Finikia/How we work
How we work
Every case concludes with an explicit recommendation – GO, CAUTION or NO GO – ahead of any irreversible commitment.
Our subject is not the property; it is the decision.
A property is viewed; a decision is documented. We act upstream, while the room for judgement is still open, before the preliminary contract, before the levers close.
The method was born of acquisition, which remains its core. It carries over, with the adjustments each case demands, to a disposal or an investment decision: the object of the reading changes, not its principle.
A background in architecture and a master’s in built-asset management inform this reading. They are instruments in the service of the decision, not a specialism we would put forward for its own sake.
The method
To produce a documented decision, not to accelerate a transaction.
Before any search begins, we define your objectives, constraints and decision criteria together: budget, intended use, time horizon, risk tolerance. For non-resident buyers or those relocating to Paris, this stage also covers the mapping of the French system: applicable tax regime, financing conditions, notarial framework, coordination of the specialists to be engaged. Without this documented brief, the analysis has no reference point.
Properties are identified on the market and within our network. A file is only instructed if it meets the criteria established at the scoping stage. We systematically request access to a visit and to available documentation before any analysis begins.
We visit the property. This stage is the core of the method: reading the structure, the general condition, the constructive logic and any visible pathologies. Architectural training is applied here in its most literal sense, as a tool of observation. It allows us to identify what a file does not yet mention: an undisclosed defect, a developing pathology, a construction cost that no one has yet quantified. The documents collected then serve to complete, confirm or contradict what the building analysis has established: market price benchmark, condominium records, legal points of vigilance.
The analysis concludes with an explicit recommendation: GO, CAUTION or NO GO. No decision is left implicit. GO and CAUTION conclusions are accompanied by a recommended offer price and a negotiation ceiling. This verdict is formulated independently of any transactional outcome; the advisory mission is remunerated for its rigour, not conditioned on its result. The detail of each of these three positions is set out below.
The advisory mission concludes on the verdict and the structuring of your position: negotiation brief, conditions to set, points of vigilance before the preliminary sale agreement. It sometimes leads to walking away, which is, in those cases, its most useful outcome. If you wish Finikia to conduct the negotiation and represent your interests through to the signing of the preliminary agreement, this mission is carried out under a search mandate, entered into simultaneously with the advisory agreement and governed by French real estate brokerage law. The advisory agreement can exist without a search mandate; a search mandate cannot exist without an advisory agreement.
This same reading applies, with the adjustments each case demands, to a disposal or an investment decision.
The object changes; the method remains.
The verdict
Three positions, one rule: none is left to interpretation. Here is what each one commits to.
Acquisition recommended
The property supports the decision and the conditions for a sound acquisition are met. Never a mere approval: a GO sets out the defensible price, the timing and the terms of the offer, a GO with a frame, the one within which execution can begin without reservation.
Acquisition subject to conditions
Neither yes nor no: “not as it stands”. The property can be acquired, but named reservations must be cleared before any offer, a price to renegotiate, works to cost, a legal situation to clarify. The most demanding of the three positions, because it requires work before a decision can be reached. As long as the reservations hold, execution stays suspended.
Reasoned withdrawal
A result, not a failure. The property should not be acquired, and the report says why, a structural reason that neither price nor works can remedy. Withdrawing on the basis of a documented reading has value in itself: a decision spared. The reasons are recorded and remain useful in guiding the cases that follow.
These three positions carry the same weight, and the same cost. Our advice is paid for the reading it produces, regardless of its conclusion: we are paid to tell you no with the same rigour as to tell you yes.
Further scope
For buyers in the process of relocating to France, a relocation advisory assignment may precede the property search: profile assessment, selection and briefing of the specialists required for the move — international tax adviser, immigration lawyer, notary adviser and assistance with opening a bank account.
For non-resident buyers who do not intend to transfer their residence, these considerations are integrated from the initial scoping of the assignment. Where a project requires the overall coordination of several specialists around a property, a bespoke Prime Advisory assignment may be structured.
Finikia’s assignment concludes once the real estate decision has been secured. However, where the selected property requires works or its maintenance needs to be planned over time, the support may continue, should you wish, through CH_G.
Founded in 2009 by Charbel Ghanem, CH_G is an independent structure complementary to Finikia. Depending on the nature of the project, it may act in architectural design and construction management (MOE), owner representation (AMO), or through the BP-PMP – Building Asset Review and 30-Year Maintenance Plan.
Finikia Real Estate Advisory and CH_G are legally and contractually distinct entities. Any engagement with CH_G is subject to a separate agreement and separate invoicing.
The framework
The advisory mission is remunerated independently of any transaction, this is the condition of its impartiality, written into the agreement. It is grounded in RICS standards as a methodological reference for the reading and assessment of buildings.
This framework rests on an architectural background, a master’s degree in owner representation and built-asset management, and ongoing enrolment in the RICS Building Surveying pathway. Finikia operates under a professional real estate transaction licence and professional indemnity insurance.
First conversation
An initial conversation helps define the nature of the engagement; a one-off audit on an asset already identified, or the framing of a search upstream. No commitment at this stage.
