Sample Field Report · an illustration, not a real visit
A made-up property, seller and agent, written to show what a €55 site visit comes back with. The questions are the real ones every Vidimus Agent answers, in this order, on their phone, at the property. Yours is checked by a senior agent and arrives usually the day after the visit, with the photos and videos attached.
At a glance
“A solid stone house with a good roof on the sunny side and a real problem on the other: the north wall is damp at low level and the upstairs floors slope. The land is lovely and the access is fine in summer; I would want to see that road in February. The three-owner inheritance is the thing to settle before any offer, and the plan does not show the lean-to. At €85,000 it is a project, not a move-in.”
The agent's thirty-second voice note, transcribed and translated.
Selfie with the house behind you.
House number, gate or the nearest road sign.
Is this the property in the advert?
Yes
Who showed you round and how are they connected to the property?
The owner's son, Marco, who grew up in the house. The agency (Vendocasa, Boves) sent him with the keys.
Film the last 200 metres of road to the house as you arrive: surface, width, slope.
Every side of the house, whole wall in frame.
Roof from the ground, zoomed: tiles, ridge, chimney, gutters. Any sagging line, slipped or missing tiles, plants growing?
Agent's note: south slope retiled, ridge straight; north slope has moss and two slipped tiles near the chimney.
Any visible roof damage or sagging?
No
Any crack in an external wall: photograph with a coin next to it for scale. Note if it is diagonal, stepped or wider at the top.
Any crack wider than a coin's edge, or diagonal/stepped?
No
Base of the walls all round: staining, green growth, soil piled against the wall, broken drains.
Each outbuilding, barn, garage or ruin, inside and out.
Slow pan of the land from the house, then walk the boundary as far as is safe, pointing out fences, walls, neighbours.
Where exactly are the boundaries, and are they marked?
Marked by the stone wall to the east and the stream to the north. The west boundary with the neighbour's field is not marked; he says it is "the line of the walnut trees".
Water: mains, well, spring, cistern, tanker? Photograph the meter, well head or tank.
Mains water. Meter in a box by the gate, reads 1,284 m³. There is also an old well in the courtyard, capped, not in use.
The water meter, well or tank.
Drains: mains sewer, septic tank (where is it, when last emptied), nothing known?
Septic tank behind the barn; Marco says it was emptied in spring 2025. No mains sewer on this road.
Electricity meter and its contracted power (kW on the meter), and the gas meter or LPG tank if any.
360° from the gate: neighbours, farms, roads, pylons, railway, factories, water courses.
Walk every room slowly, including cellar, loft (from the stair only) and garage. Say the room name as you enter.
Floor-plan scan: with the scan app open, walk every room once in a continuous loop, phone held level at chest height, keeping walls in view. The app turns this into a floor plan.
Laser-measure the main rooms: length and width of each living room and bedroom, three clicks per room. Enter the figures; they verify the scan.
Kitchen 5.9 × 4.2 m · Living room 5.1 × 4.0 m · Bedroom 1 4.3 × 3.6 m · Bedroom 2 3.9 × 3.2 m · Bedroom 3 3.5 × 2.9 m (Pro: measured; a floor-plan scan comes with every in-depth visit)
One wide photo from the doorway of every room, plus one of each ceiling.
Beams and ceilings close up: woodworm holes, sagging, water stains.
Put a bottle on its side on three floors: does it roll? Any floors that bounce?
No
Lower metre of walls in every ground-floor room, inside cupboards, around windows: staining, salts, peeling, mould.
Agent's note: tide mark about 40 cm up the north wall in the back room and the cellar stair.
Signs of rising or penetrating damp?
Yes · flagged
Heating system: type, fuel, age if visible, radiators or underfloor, fireplace or stove. Photograph the boiler plate.
Wood-fired stove in the kitchen (Nordica, looks about 15 years old) feeding four radiators downstairs. No heating upstairs. One LPG tank outside, said to be for the cooker only.
Boiler or stove and data plate.
Consumer unit with cover closed, a typical socket, and any visible old wiring.
Old or improvised wiring visible?
No
Kitchen and every bathroom.
A typical window: glazing, frame, shutters, fit.
Phone signal bars in the main room; run a speed test on your phone and record the number; any fibre or satellite equipment present?
Two bars (TIM) in the kitchen, one upstairs. Speed test: 11 Mbps down, 2 up. Fixed line: an old Telecom socket, no router.
Could someone move in and live here next week with no works?
No
Stand in the cellar, the ground floor and upstairs. Describe smells: damp, mould, drains, animals, smoke, oil, fresh paint.
Cellar: damp earth, not mould. Ground floor: wood smoke, faint. Upstairs: shut-up, dusty; no damp smell.
Sixty seconds of silence outside the front door. Then sixty inside with windows closed.
What did you hear? Road, farm machinery, dogs, bells, hunting, water, nothing.
Birds, a tractor on the far side of the valley, one car in two minutes. Church bells at the quarter hour from Boves.
External walls cold or damp to the touch at low level?
Yes
Ask for the kitchen tap and a bathroom tap to be run together. Film the flow and the colour of the water for 20 seconds.
Did hot water arrive within a minute?
Yes
Ask for the heating to be turned on. Film the boiler or stove starting and a radiator warming.
Lights in every room and at least one socket per room working?
Yes
All external doors, windows and shutters open, close and lock?
No
If there is a well pump, gate motor or septic pump: ask for it to be run and note the result.
No pump or gate motor.
Cadastral plan and survey (planimetria catastale, visura).
Does the plan shown match the rooms you walked through (same layout, no extra rooms or extensions)?
No · flagged
Energy certificate (APE).
Are all buildings and alterations authorised and declared? Any amnesty (condono) applied for or pending?
He believes so. The lean-to on the barn "has always been there"; no paperwork shown for it.
Are there conformity certificates for the electrical and heating systems?
None for the electrics. The stove was installed by a local firm; he will look for the invoice.
Who owns it: one person, several heirs, a company? Any mortgage, lien or dispute?
His mother and her two brothers, by inheritance. He says all three have agreed to sell. No mortgage.
Several owners or heirs, or not all agreed to sell?
Yes · flagged
Heating cost last winter, electricity per month, water per year, property tax (IMU) and waste tax (TARI) per year?
Wood: about €900 a winter (they cut some of their own). Electricity about €70 a month. Water about €180 a year. IMU not known ("my uncle pays it"). Rubbish tax about €220.
How long has it been for sale, and has the price changed?
Eleven months. Started at €98,000, now €85,000.
Why are you selling?
The family lives in Turin now; nobody uses it.
What works have been done in the last ten years, and what will need doing soon?
Roof retiled on the south side in 2016. Nothing since. He thinks the bathroom and the upstairs floors "need doing".
Any history of flooding, landslip, or earthquake damage?
No flooding (the house is above the stream). A small landslip on the road in 2019, repaired by the comune.
Any rights of way, shared access, shared well or neighbours' rights over the land?
The neighbour drives through the yard to reach his lower field, "twice a year for hay". Nothing written.
If part of a building: condominium fees per year, any works voted or planned?
Not applicable.
What is included in the sale: furniture, land parcels, outbuildings, wood stock, equipment?
The land in the ad (about 1.1 ha), the barn, the stove, the wood stack. Not the furniture.
Distance to the nearest shop, pharmacy, doctor and hospital; is there a bus?
Boves: 4 km, shop, pharmacy, doctor. Cuneo hospital: 15 km. A school bus passes the end of the road; no regular bus.
Overall condition for its age.
3 of 5 · Needs work
How honest was the advert compared with what you saw?
4 of 5
Would you be happy for a friend to buy this at this price?
3 of 5
Thirty seconds, in your own language: what stood out, good and bad, and what you'd want a surveyor to look at.
A solid stone house with a good roof on the sunny side and a real problem on the other: the north wall is damp at low level and the upstairs floors slope. The land is lovely and the access is fine in summer; I would want to see that road in February. The three-owner inheritance is the thing to settle before any offer, and the plan does not show the lean-to. At €85,000 it is a project, not a move-in.
Pressure for a quick offer or a deposit today.
No
No documents available or refused.
No
Parts of the property you were not allowed to see.
No
Visible structural concern: leaning wall, propped beam, large crack, collapsed roof section.
No
Anything else that worried you.
The barn roof has a sagging purlin on the north side; not the house, but it is in the sale.
Every answer above is a question on the agent's screen; they can't skip the required ones, and every photo is taken live, on site, with the time and position recorded. The report is reviewed by a senior agent before it reaches you.
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