Hard to get back home!
Alpes-Maritimes, 12th February
When we bought la maison, the house, we fell in love with the whole idea of
buying une petite propriété, a small estate, in the sun, with me running a
bed and breakfast with a couple of apartments. The property also has une petite maison, a
small house, next door, perfect to renovate into un gîte, a holiday home. As it
happens, our initial budget was too low. We modernised the apartments but have had to leave the house next door. The
main house though is now perfect, someone only has to move in, as there is nothing further to do workwise. I'm already
taking apartment bookings for this summer, and so there is un revenu, an income, being set
up. We know it could take a long time to sell.
Selling the property
We have had a couple of people come to view the house since Christmas, but it is not like selling a 3 bedroom house in Basingstoke, this is a complete lifestyle change. We have put it on the market with un agent immobilier, an estate agent, who is based in the UK with offices around France. We are trying not to get too excited about returning to the UK, and are forcing ourselves not to house hunt on le Net. We must wait until we have un compromis de vente, a preliminary contract, and the buyers have paid un acompte, a deposit of 10%. We want to make our money back on what we paid for the house, together with the 195,000 Euros we have spent renovating it.
The market has changed
We have found that le prix d'immobilier, house prices, have risen so much back in the UK we can no longer move back to our old village, but will have to choose a different area. I think if we had been here for longer it would have been even more difficult. The pound is getting stronger so it is better for the buyer, but we will lose on our exchange to go back.
Getting ready for the move back
I am making a list of things we can sell before we move, as we will not need half of les meubles, the furniture, or les gros outils, the big tools, that we
do here. This way we can cut back on the cost of the transport back across France. It cost us £7k for le camion, the lorry, over here. We will need every penny we can get to pay for all things like
le droit de timbre, stamp duty, and les notaires, solicitors.
But as they say: Rien ne vaut son chez-soi! There is no place like home!
Sent by: Janie
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