x

Sophia Mose

Buyer's Agent

1744 Profile Views

About Me

PROVENCE SEARCH offers a bespoke property search and acquisition service for clients looking to buy property in the most sought-after parts of Southern Provence and the Côte d’Azur (French Riviera).

Sophia Mose Lives in Aix-en-Provence and is one of only a few Anglophone buyer’s agents with a French estate agent's license. Sophia regularly gets consulted by newspapers and magazines on French property and writes the “Buying Advice” column in FrenchEntrée Magazine. She also has written extensively for other publications.

Sophia worked as an international finance lawyer in New York and London before moving to France in 2005. She has a master’s degree in Dutch & International law (Leiden) and Juris Doctor and LL.M degrees from Duke University School of Law in the US. She is a member of the New York Bar (inactive) and holds Carte Professionnelle T – sans maniement de fonds – № B14-5612 issued by the Préfecture des Bouches du Rhône.

my expertise in the industry

All aspects of French property acquisition, with a focus on Provence and the Côte d'Azur.

Sophia's Recent Activity

Graham, how would this be justified to sellers? Those who bought up to now have paid the tax. When they sell a property on which they already paid the tax they again would have to pay it? That would mean that a "generation" of house sellers would pay the tax twice on one property. Sounds like a policy idea that would not work in practice. Unless I'm missing something.

From: Sophia Mose 06 March 2017 08:00 AM

Graham, I believe that the main enemy of the property profession is public opinion. Politicians tend to pander to public opinion and don’t think things through long term. Although lobbying as one body of course would be a huge improvement, before being able to effectively lobby with politicians, estate agents as a profession, must change public opinion. Although public opinion of estate agents often is based on a few bad apples only, I have a strong suspicion (would be interesting to get your view on this) that the main reason for the public’s lack of respect is the fact that in the UK (or is it only Scotland and Wales?) there is no education or experience requirement whatsoever for entry into the profession. In practice, I’m sure many agents will have a relevant degree or experience. But that’s not the point. I believe that it’s disastrous for the image/perception of the profession that any idiot can set up shop or work with an agency. I’m an experienced commercial lawyer and have worked in various jurisdictions. I have been a licensed estate agent (working as a buyer’s agent) in France for five years now and still am learning a lot on the law, building/construction and other things relevant to the profession. We facilitate and assist with most people’s biggest purchase in life and I find it truly baffling that there isn’t an exam or licensing requirement for estate agents in the UK. You cannot expect people to know the law that governs the profession if there is no minimum education requirement. Here in France the owner of the agency must be licensed, which is only possible if they satisfy strict education or experience requirements. Sales agents who work on commission are registered under the license of the owner and must be supervised. They must make clear in communications that they are not a licensed agent (broker) and they cannot give legal advice to vendors or buyers. In addition, since 2015, property professionals and their agents must follow continuing education in order not to lose their license. Estate agents are often still hated in France (mostly because there's less understanding of conflict of interest than there is in the Anglo-American world) , but there is respect for the profession and the government listens to the trade bodies (there are only two main trade associations here). These trade bodies also have recommended regulations for their members, but I believe that self-regulation is never enough for the image of the profession if entry into the profession itself isn’t regulated in the first place. Not easy to change, but as long as this remains the same, I'm afraid that the UK public won’t respect the profession. What do you think?

From: Sophia Mose 03 December 2016 15:34 PM

Here in France a similar thing has happened. Provence and the Cote d'Azur very much depend on second home buyers. That market can go quiet very easily and when that happened in 2009 and 2010 (later reaction here) the traditional agencies with their high overhead had to let staff go. No more secretary to answer calls and less sales agents. Now that demand is up again, the agencies are understaffed. Agents run around showing properties and taking new ones on the books, with little time left for anything else. Email in-boxes are swamped with spam messages and recently an agent in the Luberon admitted that he could not find the real enquires among the spam messages. As a buyer's agent, I find that agents only respond if you text them and they already know your name. This situation has allowed the more digitally literate national networks of online agents to hugely increase their market share.

From: Sophia Mose 23 November 2016 09:30 AM

Here in France the consequences have been immediate. Our clients with budgets in Sterling have all cancelled their searches. For Provence and the Côte d'Azur the blow will be less, as we have such an array of nationalities buying here, but for the southwest of France (Gers, Dordogne, Lot etc) the disappearance of British buyers will have a significant effect. However, prices will presumably adjust downwards and sellers returning to Sterling land will accept lower prices. This makes it likely that the effects will cancel each other out somewhat and transactions will increase in number again. Uncertainty is never good though.

From: Sophia Mose 25 June 2016 11:40 AM

In France the stamp duty, taxes, registration fees and solicitor's (notaire) fees are around 7% at that level of purchase price. Add on vendor agency fees of 4 -5% and you come out at 11-12%. It true that this isn't all that far from the 15 % (plus solicitor's fees and agency fees) in London.

From: Sophia Mose 20 April 2016 07:13 AM

What I find disappointing when estate agents talk about "customer service" is that they usually don't mean customer service to their own client (principal) - the vendor, whom they have an agreement and agency relationship with. No wonder that the public generally does not hold estate agents in high esteem. By law, estate agents are allowed to represent both parties on opposite sides of the table. We all know that this is not possible in practice however, so why does this absurd situation continue? In practice it means that in a buyer's market vendors are left to their own devices and in a seller's market the buyer is the party without proper representation. In some countries it is standard practice for buyers to hire a buyer's agent and for vendor hire a listing agent. That makes a lot more sense. Why can't the UK and France adopt that system? Does anyone know? Graham, it would be interesting to dig a bit deeper into that. Perhaps buyers would stop being seen as supermarket customers and actually get some solid advice and representation. And vendors would have their own agent who'd advise them and help negotiate the highest price. This false impression that it is possible to represent both parties to a substantial financial transaction can only lead to dissatisfaction. Alison Platt says that there are similarities between selling groceries and selling houses? As a buyer's agent I have to chuckle and say "Thanks Alison, that is helpful and hopefully buyers understand better why they need their own representation." A house is not a bottle of milk, vendors are not distributors of commodities and buyers are not supermarket customers.

From: Sophia Mose 25 January 2016 09:35 AM

This kind of rhetoric sounds a lot like the Republican candidates' campaign talk. Taking things out of context, using agressive language and aiming for that part of the brain that does not care too much about logic and reasoning. This form of marketing works for some but risks lowering the entire discourse to "lizard brain" level.

From: Sophia Mose 11 January 2016 08:55 AM

Graham, just to add some anecdotal info to the mix - I run a buyer's agency in Provence, France and many of our clients are British (mostly Londoners) and Americans (East Coast and California). For us the entire Christmas break traditionally is very busy for enquiries, with Boxing Day and New Year's day being the busiest. We make sure to answer those enquiries on the same day. The holiday home market of course is different from people needing to move for work or growing family reasons, but I agree with you that the Christmas break is a peak time for "property p@rn surfing." We don't do client buying visits over the Christmas period for the reasons you list. And French vendors here simply wouldn't accept that anyway. But being active on social media and putting up new listings during this period seems a smart idea to me. On that note: back to writing my next blog post :-)

From: Sophia Mose 19 December 2015 14:54 PM

Breaking News