The Deal Is Done

Background Research & Planning House Hunting

Before making an offer for the house, we asked the estate agent to obtain quotations for the necessary reroofing and the rewiring from local workmen. The French agent could not have been more helpful and these estimates arrived a couple of weeks after we had returned to England.

The cost of the roofing and the electrics came to approximately £6,500 which, when added to the asking price for the property, would not have left enough money in our budget to carry out the remaining work and furnish the house. So, in order to stay within our budget, we offered £3,500 less than the asking price, arguing that the cost of the roof and electrics had to be taken into account.

At this point we thought that our initial attempt at finding a French holiday home had failed and that we would be going back again next year to try again. But, to our enormous surprise and pleasure, the vendors accepted the offer.

Arranging a French mortgage and the legal paperwork to complete the sale was surprisingly quick and easy to accomplish.

On 12 January 1996 we made a one day trip to France, signed the Acte de Vente, drank a bottle of Cotes du Rhone, introduced ourselves to the neighbour and became the proud owners of La Martiniére.

We appreciated that we were committing ourselves to a great deal of work over the next three or four years before our house would become the idyllic holiday home that we visualised but we were absolutely delighted to have our own little bit of France.