A complete and professional property service based in the Limousin
Holt Immobilier is an estate agency made up of husband and wife team, Zoe and Paul Holt, located in the Creuse department of the Limousin. But before moving to France to live some twelve years ago, Zoe Holt was a tax consultant and lawyer. Her husband Paul worked in marketing and promotions. So they brought with them considerable skills and experience to apply to their estate agency business. This, coupled with an abiding love for the area in which they work, gave them an ideal base for a successful enterprise.
Certain that she and Paul had the knowledge and skills to run a top class estate agency, Zoe was determined that everything should be done properly. Having seen the dubious goings on in a number of unregistered estate agency businesses, she set about getting her "carte professionnelle" and membership of FNAIM (the French professional body of immobiliers). France, however, can complicate even the simplest of procedures. Zoe tells the story (with her inimitable sense of humour) on the Holt Immobilier website. Suffice here to say it took almost a year. But, finally all was in place and the business was born in April 2003.
Zoe's experiences of setting up her business led her to resolve that she would not allow her clients to suffer similar difficulties. She and Paul also believed that finding and buying your French property should be a wholly enjoyable process, from start to finish. And their very complete and professional service scores highly on both points. It makes searching for and buying a home or holiday home easy and fun, and from the first contact with the agency, you will quickly realise you can relax and be confident that you are in good hands. Zoe and Paul understand the importance of listening, so your requirements will be noted (even the ones you don't realise you have!), and you'll be shown only truly suitable properties. What's more, Zoe will have seen and valued every property herself, as the Holts don't sub-contract or use commission-only employees. Once the perfect place is located, Holt Immobilier takes on the burden of organising the paperwork, dealing with notaires, organising translations and setting up essential services. Even after the sale, Zoe's knowledge of the area is at your disposal. She'll help you find your way around, recommend doctors, restaurants, schools and put you in touch with reliable local tradesmen. All you have to do is enjoy the ride.
If your French isn't up to scratch, it's a relief to be able to let Zoe do the talking while you are property seeking/buying in France. Zoe now has a very good grasp of the language, but it wasn't always that way. Be warned, the local accent can complicate things. An early experience of viewing a property to add to their books had both Paul and Zoe puzzled as to why the elderly owner kept insisting that he was unable to find his kitchen. The aforementioned kitchen had been perfectly visible when the Holts had viewed the house, so they were quite bewildered by the man's comments. It took several days and a lot of head scratching before Zoe finally realised that he had been talking about being unable to make contact with his cousin (cousine) rather than having lost his kitchen (cuisine)!
If you've ever heard the phrase "La France Profonde", and wondered exactly where it refers to and what it means, take a look at Zoe's area. Based in La Souterraine, a delightful and historic town in the Creuse department of the Limousin, Holt Immobilier covers a region that extends some 45 kilometres around their home. This means north-west Creuse, north-east Haute-Vienne and even southern Indre. Green, tranquil, unspoiled and with a gentle pace of life, this really is La France Profonde. It's a land of lakes and rivers, of deep woodlands and lush pastures. Simply the perfect location in which to escape the strains of life in the UK and recharge those batteries. And, property in this region is the cheapest in France! You get so much more for your money here. Just take a look.
Zoe has been advertising her properties with property portal French Property Links (FPL) right from the start. Attracted by FPL's very reasonable rates and great Google performance, she says she also finds FPL offers a consistently good return of enquiries and a professional and courteous service at all times. And as the property market strengthens once again, Holt Immobilier and FPL are looking forward to a successful and continuing relationship.
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