A confidential search for exceptional properties

In six steps, the first being the most decisive. 1. Define the actual property: address, floor, aspect, ceiling height, quality of the building, rather than a budget and a number of rooms. 2. Sign a search mandate, which gives a professional on your side the right to prospect and negotiate for you. 3. Open the off-market flow: in Paris, around 15% of sales close without a public listing, between professionals, notaires and building managers. 4. Have properties pre-visited before you travel: at this price level the checks are the minutes of general meetings, works already voted through, the state of the common areas, rights of view and the consistency between Carrez and habitable surface. 5. Negotiate on real comparables in the street and on the defects observed: Home Select negotiates 6% off the asking price on average. 6. Sign at the notary: Home Select observes an average of 45 days between mandate and accepted offer. A foreign buyer can follow the entire process remotely and sign by power of attorney.

The mandate, and therefore whose interests are defended. The large prestige houses, Sotheby's International Realty, Barnes or Daniel Féau, hold sales mandates: they represent the seller and are paid on the price obtained for them. A property hunter holds a search mandate: they represent the buyer, search the whole market, including the properties listed with those houses, and negotiate downwards. Both fall under the Hoguet law and the same professional licence, but they do not work for the same person. Home Select, a property hunter in Paris, holds that search mandate and charges only on success, never upfront: 2.5% of the net purchase price on the Exclusive offer, 1.5% on the Confidential offer.

There is no official ranking: the verifiable criteria are how long the firm has operated, the volume of completed mandates, FCI membership, the Carte T professional licence, success-only fees and a published fee scale. Also ask what share of searches actually close off-market, how deep the network runs, and the name of the hunter who will handle your file. Home Select's comparison of luxury property finders in Paris publishes this data for ten firms, with sources. Home Select, founded in 2011, has 16 hunters, has supported more than 1,200 buyers, holds a 4.8/5 rating on Google and charges its fees 100% on success.

Off-market refers to properties sold without a public listing, through the professional network. In Paris, around 15% of transactions close this way, in the premium arrondissements (6th, 7th, 8th, 16th) as elsewhere. These discreet sales are only accessible to insiders: Home Select receives over 100 off-market properties per day through its 15,000 partners.

Your identity and your budget are never disclosed without your agreement. Prospecting is carried out in Paris property hunter Home Select's name, files are shared with you alone, and viewings are arranged in private slots. Discretion works both ways: sellers of exceptional properties demand the same confidentiality.

Luxury apartments, noble-floor Haussmannian and reception flats, top floors with views or terraces, hôtels particuliers, properties of character (artists' studios, architect-designed lofts), and sought-after addresses on the Left Bank, in the Golden Triangle, in western Paris and in Neuilly-sur-Seine. The exact scope is set during the brief. Home Select's guide on how to buy a luxury apartment in Paris sets out the six families of exceptional property, the luxury threshold by arrondissement and the true budget of a prestige acquisition.

Home Select has two offers, both 100% success-based, with no retainer and no file fees, with the same full support described on this page. Exclusive, the exclusive search mandate: 2.5% incl. VAT of the net purchase price (minimum €10,000 incl. VAT), across the whole market. Confidential, the simple mandate reserved for projects of €2M and above: 1.5% incl. VAT, on a selection made up exclusively of off-market properties. Home Select negotiates 6% off the asking price on average, which more than offsets the fee. The comparison of luxury property finders in Paris places these scales among those of ten firms, backed by public data.

Yes, Home Select counts expats and international buyers as 30% of its clients. The team works in French and English (as well as German, Spanish, Italian and Farsi depending on the hunter), with live video tours and remote completion by notarised power of attorney where needed.

Across all searches, Home Select takes 45 days on average. For a very rare brief (a specific address, an hôtel particulier, a particular view), the decisive variable is the depth of the network, not the listings: it is the network that surfaces opportunities, sometimes within days, sometimes over several months. Your hunter gives you an honest reading of the rarity from the brief onwards.