Real Estate Woes

Never assume that things work in another country the way they do in your own.  Case in point: real estate deals.

Now although I know it doesn’t make the best financial and practical sense to actually buy a property here, I can’t help but be tempted when I see the prices and the opportunity to create my own cozy little nest.  Geographically I want to stay within easy cycling distance of Em and Co which presents limited options for both renting and buying.  Logically that would put me in their town, Montreuil Bellay; they are on the outskirts by a few kilometers and the town itself one I have grown very fond of. 

Last year I saw a place for sale, wrote to the agency representing the seller and was delighted d to find that the realtor who had the listing had lived in Australia so  spoke English.  Huge positive for me!  Without even seeing it I rejected that property; it had an elderly tenant and in France elderly tenants cannot be given notice so it didn’t make sense to proceed on a property that I might not be able to occupy for years and years.  But I felt good thinking I had made a connection with a realtor who could help me in English.  And this agency also handles rentals so either way, we would find me a property when the time was right. 

Ah, my assumption was wrong as since then this woman has ignored 98% of my emails.  I even stopped in the office to make her acquaintance which I thought would help but it hasn’t.  In actual fact I was probably offside stopping in without a rendez-vous scheduled but I threw caution to the wind that day and went for it.  She was pleasant enough…. But I wrote her 15 days ago about a property I saw listed locally and haven’t heard a peep in response…..

In December I actually found an English realtor.  Hip, hip, hurray!  Mike is a nice man and walked me through some of the ins and outs of how real estate transactions work in France.  And, insert groan, because I had contacted the local agency about another property in the past I would now be thought of as a client of that agency and he couldn’t help me with any of their listings.  Oh, and by the way, before he knew I had once talked to them about a property he reached out to that realtor and she was ignoring his emails too!  So now I am in this weird limbo where I can look at properties that Mike can access but he can’t access any listed by the largest realtor in town who won’t return my messages!  It is a very frustrating loop to be in.  I am going to let it be for now as I am on the verge of leaving but when I return I think I will have to employ the help of Francois to intervene with them and have myself released as a client if they won’t even respond to my inquiries. 

By the way, my English landlords/neighbours thinks this all doesn’t sound right and nor does Francois but surely Mike the realtor knows the way it works here….:|

On a less frustrating note I was able to add a search feature to my website so you can do a key word search.  For example, if you think “What was the show Michelle recommended on NF?” you just have to put NF in the search engine and any post I mentioned this in will appear.  I also had a French automatic translation added for a URL in France so now my French family is more easily able to follow along.  Hopefully next week I will have a translation button also on the website so French readers outside of France can access in a language more comfortable to them.  Baby steps!

And speaking of babies, after Baby Nina went to bed last night I cycled back to Em’s and we watched a movie together (the cute romcom Love, Weddings & Other Disasters) while Francois gamed.  I had popcorn for the first time ever in France as Em found some in a larger grocery store.  It was a peaceful end to our week.

Baby Nina has meds from the doctor and so will soon be on the mend; I am doing much hand washing so I don’t leave France with pink eye. 

Hope this finds you and your families well!

A bientot! x