In March of 2015, I randomly received an email newsletter from a real estate company in Italy explaining why Americans should consider purchasing a home in Italy.  They cited the Italian housing market being at a 30-40% discount when considering the past 10 years and the Euro was significantly weaker versus the US dollar.  That all made sense to me, but who was this real estate agency and how did they find me.

I clicked on a few listings in the newsletter and started dreaming about a house on the shores of Lake Como or a house in Tuscany but was it really possible to buy a house in Italy while living in California?  And so our adventure begins…

I decided to write to the real estate company asking all kinds of questions about buying a home in Italy and this savvy emailing real estate company ignored me, no reply.  I guess they didn’t want to be bothered with my extensive list of questions and assumed I was a tire kicker.  Wait this isn’t fair, you can’t tease me with this information and then not respond to my questions.  I decided it would be important to find a responsive real estate agent so I blindly emailed 5 real estate offices in Northern Italy and only 1 responded, Lunigiana 2000.  After exchanging 6-7 emails with Lunigiana 2000 I selected my real estate agent, Paolo Di Francesco.  I cannot thank Paola enough for her time, effort and patience as without her I might have given up on the dream.  So the adventure continues…