Any rational person would probably wonder what we’re thinking. We’ve decided to become homeowners in France, when we’ve never been homeowners before in our home countries. Don’t worry. I’m wondering, too.
So, for any readers who might consider taking this on, here are the steps you need to undertake to make this HAPPEN.
- Find the house. If you speak French, you can use websites like A Vendre A Louer, Se Loger, Bien Ici, or PAP to find properties and contact agents and owners. There are some English-speaking agencies in the region, like https://www.burgundy-home-services.com/en/ (which appears to corner the market on selling palaces to anglophones) and https://www.france4u.eu/ Or, use the French sites and maybe some Google translation, then bring along a French speaker for your visits.
- When you’ve found the house, ask to see the “fiches diagnostic” or “tests diagnostic”. These are about eight required diagnostics that let you know if the house is on a fault line, if there’s lead or asbestos, what the energy efficiency is, etc. It’s important to note that this is not as thorough as a home inspection (and such an inspection is not included in the closing process), so it’s up to the buyer to do a lot of due diligence.
- Unlike in the US and some other countries, there is no “pre-approval” for a mortgage loan. You may ask banks or a courtier (see below) if your loan would be “faisable” (doable) but you need a signed offer to get official loan approval.
- Find out if the honoraires/frais d’agence (realtor commission) are paid by you or by the seller. In our case, the house price is listed as “frais inclus” and, surprise! That means we’re paying the commission, as part of our negotiated purchase price.
- You may make an offer informally by email/phone, or formally by letter. Once both parties agree on a price, you’ll be signing a “Compromis”, or commitment. This document locks both buyer and seller into the deal, with a “clause suspensive” making it a condition that the buyers get a mortgage successfully. The buyers have ten days to change their mind upon signing of this document.
- At this stage, you need a “notaire”. A notaire is basically a legal official who deals with real estate, wills, etc. You can also use the sellers’ notaire, but we felt better having our own. And given all the legalese, even though we both speak French fairly well, we asked for a recommendation for a bilingual notaire.
- Once the compromis is signed and is in the you, the buyers’, hands, you present it to banks or to a courtier to seek loan approval. (A date for approval is usually stipulated in the “Compromis”.) Using a courtier costs a fee (about 1-1.5% of the loan) but can get you much better terms than if you approach the banks on your own. As we calculated it, if our courtier can get us POINT one percent lower for an interest rate, we will already have paid his commission.
- Once a loan is secured, it will be a few more weeks (up to 12 weeks in total, from signing the Compromis/purchase agreement) until you will go to the notaire (of the seller) to sign the finale Acte. You should leave this meeting with the keys in hand. Congratulations, you’ve bought a house in France!
AWay in France 