Buongiorno, and many thanks for your wise advice. 😊
In fact, we are already living in Roma (Italy), and from what we and our contacts have been able to ascertain, most of the property advertisements published by 'international' brands (such as RE/MAX, ENGEL & VÖLKERS, L'ARCHITRAVE, JAKLIN RIEGELMANN, APOLLONI & BLOM...) try, at the very best, to sell third-rate houses... displayed for years, but nevertheless listed at stratospheric prices.
As for local agencies, the problem lies mainly in their amateurism and the very approximate nature of the few information they provide.
It is all the more regrettable that the public is conditioned not to do anything by themselves, allowing this kind of middlemen to block the market for the sole purpose of raking in indecent percentages, though simple solutions exist that put sellers and buyers in direct contact (including the CasaDaPrivato.it website) — hence our rightful determination to break this vicious circle.
As mentioned in my purchase offer, I already have a family (and two lovely dogs). So, perhaps should I precise that, even if @modicasa seems to like camping on this post, I have no intention to adopt this poor little thing.
Furthermore, we are already living in Roma (Italy), and just want to relocate in Liguria or Tuscany. Hence, our approach and ancestries are certainly more Italian than the British-born @modicasa would like to admit, as Italians are straightforward and hate to fatten up useless middlemen and parasites such as realtors — as confirmed by my Italian notary, since most local real estate transactions are done without realtors, who are especially targeting gullible foreigners to impose their bad advices and indecent percentage.
As for the overwhelming evidences I shared here, no need to be a "Karen or ChatGPT" to get it right, and it is another overwhelming proof of @modicasa so-called professionalism to ignore what is a "thermal strainer barn" (or a G class shed, if he prefers):
That said, and beyond @modicasa's spins & diversions, many thanks for focusing our attention on Sicily, where it seems urgent to help expats to not get scammed.
Well, given the publicity-oriented intrusions of @modicasa — including the incongruous remark "If you want an advert, pay for one" (?!), for obvious reasons such predators hate autonomous people and, once again, just want to crash the banquet, while everyone knows that even publishing a paid advert would never protect anyone from being harassed by pesky realtors —, it is fortunate that I took the precaution of specifying "realtors and middlemen not welcome"! 🤣
Regarding the deceitful allegation that "a legally operating licenced realtor in Italy is a highly regulated profession", a single look at Immobiliare and Idealista websites show that most ads are problematic with misleading photographic framing, abusive HDR filters, trickish sales pitch embellishing reality and adorning any thermal strainer barns with "luxury and prestigious property" appellations, hiding nuisances (such as proximity of busy roads, polluting industries, high voltage lines, &c.), lying on real living surfaces and concealing redhibitory defects... not mentioning the fact that some realtors try to sneakily sell their own house via their own agency without informing the buyer about this peculiarity (case already encountered four times with Italian realtors... who were even pretending to get a commission above that)!
As for the so-called "pointless real estate disasters in other countries which have no bearing on Italy or Italian law", the five links above (amongst countless others), revealed by a simple Google search, refer specifically to frauds and crimes committed by very honest realtors operating in Italy.
Knowing that, any lucid buyer is perfectly rightful to boycott parasitic, useless and toxic realtors, as they are no different than ambushed starvers speculators.
And given the great age of this histrion, @modicasa should have learned that a screen of susceptibility will never disguise a flagrant lack of integrity.
Primo: even if realtors business model consists to interfere in other people's projects for duping both buyers and sellers, it is highly inappropriate to harpoon my property purchase advert to get free publicity on my back.
Secundo: throwing a tantrum by way of diversion and just denying the embarrassing reality of factual elements known to everyone*, which I synthesize on the basis of experiences common to countless buyers and sellers, ripped off by a clique of so-called 'professionals' — as long as spending one's time lying, extorting and over-indebting households can be considered a 'profession' — just ends up discrediting your biased point of view.
Tertio: you have no idea who you are talking to, and the consumer protection group of which I am a member compiles feedback from thousands of buyers and sellers in the USA, Canada, UK, Belgium, France, Spain, Greece, and Italy... where we meet the worst untrustworthy and bunglers realtors of all — the last straw being that most of them are controlled by Dutch, German or British firms that have cornered the Italian property market to extort money from their own nationals!
Quarto: considering the generally deplorable realtors' education level, it is all the more indecent that they claim to rake in a 'commission' that can represent tens of thousand euros (i.e. years of savings for the buyers), depending on the value of the property sold — hence the artificial price hikes —, while lawyers and notaries receive a minimal remuneration for their incomparable education, skills and level of responsibilities.
So, echoing your last self-censored post: good luck for realtors future retraining in sectors spared by AI and in line with their real skills (binman, janitor, stable boy, roadmender, &c.); branches that may be less lucrative than real estate parasitism, but at least useful to Society.
And now, please stop polluting my property purchase advert with your toxic presence.
Â
* Even if victims' inertia or lack of awareness in defending their rights still allows the majority of swindlers to escape criminal sanctions, a simple Google search will reveal a range of nuisances perpetrated by this 'profession'... as beneficial to households as a fox can be to a henhouse:
"An estate agent has been handed a two-year jail term after attempting to defraud multiple clients of more than £25,000. Ayodele Oladuti photographed bank cards on his phone and took bank statements and other documents while showing prospective buyers around his clients' homes. The 29-year-old was sentenced to two years in prison for identity theft and fraud at Guildford Crown Court on Wednesday (April 26). Surrey Police said Oladuti, from South Croydon, used the documents he had obtained to commit identity theft while working for east Surrey estate agency The Personal Agent. He would set up bank accounts and a phone contract in his clients' names, before returning to their homes to collect the fraudulently obtained bank cards and a mobile phone":
(Not) really sorry that the blatant truth offends your obsolete business-model (soon replaced by AI connecting buyers demands with sellers offers in national registers), but anyone knows that buyers have never the leisure to "choose" the crap realtors [as you named them] imposed by the sellers.
Furthermore, and contrary to lawyers,surveyorsandnotaries,whoaretheonlycompetent, unbiased and affordable guarantorsforanytransaction, ruinously expensive realtors and other useless middlemen are neither sworn nor bound by professional secrecy, while the "legal obligations" you are invoking are purely theoretical, as proven by most misleading property advertisements and the deliberate concealment of redhibitory defects.
It is even more inappropriate that notoriously disloyal realtors boast about the "legal obligations" they flout on a daily basis, to extort everyone's confidential data — hence the major risk of divulgation + identity theft* — and all trust powers... just on the pretext of accessing basic services (phone line, electricity, bank account), anyone who has two neurons and a spine can nowadays subscribe online.
So, obviously targeting gullible expats who marvel at nothing, the realtors "mission" basically consists to crash the banquet, impose their bad advices, over-indebting households and grab an indecent percentage... directly correlated to the systematically overpriced common houses (with basic finishing works and appliances) a trickish sales pitch tries to flog — houses yet desperately awaiting for improbable buyers throughout the former speculative "touristic" areas —, while knowing perfectly well that buying such overpriced houses will make it a calamitous and impossible to resell "investment", except to certainly lose the 2/3 of the initial inflated price.
Ergo, the only wrong thing here is your predictable subjectivity.
According to my experiences, expats should be fully aware of the fact that — as confirmed by my Italian notary — most local real estate transactions are done without middlemen, while realtors are especially targeting gullible foreigners to impose their bad advices and indecent percentage (the latter being directly correlated to their bubbled market).
Besides, the uselessness of such middlemen is even more obvious that hiring a good local lawyer + a geometra, as an additional precaution to supervise the sale, is x3 less costly than to burden oneself with any realtor who has no loyalty nor legal knowledge.
Comments posted
Buongiorno, and many thanks for your wise advice. 😊
In fact, we are already living in Roma (Italy), and from what we and our contacts have been able to ascertain, most of the property advertisements published by 'international' brands (such as RE/MAX, ENGEL & VÖLKERS, L'ARCHITRAVE, JAKLIN RIEGELMANN, APOLLONI & BLOM...) try, at the very best, to sell third-rate houses... displayed for years, but nevertheless listed at stratospheric prices.
As for local agencies, the problem lies mainly in their amateurism and the very approximate nature of the few information they provide.
It is all the more regrettable that the public is conditioned not to do anything by themselves, allowing this kind of middlemen to block the market for the sole purpose of raking in indecent percentages, though simple solutions exist that put sellers and buyers in direct contact (including the CasaDaPrivato.it website) — hence our rightful determination to break this vicious circle.
Considering the seriousness of the facts exposed above, I am not sure that your advice is objective nor relevant.
As mentioned in my purchase offer, I already have a family (and two lovely dogs). So, perhaps should I precise that, even if @modicasa seems to like camping on this post, I have no intention to adopt this poor little thing.
Furthermore, we are already living in Roma (Italy), and just want to relocate in Liguria or Tuscany. Hence, our approach and ancestries are certainly more Italian than the British-born @modicasa would like to admit, as Italians are straightforward and hate to fatten up useless middlemen and parasites such as realtors — as confirmed by my Italian notary, since most local real estate transactions are done without realtors, who are especially targeting gullible foreigners to impose their bad advices and indecent percentage.
As for the overwhelming evidences I shared here, no need to be a "Karen or ChatGPT" to get it right, and it is another overwhelming proof of @modicasa so-called professionalism to ignore what is a "thermal strainer barn" (or a G class shed, if he prefers):
https://www.archyde.com/7-things-you-need-to-know-about-thermal-colande…
That said, and beyond @modicasa's spins & diversions, many thanks for focusing our attention on Sicily, where it seems urgent to help expats to not get scammed.
Well, given the publicity-oriented intrusions of @modicasa — including the incongruous remark "If you want an advert, pay for one" (?!), for obvious reasons such predators hate autonomous people and, once again, just want to crash the banquet, while everyone knows that even publishing a paid advert would never protect anyone from being harassed by pesky realtors —, it is fortunate that I took the precaution of specifying "realtors and middlemen not welcome"! 🤣
Regarding the deceitful allegation that "a legally operating licenced realtor in Italy is a highly regulated profession", a single look at Immobiliare and Idealista websites show that most ads are problematic with misleading photographic framing, abusive HDR filters, trickish sales pitch embellishing reality and adorning any thermal strainer barns with "luxury and prestigious property" appellations, hiding nuisances (such as proximity of busy roads, polluting industries, high voltage lines, &c.), lying on real living surfaces and concealing redhibitory defects... not mentioning the fact that some realtors try to sneakily sell their own house via their own agency without informing the buyer about this peculiarity (case already encountered four times with Italian realtors... who were even pretending to get a commission above that)!
As for the so-called "pointless real estate disasters in other countries which have no bearing on Italy or Italian law", the five links above (amongst countless others), revealed by a simple Google search, refer specifically to frauds and crimes committed by very honest realtors operating in Italy.
Knowing that, any lucid buyer is perfectly rightful to boycott parasitic, useless and toxic realtors, as they are no different than ambushed starvers speculators.
And given the great age of this histrion, @modicasa should have learned that a screen of susceptibility will never disguise a flagrant lack of integrity.
È finita la commedia!
@modicasa
Primo: even if realtors business model consists to interfere in other people's projects for duping both buyers and sellers, it is highly inappropriate to harpoon my property purchase advert to get free publicity on my back.
Secundo: throwing a tantrum by way of diversion and just denying the embarrassing reality of factual elements known to everyone*, which I synthesize on the basis of experiences common to countless buyers and sellers, ripped off by a clique of so-called 'professionals' — as long as spending one's time lying, extorting and over-indebting households can be considered a 'profession' — just ends up discrediting your biased point of view.
Tertio: you have no idea who you are talking to, and the consumer protection group of which I am a member compiles feedback from thousands of buyers and sellers in the USA, Canada, UK, Belgium, France, Spain, Greece, and Italy... where we meet the worst untrustworthy and bunglers realtors of all — the last straw being that most of them are controlled by Dutch, German or British firms that have cornered the Italian property market to extort money from their own nationals!
Quarto: considering the generally deplorable realtors' education level, it is all the more indecent that they claim to rake in a 'commission' that can represent tens of thousand euros (i.e. years of savings for the buyers), depending on the value of the property sold — hence the artificial price hikes —, while lawyers and notaries receive a minimal remuneration for their incomparable education, skills and level of responsibilities.
So, echoing your last self-censored post: good luck for realtors future retraining in sectors spared by AI and in line with their real skills (binman, janitor, stable boy, roadmender, &c.); branches that may be less lucrative than real estate parasitism, but at least useful to Society.
And now, please stop polluting my property purchase advert with your toxic presence.
Â
* Even if victims' inertia or lack of awareness in defending their rights still allows the majority of swindlers to escape criminal sanctions, a simple Google search will reveal a range of nuisances perpetrated by this 'profession'... as beneficial to households as a fox can be to a henhouse:
https://www.ilgiorno.it/milano/cronaca/droga-clienti-condanna-ex-agente…
https://www.reggioreport.it/2017/12/vende-appartamento-ma-e-una-truffa-…
https://www.lastampa.it/torino/2021/11/25/news/l_agente_immobiliare_tru…
https://milano.repubblica.it/cronaca/2016/10/17/news/milano_finte_vendi…
https://www.gazzettadiparma.it/archivio-bozze/2021/12/08/news/truffa-mi…
https://www.rtbf.be/article/plus-de-760-agents-immobiliers-radies-en-ci…
https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2015/04/22/un-courtier-immobilier-rec…
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/todd-kohlhepp-another-body-uncovered-on-su…
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/former-realtor-sentenced-4-years-f…
https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2022/10/02/real-estate-broker-michael-…
https://morristowngreen.com/2023/02/16/morristown-realtor-loses-license…
https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2022/08/04/southwest-virginia-husband-a…/
"Lancashire agent Claire Louise Ainsworth stole the money by telling the vendor and buyer different agreed selling prices":
https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/18268441.estate-agent-claire…
https://thenegotiator.co.uk/online-estate-agent-convicted-of-5000-fraud/
"An estate agent has been handed a two-year jail term after attempting to defraud multiple clients of more than £25,000. Ayodele Oladuti photographed bank cards on his phone and took bank statements and other documents while showing prospective buyers around his clients' homes. The 29-year-old was sentenced to two years in prison for identity theft and fraud at Guildford Crown Court on Wednesday (April 26). Surrey Police said Oladuti, from South Croydon, used the documents he had obtained to commit identity theft while working for east Surrey estate agency The Personal Agent. He would set up bank accounts and a phone contract in his clients' names, before returning to their homes to collect the fraudulently obtained bank cards and a mobile phone":
https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/estate-agent-jailed-two-ye…
And so on...
@modicasa
(Not) really sorry that the blatant truth offends your obsolete business-model (soon replaced by AI connecting buyers demands with sellers offers in national registers), but anyone knows that buyers have never the leisure to "choose" the crap realtors [as you named them] imposed by the sellers.
Furthermore, and contrary to lawyers, surveyors and notaries, who are the only competent, unbiased and affordable guarantors for any transaction, ruinously expensive realtors and other useless middlemen are neither sworn nor bound by professional secrecy, while the "legal obligations" you are invoking are purely theoretical, as proven by most misleading property advertisements and the deliberate concealment of redhibitory defects.
It is even more inappropriate that notoriously disloyal realtors boast about the "legal obligations" they flout on a daily basis, to extort everyone's confidential data — hence the major risk of divulgation + identity theft* — and all trust powers... just on the pretext of accessing basic services (phone line, electricity, bank account), anyone who has two neurons and a spine can nowadays subscribe online.
* https://www.usa.gov/identity-theft
So, obviously targeting gullible expats who marvel at nothing, the realtors "mission" basically consists to crash the banquet, impose their bad advices, over-indebting households and grab an indecent percentage... directly correlated to the systematically overpriced common houses (with basic finishing works and appliances) a trickish sales pitch tries to flog — houses yet desperately awaiting for improbable buyers throughout the former speculative "touristic" areas —, while knowing perfectly well that buying such overpriced houses will make it a calamitous and impossible to resell "investment", except to certainly lose the 2/3 of the initial inflated price.
Ergo, the only wrong thing here is your predictable subjectivity.
Â
Hello Ugo, and thank you very much for this useful link.
Buonasera Liz, and thank you for your kind reply.
According to my experiences, expats should be fully aware of the fact that — as confirmed by my Italian notary — most local real estate transactions are done without middlemen, while realtors are especially targeting gullible foreigners to impose their bad advices and indecent percentage (the latter being directly correlated to their bubbled market).
Besides, the uselessness of such middlemen is even more obvious that hiring a good local lawyer + a geometra, as an additional precaution to supervise the sale, is x3 less costly than to burden oneself with any realtor who has no loyalty nor legal knowledge.
Cordiali saluti,
Laura
Â