Trucs van makelaars

You just need to take a drive around any part of the French Riviera and it becomes very clear that there are too many real estate agencies here. There’s at least one on every commercial block, if not several. It’s easier to find a real estate agency than a place to buy coffee — by far.

Het is dan ook geen verrassing dat makelaars aan de Franse Rivièra een zeer competitieve groep vormen. Duizenden makelaars strijden om een relatief klein aantal woningen in de verkoop en komen nauwelijks rond met een paar verkopen. Kortom, het is een recept voor allerlei wangedrag.

Some 62% of estate agencies inspected by the state have been found to have broken the law.

Net zoals elk industry where the monetary incentives are not aligned with the incentive of being honest with the buyer, this type of system forces agents to either look out for their own financial interests OR be honest with buyers. It’s not surprising then, that they prioritize making more money above being transparent with buyers. It’s not that agents are bad people (they have families to feed, too); the problem lies in the fact that Het systeem is zo opgezet dat het slecht gedrag stimuleert. Hoe meer je te veel betaalt, hoe meer winst ze maken.

Het is zo erg dat bij de meerderheid van de makelaarskantoren die door de staat zijn gecontroleerd (62% in 2020 en 63% in 2023) is vastgesteld dat ze de wet hebben overtreden door misleidende advertenties te plaatsen. In 2020 en 2023 werden 1.740 makelaars gecontroleerd door de DGCCRF. Veelvoorkomende overtredingen hebben betrekking op onvolledige of onjuiste informatie die aan klanten wordt verstrekt, misleidende verkoopmethoden, het tonen van advertenties voor woningen die niet echt te koop staan (waarbij potentiële kopers vervolgens wordt verteld dat ze 'net een bod hebben ontvangen'), of woningen die ten onrechte als 'nieuw' of 'exclusief' worden aangeboden.

Veel makelaarskantoren willen een villa eigenlijk niet verkopen, omdat ze er een constant inkomen uit halen door deze als vakantiewoning te verhuren en daarbij 20% plus commissie per verhuur in rekening brengen.

Tip: When working with agents, use a temporary email address and a different, fake surname with each agent. There’s no need (especially since you should never sign anything with the agent), and why would you want your real name to be in all those databases? Also, that way you’ll have less issues with agents refusing to work with each other (as explained below).

How Real Estate Agents Operate

No single agent has access to everything on the market. Not even close.

In France, there’s no central database of all the properties that are for sale. Each agency has their own listings, and only if they Echt Als ze geen koper kunnen vinden, staan ze vaak open voor samenwerking met andere makelaars. Ze publiceren een deel van hun aanbod online (de woningen die moeilijk te verkopen zijn), en de rest houden ze geheim (dit worden 'off-market' woningen genoemd) zodat andere makelaars er geen weet van kunnen krijgen.

Most owners (the savvy ones) list with 2 or 3 agencies. Agencies often don’t like to work with each other because it means splitting commission. This is why, as a buyer, you’ll need to contact (and work directly with) as many agencies as possible. Many agents on the French Riviera won’t proactively follow up with new listings, so you’ll need to message them regularly to remind them that you exist.

Veel makelaarskantoren willen villa's eigenlijk alleen verkopen als ze een flinke commissie kunnen verdienen. Ze maken namelijk winst door 20% commissie plus bijkomende kosten te innen telkens wanneer ze een huurder vinden.

Licenses & Insurance

Since there are many illegal 'real estate agents' trying to make money off French Riviera property, it’s very important that you make sure any agent you’re working closely with is legal by asking for three things: their license to practice (carte professionelle), indemnity insurance, and fidelity bond (piece de garantie) details.

Geen zorgen – het is volkomen normaal en acceptabel om hierom te vragen. Dit helpt u te beschermen voor het geval er iets misgaat. Als ze geen borgstelling hebben, is dat geen probleem, zorg er dan wel voor dat u het geld aan de notaris betaalt (wat u sowieso zou moeten doen). Erkende makelaars moeten al deze gegevens in hun kantoor tonen en deze drie zaken in alle correspondentie en contracten vermelden.

You can also find licensed agents through two estate agent associations: FNAIM En SNPI. This also gives you an extra place to complain to if something goes wrong.

Beware Foreign & Illegal ‘Agents’

Only work with agents that have an office in the area where you're looking for a villa. Local agents will know the area best and might be able to give you access to ‘off-market’ villas that they think they can sell quickly without needing to pay for publicity. They will also be more likely to be legally licensed to practice — and you definitely want to make sure the agent you’re working with is licensed and insured.

Sommige buitenlandse of niet-gelicentieerde makelaars beweren de 'aanbiedingsmakelaar' of 'exclusieve makelaar' te zijn, maar zijn dat in werkelijkheid niet. Ze kunnen u achteraf verrassen met een verzoek om extra kosten (die u niet verplicht bent te betalen!) of kosten verbergen in de vraagprijs. Om deze reden, Vermijd wereldwijde/Britse/niet-lokale agenten en diensten., and don’t sign anything with an agent — all contracts should be done via the notaire. And certainly don’t ever give an agent money (again, only give money to the notaire).

Buyer’s Agents / Property Finders

What is a buyer agent?

Aankoopmakelaars (ook wel vastgoedzoekers genoemd) zijn een relatief nieuw fenomeen in Frankrijk (sinds ongeveer het jaar 2000). Ze adverteren dat ze contact opnemen met alle verschillende makelaarskantoren en op zoek gaan naar villa's die niet officieel te koop staan. Sommigen geven ook aan dat ze hun best zullen doen om particuliere verkopen te vinden.

Limitations:

Since they all split the commission with the listing agent, they will all miss out on properties where the listing agent doesn't want to split the commission. Many agencies, especially the well-known ones, refuse to split commissions (unless the villa has been on the market for ages). This means that unless you are directly in contact with those agencies, you might not find out about the best villas they have for sale.

Regular agents posing as buyer agents:

An agent who works for an agency that lists villas for sale can niet also be a true buyer’s agent, although some will try to convince you they can. Regular agents will not be able to find out about other agencies ‘off-market’ villas (since the whole reason they’re kept off-market/secret is to avoid having other listing agents find out about & steal them), and will try to get you to pay as much as possible (since they make commission-based compensation).

Local versus international:

The more local they are, the better. There’s no way someone in the UK can know about private sales on the French Riviera — that takes weekly in-person relationship-building and meetings with locals. Find a buyer’s agent who is based near where you want to buy, and speaks French as their first-language, so that even xenophobic old locals will be friendly and let them know about private sales.

Payment:

Sommige aankoopmakelaars brengen de koper extra kosten in rekening bij de afronding van de verkoop (maar ze nemen ook de helft van de commissie van de verkopende makelaar – iets wat ze je misschien wel of niet zullen vertellen), maar de meeste brengen de koper niets in rekening en delen de commissie gewoon met makelaars die daartoe bereid zijn (niet iedereen is dat!).

Some sleazy buyer’s agents will ask for a retainer (money up-front), mostly because they’re chronically unsuccessful in finding villas and their only income is these initial payments. Never pay in advance. In fact, never pay them at all. Let them get paid from the listing agent / seller. If you do agree to pay them a few thousand euros extra, you should only ever pay a buyer’s agent if they find you a villa that you purchase — en alleen wanneer de aankoop 100% is afgerond.

Can you trust them?

It’s the same as with listing agents. Since they’re paid a commission based on the sale price, they’ll be incentivized to find a way to manipulate you into paying more than you need to. That’s why you can't listen to their advice and it’s still up to you to do your own research to determine the correct offer price.

Contracts:

If they ask for a contract, you can simply say that you don't want to sign a contract at all, or at least until you’ve found the villa you want to buy. If they protest, don’t give in. They will eventually agree to still work with you. If you decide to sign a contract at some point (this should really only happen once they find a villa you want to buy), then there are things to know before you sign:

• Make sure the contract is ‘simple’ and not ‘exclusive’. Make 100% sure that the contract does not have anything about exclusivity in it, otherwise you’ll owe them money even if they are completely unhelpful (which many are) and you find a villa another way.
• Ask for proof that they’re licensed and insured.
• Zorg ervoor dat u alles in het contract begrijpt. De meeste contracten worden in het Engels aangeboden.
• The contract should say that you don’t owe them any money, or that the buyer’s agent gets paid only when the sale is complete. It should state that they will share the commission with the listing agent, paid by the seller, and that the buyer agent will not charge the buyer any fee.

Who to Trust? A Warning

The main thing to always remember is that real estate agents (and notaires) get paid when you complete the purchase, and the more you spend, the more profit they make. They are paid a percentage of the sale price, and they only get paid if you complete the purchase for the villa. So, naturally, they are incentivized to be very optimistic about both the market and whatever villa you’re considering.

That’s why many will tell potential buyers that a villa with major mold and structural issues is “in perfect condition”, or deliberately inflate the m², or tell you other lies and half-truths to get you to buy at the highest price possible.

Given this, it’s important that you do your own checking to see if all the structures on the property were built legally, and to check the other things listed in this guide. Don’t expect agents to be honest about any aspect of the property — Jij are the only person who will look out for your interests. It’s up to you to hire independent experts (who get paid whether you buy the villa or not) to double-check everything.

Those who are in the business of promoting villa rentals will also encourage people to buy. If you buy a villa then realize you overpaid and can’t resell it, that’s good news for people who make a living organizing villa vacation rentals, as your next step will likely be to enlist them to help you rent it. (Keep in mind that these rental brokers charge 20% commission, and the government charges a 40% rental tax, so you’ll make less than half of the rental price).

(Dishonest) Things Agents Tell You

Given the misaligned incentives, always do your own research, and watch out for these things that some agents say:

“The market is super hot right now!”

Agencies always want you to believe that it’s a super-hot market and prices are going up, as this pressures buyers into feeling like they should buy sooner and for more money, and it incentivizes sellers to list their homes. Even in obviously soft or declining markets, many agents and notaires will often tell you that it’s a hot market. Here’s the werkelijk state of the real estate market on the French Riviera.

“This villa is new to market!”

Emails with real estate listings often say “new listing” or “new to market” when the villa has already been listed for sale for many months or years. Don’t pay attention when the agent says it’s ‘new’. Instead, take a look at the date on the diagnostics.

“You can’t base your m² pricing on the notaire’s website (‘DVF’) because _____.”

They may give any number of lies for this, such as that the notaries don’t count villas purchased using a SCI (they do — they count alle residential real estate transactions no matter who pays for them), that they include non-publicly offered or inter-family sales of property for a low price (they don’t), that wealthy people remove their sale from it for privacy (this is not allowed), or that the notaire’s published sale prices are somehow incorrectly low (they’re definitely not incorrectly low –in fact they’re incorrectly high!– and this is regulated by French law to increase transparency.) In fact, the published sold prices include TVA (tax paid)!

Here’s a guide to coming up with your offer price.

“The market has exploded / prices have gone up since the notaires last published the sale prices…”

Again, that is 100% certainly niet true, as the French Riviera’s real estate market is like molasses — it’s erg slow-moving. Besides that, their claim is also completely unverifiable and there’s no way an agent could know this. The alleen way to know the trends of the real estate market prices is via the notaires published sale prices (more on the market trends here), which is updated every 6 months. Agents are famous for lying about sale prices, and even if they were being honest, they would only know about hun sales, and they are 1 out of over 1500 agents on the French Riviera!

“This villa is on an expensive street, so the price is justified.” of “The house down the street sold for €_____.” or “I recently sold several villas in this area for over €_____.”

First, you can verify if it is by searching the past sales, which are listed on the DVF website — but with incorrectly low m²). If those sales aren’t listed, then assume that it’s probably not true. Second, the price per m² should still be within the notaire’s published price range (more on this here), which includes every villa on every street in that area/town, including alle the ‘special’ expensive streets. Thirdly, just because one buyer didn’t do their research and overpaid, doesn’t mean you should.

“That villa has just been sold / just received an offer!”

There are several reasons why an agent might tell you this:

• There’s a chance it could be true (but you’ll need to make sure.)
• Some agents refuse to work with other agents (for various reasons, usually because they don’t want to share the commission), resulting in the agent you’re working with telling you a property has sold when it hasn’t, so make sure to double-check with the listing agent.
• It could be a false listing designed to get you to contact the agency, for a villa that was never really for sale.
• If you are an educated buyer and know that a villa is overpriced, an agent might tell you a villa got an offer to get you to bid above market, and when you don’t, they might say it sold. But this is often simply because they know that the seller is just speculating and not interested in selling at a fair price, so saying it sold is intended to make you think you’re wrong about the market (that villas are selling for more, and more often, than they are).
• Another reason why an agent might say this is when an owner decides to take their villa off the market because it’s not selling — agents won’t say this, obviously, so instead they pretend they sold it. Check the notaires published sales to verify.

Onthoud: veel deals gaan niet door; een woning waar een bod op is uitgebracht, is nog lang geen definitieve deal (sterker nog, meer dan 50% van de biedingen gaat niet door, meestal omdat de bank de hypotheek voor een overduidelijk te hoge prijs niet wil verstrekken) en de villa kan binnen een maand weer op de markt komen.

“They already turned down an offer for [insert above-market price here].”

This is almost always not true. This is a very common tactic used by agents to make you think the villa is in demand, and to get you to offer more than market value. If the number is very high, they may also be trying to scare you off because the listing agent won’t share the commission, or because they know that the seller doesn’t really want to sell.

“The villa already sold but the buyer couldn’t get a mortgage.”

This may or may not be true. If it’s true, the most likely reason they couldn’t get a mortgage was because the bank’s valuation / appraisal showed that the buyer’s offer was way above market value. So, if it’s true, that almost certainly means that the villa is very overpriced, even at the offer price that was accepted. If it’s not true, then the agent is saying this to manipulate you into thinking that it’s a desirable villa that other people are willing to pay for.

“They are considering an offer, so you’ll need to act quickly!”

This is not true most of the time (but once in a while it is, however, the offer amount they tell you is almost always much higher than the actual offer). This is a common tactic used to put pressure on you, to make the villa seem like it’s desirable, and to get you to quickly bid a higher amount than their (fictional) ‘offer amount’. Our advice: offer market value then wait and see.

“It’s an investment – you’ll make the money back when you sell…”

This is simply not true anywhere, but especially in France, where the market has been flat-lined for about 15 years. Buyers have no idea what you paid for your villa, and even if they did, it wouldn’t matter, as villas will sell for whatever the market value is at that time. Real estate is like any other market: it has ups and downs, and people lose money on their ‘investment’ all the time.

“It’s priced at market value. You can see by searching for villas for sale in the area.”

Agents who say this are trying to confuse you. The asking / listing / for sale prices are NOT ‘market value’; they are the prices nobody is willing to pay (otherwise, those villas would already be sold!) Instead, it is the SOLD prices (the m² prices that villas have actually sold for) that determine the ‘market value’ (what villas in that town are worth).

“You can definitely expand the m².”

A classic trick is they get hun architect contact to “verify” that you can expand a property, but then once you buy it, they all ghost you and you find out the hard way that it’s not possible to expand the m² (even if ‘it keeps the same footprint’). This has happened to several contacts of ours and seems to be common practice. The only way to know if you can expand it is to get proper planning permission approval from the Mairie, and double-check it at the Mairie in person.

Articles That Quote Agents

Many journalists publish articles that are sponsored by real estate agencies. These articles (like all paid-for sponsored content) lack any journalistic integrity. They almost always give sales statistics that are not backed up door de notarissen. Iedere makelaar of agentschap die beweert dat de markt verandert, baseert zich uitsluitend op de informatie van hun eigen agentschap (één van de honderden agentschappen in dit gebied), en aangezien er geen manier is om te verifiëren wat ze zeggen, kunt u er niet van uitgaan dat het klopt.

Any article that states that the market is going up by a % or states how the market is doing, that doesn’t directly link to their source, is not credible. The only source that can accurately say what % increases the market is doing, is the notaires. Period. They are the only group with alle de verkoopgegevens.

Even then, when the notaires state the % that market prices are changing, keep in mind that since they don’t specify correct m² along with the sale prices (and these price stats are always based on the per-m² price), there’s no way to correctly estimate the % increase or decrease in sale prices. Until the government forces notaires to accurately report the m² of sold properties, there is simply no accurate way to say the % that the market prices are increasing or decreasing.

Articles that state that huge amounts of Americans (or insert country here) are buying property in France are also sponsored garbage. The notaires publish stats about the % of sales by foreigners and the last stat they published was in 2016 (as stated in their fall 2022 report), which stated that only 5.2% of buyers are not French. Again, there’s no way for any agent to know these stats unless the notaires publish them.

How To Answer ‘What’s Your Budget?’

Since so many properties are dramatically overpriced, the best way to answer this question is to say this: “We don’t have a budget. We will pay market value. We will get two appraisals –including one by our bank– and will base our offer on those. So show us everything that matches what we’re looking for and we’ll deal with the offer price once we find one we like.” Then, you will craft your offer by following this guide.

Do You Need an Agent?

You may find this shocking, but only 58% of all villa sales are via real estate agents, and many of those are sold ‘off-market’ to their clients (or developers(waardoor de makelaar vervolgens nog een commissie krijgt wanneer hij het doorverkoopt) zonder dat de advertentie online hoeft te worden geplaatst.

De rest wordt verkocht via veilingen, rechtstreeks via notarissen (4% van de verkoopprijs), of via particuliere verkoop via lokale kranten, sociale media, advertentiesites of gespecialiseerde vastgoedbladen (aangeboden door de eigenaar). Dit komt omdat makelaars tussen de 4% en 10% in rekening brengen, en veel eigenaren liever op een andere manier proberen te verkopen en alleen met makelaars in zee gaan als ze zelf geen koper kunnen vinden.

Zodra een makelaar een pand in handen krijgt, probeert hij het eerst "buiten de openbare markt" aan projectontwikkelaars aan te bieden. Vervolgens biedt hij het discreet aan zijn klanten en andere makelaars waarmee hij samenwerkt. Als niemand een geïnteresseerde koper kan vinden, dan begint hij te betalen voor advertenties.

They hold off on making the listing public for as long as possible because publicly advertising it invites competition from other agencies (other agents find it on Google Earth and approach the seller, so they’ll (ze verdienen de commissie als ze het verkopen). Dus als een villa niet verkocht is tegen de tijd dat deze openbaar wordt aangeboden, komt dat meestal doordat de prijs te hoog is of er problemen mee zijn.

For these reasons, it’s best to look for villas on your own, and also contact as many agents as possible, so you’re more likely to get told about the “off-market” properties.

Tip: You can make a request to obtain the ownership information of any villa and approach homeowners directly.

Villa kopen? Lees dit eerst!

Wanneer u klaar bent om naar een woning te zoeken, lees dan zeker onze complete gids voor het kopen van onroerend goed in FrankrijkDeze gidsen leggen uit hoe u de waarde van een woning kunt schatten echt waarde, hoe u de beste prijs krijgt en voorkomt dat u te veel vraagt, waar u op moet letten, hoe u voorkomt dat u wordt opgelicht, en nog veel meer.

Om de vastgoedmarkt in Frankrijk te begrijpen, moet u allereerst begrijpen hoe m²-prijzen zijn een gigantische oplichterij. Daarna kunt u doorgaan naar de andere gidsen:

Ons gids voor waar de markt naartoe gaat Bevat: voorspellingen over de vastgoedmarkt aan de Franse Rivièra, huidige en historische prijstrends op de markt en de redenen waarom de prijzen zullen blijven dalen. Plus, aanvullende informatie gids voor Russen en hun impact op de vastgoedmarkt van de Franse Rivièra.

Ons gids voor vastgoedaanbiedingen omvat: hoe u villa's te koop kunt vinden, waar u op moet letten, misinformatie en waarschuwingen, veilingen en executieverkopen, rechtstreeks kopen van verkopers, waarom timing alles is en de reden waarom slechts ongeveer de helft van de villaverkopen openbaar wordt vermeld.

Ons gids voor oplichting en geheimen Bevat waarschuwingen over de onethische trucs die makelaars, notarissen, verkopers, projectontwikkelaars en bouwers gebruiken om meer geld van u af te troggelen. Dit is een must-read, en dé klokkenluidersgids die de mensen in de branche u liever niet laten zien.

Ons gids voor het bepalen van de marktwaarde van een villa en het bepalen van de prijs ervan bevat: waarom er zoveel extreem overprijzen zijn, hoe u de marktwaarde van een villa kunt schatten (wat het waard is) en een stapsgewijze handleiding om de juiste vraagprijs te vinden.

Ons gids met belangrijke dingen om te ontdekken omvat: diagnostische rapporten en onderzoeken, zon en microklimaten, mogelijke problemen met het uitzicht, onroerendgoedbelasting, de leeftijd, internet- en mobiele toegang, gevarenzones (rood), gezondheidsrisico's, problemen met privacy en ruimte, problemen in de buurt, wat u daadwerkelijk bezit, illegale toevoegingen en structuren, waarom ze worden verkocht, hoe u dit kunt verifiëren en meer.

Ons gids met dingen om te overwegen omvat: uw werkelijk kosten, problemen bij de aankoop van een 'pas gerenoveerde' villa, meer te weten komen over lokale criminaliteit en krakers, en vragen die u uzelf kunt stellen.

Ons handleiding voor het aankoopproces Dit omvat: onderhandelen over de prijs en het eerste bod, het kiezen van een betrouwbare notaris, zwart kopen, het officiële bod en de aanbetaling, het gebruik van een SCI, valkuilen in contracten, de bedenktijd, wat te doen voordat het geld wordt overhandigd en de definitieve ondertekening.

Ons gids voor na aankoop omvat: verzekeringsvalkuilen, tips voor tweede huizen, het verhuren van uw villa, renoveren en wat u moet weten over het inhuren van personeel.

Gids voor verkopers: Hoe u de prijs van uw villa bepaalt, zodat deze verkocht wordt.