Hello. My fiance and I bought a small townhouse in Abruzzo in May of 2020. We were lucky to have gone in person in December to see it because we had to do the closing online.
Since then, we've been talking to an Italian architect/contractor about doing (mostly exterior) repairs to the roof and and stucco. The house is in fairly good condition since it was in the same family for generations. We finally reached an agreement on services and cost, but the architect wants us to send a pre-paid card to use to cover the costs instead of Transferwise or something similar.
I'm an architect myself. The way contractor services are rendered in the US is that you typically pay 50% up front and 50% when the work is complete. I understand that things are done differently in Italy, but this seems like quite the leap of faith. I should also say that the architect was recommended to us by our realtor, who we love and trust, and the architect has already performed a thorough inspection of the house prior to us purchasing it. And he did a great job. His website is not bad, but I can't find one testimonial online for his work. Any advice?
