FAQ

 

 

 

 

 

How can I visit Le Pierrotin?

If you would like to see what the apartment is like, why not book yourselves a couple of nights via one of the numerous sites where Le Pierrotin is available? For example, you can use any of these

We have a conciergerie service operated by Keytoko that does an excellent job of looking after visitors, and has a team that cleans the apartment very thoroughly after every visit.

Why did you buy Le Pierrotin?

We bought the apartment in January 2017 to allow Simon to avoid having to drive back and forth from St Felix Lauragais (where we have our family home) to the CNRS lab in Purpan of which he was the director. From 2017-2023, Simon spent 3-4 nights a week at the apartment, and Michèle would join him for one or two nights to enjoy city life.

Why did you decide to sell Le Pierrotin?

Simon retired in July 2023 and no longer needed to go regularly to the Brain and Cognition Research Center (CerCo) located in Purpan Hospital. We started renting out the apartment via sites such as AirBNB starting in September 2023, but decided that we would rather sell the apartment and use the revenue to invest in projects such as renewable energy and fighting climate change, as well as providing increased income for our retirement.

Why don't you just use an estate agent?

Given that we are in no rush to sell, we decided to (a) sell the apartment ourselves (meaning that we avoid the 4% agency fees) and (b) use an innovative dynamic pricing technique where the price starts high for a initial period of a month or so, then decreases by €1000 a day. Such an approach would be impossible via a conventional estate agent.

Where did the dynamic pricing idea come from?

Simon came up with the idea in the middle of the night on the 15th January! He had not seen the method used before, but that may be just ignorance. There are generally thought to be four main types of auction.For example, in a conventional "English" auction,  a seller puts up an item and buyers place bids until the close of the auction, and the item goes to the highest bidder. All such auctions are designed to make the sale rapidly. But here, we are happy to let the sale process continue for months.

What are the charges associated with Le Pierrotin?

Le Pierrotin is part of a small condominium complex comprising two buildings.

Building A overlooking 4 quai St Pierre, which houses the Pierrotin and has 3 co-owners.
Building B, which faces 1 allée de Brienne and has 4 co-owners.

Quaterly expenses : €280

Annual Property taxes : €1108

 

Who are the potential buyers?

Le Pierrotin could be an interesting acquisition for a wide range of people.

1) It would make a beautiful home for a couple, or a family with a teenage child, or two younger children who might share the basement bedroom. The presence of a convertible sofa means that it would be possible to accommodate two adult visitors as well.

2) It could also be a very attractive option for people with children planning on studying in Toulouse. With two students, the costs of renting accommodation for 3 or more years could be very high. Rather than renting, it may be much more sensible to purchase a property like Le Pierrotin. Once the studies have been completed, the owners could sell up, or decide to continue renting.

3) It would be a very good investment for someone interested in living in Toulouse for part of the year but keen to rent out the apartment using a site such as Airbnb for the rest of the time. Since September 2023, we have been renting out just the ground floor and the Lounge in the basement (keeping the basement bedroom and ensuite shower and WC for ourselves). The monthly net revenue varies but has averaged around €800 a month. With the entire apartment for rental, we anticipate that this could increase to around €1500 a month.

4) Another interesting option might be to use the apartment for long-term rentals. We had thought about shifting to renting the apartment for periods of 3, 6 or 12 months which would have the advantage of providing income all year round. However, our decision to sell the apartment means that we will not be using this strategy.

5) The basement rooms are very well soundproofed. We're a family of musicians and we've used them a lot for rehearsals and recordings without disturbing our neighbors.

Note that Le Pierrotin is very close to the prestigious Toulouse School of Economics (TSE). They could have visiting scholars (including Nobel Prizewinners!) wanting to stay on sabbatical.  Such visitors might find staying at Le Pierrotin particularly attractive. It is difficult to estimate how much a visiting professor from Stanford, MIT or Princeton would be prepared to pay, but it could be quite a lot!

Is there any work that needs to be done?

The apartment is in very good condition, and there is nothing that needs to be done in a rush.

That said, if we hadn't decided to sell the apartment, there are two things that we would do.

  1. We would replace the current electrically heated hot water tank (located above the WC next to the entrance hall) with a thermodynamic water tank that uses a heat pump and ejects the air into the stairwell next door. This relatively simple operation would immediately change the current D rating for the energy efficiency of the apartment to a C.
  2. We would replace the external front door of the apartment, which is old and decorated with lead-containing paint - something that was noted in the diagnostic report.