French Adventure :
Estate Agents
Central French Property Associates
Central French Property Associates are the estate agents that I bought the cafe from and they deal with properties primarily around the Limousin area. The picture above is of Bourganeuf and not for sale but if you are looking for either a chateau or a hovel, it is well worth getting in touch with these people. My friend Jo Ann Belton works for this company and she works much too hard to make sure that your French dream doesn't turn into a nightmare. I can't really recommend this company strongly enough but fair to say that they supply very good value properties with low agency costs and you are supported at every step of the way by very friendly staff. The company will also try to find you your "something special" if you are looking for something specific and also have a construction arm which can help with advice on any renovations / improvements you may want to make. Buying the cafe was probably the easiest (and also possibly the most enjoyable) bit of business I've ever done and was nothing like the hard selling / cut throat / slightly dodgy world you can find with some UK estate agents. Laissez faire attitude with professional standards - a perfect combination.
VEF are probably one of the most well known of the established French property estate agents operating at the moment. Always a bit difficult to give people their website address as the "fuk" part of "vefuk.com" part always seems to make people chuckle but it is a great site and very easy to use. VEF have a very wide portfolio of properties and I bought the cabin / retreat from them. Overall, I was fairly happy with the service provided but would suggest that it is not the place to buy lower value properties from as the agency costs then become a quite large proportion of the overall cost (they are on a sliding scale but do not appear to reduce significantly at the lower end). Although the overall costs are what are quoted on the website, I did notice I became a bit resentful towards the end of the deal when the split of land / agency costs became evident . This was not least because in some ways it is not all that obvious what the agency costs are actually for as it would cost the same if you are doing a cash purchase like mine (ie low input from the agency) as if you were doing a multipart deal (with lots of agency input). Also, much of the legal work is the responsibility of the notaire and so is not a "cost" to the agency. My first contract paperwork was on a bilingual French / English form (very useful) and so I did not really need the VEF translation of the small bits of French involved (I have a dictionary for such things !). However, my second contract which came direct from the notaire was solely in technical French and a translation of this one might have been useful (but was not forthcoming but doing it myself did help my vocabulary !). However, the one indispensable item that VEF did do for me was to supply legal translation support for when I met the notaire and did the final signing. My broken French would have allowed me to follow about 50% of the conversation but that's not good enough when you might be signing your life away ! However, if I had opted for using a proxy, I wouldn't have needed this help either. My one recommendation on the feedback form to the company was that a breakdown of future costs and services before purchase would be beneficial for future purchasers. Working on a UK cost of £100 / hour for legal representation, it is unlikely that I got my money's worth but, at the end of the day, they had exactly the property that I was looking for (ie the cabin) and so I was happy to sign on the dotted line. Would have rather have bought it from the people at Central French Property Associates but c'est la vie. (Oh, just in case you are a potential buyer, one other item that did give me some concern during the purchasing process was a search of UK Companies House data on the VEF recommended company for money transfer. Couldn't quite decide whether I'd read the company details given correctly or not but I would suggest any potential buyer does a similar search and makes up their own mind about the company).
Frenchways.com is probably one of the very best of the multipart websites available for UK buyers of French property. As well as giving a good range of properties to buy, they also give advice on mortgages, lifestyle etc and all those things that make the experience a bit easier (That said though, it is supposed to be an absolute nightmare for an English resident of France to get a French mortgage even if you have fluent language skills. Probably better to get one of the many UK brokers who specialise in these things to sort it out for you instead - could be a few hundred pounds well spent to avoid the stress ! One place you could look for details of the process is at http://www.propertyfinance4less.com/france.html which gives details of the buying process or at http://www.hirf.co.uk/html/helpoffered.asp which lists useful contact numbers (movers, mortgage brokers etc).
The 123Immo site is a French based composite site pulling together a wide range of estate agents and property traders (but the site does have an English version). Well worth looking at to get a feel for what you can get for your money.
More a lifestyle guide than an estate agent but well worth a look. A brief review suggests that the site is centred on the "high life" of French living in the South of France rather than the rural idyll (!) of Limousin but maybe being with the beautiful people is your thing (but if so, why are you looking for properties on this site !)
Estate Agents in Limoges and La Souterraine
Whilst walking around these towns, it became obvious that, just like in the UK, there was a wide range of different types of estate agents selling very similar properties at wildly different prices. Just goes to show how subjective evaluation can be. I made a note of the 'phone numbers of the ones that I thought were offering good value to the buyer; maybe give them a ring if your French is up to it ! Limoges is the capital of the Limousin region and La Souterraine is one of the larger towns on the A20 / N145 link to the cafe.
In Limoges
Limoges Sud Immobiliser Tel : 05 55 12 13 41
La Maison De L'Immobiliser Tel : 05 55 12 13 99
Baldi Immo Tel : 05 55 60 79 94
Relais Immobiliser Tel : 05 55 11 90 30
In La Souterraine
Naudon Immobiliser Tel : 05 55 63 13 57
Other Estate Agents and Services
I've never been through any of these sites is great detail other than to search for properties. However, they all list properties and often give background information for any budding land owner so I'd recommend having a look at each of them; can never have too much information !