Ten Tips To Get Rentals for your Property

Over 50 years ago, in 1951, the first officially recognised "Gite" was opened in France. Tourists liked the idea of staying in family homes for reasonable rates. Self catering accommodation developed from this and by 1969, being France, the Gite system became regulated. Demand grew and by 1990 the self catering accommodation industry in France was well established with catalogues printed for people to find private self-catering accommodation.

The Internet has changed the way people book and use their accommodation. Many people had started advertising their own private properties from 1995, I started a website offering rentals which grew from Internet work I was doing in 1996 and was one of the first open websites offering a full booking and reservation service by 1998.

Since then renting a home direct from the owner has become a way of life for millions of people. Hundreds of thousands of people have bought overseas property as an investment or as a business and are offering rental accommodation. Television programmes like "A Place in The Sun" have dangled dreams which many have followed.

The result has been a massive growth in supply for basically the same demand.

When we started renting our apartments in Nizas in 1997 we were the only house in the village offering accommodation. Now there are over 25 properties available. Property prices have increased by over ten times in as many years, but rental income has not increased and in many cases has dropped over the same period. At the beginning we thought we were doing badly by only getting 42 weeks a year booked. Getting 16 weeks now is difficult.

To get clients you have to be competitive and aggressively market your property. Here are some tips which I know from experience are vital for success.

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1. Really enjoy contacting the people who rent your home. If you live nearby, make a point of sharing a meal or a drink with them. If you are miles away, keep in touch by phone, let them know you are genuinely concerned for their comfort and happiness. Make sure your local agent keeps in touch and solves any small problems immediately. This feeling has to be genuine, I was always taught to smile when I asked for any payment. You will be surprised how many renters will recommend you to their friends if they had a happy experience with you. Recommendations and return visits should be the single biggest source of your income and should be more than half your basic business.

2. Go the extra mile - give fluffy towels, good quality soap, leave a good bottle of wine on the table, fresh fruit, flowers, leave good books and DVDs, give free WiFi and telephone services, new mattresses every two years, find local services, the best car hire rates, offer airport limo services, get local restaurants to give a free drink or a voucher. Get the price right and don't add these as "compulsory extras".

3. Make absolutely sure everything is spotlessly clean and tidy. Nothing is more unpleasant than arriving tired and irritable from a 7 hour flight to a scruffy or dirty house. Make sure the home is welcoming, air conditioning (or heating) is on and there is plenty of hot water. Once a tenant finds mouldy soap in the washing machine, a blocked filter in the dishwasher or a greasy patch on top of the kitchen cupboards, they will then look in a lot more places and feel unhappy.

4. Make sure there is plenty of hot water. French plumbers calculate 40 liters per person per day for hot water - I recommend 200 liters per person per day. I try to make sure there are plenty of WCs and bathrooms - if possible more WCs than there are bedrooms and at least the same number of bath or shower facilities as there are bedrooms. Also French systems are usually electric using low cost night heating, so after a shower in the morning, and one when they come back from the beach, there is no hot water in the evening. Set the timers so there is always plenty of hot water.

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5. Towels and linen, make sure this is the best quality and that there is plenty of it. Do not charge for any extras, it is one of the meanest things to charge 1,500 euro a week for a small villa and then an extra 30 euro for towels. The same goes for cleaning, you would not expect to pay extra in a hotel for sheets and maid service, so why should a guest pay for this in your home ?

6. Charge the right price for the property. There is no rule to this, look ruthlessly at the quality of the service and accommodation you are offering and then see what is being asked locally. Then charge the same or slightly more (with no extras). This means you have to be competitive with the service you are giving, not selling down to a price. It also means you have to market your home better to get more bookings than your competitors, but if you get the price right you can afford to invest properly in advertising.

7. Advertise - you should expect to be investing about 20% of your expected revenue in marketing so look at good visible websites. Newspaper and magazine advertising is now giving a very poor return. Catalogue companies are dropping private villa rentals and they never have paid good rates. The Internet is the principal way now to get bookings, study it and use it. Selecting good advertising sites on the Interent is diffficult, when I started I could count the rental sites in the dozens, now there are thiousands of sites offering advertising from free to over 500 euro a year for a listing.

Due to the complexity and wide range of offers, I am working on a evaluation and multiple listing websitre which will enable you to find the best advertising deals and to get discounts from many of ther sites - so make sure you are subscribed to my newsfeeds and newsletters to learn more.

8. When you advertise get the best photos you can - pay a professional and put a clear portfolio of photos on the websites. The single most important thing you can do is to have good photos, lots of them. If possible get an independent designer to look at what you are offering, not a relative or friend, but pay a professional. The way you present your property is vital to your success - then take their advice.

9. Write a clear description of your property, but more important, tell prospective renters why they should rent from you, what are the benefits of your home over the million others online, tell them about yourself, how happy you are in the home - with examples of other guests from your guest book (you are keeping a guest book aren't you?).

10. To every enquiry react immediately - if possible within 10 minutes. You can get email and email/sms direct to most mobile phones (you are running a business, buy a Blackberry) and this is definitely the way to do it. Reply in detail and then follow up with a phone call. I have researched the reaction times and it shows that for every four hour delay the probability of a booking seems inversely proportional to the square of the time. Leave it a day to reply and you are over 50 times less likely to get a booking than if you replied immediately.

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These are a few and in my opinion, crucially important points to follow to get bookings. What I cannot do is to put your property in the "right" place. The old maxim that "There are three important things to be successful in any property business, the first is location - - - and so are the other two", is very very true.

Many people have contacted me telling me how cheap property is in Limosin or Centre in France compared to Provence or Languedoc now. There is a good reason for this, people do not go there as much. A villa with a pool in Antibes overlooking the Mediterranean is from eight to thirty times easier to rent than a similar villa in Charente Maritime. It will cost three to four times as much to buy, but rent for two to three times the price for twice as long and much easier - do the maths.

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Tony Tidswell lives in the South of France and writes about the property and travel business. He has created a number of very successful websites for real-estate and vacation rentals as well as a number of other Internet businesses.

These include work for established British estate agents on the Cote D'Azur Coast and Country and his new online business helping people find and create Fractional ownership opportunities Harmony Ownership

Write to him through his personal website, named after a village near the Mediterranean Nizas.com which has been the source of inspiration for people coming to the south of France since 1997.

My Personal top 10 places to rent property in France

The seventy million visitors to France every year have a choice of over 2 million private homes and villas where they can stay. In addition there are thousands of hotels, or apart-hotels, plus campsites and mobile homes.

To choose ten popular areas is a challenge, I have spent 18 years traveling around France looking for the "perfect" place, so I hope this will give you some ideas.

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1. Nizas, Herault (34), Languedoc

I started a property rentals website ten years ago simply to advertise our own "perfect place" in the little village of Nizas http://nizas.com/nizas.html , although we sold the property after 10 happy years, you can still rent the apartments from the new owners.

Before moving to Nizas we lived just outside Lyon, in the Beaujolais. While there I spent the first 4 years exploring many of the 95 departments in France, often travelling by a SNCF rail pass, or plodding around in an ancient VW camper-van. France is a big country, but the variety of climates, geology and cultures make it a vast network of different "countries" to explore. Even the difference from one village to the next can be a big surprise. I still find some dialect words unique to a community of only a few hundred people, a village 2 km away has a different word for the same thing.

Finally, we zeroed in on Nizas as the perfect (for us) village in the perfect department (Herault 34) in the perfect region (Languedoc). The fact we could then buy a rambling 10th century ruin for the price of a new family car was also a deciding factor.

So, unashamedly I choose Nizas as my first destination.

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2. Paris, Paris (75), Ile de France

By Paris I am really talking about the area inside the peripherique. This torque of concrete encircles Paris and the bit inside is divided into 20 "arrondissments" - the department is Number 75, outside is the banlieu (suburbs) which have department numbers 91 to 95 this is where the riots of 2005 flared up in soulless housing projects. However inside the peripherique ring-road not all arrondissments are equal. My personal favorite for a visit is St Germain in the 6th - preferably near or overlooking the Jardins de Luxembourg. But if I am staying longer (more than a month) I prefer the 17th, up from Etoile (the Arc de Triomphe). All the other stuff is best suited for a day visit. A car is a liability in Paris, walk everywhere if you can, it is les than three hours to walk from one side of the city to the other.

Paris is becoming more genteel. In 2001 I lived for 6 months in the center of the left bank directly over a sex club, I went back last week and it is now a posh tea room

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3. Les Alberes, Pyrenees Orientale (66), Roussillon

Les Alberes are the mountains which are older than the Pyrenees and are the end bit which drops into the Mediterranean. The last villages in France nestle in the foothills, which are being punctured at the moment by a tunnel for the TGV from Nimes to Barcelona - sounds wonderful that a train can soon go from Paris to Barcelona in about 4 hours.

The region is actually Languedoc-Roussillon, or at least it was, but there is a big difference from the slightly sleepy Frenchness of Languedoc and the Catalan Spanish flavour of Roussillon, so I keep them separate.

When we moved from Lyon we first bought an old whip factory (I kid you not, whips for coach drivers are still made there from oiled and twisted twigs from local trees) in the village of Sorede (for the price of a secondhand family car) I worked for 4 years doing up our dream home, but we did not like the petty mentality of the local people, mostly Franco refugees, so we just rent this out now

But for a visitor the area is stunning, pop over the border for cheap booze and fags and a good Spanish meal, and back for pastis and a French supper. From Ceret to Colluire, Argeles and Perpignan all the towns and villages have interest and character.

Look for rentals in the villages between Ceret and Argeles, or along the coast around Canet

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4. Nice, Alpes Maritimes (06), PACA

Right along to other end of the Mediterranean coast to Nice, about seven hours drive from Spain (with good traffic). I lived in Nice for 6 months working on a software project and had an apartment by the old harbour. Sitting in front of a computer all day I just get fatter and fatter but I explored Nice on foot and loved a long walk along the Promenade des Anglais every day. It was difficult to lose weight though as I would walk back through the old town, passing hundreds of different cafes, bars and restaurants (I always failed to pass them all)

Nice was part of Italy and the Italian influence is still very strong. By train you an quickly get to Antibes, Juan le Pins, Cannes, Menton, Grasse and many coastal resorts. Monaco is the next stop but, apart from the library, there is nothing there apart from sadness and paranoia.

There are many downtown rentals in private apartments, try to find an apartment not overlooking a main street but better into the courtyard, much quieter. This rule applies to most city rentals unless it is a very quiet street.

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5. Marseilles, Bouche de Rhone (13) PACA

I love fish-stew, cous-cous and all types of wet food, so living in Marseilles is a real treat - sitting around the old port you can get a feel for Greek, Phocian and Roman shipping arriving. Today the rail station of St Charles is a great place to arrive and to then walk through the Arab quarter to the port is like visiting North Africa.

Like in Paris, the suburbs are depressing, but top marks to Marseilles for their Holocaust museum.

There are some downtown rentals, but you may need to look slightly outside Marseilles, Aix en Provence is only 20 minutes by train.

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6. Montalbert, Haute Savoie (73), Rhone Alpes

Perched above the village of Longefoy, nestled around its baroque chapel, Montalbert is a place to go with all the family.

Imagine skiing through the forests between larch and pine trees or perhaps elsewhere in the Grande Plagne domain, with Paradiski awaiting as the ideal adventure!

The idea of falling off wet hills is not something I ever wish to do - but this very special village, with a view of Mont Blanc from a balcony, is just on the tree line and is one of the best places to visit in the summer. The ski piste are super walks or perfect for mountain bikes

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7. Bergerac, Dordogne (24) Aquitaine

"The Dordogne" has been a bastion of Britishness for over 800 years. Interestingly I have swum more in the rivers and lakes in this region than I have been interested in swimming in the Mediterranean. There is something clean and refreshing about the greenery and coolness compared to the grit sand and cigarette ends of the beaches. Most villages will cater for foodies and the scenery is great.

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8. Biarritz, Pyrenees Occidentale (65), Aquitaine

The Atlantic side of the Pyrenees, close enough to and far enough from Bordeaux or Lourdes. I have happy memories of Biarritz, Altlantic rollers coming in through the foggy weather, decaying decadence and good food. To the North is Landes, afforested sand dunes and reclaimed spooky wilderness. To the south, the Basque country of Spain.

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9. Brittany

The Departments of this region, Finistere (56) Morbihan (22) Cots d'Amor (29) are very popular for tourism - I have not been there and have never felt the need to go, but it would be unfair not to list this as a recommended area to rent property as it is so much loved by people who go regularly. The combination of fresh Atlantic beaches and Celtic mythology could be irresistible, perhaps I should make a visit.

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10. Corsica

From a place I have not been to and doubt I ever will, to a place I am very keen to visit. We have friends who lived there and hope soon to be able to discover some of the wonderful beaches and cool mountain villages

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This is just my personal sample of ten places worth staying at and renting a property from a few days to a lifetime. France is a big country with hundreds of interesting and delightful corners. It really does have something for everyone, from the hedonistic nudist beaches at Cap D'Agde, to spiritual tourism at Lourdes, from the Gypsy pilgrimage at Saintes Maries de la Mer in May to reenactments of burning Cathar heretics at Carcassonne.

There are hundreds of places I have left out of this short list which I like, Grenoble, Foix, Albi, Limoges, La Rochelle, this should be called the top ten thousand places to rent property in France.

Mail me if you have any questions Tony@Nizas.com

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Tony Tidswell lives in the South of France and writes about the property and travel business. He has created a number of very successful websites for real-estate and vacation rentals as well as a number of other Internet businesses.

These include work for the well established British estate agents on the Cote D'Azur Coast and Country and his new online business helping people find and create Fractional ownership opportunities Harmony Ownership

Write to him through his personal website, named after a village near the Mediterranean Nizas.com which has been the source of inspiration for people coming to the south of France since 1997.

Property Prices in France

What can I buy for xxxxx (enter any amount here, usually a lowish sum)?

How much should I pay?

What is this property worth?

How much can I sell this property for?

These are some of the questions I get every day relating to French real-estate - for the first two questions my answers are usually something like "not a lot" and "how much have you got".

However the answer to "what's it worth" and "what can I get for it" is really very simple, it applies to anything being bought or sold - the property is worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it. Not a penny more nor a penny less. You can ask what price you like, but if you don't get any offers then the "price label" is worthless.

You can only sell something for what someone offers and you accept (and ends up in your bank account).

The magic is in finding out what that someone is prepared to pay and how to let them know what you have to sell in the first place.

For me the most important word in any transaction is "value" - the value of something very often cannot be calculated - how much is a glass of water worth to a person dying of thirst? The answer of course is that it is priceless, but how much would you sell it to them for if you were there and could exploit the situation? I like to think that I would give it to them for nothing.

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Establishing the value of a property.

So, how can I put a value on my property for sale or what value can I establish for a property I have for sale?

The first source of information should be the Notaires own official websites -

One of these sites which make use of the actual prices properties have sold for recently is...
Immoprix or perhaps better, Their IP address this is the same site but not in frames - either way it is one of the worst sites in the world, slow, clunky and ugly - be very careful using this site as the atrocious way it is made can capture you and make it difficult to get back to where you were - I advise you to open this useful, but ghastly, website in a new window and close it when you are finished looking.

It does have many statistics and indication of price changes, rates of average price increase since 2000 and average prices for most of France

To get away from the widely duplicated and often confusing multiple priced private estate agency sites, in France you do have another choice...
Immobilier Notaires
The Notaire will have many properties for sale which are not ever offered by estate-agents.

There are many reasons for this, traditionally French people have a mistrust of estate-agents and very often will do anything they can to avoid selling through them.

As a Notaire has to be used in any sale, an owner frequently will advise their local Notaires office of property for sale. The society of Notaires has created a database of many of these properties offered for sale and you can access them through their own website.

Sometimes the prices asked represent a real bargain and they may indicate a more accurate barometer of current values.

Just about everything you need to know about buying or selling a property in France is already written - in English - some is on the official Notaires website although this is still under construction and their cost and fee calculators are not working at the date of writing this note.

As you have no choice and must use a Notaire for buying or selling property it should be relevant and accurate - but, it isn't, recent changes in tax and inheritance laws have not been updated in some of the information, so check with me before taking their advice as gospel
Real Estate for Sale

For a working calculator for the charges you can use
Calculator for Notaires Charges

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Calculating for Investment

The simplest way of working out the value of a property for investment is to use specialist software designed to take into account the variables and come up with a value.
This one seems to be effective and is not too expensive
real estate offer generator

If you know of others please let me know and also post it on the forums of our new site at Harmony Ownership

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Getting information about a town or village.

The key to establishing a price for real-estate is information. Internet makes this possible, but although somewhere in the trillions of pages, the nut of knowledge is waiting for you - finding it can be difficult.

One tool I use is information from this site
http://www.linternaute.com/ville

This gives me all sorts of demographic data about even very small villages - use this with Google maps http://maps.google.com/ and even with no local knowledge, you can build up a "picture" of the area - how far to the bakers shop, schooling, is the population aging, what are the property values etc.

Combine this with average property prices over the recent weeks from
http://www.pap.fr

and you can start to eliminate, or short-list, properties.

Again, please let me know of any other websites or tools to help and post this for others on the forums here.

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The bottom line - always ask yourself what is the property worth to you - the value to you is not just the price you pay, nor the increase (or decrease) in price after you have bought it - but simply the increase in the quality of your life.

If you are affected by the opinions of others, if you wince at the sharp intake of breath when you tell your friends how much you paid, or even that you are thinking of buying a house in France - then this will affect your judgement, but is a criteria for you personally to determine the value that you place on the property.

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Tony Tidswell lives in the South of France and writes about the property and travel business. He has created a number of very successful websites for real-estate and vacation rentals as well as a number of other Internet businesses.

These include work for the well established British estate agents on the Cote D'Azur Coast and Country and his new online business helping people find and create Fractional ownership opportunities Harmony Ownership

Write to him through his personal website, named after a village near the Mediterranean Nizas.com which has been the source of inspiration for people coming to the south of France since 1997.

What to Look for When Buying a Property in France

Or buying a house anywhere - or I suppose buying anything really - this is the ultimate "ball of string" question.

From the correspondence I receive, the description of the house most desired in France seems to be a traditional stone farmhouse or cottage, on the outskirts of a classic and charming village, with a little land, perhaps enough for a horse and with a view across the adjacent vineyards and hills, ideally with the sea or a lake in the distance, or perhaps with a fishing lake or river at the bottom of the garden.

Your personal choices and reasons for any purchase are unique to you. I am often asked why we moved to France with our very young family 17 years ago. My answer depends on who is asking.

If they are French friends I talk about the community spirit, the republican (or democratic depending on their views) values, the superb education or the wonderful food.

If they are other Brits who have moved or are moving here I talk about the superb health services, the low cost of superb wine, the sunshine, the crazy French or the charm of renovating crumbling stone ruins that once could be picked up for the price of a cheap car.

My real reasons for leaving the UK and coming here in the early 1990's ? - you will have to meet me in a local cafe and chat over a long lunch to discover the answer.

Today the reason is that I have just walked 146 meters up the road to an excellent boulangerie and come home for fresh coffee with warm bread and croissants tucked under my arm, they were still warm from the oven when I put them on our table.

I know it is 146 meters as our house number is number 146, but this does not mean there are 145 other houses before the beginning of the road which starts by the church in the center of the village, it means that our house, which happens to be the seventh house, is exactly 146 meters from the church (the boulangerie and the cafe). The house next door to us is number 140 and the one before that is number 128.

This is a perfect example of French logic and so very sensible if you are walking or delivering the post. But is is very confusing for giving instructions to friends coming here by car.

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My advice about choosing a property in France is first to go to as many cafes in as many villages or towns you possible can in the area you are interested in. Sit quietly and enjoy a few glasses with a local lunch or supper. Listen to the people in the bar, do the people there seem friendly, do they ask you if they can help, ask you if you are on holiday or looking for a property? With so many ex-pats now living abroad, the odds are that a fair proportion will be speaking English.

The important point I am trying to make is that the "soul" of a community in France tends to focus around the local cafe. Every community is different and two villages only a couple of kilometers apart can have "personalities" as different as Venus or Mars. It is not the houses that make up a village, it is the people.

So instead of going to estate-agents and looking at lists of properties, first find the corner of France (or wherever) that you feel at home in and that suits you, and then look for the home.

Many other factors will affect your choice, schooling, health care, leisure preferences, climate etc. My advice is don't get too influenced by views and scenery from the terrace, you can't see it at night and a wonderful view can only get spoilt. You never own a view anyway and the best ones are from other peoples homes or from the free and open countryside when you can benefit from a fresh perception and are not irritated by a tree in the way, sewage farm just down the road or a huge electricity pylon which too frequently happens. Familiarity breeds contempt.

Me, I'm sticking to the smell of fresh bread and for seeing views can walk, with the dogs, another 146 meters the other way, out of our village to be in fields with views of mountains.

Once you have found the community you wish to live in, then start looking for properties which meet your needs and wishes.

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Local estate agents and the millions of Internet sites with have listings of properties - the French way of listing properties, unlike the centralised services in the USA and UK (it is beginning to change) means you will find the same property described in many diferent places at differing prices.

Due to the huge competition between agents, the listings you find very rarely tells you where the property is or shows you enough detial to see what the front of the property looks like. This secrecy is to stop you, or other agents, finding the property and going directly to the owners.

However, only about half the properties for sale in France are listed or sold through estate agents. The rest are sold direct by the owner person to person (particulier a particulier). Many Internet sites cater for this, but the biggest source could be the lists held by the Notaires.

Every property in France has to be sold through a Notaire and their fees and taxes collected are unavoidable and not negotiable, Owners often give the Notaire instructions to sell and a lot of estate management and other legal sales are only dealt with by Notaires.

Visiting local Notaires and looking at their websites should be an important part of your research - I have written some more information about this in an article - PropertyPricesInFrance -

Once you have chosen your community and found your house, you can decide if this home is right for you - only you can decide this, it is only worth what its value is to you, nobody else.

By law the seller now has to supply current expert certification for things like lead, asbestos, termites (if in a designated area) and insulation efficiency. The seller is also legally obliged to make you aware of any defects or problems they should know about (such as drainage or flood zoning etc) you have a legal cooling off period after signing a contract to buy (compromis). But structural surveys are not usually required and there can be legal issues over rights of way or even ownership which Notaires are supposed to sort out, but in our experience can miss.

Things like wealth tax, inheritance laws, marriage contracts and other differences in the French system should be carefully gone into. These points often make the relatively small investment independent advice a very good idea.

Having finished my warm bread and fresh coffee, I am now going to take the dogs 146 meters down the road into the countryside for a walk along the river in the bright January sunshine before lunch (pot au feu).

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Tony Tidswell lives in the South of France and writes about the property and travel business. He has created a number of very successful websites for real-estate and vacation rentals as well a a number of other Internet businesses.

These include work for the well established British estate agents on the Cote D'Azur Coast and Country and his new online business helping people find and create Fractional ownership opportunities Harmony Ownership.

Write to him through his personal website, named after a village near the Mediterranean Nizas.com has been the source of inspiration for people coming to the south of France since 1997.