J&J in Brittany wrote:one agent has already brought us a viewer today who wants to come back for a second look next week
. . . and the viewer said "oui" !
Full asking price, went back to the agent immediately to sign papers and hand over deposit cheque !
Yikes, now we've got to face up to the fact that we're moving !!
Not bad considering we only signed the "mandat" at the agent at 3.30pm yesterday afternoon and by 11.30am this morning it was sold. I guess the agent felt he'd done a pretty good day's work too!
Wow- that was fast! Congrats, J & J....(although hang on...maybe better to wait until the 7-day pulling-out period is up). Any idea where you will be moving to? Staying in France, or back to the UK? Another rental venture, maybe?
Congratulations, that is fantastic considering how long some properties stay on the market! I will be PMing for any advice you can offer
Good luck back in the UK with the new job.
What do you think you will most and least about running the gites?
Thank you all for your kind words. Our purchasers are a really nice couple who seem really enthusiastic about continuing the letting business. They are also cash buyers so no worries about them getting finance or having somewhere to sell. As they already live nearby it won't be a big move for them.
(The price was the figure advised by the French agent - we accepted that unless we wanted to hang around indefinitely then we would need to forget about any added value of the "business".)
We're off back to London (where we lived until about twenty years ago). I'm taking up a really good new job as Bursar to a thriving independent school. With seven weeks holiday per year we should still be able to fit in plenty of trips over to our apartment in Dinard so will still be getting a regular dose of life in France.
We've had four fantastic years over here in France and loved every minute of it. It was exactly the right thing to do at the right time of our lives and we have no regrets. Now it's time to move on to a new phase of our lives without the responsibility of running our own business. The fact that we made a good living over here and have made a profit on the sale is just an added bonus.
Thank you everyone for the advice and contributions to this trail, which has been fascinating reading.
It is very encouraging to know that property in Brittany can still be sold quickly!
The French agent has still done nothing, and we think we are going to go down the route of a sales website plus advertising in the Sunday Times. We will make this a aseparate domain name to the rental site, although it shouldn't be an issue to any guests, as we are committed to maintaining a very high standard of accommodation. We will also try the UK agents recommended.
We are flexible on price, and open to the valuations given by the so called "experts". We are basing our asking price of €350k on shop window prices of comparable properties, that include agents fees and notaries fees, so we can take off maybe €20k for the agents fees from our asking price.
We have just returned from a lovely 2 weeks at the gites, taking advantage of the lovely weather and in our heart of hearts we don't want to sell them!
Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars
....Great News..and so quick!!
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