Why to invest in a foreign market.

[Andrea P.]

I strongly believe you could make a good deal in joining a foreign market since the criteria you use for evaluating a deal are likely to be different than the local people due to the cultural differences. The deal is when you purchase something valuable for you but it is considered worthless by the seller (and in general by the local market).

I spent few years in the US during the Real Estate crisis. During 2007-2011 the Euro was strong and it was convenient for Europeans to invest in the US. As Italian, I took the opportunity to enter in the US market at that time.

I learned what was behind the US house prices since I had to understand the local people criteria to evaluate a property which was somehow different than mine.

Nowadays the situation is reverted: the US dollar is strong and Italians are understanding that the Real Estate is not the safest investment anymore. Furthermore the property taxes recently re-introduced by the Italian governments pushed the owners to sell their unused properties.

In my understanding, certain Americans loves living in authentic medieval villages on vacation.

There are several famous medieval places already known to the foreign investors and tourists: Tuscany (San Gimignano, Volterra...), Cinque terre, Santo Stefano in Sextantio, Calascio... In those known places is pretty hard to find a good deal since the local market is already joined by foreign investors pushing the price high.

You can find others places unknown to the foreign investors. You can find entire medieval village for sale: http://vallepiola.com

Since the Euro is weak I stopped to search rental property in the US and I am becoming curios about the criteria US people use to evaluate vacation rentals in Italy:

- Airport proximity

- Transportation

- Famous cities (Rome, Florence) proximity

- Local people speaking English