Estate agents fees. Are they worth it?

[Bayleaf]

There are good and bad in every trade. But from my experience of Agents here in France, they'll lie about anything to get a sale, omit things from contracts then kick up merry hell to the Vendor for not doing something, and don't get me started on inept Notaires! So I'd also say, not worth it - but maybe the commission charged is to make up for all the leg work they do on properties that don't sell?

I'll take my soap box, and my light summer coat and depart now!

[Blaze]

and don't get me started on inept Notaires!

There was a notaires' cabinet in a village not far from where we used to live. Years ago, one of the notaires lost his licence through drink driving. He was given a special dispensation to drive for one day as he had to lead some sort of cavalcade. It wouldn't have been quite the same had he been obliged to drive a sans permis ....
In the same cabinet, one of the other notaires was struck off for dubious practices and another young notaire literally had a heart attack due to the stress of working there ....

This cabinet was not the only one to have dodgy notaires - in another village, the cabinet was forced to close ...

[demi]

Having been looking for a house to buy for nearly 18 months now, I'll give my pennyworth.

1. Some agents have been & are continuing to be great at helping me. Some can't be arsed to even ring when a property comes on their books. A real mixed bunch.

2. I can't believe the mess in some houses I have looked at. Luckily I've moved often enough to be able to see through it.

3. I miss Right Move!! (The huge UK properety website).

4. This is a generalisation but I feel that the French are far less fussy about their hoses than the Brits. Their homes are far more of a place of shelter from which you go out to live your lives. Many Brits seem to regard their homes AS their lives.

6. I wish you could (easily) find out where a house is before you visit it! I get fed up with seeing a house advertised saying it is in the town I want to buy in & finding out it is 5/10 K away but 5 minutes par voiture de....

7. I WANT A HOUSE!!

[Naylor's Ark]

I agree, agents will tell you anything to get a sale. You need to do your own research about any house your interested in. My son bought his house from a private sale on leboncoin. All went very smoothly, saving a lot of money by avoiding agencies. It was a wreck, but that was what he was looking for, and we knew what problems to look for.

[curtis]

When we last moved I asked for the address in advance knowing the answer would be NO. However, I said I would sign the form (I forget the name, Bon de machin) before going.
I made it clear that I might very well decide immediately, no, before even seeing the house when I saw the village. Or, the adjoining properties. They agreed it would save us both time.
The worst was a house which was on the main road out of Saintes. We specifically had said no busy roads. The reply when we were stood outside was, "Oh but behind the house you won't hear the traffic so much".
We left her to explain to the vendor why we were not going to look around.

[demi]

The worst was a house which was on the main road out of Saintes. We specifically had said no busy roads. The reply when we were stood outside was, "Oh but behind the house you won't hear the traffic so much".
We left her to explain to the vendor why we were not going to look around.

That reminds me of an estate agent in the UK who showed me details of a house & I said it wouldn't do as the garden was North facing. His reply was:

"Well, I suppose it depends which way you look at it" !!!!!!!!!!!

[exile]

The worst people for showing round were Brits as most didn't know what they wanted, just what they didn't want. The French weren't nearly as fussy.

An interesting observation. Clearly we were not typical Brits.

We looked for our house just as the internet was starting to be used by estate agents. We did have a list of requirements which we tried to match as best we could to the internet descriptions. We arranged viewings and also gave the agents our list of needs - which were largely or completely ignored. In fairness one agent did say that she was not sure if the properties we had listed as being of interest would meet all of our requirements. The worst just showed us what he wanted to show us and refused to show one property that we were especially interested in. (Probably too far out in the wilds.) One particular property he did show us
was above our budget,
was on a busy road (when we had specified away from busy roads because of the then 3 cats),
had room outside for about a dozen pot plants (when we had specified a reasonably large garden) and
had no outbuildings or open attic (when we had specified we needed at least one of those.)

In the end, in desperation and with a few days before we needed to leave, we went to a small town that we had visited several times on holiday and found an estate agent (I had failed to find their website in any searches but as said in the early days there were many gaps in searches). The agent actually asked us what we were looking for and said "I am sure we have properties that fit those requirements. Come back on Sunday and I will show you what we have." First property hit the spot and met all of the requirements on the list.

[Hotrodder]

Having been looking for a house to buy for nearly 18 months now, I'll give my pennyworth.

1. Some agents have been & are continuing to be great at helping me. Some can't be arsed to even ring when a property comes on their books. A real mixed bunch.

2. I can't believe the mess in some houses I have looked at. Luckily I've moved often enough to be able to see through it.

3. I miss Right Move!! (The huge UK properety website).

4. This is a generalisation but I feel that the French are far less fussy about their hoses than the Brits. Their homes are far more of a place of shelter from which you go out to live your lives. Many Brits seem to regard their homes AS their lives.

6. I wish you could (easily) find out where a house is before you visit it! I get fed up with seeing a house advertised saying it is in the town I want to buy in & finding out it is 5/10 K away but 5 minutes par voiture de....

7. I WANT A HOUSE!!

Numbers 2, 4, and 6 seem to be the norme, sadly.

[Blaze]

6. I wish you could (easily) find out where a house is before you visit it! I get fed up with seeing a house advertised saying it is in the town I want to buy in & finding out it is 5/10 K away but 5 minutes par voiture de....

I remember bringing this up with my estate agent friend. I said that most of us could tell instantly from the outside/position of the house whether it was worth visiting. Google Earth/street view could also point out any drawbacks (or positive points).She said that the reason for not giving out the address was that people would try to do a deal privately with the owner, thus cutting out the estate agent. I pointed out that a lot of time could be saved for the agent and the seller but she didn't agree. It says something about the French culture ....

[Lori]

Numbers 2, 4, and 6 seem to be the norme, sadly.

Yes, I agree. I understand the concept, but not giving the location of the house prior to a visit wastes everyone's time. We saw so many homes that, if we had been able to google street walk the location, we would never have bothered. I imagine a lot of car fuel is wasted on this.