4007 They're 'avin' a larf

Good point, WT!!!

Like you say, you wouldn't imagine anyone here in the UK going to another area without any idea of what they're after!!! :(

It's sometimes just a fancy and, once there, people have no idea how to move forward. They probably won't end up buying there anyways...

Good news about your roof!! :)

S

I also agree, Wishful, but there is another side to this.

I spent a lot of time thinking about what exactly I wanted in a house. The result was an A4 page of bullet-points grouped under Budget (Purchase and Renovation), Must Have, Would Like, Doesn't Matter and Must Not Have. I sent this to two agencies, both well-known, one based in Pescara and one in Amandola.

In both cases, after they had shown me a couple of properties I had to ask if they had bothered to read my specification.

However, to be fair, the house I'll be moving into in September is not what I had imagined buying and it's far from a perfect match with my wish list. After seeing it and thinking about it, I realised that the things on my list that it doesn't have are not that important. What's more, the missing features are more than made up for by postive things that weren't on my list.

From my perspective, I would suggest people try to avoid either of two extremes: On the one hand, spend time thinking seriously about exactly what you want so that you do not find yourself confronting a huge range of very different houses and so paralysed by indecision. On the other, do not allow yourself to be so locked into the vision of being in one particular sort of house that you don't even allow yourself to consider other possibilities; they might suit you even better than what you had imagined.

Al

Its not really another side Al, at least you did your best to work out what it was that you thought you wanted before embarking, and focused on two specific areas. OK, so when you actually went there and looked, you came to realise that you wanted something different, but you didn't take a complete scatter gun approach to a whole region!

I too was very focused on what I wanted, which was an old house in an old, not too small town (which is what I eventually bought). For my first trip, I had arranged to see two particular houses in the Ascoli region of Le Marche. The first house I rather liked, but the area I didn't: one thing that I had not factored into my calculations was just what 700m above sea level really meant :eek: , the other was just how small and deserted these towns can be, and Le Marche was just not for me. I cancelled to the second appointment.

So I headed back south to Abruzzo, and focused on a town that I liked, gave the local agent the spec for the property I wanted, and took it from there.

Of course the estate agents don't necessarily help, they assume that English people want tumble down farmhouses in the sticks, despite telling them that only town properties are suitable, but these do tend to be the ones that one only ever reacts with over the internet. My advice would be research on the internet, then go and find a town/area that you like, and then find an agent and a then house. Not in any other order ;)

I agree with your suggested plan of attack.

Interesting that altitude proved to be more of an issue for you than you had anticipated.

I suddenly realised after looking at two properties that my house being on a south-facing slope -- or at the very least [I]not[/I] being on a north-facing slope -- was crucial for me. I found that interesting and wondered if it was something to do with me visiting in February.

If you are able to do so, it seems to me that looking for property in the winter is a good idea. What seems okay on a cold, grey and damp day in February when the trees are bare and the fields all-dead looking, can only look wonderful at this time of year.

You touch on another issue: where the house is. I think a lot of Brits have little appreciation of how big the Italian regions are. It's all very well saying you want a house in, say, Abruzzo, but that covers 11,000 square kilometres. Tuscany is 23,000 km², Le Marche 10,000 km² and Puglia 20,000 km². By way of comparison, Surrey is 1,600 km², Kent 3,700 km² and even Devon is 6,700 km². Fife, in Scotland, where I live, is all of 1,300 km².

And, of course, one does not really live in a region, one lives in a specific house in a specific area of one region. There are parts of Fife that I would hate living in; there are parts I like very much. When one is looking for a house, it is difficult to narrow the focus down to a particular area if you can only spend brief periods in the country. But it seems to me that unless one is very lucky and happens to immediately come across a place that perfectly suits, spending time on the ground is the only way to find out what you really want. I spent countless hours looking at pictures and reading descriptions on websites, but it was only when I started poking around very real collapsing heaps of masonry in specific places in the countryside that I was able to know for certain what I wanted.

Al

You would be surprised Wishful to know that moving to an area - even in the UK- on a whim is exactly what many people do!

We live in a beautiful welsh market town and working now as a letting agent and previously in an estate agency you would not believe how many people turn up at the office having stopped off in town on their way to somewhere else and decided to move here!

When looking to buy it was usually people from the south east hankering after the good life and expecting to buy half of Wales for a few quid.

Quite often they would say they wanted land but when questioned what they intended to do with it were at a loss. Even worse were those who insisted on seeing rural properties and then complained about the smell from the cows/chickens/pigs nearby or the noise of the combines/tractors!!

On the rental front we had an Australian family over last winter who wanted an old property with character in the country to rent - trouble is character in older country properties usually means drafty and no power showers or mains gas central heating.

With each viewing she put more and more clothes on until eventually we refused to take her anywhere she wanted to see and forced her to look at a beautiful new house on the edge of town. Needless to say it was perfect and she has been very happy there!!

It is useful to look at all sorts of properties and areas but you should have a small " must have" list too and be realistic about price. Agents are always keen to show you a house that is just a little over your budget but "which is just perfect for you"

We have met people in Abruzzo who arrived one day and brought the first house they saw - they couldn't even remember the name of the town when asked where!!

having researched the area for about 8 months and made several visits, going back to view our house on a separate occassion with the children- we still thought are we being too impetiuous (don't think that how its spelt but hey!).

A good agent won't mind the wasted viewings and should in any event be able to learn from each viewing what you are really looking for and what your needs are.

The worrying thing for me is that i don't want hoards of Brits invading the Abruzzo!! we are the only English in the village and I would be quite hapy for it to stay that way!!

Jackie

When I bought my house in the UK many years ago (and the only one, since I never saw reason to move) I did my research by cycling round the area viewing properties from outside. The one I bought was the first I viewed inside and i put in an offer the following day. The point being that a little general mooching around helps in deciding, and doing it at different times of the day/year gives a much better impression of the local environment.

Ovbviously in Abruzzo etc you'll need a car for general meandering - but a two week holiday in a car (or even hired scooter) would be well worth it - or pehaps people who don't research have so much money they don't need to worry.