Great Estate and Precious Villas: a promising cooperation

In March, a new and very interesting real estate cooperation has started: the one between Great Estate and Precious Villas. We interviewed the CEO of this agency, Daniela Gisti.

Good morning Daniela. Thank you for your time. Could you please tell us something about the history of Precious Villas? 

Created in London and financed by an important company of the north of Italy, Precious Villas was a project of two Italian real estate agents working abroad. With the aim of selecting and selling prestigious properties to an international clientele, Precious Villas started in 2000. At that time, local real estate agencies were not specialized into this sector yet and London was the core of all the investors. This choice was really winning! Personally, I “reached” the Real Estate in 2006. From the very first time, I loved both the project and job. In 2012, after many vicissitudes, I took both the business and brand over in order to continue this experience with a new team and partners.

Which are the areas where you mainly work in? And what kind of properties do you offer to your buyers?

For over 15 years, Precious Villas is a niche agency which deals with the selection and sale of prestigious properties to an international clientele. We work on quality more than quantity, so we scrupulously choose the properties we will work on.

The areas where our presence is particularly strong are the ones which our clients request the most: the centre and countryside of Florence, Chianti Fiorentino, Chianti Senese, Siena countryside, Lucca, Versilia and Cortona, a place that I really care about. The typologies we managed are many, from the renovated country homes to the luxury villas, from the historic centres apartments to hamlets or castles, from the farm and wine businesses to small boutique hotels, agritourism and B&B. The selection of the properties comes from a research of the property typology into the context of its reference area. Properties are estimated for their locations, architectonical style and historicity, state of repair, position and potentiality. We are the first who fall in love with the property we choose to work on. I believe that loving and appreciating these properties is a fundamental element to reach their right buyer.

How many people are actually part of your team and which are their tasks?

Currently, our team is composed of about 3 people. Personally, I deal with the real estate acquisitions, buyers managing, property estimates, marketing strategies, pre-sale assistance, general managing and public relations. There is also a person in charge for the organizational part of our database, marketing and social media and who deals with the buyers during the negotiations and the visit planning. We also have an external agent working with the acquisitions of the properties in the areas of north-Tuscany and Versilia. By giving them the possibility to face themselves with the labour market through some 6-months stages, we often host Business Economic School students coming from every part of the world too.

Who are your clients?

Talking about the vendors, our clients are mainly private individuals who are looking for a specialized agency able to valorise their property in the best way possible in order to find their right buyer. For the buyers, instead, we work as property finder. Our clients are mostly families who want to make their dream of a second home in Tuscany become true, so to move or even start their business in there.

In the same way, we work with investors a lot. They are interested in purchasing business or commercial specific projects as wine farms, hamlets to be renovated and touristic accommodations. Usually, the buyers who entrust themselves to us already know the territory quite good, so we just support them into their property research by optimizing their time through a customized properties selection. Moreover, we also deal with the pre-sale process part thanks to the support of expert bilingual professionals.

Could you please tell us something about the best sales done by your agency?

The sales which I remember with great emotion and passion are two: my first sale as CEO of my agency and the last one.

Talking about the first sale – we were in the middle of the economic crisis – I sold, for a total value of about € 4.500.000, a ‘500 villa in Castelnuovo Barardenga to a lovely Russian family.

Regarding the last sale, instead, I like to remember it because, in addition to the property beauty, its situational context was incredible too. The harmony and happiness with which, together with the owners and all the professionals involved, we closed, in a very record time, the sale of one of the most important villas of the historic centre of Florence adjacent to Giardino Di Boboli: a three-units property to be renovated, sold for € 6.000.000. The supporting of some European clients resident in Asia was important and satisfying as well. They purchased a country home in Castelnuovo Barardenga after more than six years of research. Finally, given my strong passion for the wine sector, a true treasure for our country, I perfectly remember the sale of a wine farm in Chianti.

How did you discover Great Estate?

In 2010, with the occasion of a cooperation between our agency and a young Roberto Biggera. After that moment, we did not have the possibility to cooperate with Great Estate until a colleague and a close friend of mine, Filippo Cori, joined the Group.  

Why did you choose to start a cooperation with the group led by Stefano Petri?

At the beginning, it was a simple curiosity. I have often heard well of Great Estate, but I did not have met in person its CEO, Stefano Petri, and its beautiful team yet. After 2010, Stefano was able to create an incredible and productive team and, something for which all the professionals of this field should thank him for, he participated to the development of The Best Price, an IT tool able to create precise and accurate estimates of the properties in real time. So, a tool which every specialist of the sector should use in order to guarantee a better service both to the owners and buyers (click here to discover more about it).

Stefano and I share the passion for our job and the continue will of increasing. As him, my personal commitment is the one of creating a group of selected professionals, something I consider fundamental to guarantee and protect our work.

In your opinion, which are the strengths of our Group?

First of all, your unity and team-spirit. Then, as already said, The Best Price: a concrete and professionalizing tool to be used both with the owners and buyers and which requires to every specialist an incessant commitment and study.

What do you expect from this cooperation with Great Estate?

Personally speaking, I expect to find what I have already found! That is to say a professional and “human” debate among professionals, thanks to which having the possibility to increase the acquisitions and sales by fighting the improvisation and its consequent wrong-competition phenomenon together. At expense of our job and, more in general, at our economy, this is something which is spreading into our field out.