ABOUT US
The Long Search
Our first visit to France was on our honeymoon. We fell in love. And then hopelessly in love all over again on every subsequent trip. It was so easy to picture ourselves comfortably settled into a vacation home in the South of France for several weeks a year. We imagined exploring various regions of France, learning the culture and language, shopping with the locals, relaxing over a glass of wine at a café and maybe even taking a cooking class. To us, Europe seemed the perfect balance between someplace familiar, and yet different enough from our American life to be challenging and rewarding.
Ordinarily making a real estate purchase is France is a complicated undertaking. French bureaucracy is so cumbersome that it makes our government look positively streamlined by contrast (think about that for a moment). After all, bureaucracy IS a French word. Ownership laws differ significantly from those in the U.S., not to mention French tax liabilities.
We saw plenty of beautiful historic homes throughout France. So finding something with old world charm, even with our limited French, was not the problem. It was the acquisition process that was daunting.
And if we managed to purchase a property, we knew we could only occupy it part of the year. Who would manage and maintain it in our absence? How would we find reliable local construction and repair people? Who would sign off on any work that needed to be done on the property?
The easy answer was to rent the house out to other vacationers when we were gone. But, in so doing, we would have to register as a French business, and pay the appropriate taxes. We could risk flying under the French radar and rent the place out anyway, but what if we were caught?
Despite these drawbacks, we never stopped dreaming about finding that special old stone vacation home with a rich history. The experience of being in France with so much culture, fabulous food, friendly people, and places to explore convinced us that we had to find a way.
AND WE DID. Through a process called fractional ownership, it becomes possible for middle-income folks to have the use of and share ownership in a vacation home, while building equity at the same time. (See how it works link for all the details.)
The historic stone house (Notre Maison dan Toulouges) we describe on this website, located in the small town of Toulouges, France is our first property acquisition. We are delighted to offer ownership shares of this vacation home in a friendly, accessible town located smack dab in the middle of everything!
Our Company
We founded Gerard Benton Homes in 2006 to develop and sell fractionally owned vacation homes in France. Our offices are located at 4200 Park Blvd, suite 509, in Oakland, California.
The property, Notre Maison dans Toulouges is owned by a French Societe Civile de Immobiliere (SCI) (real estate holding company) which, in turn, is owned by a U.S. non-profit Homeowner’s Association, namely Notre Maison dans Toulouges Homeowners Association. A detailed co-ownership agreement allocates usage rights, costs and responsibilities among the co-owners. Its attendant agreement(s) are U.S. documents enforced in the States generally through mediation and arbitration to
provide owners with both protection and a comfort factor.
Gerard Benton consults regularly with attorney D. Andrew Sirkin, a recognized expert in fractional ownership and other real estate co-ownership arrangements including Tenants In Common, equity sharing, and legal subdivisions such as condominiums. Since 1985, Mr. Sirkin has prepared fractional ownership documents for over 6000 clients. His practice areas include vacation fractional ownership planning and structures, offering materials, governing documents for fractional projects, entity formations, regulatory approvals, fractional lending and mediation.
We intend to market Notre Maison dans Toulouges homeownership shares on the internet in both French and U.S. real Estate listings, in Francophile and investment publications and other direct sales channels that may be developed.
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