Patrick Martinez, founder and director of Parlemoi de Paris
Patrick Martinez is the founder of Parlemoi de Paris, a real estate hunting agency in Paris and the Paris region. Before joining the world of real estate, he spent the first twenty years of his professional career working for the theater as an actor and director. Then, at the age of forty, he made a 180° turn by following a legal education to specialize in real estate. Finally, not quite 180°, given that his entire family, for two generations, has been working in real estate. Since 2009, when Parlemoi de Paris was created, Patrick Martinez has been working as a real estate hunter, putting his expertise at the service of those looking for beautiful apartments, lofts, beautiful houses or exceptional properties in Paris.
Patrick Martinez, from the stage to the real estate market
Real estate legal training
Before creating Parlez-moi de Paris and becoming a real estate hunter, Patrick Martinez devoted twenty years of his life to the theater as an actor and director. He lives this job passionately. However, at 40, he feels a need for change. At that point, real estate came naturally. His whole family worked there. His brother, who had 20 years of experience in investment real estate, advised him to start with a legal education. So he went back to university to get a university degree in real estate law.
From the very beginning, he understood the importance of legal matters in real estate in order to be able to control every aspect of the process and to offer rigorous support to his clients.
Patrick Martinez's beginnings in the real estate hunt
Patrick Martinez starts by exploring several facets of the real estate sector: office rentals, investment, then residential real estate. He works in a traditional real estate agency in the 7th arrondissement. One day, the agency entrusts him with an important client, a Qatari buyer who is looking for a large apartment in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. Quickly, Patrick Martinez realizes that he enjoys working for buyers more than with sellers. He accompanies this client in his research, organizes visits, without knowing it he starts hunting for real estate.
A few months later, the Bank of Qatar contacted Patrick Martinez, on the recommendation of this client, to assist other buyers. That's when the idea was born: why not specialize in supporting buyers? After some research, Patrick Martinez discovered that the profession of real estate hunter barely existed in France, with only two or three agencies in Paris. He is embarking on this adventure, by creating his own approach to the business, based on listening, tailor-made support and in-depth expertise in the Parisian market.
Patrick Martinez creates Parlez-moi de Paris
The first steps of Parlez-moi de Paris
When Patrick Martinez started, everything had to be invented. At the time, this profession was still little known in France; there was no specific framework for exercising it. Patrick Martinez builds his own methodology, drawing on the concrete needs of buyers and his personal experience.
For the first few years, he worked alone. Real estate hunting requires several skills: listening, understanding, researching, visiting, negotiating. Everything is based on a relationship of trust with the buyer. After five years of activity, Patrick Martinez is expanding the Parlez-moi de Paris team.
Patrick Martinez forms his team of real estate hunters
The first to join him is Olivier Lebé, a long-time friend. According to Patrick Martinez, the profile of a real estate hunter should not be limited to profiles from the traditional real estate world. On the contrary, a particular approach is needed. Profiles with a thorough knowledge of the creative world will be better able to support and understand buyers, really. These newcomers will also have to be trained in legal skills and in the functioning of the housing real estate market.
Gradually, other profiles come to strengthen the team, each with the same high standards of quality in supporting buyers.
Today, the real estate hunting agency Parlez-moi de Paris operates with a deliberately small structure: five hunters. This choice makes it possible to maintain a privileged relationship with each client and to ensure tailor-made follow-up at each stage of their project.
Patrick Martinez creates a method based on listening and support
In the real estate hunting business, each search is unique. Real estate hunters don't just look for a property that matches a list of criteria. They start by understanding the expectations and lifestyle of each buyer. Before even starting the research, Patrick Martinez takes the time to talk with his customers to identify their needs, their desires, but also their apprehensions.
Once this discovery phase is over, Patrick Martinez mobilizes all his skills and his network to find the perfect real estate for his buyers. Paris is a city where each district has its own identity, its own atmosphere. Some buyers come in with a very clear idea of where they want to live, others need guidance. One of Patrick Martinez's roles is to support them in this reflection by showing them places they might not have considered and by helping them to plan for themselves.
Looking for the apartment or the house is one step. The support goes well beyond: legal advice, analysis of the condominium, estimation of work, connection with artisans or architects. The commitment of the real estate hunting agency created by Patrick Martinez does not end with the signature. It remains available to its buyers, even years after their purchase, because a real estate project does not end the day you receive the keys. It is this proximity and this involvement that make all the difference with a classic approach to real estate transactions.
A human-oriented vision of real estate
Real estate is not just about transactions and numbers. Behind each purchase, there is a story and a life project. It is this human aspect that Patrick Martinez is most passionate about in his job. Each purchaser arrives with a unique journey. Buying real estate is almost always linked to a key moment in life: a settlement, a marriage, a birth, a professional change...
Patrick Martinez attaches great importance to the relationship he builds with buyers. It's not just about finding real estate, but about supporting buyers in major stages of their lives. Patrick Martinez takes the time to show a neighborhood, to share a lunch to better understand expectations, or to be available even after the purchase to help buyers with practical questions.
This profession requires real proximity to buyers, while respecting their privacy. You have to know how to listen and advise without imposing.
Patrick Martinez's ambitions for the years to come
His goal for the future is not to make Parlez-moi de Paris grow at all costs. On the contrary, Patrick Martinez wants to maintain this human-sized structure that is the strength of the agency.
Patrick Martinez wants to preserve this energy and this proximity to buyers. What matters to him is not to expand the team, but to maintain the quality of support that Parlez-moi de Paris is famous for.
In the years to come, Patrick Martinez's ambition is to continue working in this profession with the same passion.
After several months of research (in a very targeted neighborhood), I decided to call on Talk to me about Paris to get out of this spiral of visits that were not successful. An investment that proved to be very effective since I made an offer at the end of the 5th visit.
Great experience with Talk to me about Paris. Patrick is a professional who accompanies his clients very well in the search for their future place to live. Very attentive, he creates a favourable environment that encourages exchanges with the various stakeholders.
The agency was able to perfectly identify our needs and found us the apartment that ticked all the boxes in a few days and at first glance when we had been looking for several months. Beyond efficiency: professionalism, expertise, availability and a lot of people.
