Personal Update: Signing & Searching for a New Home

It has been 3 weeks since our last blog post and we have still not been able to sign our compromis de vente. For the past few weeks, Alex has been trying to nail down a date with the notaries, ours here in Biarritz and our buyers’ notary in Toulouse, and we finally have a date. It seems as though there was some squabbling between the two notaries and with the school vacations, things just got pushed back more and more. Finally, we are scheduled to sign tomorrow and our buyers have signed an “acte de procurement” meaning they have given permission to their notary to sign for them. After tomorrow, our buyers will have 10 final days to back out of the sale and we will have around 2-3 months before the “acte de vente,” or the final signing for the sale of the house.

In a way, we have been glad that there have been delays in the signing of the compromis, as this allows us more time to look for a new house. However, selling right at the start of Summer in Basque Country comes with some definite fears of not having a place to rent as the rental market skyrockets through September. So, this got us looking at rental properties alongside houses for sale.

Rental Properties

Over the past few weeks we have looked for rental properties, it became clear to us that everything available in the time we would potentially need to rent was going to come with a hefty price. We found a decent place with a tiny garage in the Saint-Charles neighborhood of Biarritz to the tune of 1,900 euros per month but the owner was looking to rent it as soon as March and the agency already had multiple visits lined up to see it.

Then there was an opportunity for a rental in Arcangues for 1,500 euros/month (the whole place was clean and brand new) but it was right on the road hard to imagine paying that amount outside of Biarritz. Lastly, I found an apartment that had been completely renovated, steps to the Grande Plage, for 1,300 euros/month. It looks like they are looking to rent the place as soon as possible, so it doesn’t look to be a viable solution for us if we are out at the start of June. Sigh.

Houses for Sale

Let me preface this section by saying we are machines when it comes to looking for our new nest. With Alex being a real estate agent, it is great to have the inside scoop on houses coming onto the market. We are also checking the big main websites like Logic-Immo, Seloger, BienIci and more. We are also keeping a close eye on Leboncoin and other sites that are mainly houses for sale by owner, or “particuliere.” So far, we have seen around 13 houses and have made offers on two of them.

The first house we made an offer on was a bit more towards the mountains but had the calm we were looking for. It came with a pretty large price tag, but given the amount of works needed, the lack of a permit for part of the home and a few other intricacies, we thought the owners would be realistic about negotiating. Unfortunately, they stuck to their lofty price and even their neighbor was surprised that they would not come down (yes, we make a habit of talking to the people we would be choosing to live around and this neighbor was particularly pleasant).

The next house we made an offer on was a long shot, but we thought we would try. This house had been on the market for 5 months with only 1 very low offer a few months back and the owners were in the process of building a new home. We loved everything about the home, the small salt water pool and the garage would have been amazing for Alex’s motocross works. We made an offer a bit more than the last one and the owners counter offered a bit higher than we could go. We countered again with the most we could go and not be house broke and the owners told us they would get back to us after the weekend visits on their house. We were hopeful.

After a weekend flurry of vacationers from the big cities with no other offers in hand, the owners decided to make a meeting with us to sit down and discuss our offer and potentially sign. We were so excited that this could actually be happening! Alas, the day before we were supposed to sit down together, the owners received not one, but two offers 20-30k higher than ours. We were gutted.

The Next 3 Months

Over the next three months, we will continue to look for our new home and will continue to fill you in on the journey. One thing is for sure though, Basque Country is getting super popular. The good houses are selling almost instantly and the not so good ones are selling once they get to a seductive price point. I have no clue what is in store for us or where we will end up landing, but we are super grateful for our supportive friends and families. Yesterday we were driving through some backroads and feeling a bit fearful about where we would go in three months if we hadn’t found a house and one of our friends randomly called us and let us know we could stay at his place as he doesn’t want to rent this year because of COVID. There may be a lot of uncertainty and stress in this process, but the care and thoughtfulness of our circle definitely cushions the blows.

More updates to come as they happen : ).