Messrs. Rapi: the due diligence and international marketing plans importance

An interview to the amazing “Podere San Michele” ex-owners, sold last year in San Gimignano by the Great Estate agent Antonio Anile: Messrs. Rapi reminds us the due-diligence (read here our article about it) and international marketing plans importance for the selling of your property. 

• Hi Manola and Luca, we would like to know you better, tell us something about you… for how many years have you been the “Podere San Michele” owners and what did it represent to you? 

For us, “Podere San Michele” has represented the youth, lots of sacrifices and the constant effort to amortize all the costs supported! In 1986, we bought it from the Marchesi Torrigiani farm. It was constituted by the old farmhouse, with the ancient stables, the warehouses, the cellar and a barn. The external grit staircase that allowed to go on the house first floor was fixed in our memory: it was very horrible! We started the property renovation works in 1987 and we concluded them in August, 1988. Then we got married and we went living there. In 1995, started the barn renovation. We moved into it in June 1996, and so we started the Holiday Home activity. 

• Before subscribing the exclusive sale agreement with Great Estate (click here to discover more), did you addressed yourself to other agencies?

When we decided to sell “San Michele” we addressed us to an agency in Foligno, giving them the exclusive on the sale. However, after more than a year from the conferment of the task, we haven’t heard anything yet. For this reason, we contacted them to have some news, but we were told that they didn’t receive any requests and that maybe the price agreed was too high. Disappointed by this behavior, we deprived the exclusive task to this agency and entrusted it to another local agency, with a lower sale price; but, in this case too, the time passed without any positive change. So we start again the research for another agency. 

• How did you get to know Great Estate and what convinced you to give the exclusive sale task to our group? 

We knew Great Estate by chance, through some internet researches. We were immediately contacted by Mr. Antonio Anile. Right from the first moment, thanks to his clarity, his way to face and show the potential problems for the sale and his ability to make us understand the necessity to propose a right price to insert “San Michele” on the real estate market, an extremely positive feeling was born.

• We know that, when you conferred the sale task to Great Estate, you chose to share with it the costs of a specific Marketing Plan, which was mainly addressed to the international market. Our team suggests this kind of plan to all the vendors, because it guarantees you the best property visibility abroad. Would you suggest it too to other potential customers?

We signed an international Marketing Plan because, in order to reach our objective, we wanted to obtain the hugest visibility possible. The choice was effective, because in a few weeks Mr. Anile organized several visits to the property with potential customers, including with the current “Podere San Michele” owner.

• How determinant was to write an urban/cadastral compliance technical report, a due diligence, even before starting with the sale and the meeting with the English customers, who then bought the “Podere San Michele”?

Since our first meeting, Mr. Antonio Anile asked us to make our specialist write a due diligence. We followed his advice: the report highlighted both lights and shadows of our property. However, the clarity of the presentation was very appreciated by the future buyers. Moreover, the due diligence allowed us to intervene to solve quickly all the problems that emerged.

• In hindsight, what would you say to the owners who decide to sell their property without verifying the regularity of all the documents before doing it? 

Bearing in mind our “Podere San Michele”, a quite complex property and not just a simply apartment, sale experience, we deeply suggest you to make a trusted specialist verify the urban/cadastral compliance of the property, since the first moment you decide to sell it.

• Manola and Luca, how did you get with Antonio and how do you judge the work he made for you during all the different trade phases?

Since we met him for the very first time to the deed, Mr. Antonio Anile has proved himself to be a very close, assiduous, competent, constant person, as well as a good advisor in facing all the several situation that have emerged day by day.

Related articles:

The fundamental importance of a property Due Diligence during a negotiation