Buying a property

A Look Back

Ed Buying a property , , 0 Comment

While searching for something else, I came across the first email Kevin sent that proposed that we build new rather than buy an existing house and improve it.

This email came as we were trying to firm up what houses we’d see on our June 2016 trip.

He eased into it …

Thinking about this completely differently.

Then he proposed his alternative. He was right that we were expecting that we’d have to do some work, but we weren’t looking for a complete restoration …

Instead of spending all or most of the budget and given that you are open to a project requiring some work, we approach this completely differently.

Here’s the pitch …

Attached is an article set to appear in ITALIA MAGAZINE. The subject is right-sized houses. Places that are done in a smaller overall volume but deliver all the beauty and function of larger houses, WITHOUT the cost and maintenance. There’s a house, CASA IDEALE, with great views, privacy, proximity to town, an open plan architecture and three spacious bedrooms, all done in a roughly 140 sqm format for around €300k. It’s even designed so if it’s just two people, they can live entirely on the ground floor. Projected construction time is 10-12 months. I attach the designs.

And his close …

This sort of approach could be excellent.

magazine article about a small Italian house
Advertorial
 Click to Enlarge

Now, it turns out that the “article” was really advertorial, but the idea was a sound one. I was trying to keep the size of the house and the cost down.

Since our spec list really focused on buying an existing house in pretty good shape and doing only minor improvements, I might have rejected the idea out of hand if I hadn’t worked with Kevin in 2015. I felt he had a good sense of what we wanted and what was available.

The size and floorplan referred to in the article aren’t very close to the plan we are building today, but we did bite on his concept. And here we are, not with Casa Ideale, but our own Casa Avventura.

Casa Avventura

Ed Building a House, Buying a property, Designing a House, Living in Italy, Moving to Italy , , , , 0 Comment

We’ve been using “Casa Ideale” as the working name for our house. It’s the name Kevin used when he was marketing the property and the house concept.

Image of adventureWe hope the house will turn out to be “Ideal”, but we know getting it built and moving in will be an adventure, so I’m going to use “Casa Avventura” as our working name from now on.

Closing: Short and Sweet

Ed Buying a property , 0 Comment

Friday, a little after 6. Everyone present who needs to be.

We had done the oral reading of the documents on Wednesday, so we were here just to pass around money and sign the contracts.

Signing atto to buy property in ItalyThe contracts are in both English and Italian. My translator and my attorney agree that they are the same. The seller, the translator, and I have to sign each page of three copies of the contacts and of the statement that the translation is accurate. As I did in the bank, I have to carefully write out “Edwin Joseph Katzman” each time. Legible, but cursive. Not an easy combination for me.

Just to add some humor to the situation, we also have to sign an energy certificate. This document rates and explains the energy efficiency of the property — in our case, the ruin. (It’s not very efficient. Very drafty.)

To finish up, the notaio signs everything, while having an animated conversation with my lawyer, which I can’t follow. The translator assures me it has nothing to do with my deal. They’re talking about a mutual acquaintance, and not in a positive way.

A few photos, handshakes all around, and we’re done. Anne and I own the land and the pile of stones.

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Getting Close to the Closing

Ed Buying a property, Living in Italy , 0 Comment

On Thursday morning, I found out that the bank transfers had come through. In fact, as I looked at the paperwork, I figured they had in fact happened the day before, before the closing. So we should have been able to finish yesterday evening.

No matter. Giovanna was able to get the notaio, the translator, and the seller for a 6pm Friday meeting at his office in Macerata.

The only difficulty was in getting to the office. Since I needed to be in Macerata, I left my hotel in Urbisaglia and moved to one in the centro storico of Macerata. It was not an easy move.

ZTL zona traffico limitatoLike many Italian towns, the center has a zone where only residents can drive, a ZTL, zona traffico limitato.The entry streets all have cameras and the fines are large. Also, like many towns, there are pedestrian only streets, also with cameras.

The hotel had sent me an email, telling me not to use a gps since it wouldn’t bring me into this limited zone — where the hotel was located. (They have an arrangement to cancel the fine for hotel guests.) They told me to follow a set of written instructions and to not worry about the limited zone or the pedestrian streets.

That’s hard advice to follow when you’re by yourself and streets are poorly marked. After two trips through and back out of the centro without finding the hotel but having gotten a lot of dirty looks on the pedestrian streets, I decided to try Google Maps.

It did, in fact, take me into the ZTL, but I still couldn’t find the hotel. Finally, on my fifth tour, I spotted it. The sign was positioned up high and past the hotel. No wonder I didn’t see it — even though I know I’d been down that street at least once before.

I crammed the car next to the wall, took my bag and went to check in. I was hoping, like other hotels, they’d handle the car from there.

No luck. I was going to have to find the parking garage on my own.

Then luck. A woman had just finished work and offered to ride with me to the garage entrance. Now I just had to manage the two remote controls, for the gate and the entry door, find my assigned spot, and jam the car into a small space with walls on both sides.

I couldn’t find a pedestrian exit, so I retraced my process with the door and gate. Finally, I’m in my room. I arrived at the gate to town at 3:30. It’s now almost 5:00.

Macerata Click to enlarge - The gray area is a steep hill.
Macerata
 Click to enlarge – The gray area is a steep hill.

I figure it’s wise to leave the car and walk to the closing. Only 15 minutes, they tell me. True, but it’s all downhill. Steep downhill. (In the map on the right I was going from the center of town at the top down to an area outside the old city walls.) It will be 30 minutes back, I figure.

At the building, I locate the number for the notaio’s office. Number 14. First floor, I guess.

No. Off the elevator, I find numbers 19-25. So down I go down the stairs. Now I’m back where I started. No offices.

Let’s try the second floor. Finally, I locate the office. Higher floor, lower number office.

Everyone is waiting.

Map source: Google Maps

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Opening a Bank Account and Writing Checks

Ed Buying a property, Living in Italy , 0 Comment

With Giovanna’s (essential) help, I opened an account at the Banca Marche, in the San Ginesio branch. (Which branch turns out to have an interesting implication.) I gave them my passport and my Codice Fiscale. After signing a stack of documents and having the banker stamp them all with a rubber stamp, I had an an account, an ATM card, and access to Internet banking.

Banca Marche logoOne thing I learned here is that Italians don’t seem to like signatures in which the individual letters aren’t clearly visible. You can’t print; you must write neatly. This gave me a real problem, as I haven’t signed my name that way since about 1968. I had to labor over each signature, spelling out my name in my mind and then writing carefully.

Why is the branch important? On the checks, which Giovanna taught me to write, there is a blank for the branch. Write in the local branch and the check is good for one week. Write in another branch and it’s good for two weeks. Both seem like short windows to me, but that’s how it works.

I can see the two problems I’ll have: writing the date in the Italian fashion as D/M/Y and remembering to write out the amount in Italian, not in English. Duecento trentuno instead of two hundred thirty-one.

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