Traansylvania is a beautiful place but sadly many of the villages are steadily being deserted as the younger generation leave for the larger cities or travel abroad for study and work. Except in a few locations, the family homes remain derelict and uncared for. I fell in love with the area, especially the Saxon villages of the Tarnave Mare region, many years ago and vowed to buy a 'dream home' there one day. I finally realised my dream but encountered many obstacles along the way.
As a result, I have set up this blog to share my experiences and hopefully help other people learn more about the area, its houses, its traditions and its potential. Whilst looking for my own property I discovered there was a distinct lack of sites specifically listing rural properties in the region and almost no estate agents catering for smaller homes and smallholdings. The reason for this is actually quite obvious, once you know what is involved. The small houses in these beautiful villages are often inherited by grandchildren living in the city. Selling one of them often involves encouraging the person who inherited the house to sort out the paperwork for the inheritance and then getting the property registered in their own name so they can legally sell it. This takes up more time and effort on the part of the agent. However, most agents in Romania charge the buyer a small percentage, often no more than 3%, which means that they are poorly paid for all the added effort and cost and driving around involved in selling a village house. As a result, most prefer to focus on higher-valued city houses and apartments for which the paperwork is generally up-to-date and easy to process, and the percentage commission is a lot more substantial.
In the end I had to learn the entire purchasing process myself and act as my own agent, lawyer, surveyor, renovator, advisor and so on. Along the way I made many useful contacts and together we hope to be able to promote the area and help both potential purchasers and sellers to get in contact and hopefully do a deal to each party's satisfaction.
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