You know, the funny thing was that C & I didn't really set out to buy an apartment. Or at least not yet. The truth was, we were still leaning towards doing a viager. Actually buying an apartment just seemed so permanent, and who knew how long we'd stay in Paris?
But we still decided to get a feel for the market, so like we did with our current apartment, we sat down and made a list of our desired features and neighborhoods, and then I set up a few SeLoger alerts to start to familiar with prices.
We got two hits almost immediately - one for a viager, and one to buy. We first visited the viager apartment, and it had the requisite view of the Eiffel Tower, but only from the balcony. It was also missing the second bedroom we wanted, and it would need a ton of renovation were we to ever live in it. The price was right and we wouldn't need a mortgage, but it was a bit outside of our search area.
The apartment for sale hit all of our criteria - more than 60m2, two bedrooms, great view, balcony, parking spot, good transport connections, limited reno needed, non-Haussmanian building, and it met our mortgage criteria.
So we decided to go check out. We got lucky and were the first people to see it since the real estate agent was just coming back from her summer holiday. (Yes, that's how long ago this whole process started....). C wanted to make an offer immediately after seeing it, I was a bit more hesitant. After all, we weren't even really planning on buying an apartment, and certainly not in 2013!
But after thinking it over and realizing how rare it is to find a place to that checks all of the boxes (and I had all of the posts from "House Hunting in Paris" in mind), we crunched some numbers and decided to just go for it and put in an offer, which the seller accepted.
I'm mostly grateful that we have had so much luck both times around, especially given how much so many folks struggle to find a decent place to live in this city. Long-time readers may remember that we hadn't been planning on moving in together so soon either, but the perfect place came along right after I'd set up the search to get a feel for the market. And now the same thing happens for this place. Positive manifestation strikes again!
Labels: Buying in Paris, House Hunting
posted by Ksam @ 11:31 AM
9 Comments:
Nice one, Sam. Follow your intuition. Great view, and a parking spot - you can't go wrong!!
Why non-hausmian?
Good luck!
Megan - for the noise factor. Most Haussmanian buildings are pretty on the outside but cardboard on the inside, so you spend most of your time either complaining about your neighbors or listening to them complain about you. (Half of the plaintes C took were about problèmes de voisinage.) Plus they usually have ancient plumbing and electrical systems.
So we wanted a place similar to where we are now, ie with reinforced concrete walls = complete and utter silence.
Great view and a parking spot! That would have sold me immediately too! Congrats!
Sounds like a great find! Not to mention an amazing view! Congrats!
-Shannon
Yay! And with a view of the Iron Lady, even if just from the balcony! Funny though how buying takes so long but renting is a faster than lightning process so we barely have time to stop and think.
I think you can't have gone wrong with this one; sure, you might not stay in Paris forever but if this place has a view of the Eiffel, 2 bedrooms AND parking, the resale value will only increase over time. If you hold onto it for a minimum of 5 years you would most likely walk away with a profit in the event you decided to move elsewhere. Well done! Can't wait to see some pix of the view -- have you moved in yet?
And PS if you decide to move somewhere outside of Paris, who is to say you have to sell it? It could become a good investment property as well, either for long term or short term rental. ;)
Sounds like a great place! And it's awesome when it doesn't have to be a whole long difficult process to get what you want. Gotta try me some of this positive manifestation!
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