House Asking Price vs Sale Price in Umbria

Hello to you both,
We are selling a house on the Umbria / Tuscan border and we can understand your confussion regarding prices in this location. Prices depend very much on the location to major roads, major rail links, shops, services, condition and who lives nearby. For example Umbrian property in the mountains off centre and Easterly side of the province are a lot cheaper as there are few if any rail links and motorway access, weather is rougher and distances to places of nterest and airports greater.
Central to the Westerly side is generally more expencive as the great and the good have homes there, motorway and rail links to the capitol and the North are easily accessible (and cheap), many Romans have second homes here to escape the summer heat in the city, so this is a major tourist area for those wanting to run a B&B etc or be able to visit places of interest while staying in this location.
Umbria is very diverse not only in landscapes, language dialects and properties but the people are wonderfully welcoming, tollerent of poor language skills, generous and helpful and we hope we have been some help in your quest to find a hime here.
Please feel free to ask us if you have any other questions and we'll try to help if we can.
Marguerite & Michael

We should have said that the estate agents here in Italy can be a little odd in that they'll show you what you consider inappropriate properties, ruins = a pile of rubble in a field, closed commercial premises when you want to see a 4 bed home and try to convince you with work they'll be fine. We wanted a view and were shown places deep in fir-tree woods, under power line pylons in the garden so they cut off any scenery and terraced properties looking at each other. Estate agencies are relativly new idea here only in the last 30 years as you'd ask in a bar before if anyone knew of a place for sale.
Agents also want a quick turn over in sales so usually have suggested to the sellers the price they think will move a property quickly but you will see homes that have been for sale for many years as the family want a large share each and refuse to negotitate. 10 years is not uncommon so don't be put off there isn't anything wrong with the place usually, just stuborn pride.
5% to 10% below asking is not an offensive offer, some UK people are offering 25% less as they expect expats to want to return to the Uk so are making very cheeky offers and getting rejected forcibly. Prices have increased last year and made 6.5% in the provinces since January this year, so don't believe all your agent tells you, they are making 3% + tax on both seller and buyer so want thier cut asap. You dan't actually need an agent to buy a property, a Notary and a geometra are all thats needed and will save you 3% + tax although you will still have their charges for the work they'll do on your behalf.
We would reccomend when you find the home you want, talk to the vendor direct and keep in touch as we have had friends who's agents haven't been 100% accurate or upfront with the buyers and this almost caused a lot of friction between buyer and seller as each thought the other was messing around when it was the agent causing problems.
Good luck
Marguerite & Michael

I would like to add some important information on about buying a property in Italy/Umbria from an architectural point of view.

As an (belgian) architect, we offer our experience (17 years) to foreigners to valuate the structure of the house and the geological situation. Both crucial to understand the value of a property and often a 'grey zone'.

We are happy to share our references with you.

Feel free to contact us.

Aster and Claudia


(We successfully moved to Umbria 17 years ago)

@marzipan71

i am very nee to this forum  have you gad any replies or help?  we too are very interested in buying an apartment in Umbria and would appreciate any advice on negotiating the prices 

Janet