Welcome back on Rolling Hills’ blog!
The first decision to take when you want to buy a house is whether or not to rely on a real estate agent, so today we are going into this professional role.
At first I would like to remind you that by the Italian law a real estate agent is a MEDIATOR (art.1754 of the Civil Code), it means that he/she is “the one who establishes a connection between the two parties in order to conclude a bargain, without being tied by any collaborative or representative relationships.”
Basically his/her role is to facilitate the trade in goods, maintaining a neutral position between who buys and who sells.
The law that deepens the various aspects of this industry is the number 39 of 1989, which has been amended several times over the years.
But let’s go into detail.
PROFESSIONAL REQUIREMENTS
The real estate agent, in order to be able to do this job LEGALLY, has to:
• attend a training course;
• pass a qualifying examination;
• be registered to the Camber of Commerce in the section dedicated to the business of agent of business in real estate brokerage;
• subscribe to a respective insurance.
Nowadays the registration to an association is not compulsory, but would be useful being always updated on the latest news in this area!
Among the main associations there are FIAIP, FIMAA and A.N.A.M.A.
Rolling Hills, for example, is associated to FIAIP (Italian federation professional real estate agents) at the number 27837.
Unfortunately is a matter of fact that many “EXPERTS” in Italy, such as surveyors, broker, architects, lawyers, agronomists, oenologists etc., during the exercise of their duties improvise as real estate agents; but remember: anyone who doesn’t possess these requirements and asks you for a fee on a property transition, is committing a criminal act that can be punishable by a high fine or by arrest (art. 348 of the Penal Code).
THE DUTIES OF A GOOD REAL ESTATE AGENT
First of all a good real estate agent should:
• find the house which suits your needs;
• make a due diligence of the house with a surveyor/architect in order to verify that there is no urbanistic problem; and if it’s so he/she has to immediately inform buyer and seller.
PLEASE NOTE To be honest a good real estate agent should have already ran a first check of the building, but during the negotiation phase, because of the complexity of this matter, we have to go deep in order not to miss anything.
• Lead the negotiations between seller and buyers with impartiality and honesty;
• draw up the proposal for the purchase;
• monitor the negotiation up to the final contract, coordinating the several professional figures, such as architects, notaries, surveyors etc.
I hope that this article has been helpful for you and don’t forget to spend some time checking out our properties selection.
If you have any questions, doubt or curiosity contact us
Till the next.
Alberto Zarro.