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Viewing Properities
In February 2001, we all travelled to France to check out a few properties. We made the appointments with an agent in this country, so that when we arrived we just had to turn up at the Immoblieres in France at the appropriate times. As you can imagine this was quite an exhausting trip with a 2 year old plus our older daughters who were completely bored for most of the journey. We tried to find ways of entertaining them in between house hunting.
Several of the properties we had arranged to see had already been sold by the time we reached the agents offices, but some of the agents did have other properties that had recently come onto the market, and made the necessary arrangements for us to view. We looked at a few possibilities but they were either too small and situated right on a road, or backed onto a cow shed with a very distinctive smell wafting over the property.
The day before we were due to leave we were shown a property in Duault, nr Callac. When we first approached the property we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the village. The centre piece was a beautiful church, surrounded by the quaint properties of the village and a few shops and a bar. We followed the agent down a small lane when he stopped outside a large white house overlooking a field of rape.
First impressions of the property both inside and out were that it would need some serious modernisation. But the structure was sound and it had a very large garden. We had a really good look round, the kids started choosing which room would be there’s, and both Mark and I looked at each other with the same “this is it” smile.
After a while of looking the agent told us that the cottage attached to this property was also included in the price, two for the price of one! He then took us in to look at the cottage, which although it needed a lot more tender loving care, could be a gorgeous little country escape.
After an exhausting day of house hunting we returned to our B&B to ponder on the days events. We all agreed that we loved the house in Duault and that if we were going to buy a property in France then this should be the one. We discussed the cost and whether we could afford the asking price, then decided we would offer just below the asking price, and rang the agent. Mark did a great job with his pigeon French in explaining to the agent what we were prepared to offer. The agent went away to discuss the matter with the owners.
Just a point to be aware of, when we were looking at the property we asked the agent what, if anything, of the contents was included in the sale. The agent told us everything was included, furniture etc. However, once the owner had accepted our offer and we went back to the property the next day to have a second look, the agent informed us that the contents would be removed by the owner before we took ownership. So make sure you are clear on what is included.
Anyway back to my story.
Once the owner had accepted our offer all that was left to do was to sign the paperwork. On our last day in France we visited the agent’s office and were asked to sign several papers. I must admit I did feel a bit uncomfortable doing this as we were unsure of what we were signing as it was all in French, and we were talking about quite a lot of money. However we put our trust in the agent, and thankfully everything was fine.
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