HOW CAN WE HELP YOU?
Not fun. What? The adventure of buying a property in Italy not fun? Where’s your sense of adventure? Haven’t you been tossing this around in your mind for a while now? Never talked to anyone who has done it?
Our last newsletter posting featured an interview from our local fiance Visa lawyer with a couple who went through the whole process – information gathering, decision process, decision, buttoning up the legalities, living with the choice. Read their story and you will find that they are probably not much different from you in their worrying, struggling, and enjoying. You will also note their frequent mention of the “help” which eased their experience. Well, using this springboard, Casa&Capital Investment announces our service Total Assistance, to help our clients not only to navigate the purchase process, but also all the little, but important, details necessary before, during and after the experience.
First, the elephant in the room – language management. (Sounds like a twist on that movie – Anger Management). Anyway, it can be enough to challenge your temper. If you are going to remain in Italy for any length of time, and if you want to become a real part of the community, you will need to face up to learning to get along in Italian. There are many ways to accomplish it, your choice, but we are here to help. Suggesting the most effective ways and/or the best schools, we will point you in the right directions, but the most important thing is that for the beginning of your stay, and throughout the purchase process, we will be your interpreters, by your side as a mediator between you and an exciting new culture, anything from shopping to making sense of legal documents.
We can also connect you to any professionals whom you may require like this Domestic Battery Attorney Overland Park, accountants, doctors, dentists – all of whom are conversant in English. We also have excellent contacts with financial advisors and banks to help with that end (and an important end it is).
Now, let’s deal with before and during. When you have used our property site (or any site for that matter) to sort out some properties of interest, you will need to travel to Italy for an in-person look. We can provide a veritable travel agency – flights, accommodations, cars – you get here, you get around, you get back again, and……we do the leg work. After your arrival, and you get settled into your accommodations, then Casa&Capital Investment (CCI) turns into a kind of tour guide as we locate and visit areas and properties with you, all the while enjoying the local sights, and the food, of course!
Now it can’t be all fun and games (has to be a bit of serious work), the next item to attack after you decide on a property is to sort out your document jungle. You will need a Codice Fiscale (financial identifier) and a bank account. Physically and linguistically, we will take you through the Italian bureaucratic maze; look at it as a cultural learning experience – stay calm, be prepared to wait, and never, never schedule more than office visit per day. This plan will help keep the frustration level under control. We can advise you on any and type of visas required; this is accomplished in your home country at the Italian consulate but we can assist with paperwork from this end.
One of our fun trips is to acquaint you with the post office! Yes, really, the post office. In Italy the post office is provides all sorts of services besides letters and packages (discussion of the Italian mail system will be left to the bar and a couple of drinks.) OK, anyway, the post office is where you can pay your bills if you want to do that in person, or where tax forms are filed, or where you can have your bank account.
CCI will be with you right the way through the actual closing transaction on your property. Closing on a property in Italy is handled by a Notary, a much more consequential figure in Italy than in the US. He or she is really a type of lawyer, accountant and property expert all in one. The closing meeting features the reading of the purchase agreement etc. and we will help translate for you and make sure everything is understood. The meeting ends with a traditional celebratory drink of prosecco to mark a successful conclusion. (This is maybe the best part.)
BUT…..our Total Service doesn’t end there! We are proud of our after-sale presence, featuring assistance with all types of every-day documents, insurance, negotiating bill payments (no checks!), driving license, shopping, where to find ordinary items (my first hurdle was curtain rods), best way to learn Italian, just in general how to go about daily life – we can help with everything.
So what is holding you up? Contact us with any questions, suggestions, worries, etc.
