Selling house in UK, buying gite business in France

[Loopy Lou]

For Sale: Detached house with 3/4 receps, 4/5 beds, large garden in Beaconsfield. Modern kitchen extension, open fire in lounge,full double glazing, versatile accommodation. Ideal location for access to London, Oxford, Birmingham, M25, M40, M4, M1. Mainline railway station - London Marylebone 45 mins.

To Buy: Existing successful gite business in West/SouthWest France. Traditional French home 2-3 bedrooms plus minimum of 2 x 2 bedroomed gites. In or on edges of a village with "commerces". Swimming pool. Garden. Not too much land. Usual open fires, beams, etc. Views. Tranquil, not isolated. Gites fully equipped.

Please PM me!

[alexia s.]

"Can I make it happen?"
With difficulty - good luck!

[Giddy Goat]

Loopy Lou, I think it can certainly happen - but it all hinges on how the finances stack up. A large house in Beaconsfield will sell for a lot of £££'s, depending of course on its situation and condition. But perhaps you're hoping to be able to invest some of the proceeds and get extra income from it as well as from the gites? Not sure how much change there would be at the end of the day, but some, I'd expect (hope!).

If you're doing your homework, and already have an idea of cost as regards an established house+gites, have you been to view any yet? If so, where in the west/south-west, and what have been your own conclusions to date?

In these areas, there is still not quite the glut of holiday rental properties one keeps hearing about, except perhaps the Dordogne - but I have no first hand knowledge of that area and how easy/difficult it is to get the required number of bookings there, so that may also be just hype.

Comments anyone?

As has been said on other threads on the forum, your success depends very much on your property, and on how well you present it and market it, including doing the necessary local research before setting your prices.

[enid]

and don' t forget the coup de foudre - that is you really have to want to live here - you have to find the property that speaks to you - and then you have to do all the work or pay for it that makes it speak to others. We've done it - so can you - but don't think it's an easy ride.

[Loopy Lou]

Thanks, all, for your comments. I have been lurking on this forum for many months learning many things, so I am fully aware that running gites is no easy ride. However, I refuse to spend the rest of my reasonably active years commuting 3 hours a day and being stuck in an office bored out of my skull! Now that my children are no longer dependent on me on a daily basis, I need to see who I am and what I can achieve just for myself.

Je parle francais. Je veux habiter en France, dans un village!

I also appreciate that there are many gite properties available for the punters to rent which is why I am looking for an existing business where the sellers are retiring - and, yes, I am cynical (or business-like) enough to want further information and proof of previous rentals, etc.

I am going to France in February for a viewing trip. I am trolling the internet and in touch with various people, and will go to the property show at Olympia in January to see what further is available.

J'espere qu'un coup de foudre me frappera sur la tete, but it's the business earning potential that takes precedence. I can always imprint my own taste in the long run. I simply want to make ends meet and make enough to be able to visit my children from time to time. I don't expect to make much of a profit, just to be comfortably confident in my finances.

It can be done and I will prove it, or become a pauper in the attempt - after all, I have four kids to fall back on!!! I have told them. They are sick of me bleating on about my dream and are telling me to b****r off and get on with it!

That's not to say that I am not terrified at this gamble, but very excited too.

So, if you know of any suitable properties, please let me know!

A bientot,

Loopy Lou (I didn't choose that acronym by mistake, you know!)

[alexia s.]

"I refuse to spend the rest of my reasonably active years commuting 3 hours a day and being stuck in an office bored out of my skull!"


Loopy Lou,

You'll succeed.

You've just given me my first Christmas present!

[Giddy Goat]

Go for it girl, and keep us posted! I have the names of a couple of wonderful agents in our area of SW France, and will PM them to you.

[tansy]

Loopy Lou - you haven't mentioned - will you be on your own or have you husband/partner with you? That aspect makes huge difference to the venture.... mind you learning to be with my husband 24/7 after 16 years of him away almost 6 - 9 months of each year - (2 weeks here, 6 weeks there, 4 days here etc. etc. no planning involved as he was photo journalist!)....this aspect has prooved one of the most challenging - I also know ladies on their own here with B&B or gites and are coping really well....

I don't want to be negative - we came here lock stock 5 years ago - there is still a lot I miss especially shops, decent restaurants, choice in supermarkets, speaking your own mother tongue when you are ill or stressed..... at times only mixing with country folk can be wearing, you can feel very isolated... not being able to browse in a book shop, go to see the latest release in the cinema or the theatre.

But then the benefits do outweigh quite a lot of all that... but the advice someone has already given you is spot on...money - don't be underfunded and struggle - that is when it is horrible!

But go for it - or go for something on a self employed basis in the UK... either way it will be a new challenge and also beat the 3 hour commute each day!

Good luck and let us know what you decide and how things are progressing.

[Fraise]

Good luck Lou,I know you have been dreaming of this for years!!!You already know it may not be easy but then who said life ever was??We have come back to live in Uk in 4 bedroom detached and we are already thinking of selling one of our French homes to help finance a larger house as we have outgrown this (in just 2 months!!!) cos 2 grown offspring have already come back home to live!!!! Who knows what's around the corner?? We never do-good luck,at least you are really well researched and speaking the lingo helps enormously!!!

www.thepetitmanoir.com

[Loopy Lou]

Hi Tansy,

I shall be on me tod! In my life I have lived in Canada, India, Cameroon and Jamaica, as well as the UK (including darkest Warwickshire in a village; I life I loved!), so the attraction of being an ex-pat in a slightly warmer climate one more time, but of a slightly different sort non plus, is part of the equation.

I don't have a huge budget because I want to retain some capital to tide me over until I get the business properly up and running, so this really precludes acquiring anything in the UK. (Anyway, I'm sick of the congested South East and the way things are going generally in the UK - moaning minnies, the lot of us, and common sense has disappeared entirely from our soi disant nanny-state government at all levels).

I'm looking forward to a simpler life, making new friends, meeting and looking after my guests, having cats again, a couple of chickens maybe and a potagere!

I shall be out in Feb house/business hunting and can't wait!

Merry Christmas everyone,

Joyeuse fetes.

Lou

[Loopy Lou]

Update: Beaconsfield house now on the market and I'm off on another viewing trip next week.

My former boyfriend died at the age of 51 in March - that has made me more than ever determined to make the most of my remaining years. Time is flying by.

Still looking for a gite business to buy in West/SouthWest France!!

[Fraise]

I hope you have a good trip next week, we're over then too

www.thepetitmanoir.com