FAQ – Buy house in Italy

Our real estate agency, in addition to providing the classic services of an Italian real estate agency, always offers its clients the assistance of an Italian lawyer and a technician (engineer or architect) to carry out checks on the presence of any problems related to the property title and the correctness of building titles. All this because we believe that these three figures together (real estate agent assisted by a technician and an Italian law firm) can offer greater security for our clients’ investments in Italy.

Depending on the client’s needs and the type of investment, our real estate agency can also involve other figures such as an accountant, a geologist, a private banker or a translator.

Yes. Consultancy and preliminary legal and technical checks on the property are two fundamental aspects of our service and are always included in our fee. Right from the first contact with the client, our real estate agency puts a trusted and experienced lawyer and technician at the customer’s disposal and above all without additional costs.

If requested by the customer and/or if the circumstances require it, it is also possible to involve other professional figures such as an accountant, a geologist, a private banker, a translator, etc.  In this case we will do our best to provide our client with a detailed cost estimate in advance.

Our agency always applies a fixed (or percentage) fee always taking into account the client’s needs.

The details of the fee (cost estimate), together with an explanation of how the assignment will perform at each stage of the purchasing process, are explained to the client in advance so that the latter can carry out an in-depth assessment in full calm before making any decision. In the event that the client decides to rely on our agency, we will organize a second operations meeting.

Maximum transparency is an important prerogative for our company.

Our real estate agency is very far from terms such as superficiality and approximation. Proposing and selling a property requires a maximum level of professionalism to prevent the our client’s investment from turning into a gamble.

This is the key to understanding that carrying out preliminary legal and technical checks does not mean that the properties sold by our agency are not safe, on the contrary, these checks allow us to concretely prove that the houses we sell are actually a safe investment. Our client must know what he/she is buying and the risks associated with the investment. All this is always reported to our client in a clear manner and refuted by documents.

In Italy it may happen that the seller (often in good faith) does not know what problems are related to his property.
This may be because when he bought it in the past there was different legislation and nobody had checked the building documents. It may also happen that the seller has inherited the property and does not know his history at all. This is to say that there are many reasons why it is necessary to carry out in-depth checks.

Since it takes time and costs to carry out in-depth checks, for some of our properties it may happen that these checks are carried out in the period between the signing of the purchase proposal and the meeting with the Notary.

This poses no risk to the client. On the contrary. Our contracts are always tailor-made according to the situation and the client’s needs. Our contracts are in fact always conditional on the successful outcome of our checks so that our client can make his investment without any risk.

Yes. The checks carried out by us and by our consultants are always carried out on each property sold by us, regardless of the type and value of the same.

The value of the property doesn’t matter. The regularity of real estate titles and the security of the purchase is independent of everything else.

On this aspect we are very scrupulous and each activity is always explained and reported in advance to our client. Our client will therefore always be well informed about our work.

The Italian law firm and technicians to whom we entrust the checks on the property carry out their activity before the final meeting with the notary. Obviously, the purchase offer signed by the customer is absolutely conditional on the successful outcome of these checks. This means that our client takes no risks.

At the end of the checks we will summarize to the client everything done by our agency and its consultants, also indicating the outcome of the checks. Our client will always have full control over the entire process.

The issues can concern the property titles (error on previous succession, presence of a mortgage, foreclosure, etc.) or the building title (floor plans are not updated, part of a modification in the house has not been regularized, etc.).

In case our consultants find problems or irregularities, we will act according to the situation:

A) if the problem can be solved => we will immediately inform both the client and the seller. It could possibly happen that the sale will have to be postponed for a certain period. If our client agrees, we proceed to resolve the issue at the seller’s expense. Once this procedure has been completed, our client will finally be able to acquire the property in complete safety.

B) if the problem encountered cannot be resolved => we will inform both the client and the seller and we will proceed to cancel the sales process. Also in this case our work allows our client not to run any risk. We will then help our client find another home.

Never. We jokingly say that “we are allergic to pre-printed contracts” for the conclusion of agreements concerning real estate investments.

Joking aside, over the years we have increasingly had confirmation that each sale is unique. For this reason we entrust the drafting of contracts to a trusted Italian law firm that we place at the complete disposal of our clients and at our expense.
Depending on the client’s needs and the circumstances related to the property, a tailor-made contract will be drawn up.

Example:
The client may wish to build a swimming pool on the property. It is therefore necessary to be able to condition the conclusion of the purchase to the effective verification by one of our technicians of the possibility of being able to build a swimming pool.

The client may want to make the purchase conditional on the incorporation of a company in Italy or on the granting of a mortgage.

In the case of the purchase of farmhouses in the countryside with adjoining land, it may be necessary to verify that the neighboring owners do not have any preemptive right on the property for sale. This hypothesis must therefore be clearly regulated in the contract and the purchase conditional on this control.

Each client’s need must therefore be well evaluated in advance and regulated in the contract.