Conclusion

A pile of stones and a piece of ground�

In outlining the various expenses of acquiring and maintaining a home in France we have tried to explain what lies ahead financially for the prospective owner. Our purpose has been to provide the basic facts you need to make an informed and realistic evaluation of whether buying a home in France is something you can do without undue financial strain.

As you review the list of expenses compiled here, you may conclude that buying a home in France is clearly not a wise financial move at this point in your life. If so, JUST FRANCE SALES hopes we have done you a service in pointing out the cost involved in ownership. We will be here when you are ready to reconsider.

On the other hand, after reading this section on costs you may be more assured than ever that buying a home in France is a comfortable choice for you. If this is the case, we hope you will contact JUST FRANCE SALES so that we may begin the process of finding the right property for you.

Will buying a home in France be a strech financially?

The hard questions will be for those who feel that insistent yearning to acquire a property in France, and see that they can probably make it work financially - but only with a stretch.

To those people in the middle, we can only say this:

First, that we have yet to meet a non-French owner who regretted the decision to buy in France, even when they went with trembling hands to the Notaire's office wondering if they were paving their way to financial ruin. Somehow they have made it work, and they are happier for the effort.

Second, JUST FRANCE SALES can advise you on some strategies that are readily available to help reduce the risk. Financing part of the purchase price, deferring major renovations, putting off the construction of a swimming pool for a couple of years, partially defraying expenses by renting periodically, equipping the property in such a way as to maximize rental income - these and other prudent steps can help whittle annual maintenance costs to manageable proportions.

And finally, who can put a cost figure on happiness, on the fulfillment of a dream? It may be a humble pile of stones with a terra cotta tile roof on a not-so-big piece of ground, but the ground and the stones are yours, and they are in France, and when you lock the door at the end of the day or wake up in the morning and look out the window over the rooftops of Paris or fields filled with sunflowers, you are in your own home. You have your own bread and your own wine in your own kitchen, and when you gather your family and friends to sit down to dinner at night, you put your feet under your own table - a sturdy farm table, perhaps, which you may have bought after striking a good bargain with a local antiquaire.

For many, that is priceless. For almost everyone, it is an opportunity that comes along only once in a lifetime.