SUGGESTIONS FOR A NEWBIE

Rehabbing, Fix and Flip, Rental Properties
1

Hello all, I’m freshly arrived on the real estate scene. Please forgive me in advance if my first questions may be too general? I’m hoping to get clarity soon.

I bought a house which became a country house 5 years ago and just sold it and got the money from it yesterday. I bought on 100% credit (but in France we need to pay 7.5% taxes for purchasing something, which i did have). The prices have fortunately doubled where i bought and now i have 100,000 euros. I have been living in France for 18 years and feel more knowledgable about the market here. Last spring I spent a lot of time looking at investment places. I live in Paris and the best (or least bad) ready to rent investments are the tinyist of condos a “chambre de bonne”, one of which I nearly bought. The real estate market here is this: big bubble in 92 followed by a big crash and stable quite low(relative to demand and rent) prices for 7 years, then doubling of prices in many places in the country between 99 and 2006. recently stabilization and slight decline of prices (1-3% in last year).

I would like to invest the money so as to have a slight income to compliment my revenue, but am more concerned about having retirement revenue as i have none to speak of, to date. I’ve worked hard, but not with an eye towards long term savings until recently, just making sure i had enough to get by from year to year and working in more humanistic fields which sometimes make it difficult to save, particularly in a big city. i have no children, so not too much expenses, but live in a big city. i’m not a spendthrift, but would need at least, say 1500 euros a month to live as i am now, without too much stress (i currently rent an decent size, nicely situated apartment for 612 euros a month (heat and hot water included) a deal, whereas it would sell for around 260,000 euros if i bought it, so i’m not rushed to move immediately, but i’d like to live in the place i own eventually. i think it’s wiser to invest in rental-income place first. on my own to make choices, so not so easy. i’m 44. it seems like buying small fixer-uppers condos for rental-income is best, leveraging and all that. scary though . i’m not used to investing. sorry if there is some excessive info above. i’ll be shorter next time. thanks! :biggrin

2

Your chances of finding anyone on this discussion board who has thorough knowledge of the Paris real estate market are on the smaller side.

There is a forum for international real estate investors where I see a lot of Englishmen discussing investing in France. If you google for internation real estate forums, you should be able to find it.

That would be a more likely place to find people who know about investing in Paris.

3

Hello,
I’m not really looking for someone who knows about paris, just feasability in real estate investment in general. I have some knowledge about rents, laws, taxes, ect, in paris and in the southwest of france, so am not looking for that, but more financial feasability: a good way to approach with 100,000 euros–how to have small income plus increasing real estate value.

information tends to circulate much less here on this side of the sea.

4

Hi FRENCHAMERICAN,

One of things I must say is that there is no better return on your investment then Real Estate specially if preparing for retirement.

I agree with you that one of the best areas to invest is in fixer uppers but you have to make sure you run all your numbers on your fees and expenses so you can have a positive cash flow at the end. I don’t know what the market in France is like but real estate is real estate anywhere you go just the laws are slightly different.

Another area that we are benefiting from here is Foreclosures. If you have an acquaintance that is a Real Estate agent that would work with you in letting you know where these properties are it would make your job much easier. If not call a few Real Estate agents and see if they would give you this information. They may become your best friends in the business.

Anything is possible ! Just make sure you due you homework on each property thoroughly.

:beer