Real Estate Attorney vs Real Estate Agent: Who Do You Actually Need for International Property Deals?
- dimartinolaw
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- July 15, 2026
Real Estate Attorney vs Real Estate Agent: Who Do You Actually Need for International Property Deals?
One of the most common assumptions in international real estate, made by both first-time buyers and experienced investors, is that a real estate agent is sufficient to manage a property transaction. In domestic markets, this may be partially true. In cross-border transactions, particularly those involving U.S. and Italian property, it is a costly misconception.
A real estate agent and an international real estate attorney perform fundamentally different functions. Understanding the distinction, and knowing when each is required, is one of the most important decisions a foreign investor or international buyer will make before committing to a property.
What a Real Estate Agent Does
A real estate agent’s role is commercial. They identify properties, facilitate negotiations between buyer and seller, coordinate viewings, and manage the communication between parties. In the United States, a licensed real estate agent operates under state law and is governed by the National Association of Realtors’ Code of Ethics. In Italy, an agent manages the commercial side of the transaction and is typically compensated by commission from both buyer and seller.
What an agent does not do in either jurisdiction is provide legal advice, verify the legal status of a property, review contracts for enforceability, advise on tax obligations, or protect the buyer’s legal interests. These are legal functions, and in most cross-border transactions, they are where the most significant risks lie.
What a Real Estate Attorney Does
A real estate attorney operates in an entirely different capacity. Their role is to protect the legal and financial interests of the client they represent. In an international transaction, this includes reviewing and negotiating purchase contracts, conducting legal due diligence on the property, advising on ownership structures, identifying tax obligations, and ensuring the transaction closes in compliance with applicable law in both jurisdictions.
In states such as New York, Massachusetts, and several others, the involvement of a real estate attorney at closing is legally required. In California and other states, it is not mandatory, but for any cross-border transaction involving foreign buyers, foreign sellers, or properties with international legal dimensions, the practical need for legal counsel is not diminished by the absence of a statutory requirement.
The Role of the Notary in Italian Real Estate, and Why U.S. Buyers Still Need an Attorney
This is where international transactions involving Italian property require particular attention, and it is a point that Raffaele G. Di Martino, Managing Partner of Di Martino Law Group, emphasizes consistently with American clients purchasing in Italy.
In Italy, every real estate transaction must pass through an Italian notary. The Italian notary is not a private attorney hired to represent one party. They are a neutral public official whose role is to authenticate the transaction, verify the identities of the parties, check the legal status of the property in the land registry, ensure the deed complies with Italian law, calculate and collect applicable taxes, and register the transfer with the Italian Land Registry (Conservatoria).
The Italian notary is indispensable, no property transfer in Italy has legal effect without the notarial deed (deed of sale). The buyer typically selects and pays the notary’s fees. At closing, the Italian notary is required by law to read the entire deed aloud in Italian. If the buyer does not speak Italian, a certified interpreter must be present. If the buyer cannot attend in person, a power of attorney must be granted in advance, typically executed at the Italian Consulate in the United States.
However, and this is a critical point for American buyers, the notary is neutral. They do not advocate for the buyer. They do not negotiate contract terms on the buyer’s behalf. They do not identify commercial risks, assess whether the price reflects market value, review the property for unpermitted renovations, investigate inheritance disputes or co-ownership complications, or advise on how the transaction interacts with U.S. law.
The Italian notary enters the transaction primarily at the end, after the buyer has already signed the preliminary contract (preliminary contract) and paid a substantial deposit (deposit). At that stage, the buyer is legally committed. Issues that could have been identified and negotiated before signing become significantly more difficult, and expensive, to address after the fact.
This is why U.S. buyers purchasing Italian property need an independent attorney working on their behalf from the beginning of the process, well before the Italian notary becomes involved. The attorney conducts due diligence, reviews and negotiates the preliminary agreements, structures the transaction to reflect the buyer’s actual objectives, and coordinates with the notary at completion. The Italian notary and the independent attorney serve complementary, not interchangeable, roles.
When a Real Estate Attorney Is Required vs Optional Under U.S. Law
In the United States, attorney involvement in real estate transactions varies by state. States where an attorney is legally required at closing include New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and several others. In California, Florida, and the majority of other states, attorney involvement is not mandated, transactions typically close through escrow companies and title insurers.
For domestic transactions between U.S. parties, this system functions adequately in most cases. For international transactions, particularly those involving foreign buyers purchasing U.S. property, the absence of a legal requirement does not translate to the absence of legal complexity. FIRPTA obligations, foreign entity ownership structures, title issues specific to cross-border transactions, and the interaction between U.S. closing procedures and the buyer’s home country legal obligations all require legal expertise that neither a real estate agent nor a title company is equipped to provide.
Why International Property Deals Specifically Require Legal Counsel
FIRPTA, Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act. When a foreign person sells U.S. real property, the buyer is legally required to withhold 15% of the purchase price and remit it to the IRS. The buyer, not the seller, and not the agent, is the withholding agent under FIRPTA. If the buyer fails to withhold correctly, they can be held personally liable for the full tax amount, plus interest and penalties. Forms 8288 and 8288-A must be filed within 20 days of closing. A real estate agent has no legal obligation or authority to manage FIRPTA compliance. An attorney does.
Title issues. Cross-border transactions frequently involve properties with title complexities that are not immediately apparent, unpaid liens, inheritance disputes, encumbrances recorded in foreign registries, or ownership structures that raise questions under U.S. law. A real estate attorney conducts the title review and identifies these issues before the transaction closes.
Foreign entity ownership. Italian buyers purchasing U.S. property through a corporate structure, an LLC or corporation, face specific legal requirements around entity formation, ownership disclosure, and tax filing that are entirely separate from the transaction itself. An attorney coordinates both the purchase and the entity structure simultaneously.
Contract enforceability. International real estate contracts are governed by the law of the jurisdiction in which they are formed, but they interact with the legal systems of the parties’ home countries. Clauses that are standard in U.S. contracts may have unintended consequences under Italian civil law, and vice versa. An attorney familiar with both systems reviews the contract with both jurisdictions in mind.
Specific Risks for Italian Buyers Purchasing U.S. Property Without Legal Counsel
Italian buyers are accustomed to the notary providing a structural guarantee of the transaction. In the United States, that guarantee does not exist in the same form. The closest equivalents, title insurance and escrow, are private mechanisms, not public ones. They protect against specific categories of title defect but do not provide the comprehensive legal review that an Italian buyer may assume is built into the U.S. closing process.
Without an attorney, Italian buyers purchasing U.S. property risk entering contracts without understanding the enforceability of contingency clauses, committing to FIRPTA obligations they are unaware of, taking ownership through a structure that is inefficient from an Italian tax perspective, and closing on a property with title issues that title insurance does not cover.
Getting It Right
For foreign investors and international buyers, the question is not whether to involve a real estate attorney, it is when. In cross-border transactions, the answer is always before the first document is signed, not after problems arise at closing.
