Hi!

Naturally you can buy direct - but then I would say you do need to know the ins and outs of French transactions!

Agencies have free commission rates - these depend on the value of the transaction rate. So in general it is between 5% and 7%.

The is an new general French agency at 4% ( the percentage is in the name ).What they are worth, I can not tell you.

Otherwise, since a majority of objects are not sold exclusively, you will find that the Notaires also partly operate as gents. Then their fees are:

5% till 45.735 plus VAT ( 19.6%)
and
thereabove 2.5% plus VAT.

NB. All this does not concern the fees for the deed ( which are collected by the Notaire, and which include a majorty of taxes ) and which are roughly 7%

Here what the Notaire fees ( that is without the sales commission if it were the case ) will approximately cost ( according to the object - there are in France exceptions ), you can work out yourself.

Chambre des Notaires de Paris - Calcul de frais de mutation

Yours,

pomhorn


PS. Important in the long run, is to give priority to the house, not the agency.
Even for a well know national agency, that does not necessarily give you an appreciation of the value of a local franchise.

PS2. In general I have found that English agents , settled in France, have much better professional compentence than the average French.