty other wesites I created from 1996 and lost in 2005 – but this time to make a website which is stronger, better and a true Web2 service.
Part of this alchemy is the writing of blogs and articles, I try to respond and react to at least two relevant and interesting questions a day and blog them here, or on my sort of diary site www.fruk.eu The aim is to generate interesting information in an easily communicated way – some days I have nothing to write, others seem to have masses of stuf that needs saying.
I am constantly working on ways to integrate all this information, not only from me, into simple networks of community sites – I have a love/hate relationship with RSS, I keep downloading new feed-readers and the never bother to use them, I constanly bung stuff in live bookmarks on Firefox, but rarely look at them – I am using www.rssfwd.com but this seems a cop-out as I am just increasing my email load, however the logic of having one service to read instead of two seems right as the information overload gets worse every day.
So slowly the dust settles and a shape is emerging , now to build a great community – with your help.
Make my week – smile at a geek
My last rant at geeks got some great comments from, geeks – they are irrepressable. All they said was kind, humerous and gentle – what can I say ?
If only the ones I have been exposed to were human and could deliver what they promise, but, – twas ever thus…
There are exceptions – Kevin P. – OK you are a third Dan in aikido, but this is not why I say you are a genius and I wish you lived in the south of France, you are a rare animal, but most Internet “experts” are “limited in their abilities related to their perceptions” – in other words it rhymes with “Jodrell Bankers”.
OK, I have had many bad experiences, so too have many of my colleagues – anyone can make a website in a day and be a “web-master” in a week – I have been in the computer networking business for over 45 years (yes fourty five years) a few of my old acquaintances and mentors are billionaires, many more are not (including me) .
I digress, I have recommended FrenchProperty.com before – I have no relationship with them apart from talking to a totally honest team with integrity – now they are publishing reports I should have written myself (“you will dear boy you will “) – their latest report on renting property in France is totally brilliant – accurate and succinct. Letting Property – trumble through their breadcrumbs and you will find other good reports.
Vodka Curry and Pizza
June 14, 2007 by Tony · 7 Comments
So was Sarko drunk at the G8 summit? Personally I don’t think he was, well no more than possessing massive power is intoxicating. I prefer a smiling clown sticking a fish in his ear than a ruthless manipulator or a alcoholic oaf (perm two from two for Bushky or Pubble).
I am often asked if I miss anything about England, I have thought about his a lot and never had an answer before, but now I know that there is one thing I miss, living in the South of France we cannot get a decent Indian meal – I don’t mean an authentic vegetarian dish from India – I mean a toe-curling curry from Southall or Bradford.
Only in the UK can you get a “real” Indian meal. We just got back from Agde from an Indian meal special – it was OK and the guy doing the cooking was from India – well he was from the UK actually – the meal was the best Indian I have had in France, but that is not saying a lot, unfortunately.
My week is blighted by the growing realisation that France has no talented Internet designers – plenty of people (actually anyone) can make a website, but none I have found have vision or any understand of what is happening – for months, actually since 2001 so for six years, I have been looking for a person, team, anybody, to help me develop some marketing sites – I have seen some of my ideas take wing in the USA and sell for squillions of dollars. Here in France I eat a miserable curry and I am grateful.
I am happy with a good quality of life and a super family in a great home in a wonderful part of our planet – but I am going nuts because no one can get to grips with some basic disciplines peppered with vision and effort. Perhaps for the same reason they cannot make a good vindaloo, they cannot create websites.
It seems to be a geeky thing – I am frustrated by an idiot who has already destroyed an excellent site belonging to a colleague, this buffoon knows a lot about a little and this makes him a menace as he grabs control of servers and makes life for us mere mortals miserable. His arrogant stupidity got the site banned from Google.
It is time the geeks were routed from their fetid nests, most of us need to realise that knowing how to write a program to turn on the television or download the latest episode of Southpark in not clever – it is to be pitied and not to be admired.
My theory is that the pizza culture has dumbed down initiative – the high carbohydrate content slugs the brain cells which need a curry stimulus – pizza is now the national food of France, closely followed by MacDonalds.
My plan is, that if geeks start eating curry, then the acute personal hygene problems which they already have will be made worse – this will mean we eventually cannot bear them in our midst and get rid of the frauds, making them work outside good rational society and perhaps they will do something useful for a change.
A dream villa and a “maison nickel”
My day usually starts with coffee and dog food – well not exactly for me, I put on the kettle to make coffee while our bouncing dogs are in their feeding frenzy – this is usually around 8:30 – at the same time a couple of computers are grunting into life as emails are crumpshing into my mailboxes.
Telephones seem such iron-age technology I tend to ignore them, but this morning I found myself answering the horrible things (actually Carole did) and agreeing to see a couple of houses, one in Fouzilhon and one in St Thibery , these towns are near our home and as I had a headache I went out to see them
I am glad I did – both are among the best I have seen this year – the Maison Vigneron in St Thibery is absolutely “nickel” a great word meaning ” of the highest standard” – and I am not talking French sweaty armpit standards, but something better. It is not a grand maison – but nor is the price – aircon, double glazing, a small courtyard/garden/ private terrace and in a classic street in a traditional town – this is what it is all about, living in France.
The other is a modern villa in a wondrous village in Languedoc, Fouzilhon, ask me for the map reference it is too late to look it up now, there are not many modern villas left like this, because as soon as they are built a veritable acne of other munchin horrors infest the adjacent building plots – but not in this case – this is the “light at the end of the world” and no more infestations will blight this villa or the views.
I am happy to be enthusiastic for a change over a simple thing like a lump of tile, stone and concrete on a corner of mud.
buying a house, coast and country, Diary, french property, french estate agents, french lifestyle, french property, land in france, languedoc roussillon, living in france, new villas, old houses, property, property in the south of france, twiku
Another day, another dollar
June 12, 2007 by Tony · 2 Comments
Today I was involved in three property sales at three different levels and stages of progression.
The first is a small village house where the buyer has offered the selling price, but another agent is confusing the isssue and although the buyer is coming over later this week, all could go very wrong as the “vibes” are not right – I am spending more time on this behind the scenes than anything else at present.
The second today is an enjoyable sale of a super property, owners and buyers have agreed terms and we are putting together the paperwork – now the hurly burly really begins for our work, but I am very happy for both the sellers and the new owners, it is good to see something “gel” out of the vortex of looking and negotiations.
The third is a really happy event – the date is approaching for completion on a fantastic bargain in our own village, contacts are confirmed and it is just a few days to handing over the keys – seller and buyer got together today and it was a very pleasant time around a table in the garden under the old lime tree, sipping ale.
In each case I am personally involved with the property, the seller and the buyer – for all the people today it is an event of major importance and I feel I should give total committment and time for their benefit – the days are too short.
buying a house, coast and country, Diary, french property, french estate agents, french lifestyle, french property, hurly burly, languedoc roussillon, negotiations, selling price, south of france, twiku
