Fife_Flyer

Hello All

Newbie here - please be gentle

After a "world tour" of Italy in 2005, I proposed to my wife at the Trevi Fountain, married in Venice 2007, and had our honeymoon based at Gravedona, Lake Como.

We are looking for a property around the Lake, not necessarily lakeside but certainly with a view.

We have looked on the net for a number of months and the asme properties keep popping up.

Does anyone have any recommendations for good agents we can approach?

Thanks in advance.

Kenny and Moe

Welcome to the Forum, I have recently spent 15 months house hunting but not around the Lake Como area, I started by googling properties for sale in italy and went from there, for instance Rightmove.co.uk have over a 1000 properties but managed by a host of agencies so you will get a few on there, and each of those agencies have hundreds. There are also local ones around Como who you may find on the net. I also found that the same properties keep coming up but with prices going down in certain areas. It is not a short process so be ready for a long slog, including about 6 months after you actually find the property. You don't say whether you live in Italy or somewhere else? or whether you are looking to settle here or looking for a holiday home, to get the best information from some of the 'experts' on this forum, the more detail you provide the better the information you will receive. Hope this helps and good luck
regards Kenny

37100

Welcome to the forum. Lovely area your looking at.

Fife_Flyer

Thanks for the welcome and tips.

Ultimately we are looking for a permanent home, moving from Scotland when we retire. I would like to find a 1 or 2 bed apartment to rent out before we sell up in about 15 years time. Then we'd be buying somewhere we want to stay full time.

Mrs FF would rather go to option 2 now!

We hope to do some fact finding and inspection trips next year.

Lorna at Vicenza

I'm presuming that the "15 years time" is nothing but a typo.

Fife_Flyer

Almost Lorna, Although probably nearer 10. Planning ahead! We are looking to buy something in the next couple of years as a holiday home/rental property.

Then when we retire will buy our full time property - at least that's my plan!

Lorna at Vicenza

I apologise for being presumptious. I honestly thought that you might mean 15 months or thereabouts.

Stick around .............. 10 years is plenty enough time for the laws to change as qucikly as the Italian government does.

Kenny and Moe

Planning ahead by 15 years, wow, as Lorna says in that time anything could happen here in Italy. So you are going to buy an apartment, rent it out for 15 years (ish) and then sell it and buy a permanent home and move here. Something tells me you need to do one helluva lot of fact finding and one helluva lot of inspection trips before you go firm on a plan. Don't forget to check residency rules as to whether you can own and rent out property, I don't think you can as a non-resident but I may be wrong, it is certainly not as easy as I think you believe it may be. Good luck anyway though, it will be interesting to keep a track of how you get on
regards Kenny

Fife_Flyer

Kenny

Obliged for your comments. Whilst we have done some background research into buying and the legal requirements there is still much to learn and one of the reason we hope to tap into contributor's expertise.

The non-resident/renting thing is one issue I was not aware of and will look into further. In any case, for peace of mind in these troubled financial times we are looking to but something we can afford without the need to rent but would be a nice option if we could use it.

Having watched some of the "relocate to the sun" and horror story type programmes I'm under no illusion about the complexities (and cost) of the Italian legal system surrounding purchase, residency, tax and the like - laws.

Hopefully you guys can help iron out some of wrinkles

sheilamarsco

hi there i haven't heard anything about not being able to rent out a property if not a resident if this is so then there's an awful lot of people round here who are breaking that rule. i can think of at least a dozen uk residents who have bought property here and let it out during the summer or whenever it suits them. like everything else here if you go to the commune or any other official authority and ask if a permit is needed they will say yes. if you go ahead like everyone else does italians included and wait to see what happens i think you'd wait a long time if ever before you were told you were breaking the law. i found the purchasing system here really good. they go to a lot of trouble to make sure everything is in order and i haven't heard of anyone having any problems with buying a house. i guess it's bad news that tv companies want to hear about when making these programms so you will always hear the worst, not that some bad things don't happen, but i would say all in all the process of buying a house here is pretty straightforward and clear.

37100

I've never heard anything about not being able to rent out if you're non-resident but as shielamarsco said, they could be breaking the rules.
As for buying a house here Kenny's right, it can be a very long and tortuous road. It is rarely straight forward. Shielamarsco was very lucky. Don't want to put you off just warn you to be careful. Always get everything translated. The money spent will save you many sleepless nights and as I always say, NEVER use the in house notaio. If you're stuck for one ask the local bank who they use. As for planning 15yrs ahead, wow. I admire you for even thinking of it. I can just about manage a week.

Gio

Our buying process went well....not because of the agents, commune, banks, or any of that. The fact was we put in lots of hard work before buying. Looking at forums, asking lots of other buyers here. Purchasing books & generally doing our homework. We then were aware of lots of problems that crop up. How to overcome them, & who to go to when we needed professional advice without having to pay out. We spent nearly 18 months travelling and staying in different areas. Viewed over 300 houses. Learnt lots of "terms", visited Communes. Generally amassing information so that when we did buy we knew what everyone was talking about, & knowing what to ask of the Agents. Of course, every commune, agent & area can be different, & differing advice is given. So, put in the leg work & don't loose hope. You know what they say, Murphy's law applies. "If things can go wrong they will go wrong", & a bit of advice from my childhood days, " Be prepared"
Ernesto

Lorna at Vicenza

Be prepared ...... were you a Boy Scout?

Lorna at Vicenza

There are a lot more people looking to buy in Italy - at least on this forum - than ever before.

Does anybody want to help me set up a little dictionary in Italian and English of "housey" words ?

I could lay it out and email it to anybody who is looking for help and if it gets too big maybe it could become part of the Wiki part of the forum and we can point people to it there.

If anyone has 5 minutes to send me a list of 10 words each, that could be a beginning.

What do you all think ?

Kenny and Moe

Lorna,
Top idea, here are my ten words:
'do you want it in English and Italian from us'
regards Kenny