Getting a true sale price

AN important thing to remember when buying a property in France is that it could be on the market with more than one estate agent.

So finding out once you've signed for your new home that it was up for sale for a few thousand euros less with another agent would test the resolve of anyone.

It is with this in mind that the Daily Telegraph takes a look at some of the dangers and pitfalls, as well as offers some simple advice, to try and cut the risk of paying over the odds.

The article warns that some properties could be on the books of as many as 15 different estate agents and that deals can involve one or two middle men, especially common with the sale of more expensive homes.

One thing it doesn't mention is that adding to this confusion is the explosion of the internet and how one website may be displaying a price quite different to another.

A way to tackle this can be to enter particular phrases used in the property description into search engines, use sentences from towards the top of the page and use the last few words of one sentence and the first couple of the next as one string of text.

So for example, a phrase like "incredible sense of space and light. Whilst the outside" may draw out the same property on a number of sites.

Or if a property has quite a distinctive name or location, again pump these into a search engine and see what results are displayed.

Doing your research is key so that you get a good idea of the going rate for a property in the area you want to buy and then you can be confident that you are not going to get your fingers burnt.

What are your own experiences of sale prices? Please feel free to leave a comment below for others to read.