Comment: House hunting in France is full of surprises

I have been helping a friend house hunt. She wants something far enough off the road for her cat, with enough land for her horse, and a large fireplace for her dog. 

Seems reasonable enough to me. 

Oh, and it also has to be near a school for her kids. And within reach of her job.

Leboncoin is stuffed with ads for houses. She keeps sending me links because I am on my fourth French house now, so I have seen a good few of them.

"How about this one? It has land running down to a river?"

"Looks like a flood plain to me."

"This one has a great fireplace!"

"What are those brown stains on the ceiling?"

"Here's one with a well!"

"Why are there no pictures of the exterior?"

Peeling wallpaper, broken window panes, newspapers strewn across the floors, doors so swollen that they could not be opened, cellars with permanently lost keys, are all commonplace. Especially when house-hunting on a budget.

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An unexpected surprise...

We went to see a very pretty house for sale in a nice location, only to discover that the terrace overlooked a crane factory. 

Yes, there would always be multiple cranes in the process of being constructed just metres from the house.

Another one still had rubbish rotting in the kitchen bin and dirty dishes in the sink. 

In one case, we visited a house which had no actual lavatory in the bathroom. There was just a hole in the floor where a lavatory could be installed. Truly revolting.

The fact is, many French people do not especially prepare their houses for sale. They do not even do the minimum, ie. tidy the garden, sweep the floors and air the place. 

Estate agents are so used to this that they just shrug and add 'à rafraîchir', or 'dans son jus' to the description. In extremis they mark 'à renouveler'.

Read more: MAP: Which areas in France are most popular with second-home owners?

Buyer beware

Sometimes it works to the buyer's advantage because a place can look quite disgusting but actually be more in need of redecorating than a top-to-toe renovation. 

Other times, you arrive to inspect something 'dans son jus' to find an actual long-dead animal on the doorstep, gaping holes in the roof and moss growing on the 17th-Century ‘tomettes’ in the kitchen. All warning signs, I feel.

We have also visited a house which turned out to be unfinished in the sense that the roof had never been put on. It was, in fact, nothing more than four walls. Not really a house at all. In my experience, any type of large house described as being '1 pièce' is not a house either. It is a barn. 

And do not get me started on those photographs of what the place would look like after renovation! 

Apart from the fact that these fanciful imaginings are the result of a computer with AI being given free rein, they are usually hideous, and they are never costed out. 

What is the point of photos of how a house might look? 

The hunt continues.

What are your experiences of finding a house in France? Share them with us at letters@connexionfrance.com