Continuing from Villa Velina Just Happened . . .

So, there I was, having just learned that Villa Velina was not a timeshare. The next week I was in a mental frenzy as I turned the possibility of owning a home in Italy around in my mind. I corresponded further with Luisa, the realtor from Property Organizers, and gathered a bit of additional information, including some more photos.

Don’t get me wrong. This information was not to help me make a decision; my decision was already made. As soon as I had received the “not a timeshare” confirmation, I thought “I’ll move forward with this until I hit a roadblock”. This additional information was just due diligence, to the extent one can call remote property investigation “due diligence”.

The unit came with all walls and floors finished and a completely outfitted bathroom.  As you can see, the “kitchen”(cucina) was a tile wall with gas, water and electrical hookups. I was completely expecting this having previously overdosed on House Hunters International.

The large picture at the very top of this blog, shows the two available units on the top floor. I was liking the one that faced both the ocean and mountains (red arrow pointing from it). I also “Google-Earthed” the local area and tried to locate the property using the address I had been given.  Although I was able to locate several Via San Nicolas in the area, I could never find a property that looked like the property or views that coincided with the pictures I had received. A few days later, I received GPS coordinates from the owner’s daughter so I could confirm the exact location. Ahhhhh, now I could tell why I was not successful with our previous attempts. Not only was my Via San Nicola on a hillside on the opposite side of the valley from the one I had been “traveling”, but I could now also see that the property was perched high on a hill. Getting to this lovely location could not be accomplished via the normal “Via”.  This would involve a mile long strada bianca (dirt road) and a long private driveway.

So, now I was ready to commit (or be committed). I asked Luisa what I needed to do to reserve the property. The answer was “send a deposit”. Normally, buyers would go view the property in person at this point, however, this was March and I would be traveling to Italy in May, so I opted to pay the deposit (site unseen) and Luisa would take me to see it while I was in Positano three days before I settled on the property in Rome. To be continued . . .