I am a new business and I am seeking assistance in publicising my new bilingual web-site.
I would be happy to paste your link or put an add on one of my page.

I am specialising in relocation services including property searches, tackling French bureaucracy, cultural integration ( Schools, medical, leisure…)
I also focus on the leisure and holiday sector with tailor make trips, for individuals and groups ( family holiday, stag and hen week-ends, honeymoon…)

So if you can be any help and offer any comments, I will be very grateful.

Best regards,
Claire Pernet

I think its a good web site and the property has had thousands of hits but I have had only 3 or 4 enquiries. It may well be the price, I have discussed this with the 5 immobilliers and had a varied response from reducing it by 10% to 30%. One said do nothing, we just have to wait for an amateur!

I have the feeling that it is such a unique house, very large, on a small site, bounded on 2 sides by the streets of the village that it may well be a combination of situation and price. Would be grateful for your comments.
Good to know you are well and truly back in action.
Regards
Malcolm

I Wikied “Meeting of the Minds” and got this definition

>>>
Meeting of the minds (also referred to as mutual assent or consensus ad idem) is a phrase in contract law used to describe the intentions of the parties forming the contract. In particular it refers to the situation where there is a common understanding in the formation of the contract. This condition or element is often considered a necessary requirement to the formation of a contract.

The reasoning is that a party should not be held to a contract that they were not even aware existed. A mutual promise between friends over simple personal matters should not be a situation where legal remedies are to be used. Equally, any such agreement where the obligation is primarily a moral one rather than a legal one should not be enforceable. It is only when all parties involved are aware of the formation of a legal obligation is there a meeting of the minds.

Under the formalist theory of contract, every contract must have six elements: offer, acceptance, consideration, meeting of the minds, capacity and legality. Many other contracts, but not all types of contracts, also must be in writing and be signed by the responsible party, in an element called form
<<<

Language is vitally important in any contractual arrangement relating to property as unless the offer and the acceptance are not clearly understood, there can be no meeting of the minds and therefore no valid contract.

Any person dealing with real-estate in France must read and speak French and fully understand the legal, financial and cultural factors relating to property in France.

It is often not clear who an estate agent is acting for. A seller may rely on an agent to get the best price for their home, a buyer may rely on an agent to find them a home for the lowest price. Bringing a buyer and seller together is the activity of an estate agent, but as their involvement both adds to the price the buyer pays for a home and reduces the price the seller receives, then the true function of an estate agent must be muddied as clearly they are acting in the first instance for themselves.

I agree, with efficient, open and inexpensive Internet tools today, the estate agent (Realtor, Immobilier etc) is unnecessary. Anyone can search and browse millions of property offers, explore regions, find services and obtain lists of properties. With instant communications, detailed negotiations can be done in minutes which once took weeks. All the legal and financial intricacies can be learnt and addresses online through the trillions of pages of data and information which can be accessed.

In most cases a buyer will visit a property before buying, but I know of cases where a home in France has been brought without a buyer visiting it or even visiting the town first, all negotiations and information was by Internet, even payment. The only traditional technology was to get signatures done by registered surface mail.

However, in my experience most people selling are not sufficiently skilled to prepare the materials needed to advertise a house effectively and most people buying do not have sufficient knowledge to use Internet resources efficiently to search for a house. In addition few people will have the knowledge to be able to prepare the documentation needed for the legal processes.

So it is likely that a service will always be needed to arrange the meeting and melding necessary for the presentation of the property, the introduction of the buyer and the structuring of the documentation.

It is not rocket science, there are no special skills or talents needed, anyone can do it - which is why there are three times as many estate agents in our region than bakers - but until the listing and publicising aspect of real estate services can be better automated and made available to sellers - the service of a buyers agent will be very restricted and they will, inevitably, be involved in the listing and selling.

So I doubt much will change - although there will be a shake up of the whole business when better Internet services are developed to make buying and selling though a community (I am working on it)

Best wishes

Tony

I am not good at French yet, however maybe a French Real Estate agent in UK English, a French Estate Agent is maybe called,
“Agent Immobilier”

There is a term in the USA called a Meeting of the Minds, that is necessary for an enforceale contract.

To not speak French means you do not have a meeting of the minds, therefore you have an agent that is not good.

A person knows when they have a meeting of the minds.

I see the need for buyers agents more and listing agents less.

Trust or thinking a person can perform is not enough, a person needs to know the have an intimate meeting of the minds, both the agent and the client are on the same channel or page.