2158 Surveys and Estate Agents

I would be greatful of any advice you can give on this?

I am a Building Surveyor and plan to relocate to Italy during 2007. I am hoping to be able to offer a service to prospective purchasers from the UK or anywhere really, by offering to sieve out suitable properties prior to people going to the expense of travelling to Italy to view. i.e me viewing say 6 or 8 properties (at a very competitive price) carrying out a basic building survey with lots of photos and emailing and posting the info back to the client so they can then decide which houses to view during their visit and those which are not suitable due to the amount of work, dampness, structural cracking, the commune tip next door etc etc.

I have been informed that I might need to be a registered estate agent to provide this service. Is this correct?

Many thanks all and what a great forum, tis better than a book.

Chico

Category
General chat about Italy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 12/16/2005 - 10:28

[QUOTE=Chico]I would be greatful of any advice you can give on this?

I am a Building Surveyor and plan to relocate to Italy during 2007. I am hoping to be able to offer a service to prospective purchasers from the UK or anywhere really, by offering to sieve out suitable properties prior to people going to the expense of travelling to Italy to view. i.e me viewing say 6 or 8 properties (at a very competitive price) carrying out a basic building survey with lots of photos and emailing and posting the info back to the client so they can then decide which houses to view during their visit and those which are not suitable due to the amount of work, dampness, structural cracking, the commune tip next door etc etc.

I have been informed that I might need to be a registered estate agent to provide this service. Is this correct?

Many thanks all and what a great forum, tis better than a book.

Chico[/QUOTE]
that was an interesting idea.No i don't think you'd have to register as an estate agent more probably as a geometra (surveyor)the problem would probably be that a lot of people always seem to be looking for bargains or spending the least possible...so even if in the long run you could be saving people money in extenuating searches you'd still have to convince them that it's worth their while in paying you for your services.The other problem i could envisage is that some estate agents could see you as "interfering" in their business(?)A third consideration is that with modern building tecniques even quite dramatic building damage (cracked,falling down walls, damp patches,fallen in rooves etc etc can all be resolved with good builders nowadays.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 12/18/2005 - 07:17

I couldn't agree more. We looked into this as my husband is a building surveyor also. In my experience people really don't want to pay for the service when it comes down to it. The difficulty is also, as a surveyor is not a recognised profession here, what insurance and guarantee does the client have?

To convert your qualification to be a Geometra here you must take an oral exam (in Italian of course). Now, I suspect an English geometra would do very well here but of course you must convert your qualifications to do that and that takes time.