How We Purchased a Home in Biarritz as Expats

As you might come to find in any beach community, rent is not cheap.  The majority of the places we would find to rent cost more than a mortgage and there were always so many fees and conditions with each rental agency (immobilier). We started researching the prices in the area and what it would take to buy a home.  We knew we wanted to live in the center of town (walking distance to the beach, grocery, doctors, etc) so we kept our eyes out for a house we could afford and that had potential to fix up and perhaps sell at a later time.

Now, we had lived in every type of apartment or townhome in France from 26m2 to 100m2 and we felt like if we could just find a clean and modern 1 bedroom place, it would be fine. However, we have family who love to visit us and we knew we would need a guest room to accommodate them. So, two bedrooms and two bathrooms was mainly our only requirement.

Luckily, we had a French friend whom we had rented from when we first came to Biarritz and she was very knowledgable in the local real estate. I had lunch with her to pick her brain about what we should be looking for and what she thought about our goal.  She supported us completely and me what to look out for----something that we could afford monthly payments on, that was perhaps a fixer upper, a townhome (maison de ville/ maison mitoyenne) and that was priced below or around 4,000 euros/m2.  She even was able to recommend her notaire and artisans (electrician, plumber, carpenter, etc). Little did I know, we had stumbled upon this exact thing and we didn't even know it.  I sent her the link to the real estate listing as soon as she got home and she told us to make an appointment to go see it no later than tomorrow. Real estate moves FAST in Biarritz.

So we did exactly as she said, as sick as we were with colds. We ended up making a full price offer based on the fact that there was already an offer on the house. In France, if you make an offer for less than full price, the competing buyer then has the choice to make a higher offer than you or pay the full amount which would seal the deal.  We decided to not gamble over 15,000 euros and pay the full asking price knowing that good deals are hard to find and the eventual appreciation of the renovated home would be worth the full price offer. Unlike the US and other countries, it can take up to 3 months (and sometimes longer) to close on the home. We were excited and hopeful.

After a few days, we were told our offer had been accepted.  We then had to put money in escrow as a deposit in case we backed out at any point.  We went to our bank and requested a mortgage (HSBC).  And so began the three and a half month rollercoaster of obtaining credit.  Apparently, we just happened to be purchasing a home at the height of purchasing activity in Biarritz. There were so many loans being taken out that the bank was short staffed and made some errors that cost us precious time and money (as we were renting an airbnb studio until we could close on the home). There was also a ton of paperwork that needed to be provided; much of what was required from the prefecture, plus snapshots of our American bank accounts, copies of our pay stubs for the last 3 months, etc.  We managed to hurry up and gather all of these things within a day or two, but unfortunately the bank wasn't in too much of a rush.

In short, the bank made errors on our 'demande de credit' but didn't notify us and sent us these papers again after telling us the next papers to arrive in the post would be the actual offer. So, we got to sign the demand again and as we thought it was the 'offer' waited for 11 days before signing and sending to them. In between all this lack communication and confusion, we would often have to prompt the bank into taking the next step and this is how we discovered the error. It wasn't until we scheduled the notaire appointment and the bank called to tell us they had cancelled it, did we find out we would have to not only wait for them to send the actual offer, but wait a painstaking 11 more days after to send it to Paris before going to the notaire.

So, the expected move in date of November 18 turned into December 11th. We attended the notaire appointment with our immobilier (real estate agent) and after two hours, we had our papers and keys! Finally, we were done with the long process and had our Biarritz home. Now began the start of a new process….renovation.