Community Highlights: Meet Natalie Marrone of Natalie Marrone Homes

My story is a voyage of courage and hope. As the child of Italian immigrants, I was a first-generation college student who had the fortitude to follow a dream. I had a passion for researching, documenting, and preserving the artifacts of the Italian American experience through dance and music and spent a decade doing such documentation under thousand-year-old olive trees, learning from 90-year-old agrarians, local ethnomusicologists, high-level anthropologists, and contadini farmers. I became a professor at some of the most prestigious universities in the country carrying with me a real responsibility to the history and the stories of the generations before me. I fought hard to do what I felt called to do as a 19-year-old and woke up as a 33-year-old having achieved things my own parents never imagined. I had traveled the world as an expert in Italian traditional dance and culture; I had performed and presented from Asia to Europe, I had choreographed for live television and film, spearheaded a critically acclaimed non-profit dance company, I had been written about in books, and I had created groundbreaking curriculum in the University setting. My measuring stick for success had reached its very last lines… now what?

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
NO! I needed to fundamentally pivot.  I woke up at 33 and realized that the dreams I had set out to follow at 20 were no longer the dreams I saw for my future self. I knew it was time to pivot and create a new life for myself, but I was entrenched and so deeply loved what I had been doing I couldn’t imagine “being” something new. It was a dangerous case, in some ways, of living and contriving happiness through one’s work, and it took many years to untangle and get some space between what I did as a vocation and who I was to become next.

I embarked on a journey of serious re-consideration of what I had been looking for in my 25-year career as a cultural researcher and preservation artist and realized what I had been looking for in all of that was a deeper sense of community and a place to really feel what I call “True” home. “True” home is not just a place; it is also a purpose.

Becoming a realtor and starting Natalie Marrone Homes became the vehicle with which I could utilize all of my skills and create a platform through which others could find their own rooted place of “True” home. Together with my amazing family of clients we focus on envisioning and creating a platform for our future generations through skillfully building wealth through real estate while simultaneously building a community that is more powerful together.

We don’t have enough mentorship in this country-so of course this new road was incredibly challenging and not for the faint at heart. Getting licensed to become a realtor is fairly quick and easy. Building a business centered on the success of clients with whom you choose to develop a community-now that is the true challenge and took another decade of work.

As you know, we’re big fans of Natalie Marrone Homes. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about the brand? 

Natalie Marrone Homes is a real estate platform with a passion for protecting the future of my clients and our community.  The most important thing I do every day is work with clients in the Triangle area to buy and sell property so that they can build intergenerational wealth; but the mission extends far beyond that.

As an Italian American, I believe no one should go hungry. As a first-generation person in this country, I understand how hard it can be to create wealth and to help your children climb the ladder to a platform of future success. For these two reasons I have made the mission of my business to build wealth for my clients and help create a life of abundance while serving the community we love. So, while we are always in business to be in service to my clients in meaningful ways- I further challenge myself to create opportunities to give back to those that need support in my community. From this idea grew Festa Della Terra. Festa Della Terra on April 20, 2024 (raindate April 21) is one palpable example of the fruit on this tree. It is an artful food drive to benefit a local hunger relief organization called PORCH. This year we have engaged 9 artists of national and international stature, as well as a multitude of businesses, community members and clients to create a gallery in the trees at my home. We welcome hundreds of community members who bring a bag of non-perishable items and then enjoy an afternoon surrounded by good art and live music under the trees. Through Festa Della Terrawe stand together with our clients and community to give help where it is needed most. Over the years, we have been able to feed over 1200 families for a full month and raise thousands of dollars to support PORCHand their allied non-profits.

The comprehensive work of PORCH can be found here https://chapelhill.porchcommunities.org. This year Festa Della Terra aims to feed over 600 families in our community for a full month!

Together with our community of clients, neighbors, and Porch volunteers, we create the future we want to see in our community. Thus my work extends well past the initial home purchase. The question for me will always be what more can my team do  to serve our clients years after their home purchase and work collaboratively to support the community we love.