Teree

Pica

Teree

modicasa

I would start by thinking where I did or didnt want to live. What you want out of Italy - and what you want to avoid. Then travel until you find a place that feels like home, the zone in on an area and finally on individual properties. Italy is big and varies hugely from place to place. Dont fall in love with a water mill to restore in the middle of nowhere if you cant drive. And so on. Good luck.

Geordieborn

Two very good replies, very practical, but also very different ends of the spectrum of practicality. On the question of renting, to me that would be the most important. Most coming from the UK have that UK property owner mentality and the obvious waste by renting. It is a great reason for not renting, but there are many reasons for doing so, not least the Italian housing market. It is one thing I would seriously recommend doing and ties in with what Modi has said about the differences in areas throughout Italy.

Teree

Geordieborn

You could start with something like casa.it here to at least get used to the terminology, you want “affito” as a starter for “renting”. But you also may want to consider the likes of Airbnb to get on the ground so to speak as many places are only advertised locally. Not looked at it, but heard many say subito.it is another place for rentals.

Teree

C.2s

All of the above advice is good. If you have read other similar threads on here you will have read discussions about the fact that each area has a 'commune' (or town hall) that administers the process of getting temporary residency, and that each commune applies different requirements in terms of evidence of finances and health cover, etc...so I don't want to reopen that can of worms, but it's worth reiterating there is no standard which applies everywhere.

As for looking online, it's fun. And it's helpful to an extent. But part of the fun is that you'll find lots of quite unusual (from a UK perspective) photos of properties with people watching tv, doing the ironing, piles of stuff lying around...it's not quite as developed as the uk online market...though that depends on your budget perhaps. However, the point is that this is indicative of the estate agency business in general here....be prepared to be told that the house you've been looking at on a website is not available any more (but won't actually be taken off the website), or that maybe they know the 'perfect' place for you without asking your requirements, or estate agents saying 'Which house? Oh that one. Forgot we have that.', etc...you really need to come here and talk to people face to face. Like I said, it's all fun, and part of the adventure

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Teree

Geordieborn

UK or Italian lawyer will not help you one bit...

Teree

C.2s

Ha ha, I was thinking how to write a balanced and diplomatic response, but I think I prefer Geordieborn's more direct approach! 😀

Anyway, for what it's worth...the Italian house buying process doesn't require solicitors because there is a legal official (a notary) who is neutral and oversees the process. It is more like a civil marriage in England than the English house buying process. So, just like a marriage, you can choose to use the services of a representative who will help guide you through things (and maybe get a prenup), and a quick Google search will find companies that specialise in this, but also a lot of it works on trust. It's certainly possible that you will meet the seller, and be vetted by various relatives, before they decide to let you buy the property. And you'll possibly share a few glasses of prosecco with them once the sale is completed! Remember that the estate agents also work for both parties, so you may find some protection there.

But obviously you'll find lots of stories of agents and/or notaries who make mistakes (or worse). And you might well be taken advantage of. But to be honest I have had experiences with buying properties in the UK where I have felt let down by the solicitors, surveyors, etc.

Personally we didn't use anyone like this to buy in Italy because we felt our understanding of Italian and the legal issues were sufficient (andiindeed we pointed out mistakes that the notary had made)... but most importantly we had rented in the town for a while and therefore we had information from friends and acquaintances about the property and the agent and the person we were buying from which meant we felt we could trust things.
​​​​​​But if you don't feel like that and want to use a representative to help you then use one.

Geordieborn

Well kind of, but it was no attempt to emphasise my previous post, but that would/will certainly give you a better chance of finding out why neither will be much good.We had an Italian English speaking solicitor by the way and she was of some use. It was also her that told us that it was in a lot of ways a waste of money. It’s one of the important things to learn about the differences between say the UK and Italy. Customer service in Italy is to put it mildly way behind that of the UK (it is getting better) and in a related way going down a legal resolution road is/can be very costly. But also the legal side of buying a house there is very different from the UK with the agent and notaio being the main players.We did rent for a short time (6 months), but looking back we would have done so for much longer. In our position we probably would have never bought. Problem was we incorrectly thought we could not rent and get the land we wanted and do what we planned to do – short is we could have. Again there is a lot more you can do in Italy that you could never do in the UK. With renting it is just one of the things you get to know about the country and differences to that of the UK.