Proceed with caution

For some, the draw of owning a town is financial. They plan to run it as a business or they simply want more bang for their buck — purchasing an entire town for the same price or less than a single property in an urban centre.

For example, with 550,000 euros ($619,300), you could buy a three-room apartment in Paris’ second arrondissement or a 500-square-foot co-operative apartment in New York’s Chelsea neighbourhood. Or, you could purchase Valle Piola, an entire medieval village in one of Italy’s largest national parks and only two hours by car from Rome, which is on the market for the same price.

For others, like the Loves, there is romanticism in owning a town.

And, for others, it's about ego, said Louis Fisher III, national director of Sperry Van Ness Auction Services LLC in Boynton Beach, Florida. Talk about dinner party conversation. Think: “I just bought a town so I can name it after my grandson.”

But as many current and former town owners can attest – the reality is harder than the allure might betray. And, there aren’t many footsteps to follow since it is such a unique investment; towns for sale are far and few between.

In 1989, American actress Kim Basinger plunked down $20 million for the town of Braselton, Georgia, 60 miles from Atlanta. She ended up selling it five years later at a huge loss due to financial problems she was having. And in 2011, the small town of Courbefy, France, 280 miles southwest of Paris, sold for roughly 520,000 euros ($585,520) to Yoo Byung-eun, the South Korean owner of the sunken ferry Sewol, who planned to build an environmental, artistic and cultural project there. He has since died, and the project is now on hold.

The moral: proceed with caution. But if you’re not deterred, here’s a handy guide to buying your very own town.

How to find it

Whatever your reasons for buying a town, much of the challenge is not in the cost – but finding one for sale to begin with.

“It’s not like I have a database that I call my VIP town buyer list,” said Fisher. So, where do you start?

Occasionally, towns are listed on eBay or other auction sites – but there isn’t a particular category for them. Narrow down the geographical vicinity where you would like to purchase a town and then contact real estate agents in the area. “Otherwise, you’re looking for a needle in a haystack,” said Fisher. Also, because of their novelty, towns that are listed for sale are often covered by the media, and many buyers find out about them that way.

Multi-purpose second life

That was the case for the Valle Piola, which is currently for sale on eBay and has been featured in numerous European publications.

On the market since 2013, the village has piqued the interest of a number of prospective buyers, according to Fabio Pisi Vitagliano, a member of the four-person, private Valle Piola Rebirth Team, which owns Valle Piola. Potential buyers’ ideas for the town have spanned everything from a boutique hotel, to an artistic village, an eco-friendly village, and a rehabilitation centre.