Leading architects and international journeys

FABRIZIO ZANETTI AND THE NEW SERVICES OF HIS ROMA IMPERIALE LUXURY SERVICE AND REAL ESTATE ADVISOR

We meet Fabrizio Zanetti, a builder with his Roma Imperiale Luxury Service and a partner in the Real Estate Advisor estate agency in Forte dei Marmi. Following the interview published a few issues ago, today he speaks in the first person about two important services his group offers its high-end clientele, through collaborations with the most prestigious architectural firms and through journeys around the world aimed at acquiring top properties to place on the luxury real-estate market. Finally, in a related matter, Zanetti tells us about a painful problem affecting his professional sector.

Recently, for a client who had purchased a villa here in Forte to renovate, we contacted three architectural firms that are our partners. At our own expense, we had three different design proposals prepared for the client’s home, so that in the end they could choose their preferred style. It is a truly remarkable opportunity and service, since otherwise the client alone would have spent a great deal of time and money tracking down three different proposals from three such important architectural firms.

We were in fact able to identify around fifty exceptionally high-level properties for our clients, most of them ‘off market’.

Among these, I am pleased to recall the exclusive sales mandate of Villa Castiglione, an emblematic villa in Capri, with a market value of around 35 million.

We are also directly purchasing properties to renovate or complete with all the requirements of luxury, and then position them on the market for sale.

During our most recent trips to the Costa Smeralda and southern Tuscany, we identified several prestigious properties and have already signed contracts for their acquisition. They are all valuable properties to be enhanced, which will soon become villas with swimming pools, to be rented or resold to a luxury clientele. In effect, we are exporting the Forte dei Marmi concept, which is highly appreciated everywhere for its absolute quality.

Another truly important development concerns our group’s entry into an even larger context, a kind of accelerator for the real-estate business, consisting of crowdfunding platforms, instant buyers and numerous highly professional services for the acquisition, transformation and resale of properties, with the aim of carrying out a genuine urban renewal of the places involved.

We help enhance the beauty of every place—that is our mission—while also bringing well-being and employment to those communities, as we have always done. It is very important to leave a mark on the place we enter, contributing to the well-being of that community and involving the finest skilled workers.

As regards the estate agency, we have also made new investments and renewed our vehicle fleet by purchasing a Porsche SUV and a BMW SUV, to offer our clients more comfortable visits to the villas of Forte dei Marmi. Also as part of our services, we have made a beach tent at Bagno Cesare available to our clients, who come from all over the world, for use during their stays in Versilia.

THE DISCORDANT NOTE

FORTE DEI MARMI: THE PHENOMENON OF UNLICENSED BROKERS IN PROPERTY SALES

SURVEYORS, HAIRDRESSERS, INTERIOR DESIGNERS, GARDENERS, CLEANERS, GROCERS, BEACH CLUB MANAGERS: ALL BROKING DEALS ILLEGALLY, WITH UNDECLARED EARNINGS

I am talking about the middlemen who act as brokers without a licence, without an agency, out on the street. It has become such a widespread phenomenon that these people can no longer be counted on the fingers of two hands.

They all move through the property sector, taking work and earnings away from legitimate businesses that may pay more than one hundred thousand euros a year in fixed costs because they have offices and premises, employees whose salaries they must pay, utilities, taxes and everything else.

A few days ago, at an important gala dinner here in Forte, I saw some of them seated at tables beside some of my competitors. What does this mean? That, despite being unlicensed operators, these people collaborate with agencies that exploit their work to do business in complete illegality.

And in these cases, the clients are the first not to be protected. You know that every professional broker has professional liability insurance, has attended courses and passed exams, and has technical, planning, legal and notarial knowledge. Therefore, when a property transaction is structured, the professional broker protects all parties and knows exactly how to draw up a contract.

We have clients whose homes have been tied up for years precisely because of one of these incompetent and improvised middlemen who, at the time of the contract, created situations that later ended up in court. All because of the recklessness of these people, who are neither brokers nor properly trained.

Once, some time ago, a client whose prospective home my agents had shown him told me that he would not be able to pay us the regular commission because it should instead go to a person who went around in flip-flops and on a bicycle, and who had worked as a hairdresser but was not a broker.

Yet the client pretended nothing was wrong—and do you know why? Because we, as a legitimate agency, charge a commission of between 2% and 3%, whereas these people ask, off the books, for a voluntary contribution or much less.

This creates a situation of double harm. First of all, because these people carry out an unauthorised activity in violation of the law; secondly, because they also distort the market.

I really cannot understand why this phenomenon has been tolerated in Forte dei Marmi for years. This cannot continue. There needs to be a serious investigation by the relevant authorities.

The offices are located in Forte dei Marmi and Massa Carrara.

www.realestateversilia.com

www.romaimperialecostruzioni.com