Buying real estate in France

February 2023

The snow is falling outside and boxes of ‘stuff’ are piling up inside. We have learned a lot about buying a house in France. Last summer when we did our three month stay where we want to live in France, we found the place we wanted to buy. It meant we had to put money down, race back and prep our house for sale, then race back to France to purchase. Luckily, we smartened up quickly and declined to put the money down. We flew back home and have spent this winter packing up belongings, giving things away, freshening up the paint and landscape to prepare ourselves for the sale of our house. We decided, in order to purchase in France, we will sell our house and be cash buyers so we are ready for the right place with no concern over losing our deposit because we couldn’t sell our place quickly enough. We feel like we are back in control, though that is a fleeting feeling. We continue to study up on the process - the letter of intent, working with the notaire etc. No matter what happens, it feels so good to be lightening our load of ‘stuff’ which is absolutely necessary to move on to the next phase of life that we hope includes buying a house in France.