Desparately trying to make the move - Property Advice

If you are planning to buy a rental home, or you're thinking about what to do with one you have just acquired, this is the place for any questions about starting out in the rentals business.
sueb
Posts: 43
Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2006 11:34 am
Location: Brittany

Desparately trying to make the move - Property Advice

Post by sueb »

Hi all,

We have been trying to make the move over to France for several yeras (took a while to sale our property in the UK) with the view of buying something that we can live in ourselfs and has rental possibilities for a couple of Gites. Anyway all sold now and have made many viewing trips over to France viewing various on paper suitable properties (but nightmares in the flesh!!!). We have found something that meets most of our requirements except that over to one side of the property about 100m away is a small dairy farm. The farmer keeps a few calfs in a hanger which overlooks (although there are a few trees) an area of the properties land. The house and one of the small outbuildings does not face onto or overlook the farm at all but one of the outbuildings if converted would be side on (although quite some distance away) and if we wanted to install a pool for the guests this to would also have to be positioned on an area of land which would have a side on view to this hanger.

Our question is are any of your Gite properties located next to or near farms and has this caused a problem for the guests when they come to stay in particular do they re-book etc. :?:

Could anybody advise me whether they think that this could be a problem for us if we want to rent out the Gites, do you need to advertise that it is next to a farm etc and if so do you think that it would put people off. :?:

Would any of you actually buy a property for this type of enterprise if it was located next to a farm :?:

Can anybody advise me if they think that there would be any further drawbacks and if so what would these be :?:


Thanking you in anticipation

Sue
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Alan Knighting
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Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France

Post by Alan Knighting »

Sue,

I’m not quite sure where you are coming from on this. Do you expect to live in a rural location, without adjacent farms? If you do, what do expect the adjacent land to be used for?

If the property you are interested in is in a rural location it is almost bound to be adjoining a farm. It is the inter-relationship between the farm and your property which is important and only you can judge that.

If you want to attract guests who are looking to holiday in a rural location they will expect to have a farm next door, they will be disappointed if there isn’t one.

As neighbours, I have UK ex-pats on one side and French farmers on the other side. No prizes for guessing which my guests prefer. No prizes for guessing which I prefer. No prizes for guessing which gives me constant pretentious nonsense and which gives me friendship, free-range eggs and lamb chops.

Make your choice with care and you will not regret it. I made my choice six years ago and I haven’t regretted it, not for one minute.

Alan
sueb
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Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2006 11:34 am
Location: Brittany

Post by sueb »

Alan

Thanks for the comments - Its exactly how we see it but we wanted to know, from some experienced Gite owners whether or not it actually had any detrimental effects on the rental side of things.

Thank you again so much for your helpful and constructive comments.

Sue
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

Hi sueb,
We live opposite a farm and we are good friends with the family. We do have cows in the next door field from time to time but people have never complained, on the contrary, people with young families seem to enjoy the proximity of cows, chickens, goats etc. - it adds to the holiday experience as it is often different to what they are used to.
This week has been particularly smelly as the farmere has been preparing the fields for the maize, which involves spreading a lot of lisier and fumier, but I've never had a complaint about this either. If you know you are booking a gite in the countryside, you have to expect things like this!
The main problem I find have are the flies from June to September, particularly the disgusting stains they leave behind. I try and tell people to keep the doors shut, but they don't, so there are often a lot of flies in the house making a mess everywhere. People have never actually complained, but I don't think they enjoy that aspect (neither do I!)
Also make sure that you have adequate fencing - our neighbours heiffers have escaped onto our lawn on more than one occasion - fortunately when it was dry. They nearly ended up in the pool once.
Good luck with your business!
gh
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Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2005 10:44 am
Location: Poitou Charente/Moraira/UK

Post by gh »

Hi Sue,

We dont have gites, however, our house is in a hamlet of 10 houses, we are Scots and the others all French and lived in thier houses for generations. All bar 3 farm either crops or stock, sheep and cattle. Our house is the last in the lane and has un-interupted views of the countryside facing due south. We have rented now for some years and have received very favourable coments from the guest's:- The children loved watching the farmers up the lane, seeing the sheep and cattle at feeding time. Bringing back eggs sometimes etc.
There are school age children there and the guests children do play with them either in the pool or in the hamlet itself. One of our neighbours invites the quests in for an apertif which they really enjoy, quite a talking point for them.

We are situated on the edge of a village and the baker comes round twice weekly in his little van, mainly for the older residents, where the guests can buy their breakfast croissants bread etc and the local butcher comes once a week where the quests enjoy there pick of the locally produced beef pork etc. they enjoy watching and listening to the inhabitants of the hamlet in the ritual of buying and chatting to each other.

If the evidence of our visitors book is anything to go by, they all have enjoyed there stay at ours and a way of life not know to them before. Guests have returned and we have had referral bookings from previous guests.

You should describe your place as rural, rural is in the countryside and in the countryside there will be farms. As Alan already said, its a no-brainer to work that out, even for guests. :roll:

One solution for the pool placement would be to plant shrubs etc or erect a fence or barrier of some sort, which in a year or two will help disguise the farm area. Pool safety is something to consider, they are various ways of doing this, plenty of info on this site to have a look at.

:idea: Regarding insects, we have put mesh blinds on windows which keeps the house insect free, however in the hot summers we advise the guests to leave both the windows and the shutters closed untill the sun goes down.

If the property is the one I would not hesitate. :lol:
Be interested to know how you get on.

Bonne chance.
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Ju
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Post by Ju »

I am afraid I am going to have to put forward the other point of view. No I would not buy a property that was 100m from a dairy farm with the intention of running it for Gites. When we were looking for properties we saw one in this situation and it was discounted.

Whilst I agree that a rural location is desirable, and guests do like it, a rural location does not have to mean being next to a dairy farm. We have a farm surrounding us, but it is an arable farm, and they keep horses in the field next door. We have chickens and geese nearby and they have never caused a problem, but dairy farms are a different matter. For one there is the noise, especially at milking time, but also when calving. (bear in mind gite guests are not normally up with the lark) We are over 500 m away from a dairy farm and we can still hear it. For the other there is the smell, not just of manure (which is after all just the smell of the country) but also of silage. I for one would not enjoy sitting by a pool in high summer with that.

The other thing to bear in mind is that you will be living there all year round. We have friends who live next to the dairy farm (yes they are French, no they are not townies) and the sound drives them mad, particularly at calving time.

I am not telling you not to buy the property mind, I am just putting forward an opinion opposite to the others who have posted.

Best of luck.

Ju
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

I'm not going to dispute what Ju has said, her friends have clearly had problems, but I think every house in proximity to a dairy farm must be different. Our pool is only about 50m as the crow flies from the milk parlour, but we never hear anything, or smell any silage. However, it is a small farm (only 40 cows) and it is also surrounded by conifers, which must offer a degree of sound proofing. Calving appears to take place in the fields, so it is rare we hear anything there either.
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Ju
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Post by Ju »

Susan, I agree, every farm is different and every house is different. We can each only use our own experience to go by.

Ju :)
Loopy Lou
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Post by Loopy Lou »

I would add - just be aware of the possibility of a lot of noise when the calves are taken away from their mothers. If the calves are kept in the hangar near your property you could be in for a lot of mooing and bellowing for a period of time. I would also reiterate the nuisance of flies - and they are not just your average house flies; you'll probably get horse flies as well and a bite from one of those is not nice. And smells!

I would suggest that you spend some hours at the property at different times of the day and at different seasons before you commit yourselves.

Of course, you could plant a conifer (or laurel?) barrier, but you would have to keep the hedge under control or you would lose a lot of light from your property. They are also extremely thirsty trees and nothing grows underneath them. The benefit of laurel is that you can cut it back hard and it will re-sprout; laylandii (which I personally hate) will die back if you cut it back beyond the green growth.

I viewed a property that had, as part of it's land, a field up close to the swimming-pool where the local farmer was keeping cows and the ground was very mushed up and puddled just over the wire fence next to the pool. I also noted that the house had mesh screens on the windows to the "cow" side of the property. One of my stipulations was that the fence would have to be moved well away from the pool along the line of trees down the middle of the field. On reflection, I have never heard back from that particular agent, so I have discounted that property altogether! There are plenty of other gite businesses for sale in France, so we must be able to find the one for us.

Good luck with your project and please keep us posted. I am on a similar hunt as well.

Bonne chance,

Lou
Louise
www.lacharronniere.com delightful gites in the Vienne countryside.
sueb
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Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2006 11:34 am
Location: Brittany

Post by sueb »

Hi all,

just to let you know that after conducting some further research along with taking into consideration all the above points we decided to put in an offer for the property and have just signed the Compromis de Vente. There were actually other people interested in purchasing the property for the creatioin of Gites and they had also put in an offer at the asking price (I thought the agent was just pulling a fast one) but he actually showed me the e-mail from the other interested party. However we were a little further ahead and able to pay deposit etc as cash buyers on the spot. Whislt we were over we also had a drive past Susan's place (in the course of our research) and it is as she says about the same distance away from a farm as the one we are buying, also it looked absolutley immaculate, grounds setting, characterfull cottages etc exceptionally well kept and seemed to be to a very high standard and the location of the farm didn't seem to detract from it at all. This is ultamatley the standard we would like to aim for, the property we are buying needs a lot of renovation so it will probabley be at least a couple of years before we are in a position to rent to guests.

Thanks again for all your help

Sue
Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

Congratulations!!!!!!!!! :lol:
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

Thanks for the compliment SueB - you should have stopped in for cup of tea! Can you let us know the location of your property?
sueb
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Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2006 11:34 am
Location: Brittany

Post by sueb »

Hi,

Yes sure it's in Department 22 Cotes d' Arrmor just on the outskirts of a small village called Le Quillio near Loudeac so a fair distance from you Susan.

No doubt I will be asking a fair few questions over the next couple of years!!!!
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