Over the last year we've looked at the general process of buying and selling a home in France*. The process involves two main parties, the seller and the buyer but to make that process work there is a large group of people working behind the scenes.
The Agent
Of all the people involved, the one person who will be common to both parties is the agent. Not only the link between the parties but also between them and the rest of the team working on the process. They have a special rôle (a good agent will see it as a privileged rôle) in overseeing and bringing together all the strands that make for successful selling and buying.
The agent will start the process with a visit to the seller to take an instruction to market a property. Selling a home can be a fairly sad occasion for the seller (it usually comes with a lot of good and happy memories even if the reasons for selling are very positive) and the agent will treat the meeting with due regard for those feelings. Along with gaining hard facts about the property, the agent will also want to know any history behind it, special interest, work that has been done recently etc. The hard facts are needed to create an exact "product" to market, such as the land references (cadastrale), the layout of the property (number of bedrooms, bathrooms), any planning permission that has been granted etc. At this time the agent will probably take measurements of the rooms to establish habitable surface area (a different measure to the total surface area). By checking the price per square metre in the local area this will give a guide price. If the obligatory diagnostic checks have been made there will be an accurate measurement already by the diagnostic technicien. Throughout the process, the agent continually assesses the changing market conditions and can give advice on any action to take and of course the all-important viewing requests.
For the buyer, the agent is the first point of contact and while showing you around the property or properties that you want to look at is one of the most important aspects, their help to you will be of more value if they know what you are really looking for. It is worth looking at your agent as a sort of matchmaker - trying to bring you together with your dream rather than a tour guide. Expect your agent to ask for information about your hopes and ideas. At the end of the meeting there should be mutual trust, respect and potential friendship.