Here’s something to know about buying property in Italy. Homes in Italy are typically passed down to surviving family members when the owner dies. A home that’s a few hundred years old can get passed down several times. Sometimes the home is passed to all of the children. Sometimes to all of the grandchildren. What this means for you is that, when you make an offer on a home, you are making it to all of the current owners of the house. Depending on how the property has been passed down, there may be one owner or there may be 15. No matter how many there are, they all need to agree (1) that they want to sell the house, and (2) that the offer is acceptable. If it is not, there can be a dozen people whose idea of a counter offer is different. It can take a while to settle on a deal, if ever.
I was lucky. My house only had one owner. She was an older lady, Anna Maria, who initially owned the house and all of the surrounding land. Over time, she sold off two parcels of the property; one to a couple who built a home on theirs and the other to someone who has maintained it as a vacant lot. I made an offer on the house on the 20th of May. It took 3 months to finalize and recognize the transaction as complete by a Notary issuing a Declaration that the house had been sold. The process involved sending papers via Fed Ex back and forth to Italy (not inexpensive). I had to take my documents to the City of Denver to verify my signature. Then they take the documents and seal them together with a big gold seal. This is so I cannot change out or add any documents to the bundle.
