Estate agency, from mother to son.
I am John Newman Prentice, an English-speaking estate agent at Orpi Les Carmes in Toulouse. I help people who speak English buy and sell homes within 100 km of the city, in English, at no extra cost. This page is who I am and how you can check it.
I grew up watching my mother
hand English families their French keys.
I was born in England and moved to the Ariège at eight, with my parents and my twin sister. My mother, also bilingual, spent fifteen years as an estate agent at Century 21 in Mirepoix, serving the Ariège's English-speaking buyers and sellers, from Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia and the United States.
She has retired now. I have carried the practice to Toulouse, and I am in my first year of it. Her fifteen years are hers and my first year is mine, but everything she learned about walking an English-speaking family through a French sale or purchase, I grew up inside.
Why I do this work.
I came to Toulouse for my studies, at Toulouse Business School, and stayed. Before this I worked in marketing, communication and sales: useful years, spent mostly behind a computer.
Approaching thirty, I wanted my days to hold more people and fewer screens. I wanted to serve someone I could see. My mother had just retired from fifteen years of doing exactly that, so the decision, when it came, did not feel like a career change. It felt like taking up the family practice.
What I took from marketing and negotiation did not go to waste: it is why every listing I carry gets a film, a virtual tour and a professional photographer, and why I would rather show you the evidence behind a price than ask you to trust my charm.
Why Orpi, and in whose name.
The choice
My mother's network was Century 21. Mine is Orpi, and the choice was deliberate: Orpi is the best represented network around Toulouse, with 37 agencies locally out of about 1,350 across France. For your sale or your search, that means more agents carrying your interests to their clients.
The structure
Orpi is a cooperative of independent agencies, not a chain of branches. I work at Orpi Les Carmes, 16 Place du Salin, under my agency's rules and my own professional licence, and the agencies sell each other's listings: that shared file is half of what you hire.
The name on the door
Everything on this site is written and signed by me, in my own name. The contracts and the legal side run through Orpi Les Carmes, as the law intends. You deal with a person; the institution stands behind him.
Licensed, insured, and checkable.
- ✓ Carte professionnelle issued by the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie (CCI) de Toulouse
- ✓ Professional indemnity insurance and financial guarantee behind every transaction
- ✓ Orpi Les Carmes, 16 Place du Salin, 31000 Toulouse: a real office you can walk into
- ✓ Five-star client reviews on Google, under the Orpi Les Carmes Immobilier Toulouse profile
Ask me for the card number and check it with the CCI yourself: I will send it without being offended.
In their words, not mine.
Real Google reviews, translated from the French they were written in. You can check every one on the Orpi Les Carmes Immobilier Toulouse profile on Google.
“John guided us superbly through our property purchase. Always available, warm, patient at explaining and very professional; and on top of being likeable, he prepares his files thoroughly. Thank you”
“Thank you to Mr Prentice for his support. A real listener, good advice, an outstanding sense of the human, and patience that never ran out. Thank you, Sir.”
“I highly recommend John-Newman Prentice for the sale of your property. We managed the sale remotely; John was highly proactive and kept us informed at every step.”
