One thing you may just have to live with is that the real estate business here in France works considerably differently than it does in North America. We've had numerous reports from folks who have had significant difficulty find an immobilier to work with them remotely before their arrival in France. It seems to work best to get here, settle in a bit and then start looking for property - and we generally recommend that you live in an area for a good year or so before you start looking for a home to purchase. It takes a while to get to know the various towns in a given area - and the issues and problems you may run into if you buy in certain areas or neighborhoods.

You might want to see about engaging a "relocation agent" who is probably more what you're looking for - even if they are a bit pricier than an immobilier.

 

One thing you may just have to live with is that the real estate business here in France works considerably differently than it does in North America. We've had numerous reports from folks who have had significant difficulty find an immobilier to work with them remotely before their arrival in France. It seems to work best to get here, settle in a bit and then start looking for property - and we generally recommend that you live in an area for a good year or so before you start looking for a home to purchase. It takes a while to get to know the various towns in a given area - and the issues and problems you may run into if you buy in certain areas or neighborhoods.

You might want to see about engaging a "relocation agent" who is probably more what you're looking for - even if they are a bit pricier than an immobilier.

Thanks, I'd be interested in knowing more about relocation agents if anyone knows any. Unfortunately we don't have the option to settle in first, and will likely want to rent out the property as a gite for a year before moving in. We would, of course, visit the property and region before placing an official offer on any property. But we will require representation for most everything else.

 

Hi Michael, for the Limousin zone, I can recommend Marc Deschamps who has agencies in Bourganeuf (Creuse) and Chateauponsac (Haute-Vienne):

Une maison? Marc Deschamps à votre écoute depuis 2002

 

There are "property finders" who do this in at least some parts of France. We used a finder when looking for a house in the south, and it was were helpful. At least in our case, the finder was not a real estate agent but had access to properties listed by many different agents. There was no cost to us, as the finder takes a share of the agent's fee. There may be some disadvantages to doing it this way, given that the seller's agent needs to give up some portion of their fee, but it worked well for us, as, like you, we are overseas and were unable to spend a lot of time looking at properties in person. The finder helped us come up with a short list of likely properties and arranged for us to visit them in a time-efficient way.

 

Dang, the computer ate my long post on this subject.

In summary:

• we purchased remotely because of Covid
• we got extremely lucky by finding the right, English-speaking agent for a house that he figured out how to become an agent for
• we love where we are, again, lots of luck because we had never visited Finistere in Brittany, let alone the town we picked
• you will struggle to find an agent to help you because they stick to their areas
• you should prioritize visiting the areas you are interested in and spending some days in them - this is so, so important
• get to know a local RE agent when you visit - that will greatly help when you work remotely
• there is no "Zillow" in France that I know of, you'll need to track dozens of online listings from different firms
• you want to narrow your search as soon as possible to stay sane

 

Try looking at the Beaux Villages website, they cover a large part of France, they set up viewings for us last year. SeLoger and Greenacres are portals where you can see many listings from agents all over France.

 

It seems to me, and perhaps I am mistaken, that most if not all of the replies here have not takes into account that the OP is looking Fot an agent who will totally manage the property, something that is far more difficult than just finding an agent who will find you a property to purchase.