Listed below are a number of tips for people who want to commit themselves to Real Estate Agencies.

They are based on our own personal experience and we hope they will be useful to you.......

1) Do not trust estate agents who don't have an office or arrange to meet you in other people's offices.

2) Do not trust estate agents who don't ask for a fee (or you will probably end up paying more than is due).

3) Do not trust an estate agency who is not registered with the provincial register of brokers: both the agency and its director must be registered! Otherwise, they have no right to ask for payment! This is our registration number ( BR 754) 4) Check that the prices are clearly on display in the agency office. Therefore, you can be sure that the price is the same for both Italian and foreign customers.

5) Do not leave a deposit in cash, only a cheque in euros. You will then know exactly who will receive the money.

6) Do not pay the agencies fees until the property owner has accepted your offer.

7) When you pay the fee the agency must give you an invoice clearly showing the corporate name, director's name and the fiscal code of the society (a code comprised of 14 numbers) eg P.I. 0006000300720 (that is our own code). You can therefore be assured that they are a legitimate agency.

8) When signing the proposal form make sure that it contains the property owner's name, agency director's name, registration number & agency fiscal code.

9) The estate agent exercises a precise profession, which requires a specific expertise: Do not trust people who have more than one occupation! (It's very easy to find people such as building surveyors, architects etc who act as agents...thus committing a serious offence by not being registered!)