Foreign Perspectives

As part of my pre-course preparation for the English Literature course, I’ve just finished A Doll’s House which was a whole lot easier going than I had expected it to be.

Next up on the list is The Color Purple which I’ve just started today and, so far, is quite an easy read.

The strange thing about these “English” literature books is that most of them aren’t actually written by English (or even British) people which does seem a little odd for an english literature course I think. Still, I suppose it reflects the fact that english is an international language so I guess you’d expect there to be a number of non-english writers in amongst any collection of english literature.

Although the French people themselves are very polite and welcoming, French companies are quite different and use all the anti-consumer laws that they have at their disposal in France even when they aren’t obliged to.

Take for example the car insurance industry. Everywhere else in the world it’s common practice for car owners to wait for their renewal premium to arrive then to shop around for cheaper insurance. In France, that’s illegal!

Yes, you read that correctly. It is actually illegal to shop around after your insurance renewal arrives because by that time you are already legally committed to paying it (regardless of the cost!). If you DO shop around, you’ll find that the previous insurance company will go as far as taking you to court to recover their money from you.

As most insurance companies are international businesses, its interesting to look at how differently some of them operate outside France. Even the French-owned companies seem to be able to provide customer service everywhere else except in France. Having said that, it’s perhaps instructive to observe that French-owned AXA doesn’t mention anything about the customer in its strategy “Attain leadership in every one of our markets through operational excellence.”; I’ll certainly attest to its operational excellence in operation in France as it was very quick in issuing the court summons to me when I had the temerity to attempt to cancel a policy because the price had doubled between me accepting it and them issuing the invoice.

Interestingly, the set of laws that permit them to do this run completely contrary to the equivalent European laws (which apply in France). The insurance companies know this, of course, and therefore if you are cancelling it’s useful to remind them that it will be European law that you’ll be using against them rather than their nice cozy anti-customer French law which tends to stop the court action rather quickly. They clearly can’t afford to lose such a case in court as it would open up competition in the insurance market in France rather more than they seem comfortable with.

If you’re moving to a new area it makes a lot of sense to rent first rather than dive straight in and buy somewhere.

That’s simply because, no matter how much research you do in advance, you’ll never really properly know a new area until you’ve lived in it for a few months. That’s the amount of time that you need to really settle into a new area but realistically is far more time than most people can devote to researching a new area.

Aside from anything, renting an apartment involves a much lower committment on your part financially so, if it turns out that your choice of apartment isn’t quite so perfect as you expected it to be, then you can move on relatively easily. However, even then, that time isn’t wasted as it’s much easier to research an area whilst you’re living there so chances are your second choice would be that perfect one.

Of course, you’ll want to be looking somewhere that has a wide selection of apartments for rent and for that the obvious choice is ApartmentFinder.com.

If you’re looking to buy a home a fair distance from where you live, chances are you’ll try to make your search part of a small holiday and that you’ll be aiming to go there when the weather is good too.

Whilst I appreciate the sentiment in trying to make it more of a holiday than a chore, remember that if you’re planning on settling in that area that you won’t be constantly going to the local theme parks or tourist attractions but instead will be going to more mundane places like the office, the shopping centre and the schools. This doesn’t mean that it needs to be a boring time for you but that you need to consider the amenities that you’ll be using on a regular basis if you buy in the area.

Also, it is at least partly a chore. Who really wants to go round an area just to find out where the schools and shops are? Can you face the hassle of looking through bus timetables just to see if you’ll be able to use public transport to get to work?

Finally, that weather business. Whilst obviously it’s preferable not to be trawling round houses in the driving rain, you should try to go to the area when it’s “normal”. For example, if you’re buying somewhere near Disney World the area will obviously have quite a different feel to it outside the school holiday season than when it’s teeming with children. Some areas can virtually close down in the Winter and you’d not necessarily be aware of that if you’ve only ever been there in the Summer.

Buying a house isn’t just your ordinary purchase, it’s about buying a place that will become your home.

People often overlook that in the rush to buy a place to live and end up with a house that’s not really suitable for their needs or one which is in an area that doesn’t have the amenities that they need. For example, if you have kids, it’s important to consider the schools in your chosen area and think about how your children will get to the school that they’d be going to.

For that matter, will the school even accept them? You can be very unlucky if your house is at the wrong side of the road in some areas as that can mean a different school district. As regular readers will know, we didn’t follow our own advice here and instead of being able to go to the school 1 mile away as we had assumed, junior has to go to a school over 20 miles in the other direction which is down to our house being at the wrong side of the road!

These complications make real estate one of the most complicated purchases that you’ll make and therefore it’s best to do as much research on an area as you can before you start narrowing it down to looking at specific properties.

If you’re looking at specific areas eg Atlanta Homes for Sale or Charleston Real Estate, think carefully about the search parameters that you are using. Don’t think that you can squeeze into a place with fewer bedrooms than you’d planned because you probably can’t and likewise think about adding another bathroom to your requirements if your children are approaching their teens.

Likewise, watch how you specify the area. Zipcodes are great things to narrow the search but they can change when you cross the street so try those for neighbouring areas too. Sometimes you can find fantastic bargains that way eg move outside the Beverley Hills zipcodes (90210, 90211 and 90212) and you’ll find that the prices drop dramatically whilst the quality of area remains high.