A beautiful view and a promising property listing can make an international move feel surprisingly simple.
Then comes the unanswered phone call from an agent, the appointment request in Italian, and the question of what needs to happen first.
Das ist die echte Geschichte von zwei unserer Kunden.
We’ll call them Claire and Mark, just for privacy.
American retirees in their early 60s, they’d visited Abruzzo twice on holiday and fallen for what it offered:
- mountains
- coastline
- historic towns
- and a pace of life they couldn’t find at home
They wanted a proper long-term base, not a holiday rental, and they were ready to buy.
Their move didn’t happen in one leap.
It happened in three phases — planning, arrival, and settling in — and at almost every stage, something came up that they hadn’t anticipated.
How They Found Us: Stuck Before They Even Started
Claire and Mark had been searching Idealista for weeks, shortlisting houses in Abruzzo, and emailing agents directly in English.
Almost nobody replied.
The few who did took days, and the conversations went nowhere.
After some research online, they found us, Wanderlust Abruzzo.
At first, they assumed they just needed someone to make phone calls on their behalf — a translator for agents who wouldn’t answer emails.
That’s genuinely how most of our client relationships start.
It’s rarely how they end.
Phase 1: Planning — More Than Just Finding a House
Getting the location right
Before we got involved, Claire and Mark had shortlisted a few towns based mostly on what they’d read online and seen on social media.
Two of those choices were flagged early in our first calls with them:
- One town they loved the look of sat just over the population threshold for 7%-Steuer für ausländische Rentner — a detail that would have cost them a meaningful tax saving over the following decade if they’d bought there without checking.
- Another town had been described in a social media post as “well-connected”, when in practice it was a 40-minute drive from the nearest supermarket with no reliable public transport. It looked idyllic in photos and would have been genuinely isolating in daily life.
We walked them through the trade-offs across several qualifying towns, and they settled on an inland area within reach of Chieti:
- close enough for errands and appointments
- quiet enough for the life they wanted
- and within the eligible threshold for the tax incentive
The property search — and the surprise nobody had mentioned
Claire and Mark had originally been looking at apartments, but as their plans firmed up, they shifted toward a proper house with a garden — space for guests, room to potentially host grandchildren, and a bit of land.
Once we understood what they actually needed, we:
- pre-selected properties that matched
- contacted the agents in Italian on their behalf
- verified which listings were genuinely available
- and arranged viewings around their next visit
One property stood out — a stone farmhouse with a garden, in good condition on the surface, priced reasonably for the area.
Wir accompanied them to the viewing and, as we do for every serious property, recommended bringing in an independent surveyor (geometra) before any formal offer.
This is where things got interesting.
The geometra found that:
- the property’s official documents didn’t match its actual layout — a room had been added years earlier without being registered —
- and that the roof needed more work than the listing had suggested
None of this had been disclosed.
For Claire and Mark, both accustomed to the level of disclosure expected in the US, this was genuinely surprising.
It’s also not unusual in Italy, where sellers and even agents aren’t always required to volunteer this kind of detail the way they would be in the US, Germany, or elsewhere in northern Europe.
Rather than walking away, Claire and Mark renegotiated the price with the seller once the documentation was corrected, and budgeted an additional amount for the repairs the listing hadn’t accounted for.
The purchase went ahead:
- at a fairer price
- with accurate paperwork
- and no unpleasant surprises after moving in
The visa, in parallel
Claire and Mark were pursuing Italy’s Elective Residency Visa, which requires proof of stable passive income and proof of accommodation in Italy.
So their visa process and their property search were running side by side rather than one after the other.
They handled the visa application itself directly with their local Italian consulate.
On the Italian tax number (codice fiscale), they’d already managed to get one arranged before we started working together — one less thing to coordinate.
As we told them, we could just as easily have accompanied them to the Agenzia delle Entrate during one of their visits, since that’s part of what we help with too.
But in their case, it was already sorted.
Phase 2: Arrival — Turning the Purchase Into a Home
Sobald die Kaufurkunde (rogito) was signed and the house was theirs, the second phase began.
We accompanied Claire and Mark to register their residency at the Comune, which started the clock on their 7% flat tax eligibility and unlocked everything that depended on it.
Von dort aus halfen wir bei der utilities setup — electricity, gas, water, and internet — and their ASL registration for the national health service, including choosing a General Practitioner ((medico di base)) nearby.
None of these steps are individually dramatic.
Together, done in the wrong order or without someone to make the calls in Italian, they can eat up weeks.
Phase 3: Settling In — The Ongoing Small Things
Even months after moving in, Claire and Mark still reach out from time to time — not because something has gone wrong, but because certain tasks are simply easier with bilingual support:
- A confusing bill from their phone provider.
- Finding a trusted, vetted professional to handle the garden.
- A follow-up question about the property’s registered boundaries.
Before the move was even finished, we also connected them with two of our trusted partners:
- one for their US-Italian tax filing going forward
- one for their US-based investments and accounts — since some of their financial arrangements at home required in-person handling that wasn’t realistic to manage from Abruzzo, and our partner could act as an intermediary on their behalf
Die Moral von der Geschichte
What Claire and Mark got right
- They visited more than once before committing, and let genuine affection for the region — not a single good weekend — guide the decision
- They asked for help early, even when they underestimated how much they’d actually need
- They didn’t skip the surveyor (geometra), even though it slowed the purchase down and complicated a property they’d already fallen for
What they didn’t know they needed to check
- Whether a town they loved actually qualified for the 7% flat tax
- Whether “well-connected” on social media meant anything close to what it implied in reality
- That Italian property listings aren’t held to the same disclosure standard they were used to at home
Wie die richtige Unterstützung das Ergebnis verändert hat
- A property with hidden issues became a fairly priced, properly documented home instead of an expensive mistake
- A tax incentive that could have been lost by choosing the wrong town was protected
- What started as “just help contacting agents” became a full relocation partnership that’s still active, quietly, months later
If you want the structured version of exactly this process — the same sequence we walked Claire and Mark through, from town selection to settling in — Unser Gesamt-Leitfaden für den Umzug nach Abruzzo lays it out step by step, so you can work through it at your own pace before you ever need to make a call in Italian.
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Ready to Plan Your Own Move to Abruzzo?
Every move looks a little different, but the phases are usually the same: planning, arrival, and settling in.
We help you move through all three with fewer surprises and far less guesswork.
Bei Wanderlust Abruzzobegleiten wir deutsch- und englischsprachige Expats durch alle praktischen Phasen der Auswanderung nach Abruzzo.
Persönlich, zweisprachig und direkt vor Ort.
Nimm noch heute Kontakt mit uns auf und lass uns über deinen Umzug nach Abruzzo sprechen
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Häufig gestellte Fragen (FAQs)
Do Italian property sellers have to disclose issues like unregistered renovations?
Not to the same extent expected in the US, Germany, or much of northern Europe. This is exactly why an independent geometra survey before any formal offer is one of the most valuable steps in an Italian property purchase — it’s the way you get an honest technical picture of a property, since it isn’t always volunteered upfront by the seller or agent.
Can you get the Elective Residency Visa before finding a property in Italy?
Not fully — proof of accommodation in Italy is part of the visa application, so the two processes typically run in parallel rather than one after the other. Many applicants secure a preliminary property agreement or rental contract while their visa application is in progress with their local Italian consulate.
What happens if a geometra finds problems with a property you want to buy?
It depends on the issue. Sometimes buyers renegotiate the price to reflect the cost of correcting unregistered work or completing repairs, as Claire and Mark did. In other cases, the issues are significant enough that walking away is the better choice. Either way, finding out before signing rather than after is the entire point of the survey.
Does relocation support end once you’ve moved into your home in Abruzzo?
For most of our clients, no — and that’s by design. Ongoing small tasks (a confusing utility bill, finding a trusted local tradesperson, a follow-up question about paperwork) continue to come up well after the official move is complete. Many clients, like Claire and Mark, continue reaching out occasionally for exactly this kind of practical, bilingual support.
Can you help with taxes and finances left behind in your home country?
We’re not tax advisors ourselves, but we connect clients with trusted, vetted partners for both Italian tax filing and for managing financial matters back home that may require in-person handling — such as US-based investments or accounts — through an intermediary arrangement, so clients don’t need to travel back simply to manage routine administration.
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