Purchasing a house in Italy as a foreigner can be rather daunting: as a matter of fact, navigating the country’s bureaucratic labyrinth, overcoming the language barrier and learning about all the steps involved in the purchasing process can potentially discourage one from trying. These challenges are, in fact, what drove Julie Sweitzer to reach out to Italian Real Estate Lawyers in July 2021. In fact, when Julie first started researching the steps involved in purchasing a property in Italy, she realized how intricate the process was and thus thought that her plans to spend her retirement years in Italy would remain unaccomplished. However, with the help of our team at Italian Real Estate Lawyers, Julie saw her dream come true in just under six months.
“The whole process was unexpected. There are so many things in buying a home in Italy that as Americans we had no idea about, it’s impossible to know. Simple things like if the home is older and modifications were made if the owner made them with permission or without. This is extremely important because if they made them without it will become your problem. IREL looks at EVERYTHING regarding the house. We found homes that we fell in love with and after IREL investigated it they would give us the good, bad & ugly of the house; so even though a house looked beautiful they would let us know what would need to be fixed along with the cost. This allowed us to make decisions on the house before we purchased it. Again, just amazing customer service.”
Not having a specific location in mind, Julie scouted for potential dream houses all over Italy. Given the wide variety of choices on the market, Julie and her husband wanted to make sure that whichever property and area they were going to settle on, no unpleasant surprises would arise after the purchase. Therefore, our experts at Italian Real Estate Lawyers carried out extensive research and provided thorough information on each property Julie and her husband liked in order to exclude all the properties that were incompatible with their needs and to avoid any hidden problems.
“When we started this process, we had many difficult needs to be met. We wanted a good location, a good size and a beautiful home that needed very minimum renovations with a very small budget; basically, we wanted to have our cake and eat it too! Guess what? IREL met every one of our wishes and the house was about 15000 euros under budget. Our home is in southern Italy and approximately 2 hours from all the major tourist attractions, 20 mins for the first resort beach and 1 hour from the nearest ski resort. What more could someone possibly dream of? Having IREL by our side gave us such a feeling of peace and I knew that we were in good hands during the whole process. Besides peace IREL treated us with respect, patience, information on each house and location (including crime rates). IREL explained each document in detail and answered any questions that we had, and, in some cases, it was multiple times”.
Therefore, the complexities that scared Julie and her husband away at first became understandable and their doubts were disentangled. Furthermore, IREL’s team of professional translators informed Julie and her husband of every detail and ensured that all the phases of the purchasing process were transparent.
“The translator was something that I did not know that I needed until it happened; I left the meeting truly feeling like all questions were understood and honestly answered.”
Julie decided to let IREL attend the closing on her behalf (by signing a power of attorney) so that she would not need to travel to Italy. After the purchase was successfully completed, Julie decided to use IREL’s services to set up and manage utilities, and to pay taxes.
“If I thought that the house process was crazy, getting these things turned on without her would have probably been impossible. Again, the rules are completely different from the US; to accomplish these things you would need to be there in person and hope that you know the language fluently”.
Therefore, IREL’s consultant took charge of setting up accounts, reminding them of any outstanding bills and, most importantly, helping them to pay them remotely.
“If you are looking to purchase a home in Italy, don’t be foolish about it. You must get a lawyer and if you are really smart you will use IREL. They are professional and respectful throughout the whole process. Outside of making the decision of purchasing a home in the beautiful country of Italy, you will be hiring the best real estate lawyers available.”
Today, Julie and her husband, who contacted IREL with no idea of what to expect and how to proceed, are the owners of a beautiful house in Southern Italy near the Ionian Sea which is also close to many quaint historical towns. If you are planning on purchasing a property in Italy, please feel free to contact our team of real estate experts and attorney at info@italianrealestatelawyers.com. We will help you make your dream of buying a house in Italy come true!
