Ciao!i’m new here as we are about

07/09/2019 - 09:19

Ciao!i’m new here as we are about ready to buy a holiday home in the northern parts of Italy. I’m wondering how we progress our search. We have seen various houses we like but are unsure on suitability region etc...We have an Italian map, we have circled airports and a radius around those which is acceptable. We like the Lombardy region and spend most of our holidays in bardolino, lake Garda. We are also liking the look of Abruzzo. How do we continue our search and find a nice town, village to settle on? Internet research or fly out and have a drive around or contact an agent to help? Does anyone have any suggestions of villages or towns which are nice where have amenities we could walk to and use loacally if we bought in that area? We like the lakes, walking, shopping, skiing, lounging around and visiting towns etc. We have two small children age 5 and 8 which will need entertaining and we plan to use the property all year around. 

Topic
Location

Comment

Id startwith the internet - see what you like the look of.  putting in the comune name will bring you useful details such a population, height above sea level, etc and photos at least of the centre.  You can soon find out if its a new place orhas some history.  Agents will show you what they want to sell if you dont go in with a list.  And most agents here dont cover a vast area, so you're better off zoningin on your own - when you find teh right town or village then go to an agent.  

I think we have settled on lake Garda, bardolino, cisano area now after more research. We just need to sort out a budget as it’s a lot more pricey than other areas of Italy. How do you find properties for sale which agencies don’t already advertise? 

I used Immobiliare.it just to look around at pricing.  It’s a lot like Zillow where you can specify an area and price.  Then we visited about 4 times with printed out directions to the ones i preferred before we just stumbled upon a quaint village that we fell in love with.  We got out, walked around, spoke (or tried to) to neighbors where they walked us directly to the homes for sale.  We happened upon my dream home, called the number and after some tweaks and negotiations, it’s all mine.  I really think you need to just get out there and drive around to get the right feel.  Good luck - let me know if you need any tips.  It’s the best thing I’ve ever done!  

I found mine (inderectly) through Immobiliare.it  I just got an ad for the Lake Garda region, actually so I pulled it up for you.  You can create an account there and circle zones in which you are interested, just like Zillow.  don't count on the realtor to get back with you though.  We looked for an entire year and only had 1 realtor answer questions for us.  I ended up with a beautiful little villa in the hills of Tuscany because we walked around the village and called the owner (you will see signs posted as Vendisi with a phone #).  Luckily mine spoke English.  Let me know if I can help any further.  It's the best thing I've ever done!https://www.immobiliare.it/annunci/77462080/?utm_source=trovakasa&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=detail&utm_content=20191122&sid=18161254

What we did when we bought our holiday home in Italy was:-
1. Decide on area - we did this visiting places we thought would do, with Italian friends, who gave us a overview of the area
2. Using Italian Yellow Pages (Pagine Gialle?) We got names of estate agents in the area, and by googling them got their website and email details.
3. Booked a weeks holiday in the area and arranged, by email (in Italian- Google translate if all else fails) meetings with half a dozen agents - max 2 a day. They were all given via email our requirements - location, no of bedrooms, land etc etc, and price - so in theory they would take us to appropriate places. (Worked pretty well).
4. Found the one we liked and offered 40% below asking price . Was accepted and we've enjoyed the ace for over 15 years.

Good luck