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Posted by Detective on 22-Nov-2008 :: Views: 369 :: Posting ID: 45261

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Are you considering purchasing a House in Brittany or any other region of France ?

Do you want an expert to visit the property and provide a comprehensive report on the value, location, situation, neighbours, crime, and any other matter you wish to know about - without leaving your home ?

Known as “Brittany's House Detective,” Graham advises readers from coast to coast, providing honest clarity, fresh wit, and even-handed fairness in his responses to real-life real estate questions.

MEET THE PROPERTY GUMSHOE

The name’s Dooley. Graham Dooley, PI. Property Investigator, that is.
Graham Dooley is a man who likes variety in his life. A former Police Inspector, he came to live in Brittany in 1992 after an injury sustained in a fracas sentenced him to early retirement from the Police. “At 41 I had no idea what I was going to do with the rest of my life,” he says. “I wanted to do something unusual, and had fallen for France since my first visit in the ‘Seventies. I had also long been interested in unusual and neglected properties, furniture and cars. Rural Brittany seemed a good place to start looking for an interesting way to indulge my passions.”

Selling up in Britain, Graham and his wife moved across the Channel and found and bought a beautiful (and pleasingly neglected) manoir. But they soon realized that they would need to earn a living to continue Graham’s enthusiasm for unusual restoration projects.

After a brief dalliance with the idea of a pine furniture dip’n’ stripping enterprise, the Dooleys fell back on Graham’s experience and acquired all the qualifications to set up a private investigation service. The business took off, and they were soon busy working for French and British clients. “Many of the cases we took on were property-related,” Graham recalls, “and the way the market was moving it seemed a good idea to go into helping Britons find the right home with the least problems.”

In 2001 they set up an Estate Agency to accommodate the growing number of Brit’s buying in France. They divorced soon after and Graham ultimately parted company with the agency in 2005.

Nearly a decade on, and Graham is now working on his own, using a mixture of his investigative and property know-how to offer a specialist service to British home-buyers. “Buying a house in Britain can be a traumatic affair; buying one in a foreign land can be even more complex and thus stressful. People can also make really serious mistakes when buying in France especially when ‘going it alone’, and I have known Britons who have bought their dream home to find out they did not actually own it! That’s where I come in. I can assist to find just the sort of property the clients are looking for, negotiate the selling price, check for and if necessary sort out any potential physical or legal tangles, and take the client through to the handing over of the keys ceremony- or beyond. I’m not a surveyor, builder or now an estate agent, but I know and use the best.”

Together with his property work, Graham also provides a more conventional service to Britons or Bretons who need his confidential services. He is a member of the prestigious “Council of International Investigators C.I.I.”

“I have had some really interesting and even bizarre cases,” he says, “but as a very private private investigator, I couldn’t possibly tell you about them!”

http://www.the-property-gumshoe.com

• Contact: Graham H Dooley
• Tel: 0033 608581058
• City: Not specified.
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