What are some people like....

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  Oh Flip, you don’t actually believe anything you read on here do you?   This forum is the equivalent of  “Freddie Star ate my Hamster”.   If you really want answers to your questions . go to a proper forum 

Ricky: I do believe that there are some numpties on here, I also believe that some get what they are asking for, but I hopefully believe that stupidity can be avoided if the issues are thought out properly beforehand. If people spend, probably the largest or second largest amount of money they will ever do in their lives without thinking it through and asking qualified Professionals exactly what this will all mean, then they deserve all the hardship and expense that comes their way. I agree that this forum does attract the, shall we say, more clockwork personalities, who post any shite that they can think of with ne'er a jot of sense or reason in the content, only to hopefully get a reply so they can exasperate the situation even further: but I am trying to point out the fact that only a complete imbecile would invest their total worth in a pile of bricks/stone/wood without understanding the full consequence of the said transaction.

People come on this forum to ask questions...not to be told how stupid they are...shame on you. And actually you spell it naive.....oh well no loss.

Exactly my point!!!

And you spell it "pertinent". And you seem to place an incredible amount of trust in a "qualified geometra" (ours - not of our choice - was a tosser extraordinaire), Estate Agent (can you be serious?) or "notario" (it's spelt notaio, and incidentally ours was seriously good). I think you may need to unclench a little - maybe you want to know everything about everything before you make a move, but that doesn't mean you should try to impose that way on to those who prefer more of an inspired leap of faith. Certainly if money is tight there may be a need to be extra careful, but many people buy their second home as a complete indulgence. And at the end of the day, if it turns you've been a complete mug, sure as hell there are plenty of other mugs who'll buy it off you!   Yours ever, Clockwork Numpty p.s. it's "exacerbate", not exasperate

Come on lads, lets all huddle up together 'cus Flip cant spell and has a view point that doesn't agree with the mundane forumite mass. Bring it on!

Maybe Esme, it's just that we don't like being preached at......

Im going to try and get this back on track.  Im an estate agent (thank you Sir TK) - and most of my clients do ask about future outgoings. If they dont I tell them anyway.  However, it does surprise me how many people leave their brain at home when they go house hunting.  It's one thing to fall in love with a pile of stones and good sense goes out the door, but its another to think you can buy a palace for the price of a rabbit hutch.   Perhaps its my area - but most buyers have done alot of research before they arrive in Sicily - and they have an idea of market prices and the best places to be.  What gets me are those that can say Buongiorno and tell me they are fluent in ITalian, that they are architects, when the most they have ever done is put up a shelf, and are generally experts in everything.  I just dont get it - if you dont know - ask.  it saves alot of embarrassment and expense usually. I suppose the assumption is that everyone is out to fleece you - but you have to trust someone when you start on this lark - and if you arent an architect and are not fluent in ITalian then you have to swallow hard and say the words.   But - to go back to Flips original rant - she is basically right - alot of estate agents dont say anything - usually because they dont know themselves, and alot of people dont ask - or dont think to ask.    As to the use ofthe forums - why not? I trust my research as much as the information I get from other people.  If you are thinking of buying here, living here - there is no such thing as too much information - so for those who whinge about the forums - because they've been there and done that - put yourselves in the shoes of the people who are about to make the step... 

Many questions here get no answer or a torrent of different and conflicting answers, some plainly wrong. Much better to ask the locals than rely on information from some anonymous person sat behind a keyboard who might be posting from Albania or even worse France!

I guess it depends on what kind of mind you have. I like to have a variety of inputs in most situations - from professional advice through to anecdotal 'evidence' - to help me understand the context I am operating within- procedures, customs, mindsets etc - especially in a foreign country. Over the years I have had inaccurate, misinformed and indeed dishonest 'advice' from professionals and also local people, as well as valuable advice of course. And I have had wonderful help and useful advice from stranieri who have been down this way before. Stranieri can identify the points at which local procedures vary from that which we expect - and don't even realise we expect - and where to 'stai attente'. Local people can't do this in the same way, as to them it is just the way things are always done. It is all a bit of a minefield and for me, the more points of reference I have to 'draw' the maps by which I find my way, the better. But some people seem to find having a variety of inputs confusing, anxiety/anger provoking and frustrating. I don't. I have lived in four different countries so perhaps this facility is especially developed in me.  I have never understood the value in denigrating unknown people online. I don't know how it brings anything positive to either the recipient or the instigator. But again, different people have different ways of being in the world.   rachel68 - I salute your generosity of spirit in telling us your story and your gracious response to criticism. Good luck to you and your family. 

Ta! Ram, at least you get what I'm going on about and I must say the advice I have seen you give is just what it should be, informative, concise to the point and also checking with the local authorities. What people don't need is poorly informed opinions or worse. What I tried to point out, that before one commits to buying a property in another country you should enquire about how much it is going to cost you year on year given your circumstances not rely on oft well meaning but non specific advice from complete strangers. So all you spelling pedants can crawl back under the stones you come from and wait until you have another valuable contribution to make. We await with baited breath!!

As this is an Italian forum and the word "pedant" comes from the French word pédant, surely the older mid-15th Century Italian version of "pedante", should be used here?

To be correct it should be 'Pedanti'...... as there are quite a few of them

You're absolutely right, old chap!  (or should that be chapess?) Mind you, I think there is a great deal more than "quite a few of them" here.

There's nothing wrong with trying to get things right - It's all part of trying to maintain standards. Not bothering to try to get things right is the main cause of declining standards. And you do insist on giving us pedants a lot of ammunition . TK p.s. Flip, you'd be waiting with "bated" breath - fish hooks are "baited" - gotcha again!

Actually I got you TK took your time in spotting the deliberate bait...windin' you in dullard !!

TK is gonna getchya again Flip - punctuation sweetie, punctuation!

I'd like to punctuate him ....!!!! :::.

OMG who cares! why do you waste your time picking holes in one another? I'd rather there was bad spelling, bad punctuation and good information instead of some of the well written crap posted on this forum.

Has Freddie Star eaten your furry friend Rickardo?

Sally, having swallowed cheese Directs down holes a scented breeze Enticing thus, with baited breath Nice mice to their untimely death

The correct spelling is actually bated breath, but it’s so common these days to see it written as baited breath that there's every chance that it will soon become the usual form, to the disgust of conservative speakers and half of this forum. It’s easy to mock, but there’s a real problem here. Bated and baited sound the same and we no longer use bated (let alone the verb to bate), outside this one set phrase, which has become an idiom. Confusion is almost inevitable. Bated here is a contraction of abated through loss of the unstressed first vowel (a process called aphesis); it means "reduced, lessened, lowered in force". So, bated breath refers to a state in which you almost stop breathing as a result of some strong emotion, such as terror or awe. Shakespeare is the first writer known to use it, in The Merchant of Venice, in which Shylock says to Antonio: "..With bated breath and whisp’ring humbleness..."  Mark Twain also used it in Tom Sawyer: "Every eye fixed itself upon him; with parted lips and bated breath the audience hung upon his words". For those who know the older spelling (or who even stop to consider the matter), baited breath evokes an incongruous image; Geoffrey Taylor humorously (and consciously) captured it in verse in his poem Cruel Clever Cat, as quoted above by Sagraiasolar.

Relax Rickardo - it's only a bit of good old British taking of the piss.........

Nice of you to confirm my suspicion that this forum is a piss take!!

Come on Ric - we aint even started yet.  Gissa chance lad. 

Flip - have you had mex lately?

I think I've got myself a little admirer....I hope you can Whine and Dine me well ..I'll have to get a new Frock; but with your condition I thought you would be a shy and retiring type?