The property search mandate in France: what you sign, clause by clause

What is a property search mandate in France?

The property search mandate, the French equivalent of a buyer’s agent agreement, is the written contract by which a buyer (the mandant, or principal) entrusts a property professional (the mandataire, or agent) with the task of finding, evaluating and negotiating, on the buyer’s behalf, a property that matches a written brief. It is the buyer’s-side counterpart of the sales mandate that an owner signs with an estate agency: same law, opposite camp. What separates the two trades is set out in the guide to property finder or estate agent.

What the Loi Hoguet requires

Law no. 70-9 of 2 January 1970, known as the Loi Hoguet, applies to anyone who habitually lends their assistance to transactions concerning other people’s property, including the purchase of, and the search for, real estate. The property finder is subject to it just as the estate agent is: a professional licence (carte T) bearing the endorsement “Transactions sur immeubles et fonds de commerce” (property and business transactions), issued by the chamber of commerce and industry (CCI) since 2015, and professional liability insurance.

Its implementing decree, the décret du 20 juillet 1972, lays down the rule that protects the buyer: the professional may neither negotiate nor commit on your behalf without a written mandate, issued beforehand, entered in the mandate register (registre des mandats). An oral agreement is not enough: without that mandate, no fee can be claimed.

The mandate does not oblige you to buy and, unless expressly stated, does not give the finder the power to bind you: the finder searches, checks and negotiates, but the offer and the preliminary sale agreement (avant-contrat: compromis de vente or promesse de vente) carry your signature.

What must a search mandate contain?

A complete search mandate identifies the parties, describes the property sought, sets a duration, states how the remuneration is calculated and who pays it, and specifies whether it is exclusive. Most of these particulars derive from the Loi Hoguet, its decree and the French Consumer Code (Code de la consommation); the others are those that an informed buyer insists on.

• The parties: you, each co-buyer and the professional. If the person you are dealing with is not the licence holder, they must hold a certificate of authorisation (attestation d’habilitation) entitling them to act on the holder’s behalf.
• The professional licence, with its number and the CCI that issued it, and the registration number in the mandate register, shown on the copy you are given.
• The subject matter: type of property, areas, floor area, bedrooms, decisive criteria. This brief defines the scope of the assignment, and the remuneration clause often refers back to it.
• The maximum budget, stating whether it includes any agency commission; acquisition costs, around 7 to 8% of the price on existing homes, come on top (calculate your notary fees).
• The duration and renewal: the Loi Hoguet renders null and void any agreement that does not limit its effects in time.
• The remuneration: the amount or the calculation method, the basis, the minimum, when it falls due and which party pays it, in principle the buyer in a search mandate.
• Exclusivity, if there is any; since the ALUR law of 2014 (loi ALUR, the French law on access to housing and renewed urban planning), an exclusive mandate also specifies the actions the professional undertakes to carry out and how they will report to you on those actions, at an agreed frequency.
• The conditions for leaving the mandate and, for a mandate signed at a distance or off-premises (away from the professional’s premises), information on the right of withdrawal, together with the withdrawal form.
• The contact details of the consumer mediator (médiateur de la consommation), a free, out-of-court remedy available to you in the event of a dispute.
• The file-verification clause: the buyer’s identity and, depending on the case, the source of funds, checks that anti-money-laundering rules impose on property professionals.

A search mandate example: drafting the subject matter

“House in the Gironde, budget €1.5m” leaves everything open. “Family house with at least four bedrooms and a garden, in Arcachon or on the Cap Ferret peninsula, maximum budget €1,500,000, any agency commission included, light works acceptable” tells the finder where to search, and tells you what falls within the assignment.

Exclusive or simple search mandate: which should you choose?

An exclusive mandate with a property finder entrusts your search to a single professional for the agreed period of exclusivity; a simple mandate leaves you free to search by yourself and to appoint other intermediaries. The exclusive mandate commits both parties more, the simple one preserves your freedom: if you intend to keep your own leads, it is the one you need.

The regulations impose strict conditions on the clauses that restrict this freedom: an exclusivity clause, a penalty clause (clause pénale) or a clause making the remuneration payable even if the purchase is concluded without the intermediary applies only if it is expressly stipulated, in very prominent type, in a mandate of which you have been given a copy.

The Exclusive and Confidential offers: two mandates, one and the same service

Each Home Select offer rests on one type of mandate. The Exclusive offer, under an exclusive mandate, hunts across the whole market: listings, network and off-market. The Confidential offer, under a simple mandate, presents off-market properties only; it is never self-service, since the brief, pre-viewings, negotiation and securing of the purchase are the same. This confidential search is meant for the buyer of a prestige property who wants to see the hidden market without giving up their own leads; that market is explained in the guide to buying an off-market property.

How long does a search mandate last, and how can it be terminated?

The law sets no standard duration, but every mandate must be limited in time; it is terminated according to its own clauses and, if it contains an exclusivity clause or a penalty clause, the regulations allow you to leave it once three months have passed. Your real commitment is therefore measured less by the number of months than by your ability to leave, and by what survives the exit.

Twelve months at most, seven days’ notice

The Home Select mandate is concluded for twelve months at most, renewed month by month within that limit, and terminable at any time on seven days’ notice. Its duration is a ceiling, not a minimum commitment period.

What the regulations provide

For a mandate that contains an exclusivity clause, a penalty clause or a clause making the remuneration payable even without the intermediary, the décret du 20 juillet 1972 provides a way out: once three months have passed since signing, either party may terminate it at any time, giving the other at least fifteen days’ notice by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt. Before those three months are up, the contract decides: some exclusive mandates are irrevocable throughout that period.

What to look for in the contract

• The initial term and renewal: tacit renewal or an amendment (avenant), and within what limit.
• Any irrevocable period, and how long it lasts.
• The notice period and the form of notification: registered letter, email with acknowledgement of receipt.
• The penalty clause, that is, the fixed indemnity due in the event of a breach: the judge may reduce it if it is manifestly excessive (French Civil Code, Code civil).
• What survives the exit: the remuneration or indemnity due on properties presented, for how long and from what date.

How is the property finder’s remuneration calculated, and when is it due?

A property finder’s remuneration is freely set, but the mandate must state how it is calculated and which party pays it, and it can be collected only once the purchase is concluded. Three questions are enough: on what basis, how much, and when.

The basis of calculation: which price does the percentage apply to?

A percentage means nothing without its basis. The net purchase price is the price actually paid to the seller, excluding the agency commission; the advertised price often includes that commission. Home Select calculates its fees on the net purchase price, at fixed, published rates that are identical from one city to the next: 2.5% incl. VAT with the Exclusive offer, minimum €10,000 incl. VAT, and 1.5% incl. VAT with the Confidential offer.

The timing: nothing before the purchase

The Loi Hoguet forbids the professional to ask for or receive anything, whether fees, search costs, the costs of any steps taken or advertising costs, before the transaction has actually been concluded and recorded in a written deed containing the parties’ commitment. A deposit, file fees or a subscription charged for a search fall foul of this rule; and if the purchase falls through, because the mortgage is refused and the condition precedent (condition suspensive) takes effect, nothing is due.

The fees for the Exclusive and Confidential offers are paid by the buyer, the sole client, at the signing of the authentic deed: never a sales mandate on a property presented, never a commission from the seller. On average, Home Select negotiates 6% off the asking price, enough to cover the fees comfortably. The full scale, handed over before any mandate is signed, appears on the property finder fees page.

Can you sign a search mandate remotely?

Yes. A search mandate can be validly signed electronically: the French Civil Code gives an electronic document the same evidential force as paper, provided that its author is identified and its integrity guaranteed. When signed at a distance or off-premises by an individual, the mandate opens a 14-day withdrawal (cooling-off) period; when signed on the professional’s premises, it does not, in principle, open any.

14 days to withdraw

The period runs from the day the mandate is concluded, and you do not have to give a reason for your decision. The professional must inform you of this right and give you a model withdrawal form; if that information is omitted, the period is extended by twelve months. You withdraw, before the end of the period, using that form or any other unequivocal statement, an email for example; the burden of proof lies with you.

And what about the search during those 14 days?

The period does not necessarily freeze the search. The Home Select mandate provides that the search may begin as soon as it is signed electronically, without waiting for the period to end: you keep the right to withdraw and, since nothing is due before the authentic deed, you have paid nothing.

Outside Île-de-France, the rest of the search is also conducted remotely: a brief by video call, pre-viewings on video with an analysis sheet, the price analysed address by address against DVF sales (the official register of property sales), negotiation, coordination of the notaire and the mortgage broker; you travel only for the decisive viewing, grouped into a single trip. Fees, duration and exit conditions are the same for an apartment in Lyon, a villa on the Côte d’Azur or a house in Saint-Malo; the guide to buying property remotely details each step.

What happens if you find a property yourself or change your plans?

The answer almost always lies in three clauses of the mandate: exclusivity, remuneration and the one covering the properties presented to you.

You find a property yourself

Under a simple mandate you are free: a property found without the finder gives them, in principle, no entitlement; this is the framework of the Confidential offer, which leaves you free to search in parallel. Under an exclusive mandate, an express clause can make the remuneration payable even for a property found without them, if it meets the brief: read it before signing.

A property was presented to you before the mandate ended

Mandates generally protect the finder’s work: if you buy, directly or through a third party, a property the finder has presented to you, their remuneration or an indemnity remains due, even after the mandate has ended, for a period set in the contract. Check what counts as a presentation (email, fact sheet, viewing), how long this protection lasts and when it starts, who is covered (relative, co-buyer, company set up to buy) and the amount due.

The finder proposes a property you already knew about

Say so immediately, in writing: some mandates provide that, failing this, the property is deemed to have been presented to you by the finder.

You change your plans

A change of budget, city or type of property deserves a written amendment (avenant), since the brief defines the scope of the assignment. If the project stops, termination is enough; with a finder paid on success, stopping costs nothing in itself.

Nothing fits

The finder owes an obligation of means (obligation de moyens), not a guaranteed result. Before concluding that the search has failed, test the brief against actual sales: a budget of €400,000 for 120 m² in Biarritz is unrealistic against a median of €7,000/m² for apartments (DVF / DGFiP via data.gouv.fr, April 2026 release, 2025 sales). Budget, floor area or location: one of the three must give, and the mandate with it. The site’s market data provide these benchmarks.

The Home Select mandate, in plain terms

Home Select, founded in Paris in 2011 by Jean Mascla, conducts its searches for the buyer alone, under the professional licence (carte T) no. CPI 7501 2018 000 028 939 issued by the CCI Paris Île-de-France; it carries professional liability insurance with Suffren Assurances Associés and is a member of the FCI (Fédération des Chasseurs Immobiliers). In the regions, Home Select runs the search under the direction of its management and draws on a network of 15,000 professional partners, which brings it at least 100 off-market properties a day. From the first conversation to the launch of the search, the mandate is put in place in five steps.

1. A first conversation, by video call or phone, to frame the project: use, areas, budget, timetable.
2. The written brief, which becomes the subject matter of the mandate.
3. Handover of the fee scale, the pre-contractual information and the mandate, to be read before anything is signed.
4. Electronic signature, which, when done remotely, opens a 14-day withdrawal period.
5. The launch of the search, with the first proposals within 48 hours of signing.

The search then follows the six steps of the method, from sourcing to support after the deed. Home Select has guided more than 1,200 buyers since 2011, with searches averaging 45 days up to the accepted offer, and a rating of 4.8/5 on Google (130+ reviews). The fees for the Exclusive and Confidential offers are published, and each city page details its own market, such as the property finder in Bordeaux or the property finder in Nice.