Our mission is to carry out a tailor-made property search for you. As it is rare to find two clients with the same property criteria, needs and restrictions, it is difficult to list here exactly what we estimate a successful property search would cost. Until we talk to you about your requirements, it is also virtually impossible to tell you in advance how long it could take to find your ideal French property. After all, having seen what is on offer and at what price, you may change your brief - more land/less land/nearer to a town/not deeply rural after all etc - this would mean us starting the search again!

However, we realise that nobody likes to enter into an open ended contract, so we have tried to simplify the payment process.

So, simply put:

• Search Fee - we charge an upfront search fee which covers up to 3 months search - €600
• Success Fee - we charge a fixed price success fee - €3,000
• Payback - we deduct the upfront search fee(s) from the success fee
• Property Inspections - One-off property inspections (see below), per property - €75
• Pre-sourced Property Follow-Ups - Follow-up fees (see below), each property - €50

Search Fee
Payment in advance
Conducting a properly constructed search takes a great deal of time and effort. This you may know, as, otherwise, you probably would not be reading this. In order to cover our expenses and time, we need to charge an upfront fee in order to confirm your commitment to buying a property in our part of France. Payment of this fee entitles you to up to 3 months searching for the ideal property. Hopefully, of course, we should have found the right property for you by then. It all depends on your criteria... Chateaux take longer to find than townhouses with no garden! In the unlikely event your search takes longer than 3 months, you may renew the search contract on a monthly basis at €200 per month. When we do find your property and you decide to buy... you get all search fees back. Please see below.

Success Fee
Only if you buy
We only get paid on the day you actually actually buy your property (Acte de Vente), for it is not until then that we can truly say that we have succeeded in finding your ideal French property. We have also taken the view that it is unfair to base this success fee on a percentage of the price that you agree to purchase at. We would argue that we work just as hard finding a suitable property that fits your requirements... no matter what the buying price is. So we do not see why we should earn more, just because your new home in France cost you €500,000 rather than €125,000. In addition, we are committed to working hard to achieve your French property at the best possible price. We see it as a potential conflict of interest to be rewarded on a percentage basis when, at the same time, we are meant to be trying to reduce the selling price for you. Therefore we charge a fixed price success fee of €3,000 when you buy the property (Acte de Vente), less our payback to you (see immediately below).

Payback
It's only fair
We only charge you an upfront fee in order to guard against non-serious search commissions. We are committed to what we do and expect anyone commissioning us to be committed as well. An up front fee guards against "timewasters" whilst, at the same time, guarantees us at least some of our expenses should, against all expectations, you have to pull out of the search. That is why we will deduct what you have already paid us, from the success fee when we find you your new home here in France.

Property Inspections
One -off inspections
There are many ways of sourcing properties in France. We think ours is the best way, but we do know of instances where people have seen a property advertised, have fallen in love with it, have flown out immediately and returned to the UK 2 days later having signed the Compromis. We also know of people who have been persuaded to hop on an aircraft to see a property, that turned out to be not what they expected from the advert at all. They have returned home, not just disappointed, but poorer! We will inspect properties for you that you have sourced yourself, so that you can better decide whether a trip to view is worthwhile. We charge €75 per property for this service, which includes an honest written appraisal of the property, together with digital photos. Should you eventually buy a property sourced this way, then, presumably as you have sourced this yourself, you will deal direct with the seller or agent. In which case, the one-off inspection fee is all that you will pay us. Should you, subsequent to a one-off inspection, contract us to do a full market search for you after all, then we will deduct this one-off property inspection fee and our regular search fee from our success fee, should you subsequently buy a property... payable on signing the Acte de Vente.

Pre-sourced Property Follow-up
We found it already
If you contact us after having seen a property featured on this website then the odds are, we have already inspected it. Should you wish to view such a property, then we will waive our search fee. However, to cover our inevitable expenses in following-up the property for you, then we will charge a pre-sourced property follow-up fee of €50. Again, should you eventually buy a property sourced this way, then we will deduct this pre-sourced property follow-up fee from the success fee payable upon you signing the Acte de Vente.

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