Stumble It!
Gone Fishing
Standing on an embankment, dangling a hook in the still waters of a lake in the peaceful countryside of South West France. An angler’s dream? Or just a pipedream?
The Poitou-Charente and Limousin regions of France are noted for their abundance of lakes of all shapes and sizes and many settlers in the region are tempted by the excitement of owning their own lake – either for leisure or for starting up their own fishing business.
Owning your own lake can be a passport to anglers’ heaven or, for the unprepared, a taste of hell on earth.
The lake pictured above is a 6000m² fishing lake, stocked with specimen carp and sturgeon. It is offered by LaBoucherie Immobilier at 54,500€, including agency fees. Click here for more detail
If you are intending to set up your lake as a business - have you familiarised yourself with setting up a business in France? Do you (or have you) run a business in the UK? Here in France it is no easier. There are formalities to complete – sole trader? Limited company? And there are (of course) taxes to pay. Even if most of your customers are British – and even if they pay you in sterling – your business is still in France and as such liable to French taxes, which can seem quite punitive at first.
If you are tempted to set up “on the black” without declaring your “leisure lake” as a business – my advice is an emphatic “don’t!” You run the risk of a heavy fine and even imprisonment – and your ignorance of the law or failure to speak the language will not be counted as any sort of excuse by the police or gendarmerie once they get wind of your illegal activity.
Find yourself a good accountant – and unless you speak good French, make sure that your accountant speaks good English. He or she will prove invaluable in helping you through the maze of bureaucracy and ensuring that you start off on the right footing. Try to find someone who has already set up their business in France and ask lots of questions. In short – as the boy scouts say – “Be Prepared!”
If your fishing lake is intended purely for private use by you and your friends and family, you do not have any of the worries associated with setting up a business. You must, however, conform with the rules and regulations concerning lakes. Do some research BEFORE you buy your lake. Don’t just throw caution to the wind and hope that everything will be fine. After all, you want your lake for relaxation, so make sure that you CAN relax without some rule or regulation taking you by surprise.
Is the lake a ‘closed’ lake? If it has a river or stream running in or out of it, it is NOT closed, and will therefore likely be subject to the departmental laws for stocking, fishing, licensing etc. ENSURE THAT YOUR LAKE IS A CLOSED, SPRING-FED LAKE. Take the advice of the local Notaire (French property solicitor) who will have access to all the necessary legal papers concerning the land and lake. Do not blindly accept the word of a private seller or estate agent who will probably not have the necessary knowledge and experience.
Colin Morley (editor)
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Buying and Exchanging Euros
This article was first published at Helium.com ©Colin Morley 2008
Trading in foreign currency is not as complex a business as you may imagine. In simple terms it is no different from trading in baked beans or cornflakes. When you buy one or two packets of cornflakes or tins of baked beans from your local store, you are buying the amount that you need at a price which gives the store owner a profit - his reward for buying several boxes of cornflakes and baked beans in order to provide you with what you need for your family. Think of a foreign currency as a tin of baked beans. Supposing you are planning on visiting France, Germany or Holland where the currency is the Euro. You will need to buy (for example) five hundred Euros, and in order to do this you will visit a currency exchange outlet in order to buy your Euros at the price quoted for that day. The price you pay will be less than the currency trader paid because you are buying a few hundred Euros for your holiday, whereas he is buying several thousands of Euros in order to stock his shop with Euros to sell you. Not really so different from baked beans. Ah - I hear you say - but the price of baked beans doesn't change every day! Well that is true. Trading in currencies depends on various economic and political circumstances and what is going on between the big players - the banks and financial institutions of the world. Bad news on the stock market(s) or an unstable political situation can cause a currency to fall in value as compared with other currencies. That is because the banks invest money on a daily basis in foreign currency conversion based on their take on what is likely to make them the most profit. A bit like playing red or black on a roulette wheel, but with perhaps just a little more finesse and expertise and a little less chance! Foreign currency exchange rates will dictate how many holiday Euros you will get for your dollar, pound, yen etc. and foreign currency exchange rates will also dictate how much your foreign currency trader pays. Look up the exchange rates for any foreign currency and you will notice that there are several rates quoted. The rate you will get is the tourist rate. The rate your currency trader gets will be much better, because of the quantity he is buying and the comparative risk he is taking. Will all foreign currency traders offer you the same foreign currency exchange rates? Well no. As with baked beans, shop around before you commit yourself to buying from a particular currency trader. Some may charge you a percentage commission on your purchase. Some will not, but may not offer you such a competitive exchange rate. Take your calculator, ask whether the amount you pay will depend on how much currency you buy. Sometimes the rate will change if you are buying a larger amount of foreign currency. Foreign currency conversion can be done by you at home on the internet. Choose a couple of currency sites and compare rates. Take an average. Be prepared so that you will recognise a good deal A huge barn with fishing pond in a beautiful location for renovation - 76300€ on the High Street or with your bank. Take the very best deal you can find - and bear one more thing in mind. Sometimes it will pay you not to exchange your currency before you travel abroad, but simply to take your international bank card with you and make use of ATMs (cash machines) in the country you are visiting. All major cities in Europe and North America are well-equipped with such facilities, and in Europe many do not make a charge for cash withdrawals. Ask your bank what they will charge you, and see if they have a special deal available. For example in the United Kingdom, First Direct bank will not charge you for withdrawals anywhere in the world if you sign up to their 'First Directory'. You pay just a monthly flat charge. If you are a frequent traveller, this could save you a great deal of money in a year. Whether you are travelling on business or for pleasure, enjoy your travel, take the best deals going, and don't be talked into accepting the first deal you are offered. You wouldn't pay over the top for your baked beans or cornflakes, so why make any exception for your foreign currency?
Buy one get one free! Get two houses for just 69,200€
A Day in The Life
Welcome to my day job - as a property hunter in rural South-West France. What does that mean? Am I an estate agent? No. In France an estate agent has to take legal qualifications and is strictly registered by the state. By contrast I am what is known as an 'agent commercial' working for an estate agency.
My job is to locate houses for sale, negotiate a selling price with the owners and then publicise their properties via the internet, word of mouth, networking - you name it. During this process I wear the following (non exclusive) range of hats: cold-calling salesman; photographer; interpreter; marriage guidance counsellor (sadly some people sell houses due to a divorce or separation);confidant....
Publicising houses for sale takes another set of skills. The description has to be eye-catching without taking poetic license to an extreme where a property is misrepresented. I once described a burnt out ruin as a 'Phoenix to rise from the ashes' - you can't disguise a ruin as anything other than a ruin - the camera does not allow such deception - but you can try to be creative (if somewhat corny) with language.
Photographic ability is an absolute must. I enjoy photography and always have done. But in order to present a property in a good light I generally fire off between 50 and 75 frames in order to choose a maximum of about ten to show on a website. Then you have to keep pace with all the various property sites and ensure you have cross-referenced, double-checked and re-read instructions, publication policies etc. before hitting the 'send' button. Click here to view detail of this property
I think my ulcer gets that little bit larger each time I publish a property on the web, hoping that I have got it right first time.Then there is the art of responding correctly to an enquiry about a property. Easy? Well sometimes, yes. If like me you like talking to people it's usually not a problem. You're hoping for what the business-speak books call a "win, win situation". You want to sell someone their dream home and (of course) you want to earn commission on the sale (the job is fun, but the rent still has to be paid!) The art of sales is not so much in the talking as in the listening. What is it that your potential customer wants? No good inviting them to view property which is nowhere near their expectations. 
Better to be thorough in the first place - and honest. Telling a customer that a total wreck "needs a little modernisation" is not only designed to lose that customer but to ensure that your name is mud throughout his or her circle of friends and acquaintances.
So you have persuaded your customer to visit some properties. How far are they travelling - and from where? If they have just got off a delayed two hour flight and you want to show them a property before they have had time to catch their breath or take a cup of coffee you are unlikely to impress.
This is where you become taxi driver and travel agent rolled into one. An offer of collection from the airport and help with finding suitable accommodation in the right area will not only put your client at ease....
Click here for details of this renovated village house at under 80,000€
.... It will ensure that your client is fully aware of the property you are showing him and not half asleep and anxious for dinner to arrive!
Questions about available properties in the Poitou-Charente and Limousin areas? - contact me
So you still want to be a real estate agent?