Thursday, March 29, 2007
Search for a new house
My next major life change. After four successful years building up a gite business Caroline and I have decided to part company. She is staying with the kids in the family home and will continue to run the gites. I'm moving on to pastures new. Quite what, I don't know just yet.
I've thought about restarting my computer progamming career but it is going to be difficult without being fluent in the French language. There is also the option to work on web as a freelancer, but again it's not that easy.
So why not start again using my renovation skills. I'm due half the money from the business and I could start again and renovate an old property and either rent it out for gites for re-sell for a profit.
I'm renting at the moment but it's money down the drain so I've been scanning through papers and casually surfing web over the last few weeks looking for somewhere to buy. I'd like to stay in France cos of the children. Generally I would recommend that you buy a property via Notaire because it is cheaper than using an estate agent. The notaire is a government appointed 'property transaction' agent with fixed fees and taxes etc. All property sales must go though a notaire. The estate agents therefore charge an extra percentage on top for their cut. Because the estate agents are more sales orientated they advertise more, have a much better web presence and need to sell to make money. Notaires are generally quite old fashioned and still handle the property transaction and get the fee even if sold through an estate agent.
So the hunt is on to find somewhere to live and find a way to make a living.
| 3:18:03 PM
Search for a new house
