How to begin?

Unlike North America, France does not have a Multiple Listing Service!  So, how to find those first listings and the agencies which list properties near the area of my dreams?  Fumbling around the internet, I found some helpful property internet sites:  Green Acres  (www.green-acres.com)   is run by Immo France, posting private and agent-listed properties. Les Cles de Midi (www.lesclesdumidi.com) has listings for SW France.   Each shows houses by 'sector', ie a broad range of geographic area.  You can send a message the listing agent. They may or may not answer!

Then you find out that the agents won't tell you where the property is located!  That's a challenge, eh?  You've got to sign a viewing paper...which you can only do in person!

You might ask why.  I did!  Well it seems that sellers can list their properties with multiple agents at the same time!  

And, to make things even more difficult, most agents do NOT put signs on houses for sale.  You might find a sign for a private sale, with a faded cell phone number, but my French makes telephoning a terrifying experience...so what next?
 

Sharing the Joys and Pains....

For a long time, husband and I have loved to go to France. Our friends gave us the bug when they went one summer, just before our 25th wedding anniversary.   They came back with pictures and stories galore of the little French house in the vineyard that they rented...we were so jealous.  So we went, rented two gites in two small villages for a week each. Never mind that the first gite was about 20 m2, aptly called La Petite Maison, with two rooms, a small bedroom up the steep winding stairs from the living/dining room, one toilet tucked under the stairs, and the world's smallest salle d'eau (shower room) next to the bedroom upstairs.  The second house was larger, but heated using a fireplace (during December), and a bit frosty...  But, we were so entranced!

Fast forward ten years...many trips later...we have settled on "our" area, the small hamlet of Promilhanes, in the Southeast corner of the Lot...we have "our" gite, which we have rented seven times since Sept 2007.   We have friends, anglophone and francophone.... and now, I have truly caught the bug.

I want a my own house in France!

We started looking in the windows of the Estate Agents a long time ago.  But, since our return from France this May, I have been on the French property real estate sites daily...I have learned a lot..  But there is definitely a level of frustration, too.

Want to join me through the joys and pains of making my dream a reality?