Frequently Asked Question #17:

Q: Why buy from Piedmont Properties, rather than a local agency?

A. Wrong question! Piedmont Properties is a local agency; a local agency with a global reach.

The right question is this: why should I buy from a local agency - for example, Piedmont Properties?

If you look carefully at most of the English-language websites offering property for sale in Italy, you discover that the organizations or individuals behind them act only as intermediaries to local agencies. In fact, they usually take great care to stress this, for a good reason: it is illegal to operate as a real estate agent in Italy without a licence. By merely introducing their clients to local agencies, acting only as the "buyer's agent", these individuals or organizations are able to claim that they are not operating as real estate agencies in Italy, and therefore can work legally without a licence.

Unlicenced buyer's agents obtain their portfolio of properties from local agencies, who then take on the role of "seller's agent". It follows that if you choose to deal with one of these unlicenced intermediaries, you have to pay commission to two agencies - the buyer's agent and the seller's agent - instead of just one. This, then, is the reason to choose a local agency - it saves you money.

What, then, is the key difference between a local agent, and a buyer's agent who operates in conjunction with a local agent? The answer is simple: a property offered for sale by an unlicensed buyer's agent can always be purchased directly from the local agent at a lower price. The difficulty, of course, is to identify the local agent!

You can be sure that Piedmont Properties is a local agency because we have an exclusive sale agreement with all of the owners of all of the properties in our portfolio. Like any other local agency, we deal directly with the owners of our properties. Unlike many other local agencies, however, we don't need to pay intermediaries to find our customers - we do that ourselves.

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