#5 How much did I pay for my Italian property, and other places I considered.

I started to look for places about a year ago. In the beginning not so serious. When I was in Barcelona last year I looked more in Spain. Mostly on the website called Idealista, which is a Spanish website, but there's an Italian version as well. So for Spain you would look on the .es site and .it is for Italy. But in Spain I didn't find what I was looking for and I wanted to be in the mountains. There's places in the Pyrenees which are really nice, but I wanted to be in the Alps because, I don't know, it's like something about the Italian culture. And it's closer to the Netherlands, it's closer to just a lot of things, so Italy made more sense. And soon I found out that I just needed to be here to actually see the places. Many of those adverts, especially if they're being put up by private owners, the photos are very bad. So it's hard to imagine how those places really are. So that's actually why I bought the camper, because I thought if I'd have a camper I could just travel easily and just spend some time in those places. And if it's high in the mountains I brought the bike as well, so I'd cycle up to the house so I could see it. Camp there sometimes, I've camped here too, just to get a feel of the place. So first trip was in, what was it, like late April, beginning of May this year. For about four weeks I've traveled around the Alps looking at places. Started in the Dolomites, there were some very beautiful old cabins. They were wooden cabins high in the mountains from 1200 to 1500 meters altitude. And I got in touch with one of the owners, he's a really nice guy, he gave me a lot of information which was really helpful. And I visited the place which was in the region of, it was called Auronzo. Yeah, a bit east from the Dolomites, but very close. And yeah, there were beautiful cabins. There were barns, you know, people would never live there. There were storage places for hay, you know, food for the cows and goats. And there would be little farms there too, it's pretty beautiful. But the difficulty there was, first the altitude was 1500 meters, so there was still a meter of snow in the beginning of May. That's what I thought, like that's difficult. And like the building regulations there were very limited, because I would, if I had to restore one of those places, sort of from the ground up. Or like, I mean, there's a lot of restorations to do because the wind just blows through those barns. First of all, you have to get a permission by the municipality, but also by the region. And I think it was called Sovereigntenenza. Yeah, and the geometer who was there too, he said like, yeah, it's very difficult. If you want larger windows on the view side, you know, it's going to be difficult. You have to close them off with doors maybe. It's difficult to get permission. It's also difficult to build there, because the roads are super steep. And that's the fact for a lot of places, you know, with these amazing views, they're hard to reach. So yeah, I viewed more properties there. I mean, the landscape there is beautiful. The Dolomites, those super steep mountains, it's just absolutely beautiful. Prices of this cabin was 45,000. And that's kind of, yeah, the prices of cabins, which needs to be restored completely. So yeah, looked at other properties. Another one which I liked a lot was, there were two cabins. One was sort of a very small cabin built in between four, three very big trees. And then there was a slightly larger house next to it. It was a lot of work too. That one was more on the grid. It was just above a little village. And you could hear the bells of the church. And it would be like just on top of the village, like the highest house, just outside of it. The views were beautiful. It was easily accessible as well. So the problem with that one was, it was registered as a storage space. So for a farmer to store hay, for example, or equipment, you know. So you could renovate it and put a bed and a simple kitchen there, but you're not allowed to live full time there. So it was kind of complicated. And the real estate agent was saying like, oh yeah, yeah, don't do this. So didn't do that. Price of that one was 80,000. Yeah, it was a beautiful one. I kind of like it. So then I went looking further. I went to the lakes, Como and Maggiore as well. And I mean that area. It's just gorgeous. The lakes are so beautiful. Different prices though. It's a bit more expensive there. But I thought if I buy something there, because it's so touristic, it's also easy to Airbnb it. But it becomes a different thing. I was looking for something to live off the grid, a more adventurous place. And if you want something that's suitable for Airbnb, it's more like a holiday house. So it's a different thing. But I found some amazing places there. I was almost going to buy one place on top of the hill, also the last house on the hill. An amazing view. It was so good and very quiet. Now you could see very far over Lake Como on one side. And on the other side you could look in the Sondrio Valley. It was so gorgeous. And there were sheep there. So you'd hear the sheep bells. And there were horses and other animals. And this place was a ruin. So it really needed to be built up from the ground in between two very large trees at 1100 meters. So I was sold. I had a meeting with the real estate agent. A few meetings actually. And with the geometer as well. We discussed the renovation project. And they were saying it's cheaper to rent a helicopter for the building materials. And I was starting to ask quotes from ballpark figures for renovating the entire place. I talked with an architect. I spoke with some builders. And they gave me a figure. I talked to more people. And more and more I was realizing that this was going to be a project that would go sky high in terms of budget and spendings. Because there are so many factors that are hard to predict when you're so high in the mountains. It's hard to get the materials there. A lot of difficult things. So in the end I decided not to do it. Because that was a different budget. So that place was for sale for 70.000 euros. And it was a ruin. So you need to build a house there from scratch. So that could go easily into 200.000, 300.000, a lot of money to invest in. So I needed to get another loan. And I decided like I don't want to get a loan. I want to buy something, you know, just cash. And renovate it myself. Because building a house from scratch by yourself is just out of the question in Italy. It's just not allowed. You need to get building permits. It needs to be done by certified builders. It needs to be done. You can't do it yourself. It's that simple. So then I thought like okay the dream is over. Went back to Amsterdam. And then started looking into different regions. And that's where I came here. More on the west side, closer to France. I found out that the prices are a lot cheaper. And it has to do that there's less tourism here. So and then I found places which were just 10.000, ruins for 5.000, 15.000, 20.000. And I thought like okay I could pay that. And then I can do the renovations myself. Because I learned if the structure is good and the roof is kind of good, you can do internal works. You're allowed to do it yourself. And that way you can save money. But I mean it wasn't really about saving money. It's fine to invest in a house, you know. Because it's real estate. You will add value to it. But I didn't want to step into a renovation project with building companies and just a lot of different parties and permits in a country where I don't speak the language. I thought it's gonna be too stressful and complicated. I want to have a place where I can just work myself, spend time. It needed to be already successful from day one when I purchased it. It's about the journey of creating a place yourself. It's about learning all the crafts. Because I'm not a builder. I have a few skills but not much. I just have to find everything out. But that's the exciting part of it for me. So that kind of narrowed it down what I was looking for. I wanted to have sort of... It needed to be accessible by car. It needed to have a good view. It needed to be somewhat remote. So it would be a place in nature. So not close to a village. So it made it easier to look for places. And then I came here. I met with the real estate agent. First I asked her about some properties in the neighborhood. I hadn't even seen the advert of this one. And she was saying like oh maybe you look for this. Okay maybe this is something for you. It was a bit higher. The price it was listed for 29 000 which was a bit above my budget. But when I came here I biked up here. It took one and a half hour. And it was just amazing. Just the view here. Everything was overgrown. I just like the situation of the two cabins. The flat space here which is a garden. And then this sort of... It's just sort of a podium in an arena. And the surrounding mountains which you can't see at the moment. Maybe the cloud's clearing a bit. I was sold. So I've been here a few times and then I made a bid. I bid 19 000. Price was 29 and then the owner came back with 23 I believe. Yeah and then if you do 21 000 he's probably gonna go with it. So I offered that and it was a deal. It was pretty quickly. So with building permits how it works is you need to get in touch with a geometer. Which is a surveyor and an architect. You have the difference between a geometer and an architect is that the geometer I believe is only doing the more simple works. Like smaller buildings and normal houses. Not like skyscrapers for example. And more special designs. Higher, bigger buildings. More... That's what an architect does. So the geometer is the person you need and he will do... He will ask for the building permits. He will do all the communication between the the municipality. And for this one because I'm not changing the structure I don't have to ask for a building permit. But I do need to fill in papers to communicate that the works on the building on the inside. That's what has to be done and it has to be done via a geometer. But I'm keeping the structure as it is. It is the roof. The roof needs a lot of work but it's funny enough it doesn't count for changing the structure. If you just change the rafters and you insulate it. Put new rafters on, insulation and then put the stones back. Which is a... It's a pretty big job but it's allowed to do it without a building permit. You cannot change doors. You cannot change windows because then you need a building permit. And then there's a whole new set of rules you get into. So I'm keeping it fairly straightforward. It's still a huge amount of work but I'm looking forward to it. I'm enjoying it so much to be here. Just working here. Just spending time here. That is the goal. I mean getting the houses finished to a livable house. You know that's a goal in itself. But the goal is just spending time here and working and being here. Enjoy the mountain life. Another goal is to learn about renovating such a place you know. So it's going to be a lot of youtubing. Reading blogs. Talking with people. Trying it out. Doing it wrong. Read more about it and do it right. It's about teaching yourself and developing yourself about all these building skills and creating a living here in the mountains. That's what I want to. That's what I'm up for.