The meeting was well attended at 74 agents present and the mood was upbeat (Nice weather may have something to do with the mood). 7 new escrows were opened, 10 were closed, there were 2 price reductions (Minimal) 12 upcoming listings were announced and 22 people brought up buyer’s needs.

John Soh talked about his listing at 5626 Vine Hill Rd again and urged us to come take another look because lots of improvements have been done and the seller is “Very Motivated”. This is a 7400 Sq Ft mansion on 55 acres and the price is still $4.7MM. A good deal of the land is plantable and the soils are gold ridge sandy loam. Pinot or Chardonnay country. It’s worth a look and perhaps an offer, but not the asking price. There were two homes on the tour.

MLS# 21301206 located at 13175 Frati Lane (Greater Sebastopol, closer to Occidental) is in the Banana Belt, it’s a 2 Br 2.5Ba home of 3505 Sq Ft on 29 acres. It’s a fine home. I have no criticism of the home’s design, materials or workmanship and it’s a first rate piece of land. The first thing I noticed was that the paved drive was properly done, with turnouts and good ditching. It’s private, no view from the home. There are two contiguos parcels for sale and it would be desirable to purchase all three if you could afford to. There’s enough land in orchard to plant an economically viable vineyard if desired.  The price is $2.3MM and it’s going to go fast, the general reaction of the agents who saw it was wide eyes and WOW.

The second home was MLS # 21301763 located at 6332 Highland Place Sebastopol. This is a 2 story 4 Br 4 Ba 3586 Sq Ft home on 6.5 acres. It sits on a bench at the top of a ridge and it has excellent pastoral views. It’s “Modern Farmhouse” in design, the landscaping immediately around the house is good, but the rest of the land is pasture. Horses or a hobby vineyard would work. The floor plan is OK, but not great, the materials are high quality and the workmanship had some flaws. Look at the top left corner of the screen door at the entrance, the molding on one of the doorframes in an upstairs room is 1/2 inch short of the carpet…Small details matter. This was on the market last year and the year before at the same price ($1,195,000) and poorly marketed. It’s a good house and a nice piece of land but it falls well short of being a fine home.

Real Estate is fun, and sometimes I make money.