1839 Scam?

[QUOTE=karen65]I dont know whether this has been discussed previously but a very nice estate agent lady got back to me following an e mail and told me she had trulli on her books. I told her my budget was only £30,000 at this moment and she informed me It would be very difficult to pick up one in need of restoration for this price which I can appreciate. However on some websites I have seen these kind of properties for as little as 15,000 euro and although I appreciate you get what you pay for, when I mentioned this to my lady she told me when you get out there it is a different story and such properties may not exist.

Can anyone shed any light on this?[/QUOTE]

I had heard that it is relatively common practice for some agencies to put properties on their books as a lure, and that these properties are not in fact available when enquiries are made. Have not tested the theory though.

Karen65,

I've spent the last couple of months looking to buy a complex of trulli, and can't say that I've seen any as low as 15k E. I have seen some around 30-35k E, but they are usually only one or two cones, maybe 30 sqm or less of interior space, and are in dire need of complete restoration. While I'm sure that there are still bargains out there, a lot of the low hanging fruit has already been picked. One thing to note about agents is that most seem to specialize in a particular area of Puglia. Also, different areas command different prices, so it's worth checking four or five different agents/websites to get an idea of the market in the area that interests you. Good luck!

We found that yes some properties do not exist possibly because they do not keep their websites etc updated. Maybe its a scam Im not sure.Id like to think it wasnt that deliberate!

Different agents have the same properties on their books at completely different prices.We nearly paid 10.000 euros more than we needed to because of this practice but we sussed out the rogue agent.

Get a good agent or two in tow be precise about what you can afford how much work you will take on and they will do their best to help Im sure.
Unfortunately because of the newness of English interest/ buying in Puglia they all think we are really rich!!!! Good Luck Speak soon

15k euro, yep saw it with my own two pretty eyes. Which makes me suspicious!

[QUOTE=karen65]15k euro, yep saw it with my own two pretty eyes. Which makes me suspicious![/QUOTE]

Go to [url]www.italianheel.it[/url] - you will see quite a few in that price bracket.

Cheers Sano,
So they advertised at this price albeit mostly in dire condition but some around £30,000 euro mark SEEM like a good buy!

[QUOTE=karen65]Cheers Sano,
So they advertised at this price albeit mostly in dire condition but some around £30,000 euro mark SEEM like a good buy![/QUOTE]

I must admit I remain unconvinced of the rental return on property in Puglia. If I buy, I will be very dependent on the rental income from the property for at least a part of the year, and I am not sure that there is any significant demand in Puglia yet (aside from by the sea, which I cannot afford).

This doesnt only happen in Puglia, agents in Como do it and Marche! I have been on a trip to see a house in come which when I got there had vanished! and another booked in its place.Another was sold just when I asked about more pictures and booking a trip to view.Its the norm with Italy as you'll see if you read all the posts. Why buy there anyway, its like the scenery of the High Chaparal, if your old enough to remember that.And whats with all the Black women out in the countryside at the side of the road all dressed up with nowhere to go?

[QUOTE=Italianfan]This doesnt only happen in Puglia, agents in Como do it and Marche! I have been on a trip to see a house in come which when I got there had vanished! and another booked in its place.Another was sold just when I asked about more pictures and booking a trip to view.Its the norm with Italy as you'll see if you read all the posts. Why buy there anyway, its like the scenery of the High Chaparal, if your old enough to remember that.And whats with all the Black women out in the countryside at the side of the road all dressed up with nowhere to go?[/QUOTE]

Reminds me of home. Enough reason to buy.

[QUOTE=Sano]Reminds me of home. Enough reason to buy.[/QUOTE]

....I take it you mean that you it's the tactics of agents that remind you of home, rather than the 'trade' at the side of the road(!)

Naughty naughty Puglia is fab, and you are talking about the 1950s when everyone lived in caves. Things have moved on, the caves are trendy bars, the short black dresses worn by foxy chicks like me! ;) :eek: (I joke)

Like buying anywhere, the point is to invest money and if area becomes the next best thing count yourself lucky. However, we are buying because we love Italy, the area suit us, Ostuni is posh, its hot and has beaches, the people friendly and food plentyful (and the vino is fabio lets not forget).

I did many sums before buying, and we figured that renting out rarely covers the mortgage so may others things come into the equation: tax, cleaning, laundry, electricity unless you can do this yourself. I nearly bought in Tuscany and then Umbria, but the italians thought we we're mad, too cold they moaned, we all go to the Puglia and Sicily its on the up...Puglia I thought.... Puglia :rolleyes:

[QUOTE=tuscanhills]....I take it you mean that you it's the tactics of agents that remind you of home, rather than the 'trade' at the side of the road(!)[/QUOTE]

Both actually...

[QUOTE=elainecraig]Naughty naughty Puglia is fab, and you are talking about the 1950s when everyone lived in caves. Things have moved on, the caves are trendy bars, the short black dresses worn by foxy chicks like me! ;) :eek: (I joke)

Like buying anywhere, the point is to invest money and if area becomes the next best thing count yourself lucky. However, we are buying because we love Italy, the area suit us, Ostuni is posh, its hot and has beaches, the people friendly and food plentyful (and the vino is fabio lets not forget).

I did many sums before buying, and we figured that renting out rarely covers the mortgage so may others things come into the equation: tax, cleaning, laundry, electricity unless you can do this yourself. I nearly bought in Tuscany and then Umbria, but the italians thought we we're mad, too cold they moaned, we all go to the Puglia and Sicily its on the up...Puglia I thought.... Puglia :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]

Rental income aside, the thing that puts me off Puglia, and much of the south outside of mountainous areas, is the searing heat in summer. As it is my travel to Italy is restricted to autumn/winter/early spring as I cannot handle heat well. If I want to live there it will either be on the coast or up the mountains where the heat is tempered slightly.

Hi

Sorry to say these are prostitutes...when I was staying in Verona we got the bus on a Sunday to Lake Garda and I was amazed when the driver kept letting these black women off in one's or two's in the middle of nowhere!Then I twigged they were just waiting for clients at the side of the road.

I'ts one side of Italy I don't like but I suppose things are no better here ...its just better weather in Italy!

Becky

Must get out more...haven't seen any of these ladies of the night ! :D

You might not Lyn if they're in black ;) hard to spot in the dark I would say ;)

Actually I havent been to south of Italy in summer yet, :eek: but I have along with thousands of fellow englishmen and women practised coping with hot temperatures in Spain and Greece so I may just be able to cope with a cooling beer at 4pm and air con, I'm tough! ;)

Obviously all these people in black dresses are on their way to one of Alex and Lynn fabulous parties...

Ladies of the night(trading in the daylight)sadly they seem to be found in many different areas!!

I always thought the ladies in black (seem a little elderley to me) were widows :rolleyes: :p

[QUOTE=manopello]Hi

Sorry to say these are prostitutes...when I was staying in Verona we got the bus on a Sunday to Lake Garda and I was amazed when the driver kept letting these black women off in one's or two's in the middle of nowhere!Then I twigged they were just waiting for clients at the side of the road.

I'ts one side of Italy I don't like but I suppose things are no better here ...its just better weather in Italy!

Becky[/QUOTE]

I see some things never really change.. comforting in a way.. I remember twenty erm.. something years ago.. It was late evening, I was young and very innocent, waiting for my cousin to meet me outside a nightclub in the "interesting" part of Naples..

On the opposite side of the road, standing next to a brazier, was a lady, with all her.. erm.. charms on display.. After a few minutes, she sauntered over to me and told me in no uncertain terms to "move on". Apparently.. I was disrupting her business! Silly me honestly thought she was selling roasted chestnuts!! :) Sigh.. youth.. totally wasted on the young!

:) :) :)

I have been all over Italy,this was the 1st time I have ever seen ladies of the day,not night.I was very surprised by this,as for great wine in pulia as a reason to buy ! I can get great wine in Sainsburys it dont mean I want to live in the car park! It may be cheap but so is Bulgaria and I wouldnt want to live there.I fail to understand why anyone wants to live in this region, its dirty and downtrodden,Ostuni,alberobello,lecce none of them worth ever going back to,I must be missing something?

EYES :mad:

I'm missing eyes? how does that work? Didn't miss the ladies ,filth ,holes in the road ,bad mannered staff, I could go on! why don't you tell me some good points?

[QUOTE=Italianfan]I have been all over Italy,this was the 1st time I have ever seen ladies of the day,not night.I was very surprised by this,as for great wine in pulia as a reason to buy ! I can get great wine in Sainsburys it dont mean I want to live in the car park! It may be cheap but so is Bulgaria and I wouldnt want to live there.I fail to understand why anyone wants to live in this region, its dirty and downtrodden,Ostuni,alberobello,lecce none of them worth ever going back to,I must be missing something?[/QUOTE]

Italianfan.. perhaps a name change is overdue? Of your 24 postings on this forum, 19 are negative in one way or another about Italy.. Can you not think of the glass as half full rather than half empty? Si, ho capito bene.. everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but there really is enough doom and gloom for everyone to have a slice.. must we also eat yours everytime? Sorry, I'll get back in my box now... :) Oops..lets make that 20 neg comments from 25.. :) :)

[QUOTE=Italianfan]I have been all over Italy,this was the 1st time I have ever seen ladies of the day,not night.I was very surprised by this,as for great wine in pulia as a reason to buy ! I can get great wine in Sainsburys it dont mean I want to live in the car park! It may be cheap but so is Bulgaria and I wouldnt want to live there.I fail to understand why anyone wants to live in this region, its dirty and downtrodden,Ostuni,alberobello,lecce none of them worth ever going back to,I must be missing something?[/QUOTE]

Why would you post something like this Italianfan? There are obviously many people who adore Puglia and have found a lot of wonderful things about it, or else they wouldn't have bought there. Not everyone is stupid.

[QUOTE=Aliena]I see some things never really change.. comforting in a way.. I remember twenty erm.. something years ago.. It was late evening, I was young and very innocent, waiting for my cousin to meet me outside a nightclub in the "interesting" part of Naples..

On the opposite side of the road, standing next to a brazier, was a lady, with all her.. erm.. charms on display.. After a few minutes, she sauntered over to me and told me in no uncertain terms to "move on". Apparently.. I was disrupting her business! Silly me honestly thought she was selling roasted chestnuts!! :) Sigh.. youth.. totally wasted on the young!

:) :) :)[/QUOTE]

Aliena

You really brought back some memories and made me laugh. Much the same thing happened to me in Milano as a young and rather naive English teacher working at the Shenker Institute. To tell the truth the 'lady' in question was unbelievably skilled at international hand gestures, let alone language and quite frankly I was petrified.

Brazier? 20+ years ago on the outskirts of Milan the fashion was for these 'ladies' to stand near burning tires by the side of the road.

Bet that roasted a few chetnuts!

:mad: Your comment re bad mannered staff made me smile, I not only find your comment in itself bad mannered by downright rude. Ok you may not personally like Puglia yourself but find it quite rude and offensive to be so personal as to slag it off in such a way. I wouldn't do that to any area of Italy that I didn't like for fear of offending anydody but you are obviously quite different.

I, like a good percentage of the members on this forum LOVE Puglia to bits and can't wait to get there permenant. Bad mannered staff - havn't met any yet and find quite the opposite. Our local tobaconist gives every one of my 4 children a free sweet whenever my husband goes in for ciggies, one of our new neighbours has taken us under his wing and took us to the local wood yard, best place for tiles, is going round twice a week to check on the house and sent us home with wine and many other gifts. I find the people we have met to be the best ever and can't wait to get back for a much BETTER quality of life. Perhaps your having a bad day and regret your posting.

Here's a photo just for Italianfan ;) fantastic Ostuni

women in black, chestnuts and burning tyres, negative attention seekers with no eyes. What about my scam question???

[QUOTE=karen65]women in black, chestnuts and burning tyres, negative attention seekers with no eyes. What about my scam question???[/QUOTE]

Yeh, it does seem as if your thread's been hijacked a 'little' ;)

Now ... what was your original question :rolleyes:

"Do cheap properties advertised on the net really exist when you get to this (awful?) Puglia place"????

Karen, going back to your original subject, I've just checked the website of the guy we bought through [url]www.buyahouse-italy.com[/url] and you can set a max price limit on the search on his home page. Out of curiosity I put 30,000 euro in and few came up including a few appartment/houses that didn't look to bad. :rolleyes: You can contact Vincent and tell him exactly what your looking for and he will check out other agents and arrange viewings when your ready to visit.

Cheers Paula

[QUOTE=paula hampson]Karen, going back to your original subject, I've just checked the website of the guy we bought through [url]www.buyahouse-italy.com[/url] and you can set a max price limit on the search on his home page. Out of curiosity I put 30,000 euro in and few came up including a few appartment/houses that didn't look to bad. :rolleyes: You can contact Vincent and tell him exactly what your looking for and he will check out other agents and arrange viewings when your ready to visit.[/QUOTE]

Good for you Paula :) Vincent is just the guy to restore a bit of reality into this discussion.

(must contact Vincent myself and warn him not to show Karen the ladies ,filth ,holes in the road and any bad mannered staff) :eek: Oh and I forgot the toxic waste dumps and stear clear of any flooding ;)

Only joking, Karen good luck with your search. There are enough of us Puglia folk on this site to confirm my opinion that Puglia has a lot to offer and is fantastic and you will fall in love just as we have.

Happy hunting :p

Thanks both - diamonds!!

[QUOTE=Susan P]Aliena

You really brought back some memories and made me laugh. Much the same thing happened to me in Milano as a young and rather naive English teacher working at the Shenker Institute. To tell the truth the 'lady' in question was unbelievably skilled at international hand gestures, let alone language and quite frankly I was petrified.

Brazier? 20+ years ago on the outskirts of Milan the fashion was for these 'ladies' to stand near burning tires by the side of the road.

Bet that roasted a few chetnuts![/QUOTE]

Susan

I'm glad I made you laugh..there is enough doom and gloom. With regards to the skillful international hand gestures.. I know each and every one - practised to perfection.. just in case the need should ever arise.. so to speak. ;)

Hmm.. I see a gap in the market here.. perhaps I could teach.. for a small fee of course. Must get back on track now. Where did I put all that stuff on houses under 30K? OK OK I'm going back to my box.. uff.. spoilsports!

:) :)

Have the Italians got any hand gestures which Italian newbies would be ignorant to? Come on share them with us!

[QUOTE=karen65]Have the Italians got any hand gestures which Italian newbies would be ignorant to? Come on share them with us![/QUOTE]

I asked the same some time ago............. [url]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=1013&highlight=gestures[/url] and found the [url=http://italian.about.com/library/handgestures/blgesturesindex.htm]
About[/url] site quite interesting

i can see italian fans point of view.the first time i went to puglia i thought it was a dump,you do have to go beneath the surface to find what is good about it.the landscape is pretty boring,my husband says they call the itria valley a valley because it is the only part that is not dead flat,and compared to those in tuscany for example or even yorkshire it is not a valley at all.the land was once covered in fabulous oak forests but these were removed for agricultural purposes and that is valid of course,people have to make a living.i also take on board what has been said about pollution and wonder why ,if it is so great ,the italians have not pushed up the prices over the years.bearing all this in mind,i am still looking to buy there as it suits me.i like the fact that it still feels very italian,the food is wonderful and it feels very earthy and real-a bit like hackney on a friday night does-but then i prefer hackney to hampstead-having lived in both.

Wot wiv guns?

the guns are not just in hackney i am sorry to say.my point is that most people need to visit somewhere more than once to know if it is right for them and the thing that decides it is not always something tangible like price, it can be intuitive.

...Puglia may well be a little rough around the edges but I'm surprised that it's been shown so much disdain. All areas of Italy have their own positive and negative points, some areas may well be extremely beautiful but become unbearably touristy in the summer, and prohibitively expensive - Puglia may be a little raw for some but I found it had a lot to offer, I thought Ostuni's Centro Storico was captivating, the beaches were lovely, and if the Italians holiday there (1,940,183 as against 313,860 foriegn visitors) then it can't all be bad. Let's try not to slag off any part of Italy, we are on this site because we like Italy aren't we?

Karen, I think Puglia has enough to offer, I'll be there from 26th November to 29th if you fancy meeting for a drink.

Magsx

I live in Kilburn so Puglia seems like paradise :D
Good luck Karen I think you can draw your own conclusions, and let Mags take you to the Cazbar or Riccardos for a bevvie.

Cheers Mags

if I am there on that date I will be in touch most defo.

But of course everywhere can be criticised and RED TULIP I know what you mean about the Hackney thing, I lived there myself and consider myself to be an earthy girl to. Much appreciation for the honest appraisal.

Whoa! I'm taking a bit of a pasting here! Mr Negative who's blind.
What ever lights your candle eh! I do like Italy hence the name, just not some of the places I've been and did answer the question posed, based on my experiences of trying to buy a property there.Other than free sweets for the children, no good reason as yet to buy somewhere in pulia? I joined the forum to express my opinion and gain knowledge,not to wear rose tinted specs about all of Italy.I didnt make any comments about anyone personally only an area, so how was I rude? Being told I need eyes is a little more personal? So a better not state my opinion on N/W Sardinia!
Anyway Love lago's Como,Iseo, Piedmont,Le Marche and Bologna,love italian food,cars,clothes and some of its people,hope that a little less negative?

Love Puglia and we will forgive you!!!

...expressing your opinion about all things Italian is fine, and I'd be wrong to suggest positive appraisals only are welcome, but if you're views are likely to be a little contraversial you have to expect a bit of flack.

Glad to hear you like many other Italian things italianfan

Magsx

[QUOTE=Sano]I must admit I remain unconvinced of the rental return on property in Puglia. If I buy, I will be very dependent on the rental income from the property for at least a part of the year, and I am not sure that there is any significant demand in Puglia yet (aside from by the sea, which I cannot afford).[/QUOTE]

Lunigiana is where to go for cheap, rentable property.

also karen65 be sure to consider renovation costs.these are rising in puglia.there are a few posts on the forum on renovation costs,the cost of renovating a trullo cone,for example seems to be between about 5 and 10 thousand euros depending on who you ask.