What Happens When You Buy a House for $1 in Italy?

According to some adventurous buyers, it's not too good to be true

italy
This couple bought a second home in Italy for just $1.
Unsplash

Conventional wisdom warns that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Conventional wisdom would also suggest that the promise of a $1 house in Italy falls into that category. According to a few optimistic buyers who actually look a chance on such an offer, however, the risk actually paid off.

In the last year, small towns throughout Europe have begun offering these extreme bargains in an attempt to attract new residents to dying communities, CNN reported. The deals made headlines, attracting a barrage of inquiries from across the world. Now, CNN has caught up with a few of the early buyers who actually acted on the seemingly too-good-to-be-true offers, and many of them seem surprisingly satisfied with the spontaneous purchase.

“It went better than expected,” said Morgane Guihot, a resident of Nantes, France who purchased a $1 home in Sicily with her husband. The Sicilian residence is the couple’s second home, which they’ve been busy renovating since snapping up the deal earlier this year.

Guihot told CNN she and her husband were drawn to the attractive bargain after they began seeking a second home in France’s pricey real-estate market. According to Guihot, the pair was prepared for intense renovations ahead, and actually found the house to be in much better condition than they had anticipated.

The couple has reportedly almost finished renovations on their new 50-square-meter home. “We just need to finish the bathroom,” Guihot told CNN. “As we’re both artisans and renovators we did most of the work ourselves, which was minimal, and it was great seeing our two-room house come to life again.”

The couple reported no unpleasant surprises, and even said they’d do it again. “Oh, we’d do it over and over again.”

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