I mentioned this one a bit ago, and you can’t deny it “sounds” wonderful. But we never had a look inside the home, let alone inside the gates. That is until now.

Have a look at Villa De Montaña in St. Helena an let your imagination soar!

Currently not marketed on MLS, this home is on 20+ acres and surrounded by 1,000 acres of the Mayacama Mountains. Asking $16,950,000, it is a 32 room estate with 2 master suites, 4 guest suites, 3 offices, 10 bathrooms, a state-of-the-art gourmet kitchen, breakfast room, sun room, wine cellar, exercise studio, library, and the list goes on and on.

Although not decorated to my standards, the home is quite lovely indeed, especially this killer patio…

I’d love to come visit you on occasion and (insert British accent here) sip a lovely glass of Napa Valley wine on your lovely estate, and marvel at the exquisitely manicured grounds, enjoy delicious meals from your private chef, and form extraordinary friendships with your undoubtedly, absolutely delightful friends. Cheers…

For more details, visit Villa De Montaña, St. Helena, $16,950,000 on PocketListings.net.

-More Wanderlust [theFrontSteps]

This is one of those properties where every step you take inside the building you wonder if you’ll end up one floor below, like in a Looney Tunes Cartoon. To say the property is in utter disrepair (and recently vacated) is an understatement.
The exterior photos actually don’t do this property justice. The floors are rotted, the windows are molded and cracked, the roof is…well….it’s still there, the bathrooms are disgusting, and the potential is tremendous!
This is, after all, a “fully entitled development project with approved plans and permits in hand to build TWO, 2 story units with 2 car parking, yard, roof deck, with sweeping views of San Francisco Bay, Bay Bridge, Downtown San Francisco, and Telegraph Hill.” It’s opportunity knocking.
Full disclosure, there is a school right smack dab next door, and that could quite possibly be the only downside. However, the buyers of the finished product are likely not going to be people that are home Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm anyway, so it is almost a non-issue.
This is a chance for a developer to pick up an extraordinary project off market, develop it, and unload it. Or it is a chance for a person that wants a brand new property, to come in, take over, hire your crew, and build your Telegraph Hill dream residence.
Make no mistake, this is a “fixer” of epic proportions, but a lot of the “work” has been done for you. The hardest part of most battles to build in San Francisco is usually getting permission from the city, and that’s all been done for you. You can show up, make an offer with hammer in hand and get to work. Okay, maybe you’ll need more than a hammer and nails…like maybe a wrecking ball?

I’ll be out at the property today showing some clients, and I’ll attempt to get a couple interior pictures, but no promises. The inside is a total and complete wreck and that is what makes it so damn attractive.

Don’t go looking for this on MLS, because it ain’t there. It’s currently “off market” or “not on MLS”, but definitely very much for sale.

However, before you get to enjoy what we see in those renderings above, you gotta get through what exists in the photos below. And since so many homes are judged by the quality of their kitchens and baths…ask and thou shalt receive:


P.S. Keep in mind it was apparently recently inhabited.

-Prescott Fixer Details, San Francisco, $850,000 [PocketListings.net]
-“It’s Not Listed. But It’s Definitely For Sale.” [New York Times]
-Not on MLS Real Estate Network [PocketListings.net]

Very motivated all cash buyers looking for a SFR that meets the following requirements:

-$2.5M or less
-3 Beds/2 Baths+
-Around 3000 sq. ft.
-Large bedrooms
-Good condition w / some original detail
- Lake Dist., Laurel Heights, Jordan Lake, Inner/Central Richmond, or Sea Cliff

We keep telling you, there is opportunity galore showing up on PocketListings.net all across the country. If you’re not on there yet, you’re missing out, and you’re going to miss the boat. Mark our words on that.

-Lake District Buyer Need around $2.5M [PocketListings.net]

This detached home sits on a private gated lot surrounded by lush greenery, mature Monterey pines, brick pathways and offers a tranquil setting. This amazing cul-de-sac features some of San Francisco’s most talked about treasures including many homes designed by Willis Polk and one by famed architect Joseph Esherick. Showcased throughout this home are new ebony stained hardwood floors, restored redwood paneled walls, restored arched French paned windows that were salvaged from the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition, high ceilings, moldings, recessed lighting and spa-style remodeled limestone bathrooms with Lefroy Brooks fixtures from England.

We could just cut and paste the entire description of this truly extraordinary property right here in this blog post, but that would take away from getting you to click through to the new site now wouldn’t it.

Oh wait, we forgot to mention this home was “designed by architect Julia Morgan in 1917 for Mrs. Horatio Livermore, and its second owner, the late advertising icon Hal Riney completely renovated the home with the help of architect Karl G. Smith in 2005.”

We love our dear readers, and we try never to annoy, but we have an obligation to report all the good real estate we find, and this property in Russian Hill is no exception.

How could you say no to three bedrooms, five bathrooms, four car parking, a price tag of $4,900,000, and views that are, well, priceless?

-Russian Hill pocket listing on PocketListings.net

Elevator service directly into unit, three bedrooms (all with their own full bathroom), library, three remodeled bathrooms, vestibule with marble floor and arched etched glass window, formal entry, formal living room with woodburning fireplace, formal dining room, remodeled eat-in chef’s kitchen with pantry, deeded maid’s room with window and sink (there is a bathroom that services this maid’s room), service elevator, custom draperies and plantation shutters, intercom, cable ready, wired for sound in the library, living room and dining room, laundry room, resident manager, common landscaped lush garden, deeded storage room, 1-car secure garage parking, additional exterior parking in rear area of the lower garage, building security cameras, elegant marble lobby with coffered ceilings, vintage wall sconces and arched stained glass windows.

-Pocket Listing on Broadway.

We’ve had a few people ask us what is the point in pocket listing and at what point does a pocket listing become a “listing”? Why should they do it, or not do it, and why should they use PocketListings.net?

As it is right now, each and every brokerage in the land has an internal email system. On that system agents can, and do, frequently send out emails along the lines of “I have a pocket listing, do you have a buyer?” Or “I have a buyer looking for X in this price range, anybody have a pocket listing?” The problem is, that email only goes out to however many people are in their company. There are other products attempting to capture this communication for just top agents, but that’s silly. Why limit your chances. Wouldn’t it be nice if each and every agent was able to market that pocket listing or buyer request with every single agent in their market, every single buyer and seller in the country, be able to search any market without being a member there, and use new and upcoming technology to do so? Wouldn’t your chances of success at either selling or buying a property increase? We think so.

The Multiple Listing Service’s online versions you see today are fashioned off of what they used to be when they were giant sized books (think phone books) that were delivered to different brokerages in each city/county. The thought process is still the same, but things have changed, and are getting a bit out of control. The internet and blogging have changed the game, as has the Department of Justice, because MLSs are required to share their data with sites like Zillow, Trulia, and Realtor.com. The problem with that is feeding data from MLS to other sites is not perfect. Details get screwed up. For example: if the property was previously listed, photos are often still on from the previous listing. Days on market can be off (again tied to the previous listing), open house times are often wrong, Zillow’s Zestimate…don’t get us started, and if you think you’re contacting the agent who has that listing, think again, you’re most likely not going to get them (unless they upgrade to some “Pro” plan, but that’s an entirely different topic). The long and short is, the “listing” information has been clouded, and in order to get the truth and actual information, you still have to go back to the source of that information, and it’s increasingly harder and harder to find that source….the licensed real estate professional who has the listing and put it in MLS. So why not simplify things?

Our intention is to create a marketplace for “not on MLS” real estate opportunities, and keep any and all leads going right back to the original source…the agent/broker that posted it. There is no feed to other sites, there is no DOM ticking down, there is no huge public announcement of price reductions (think about all the blogs that drool over these), and agents control what information they’d like shared. Perhaps the biggest piece of the puzzle we’re going to solve is on the buyer side. Allowing agents to share the needs of their buyers!

So why should you as a seller, buyer, or real estate professional use PocketListings.net?

Pros:
1. EXPOSURE! Many of our posts are already getting more “views” than when the same property was on MLS.
2. No D.O.M (Days On Market, which buyers are using these days to warrant low-ball offers.)
3. No public price reductions (Uh oh, they lowered the price! They’re getting desperate!)
4. Only qualified buyers (qualified by your agent) coming through your door.
5. No definitive price, only price ranges (makes it easier to negotiate.)
6. No publicized commission agreement (more room for negotiations.)
7. Agents control the entire process, and all inquiries are directed back to the person that actually did the post (Yes, agents are good at this sh*t, so let them do their job.)
8. A place to “list” your home prior to MLS, or a place to list it if it is unsuccessful selling on MLS (Wouldn’t that be nice?)
9. No agents knocking on your door to get the listing if your current listing expires, because it just vanishes from our site when it’s deleted, and the address was never public.
10. A place for banks to (hopefully) list their REO, Short Sale, and Foreclosure Inventory.
11. You could end up selling for MORE than you thought you’d get on MLS.
12. Potential for a quick sale.
13. Agents, you can reach more people on our site than any email (spam) you could ever send.

Cons:
1. Not as much exposure (This argument is moot, as stated above and will only get more obsolete as we grow.)
2. You’ll never truly know “market price” (Bull sh*t….a home is only worth what one person is willing to sell it for, and another willing to buy it, and you can run comps off of tax records easily, and online, not to mention the appraiser is going to have a say in the price as well. And if we get the exposure we hope to, you’ll have just as much interest as on MLS.)
3. Agents miss the opportunity to pick up buyers at Open Houses (True, but stay tuned for new features on that, and we never said you couldn’t have an Open House.)
4. Your neighbors won’t know you’re selling (Really? Is this a bad thing? What about knocking on their door and telling them?)
5. It’s a FSBO (Not on our site. We hate FSBOs. Don’t want them, don’t need them.)
6. You might leave some money on the table (See #2 above.)

Our site is only in the infant stages of existence and word is spreading. Of course, there are haters and non-believers, but they’ll come around. We have received nothing but positive feedback and comments about how “this is a brilliant idea” from countless real estate professionals. Agents, your colleagues are signing up and beginning to use our site. You should too.

That, our friends, is why PocketListings.net is going to be awesome and every real estate agent in the country is going to want to be a part, and every single buyer and seller is going to know about it soon enough, and this is only the beginning of what we’ve got cooking.

It used to be this here site provided a daily dose of real estate porn to drip into your veins and satisfy your soul, but lately we’ve been busy with our other venture that is absolutely taking off, PocketListings.net. The site itself is great and an excellent source of real estate porn (Just search San Francisco on the site and you’ll see), but the real cure for your addiction will come by way of our Twitter Page, which is a real time feed of all of the off market opportunities out there…the moment they hit our site.

The quality of pocket listings showing up and buyers looking for property is even surprising to us, and we’ve only just begun.

We invite you to join us at Pocket Listings any way you can: Twitter Page; Facebook Profile; PocketListings.net BLOG (We’re starting to ramp that BLOG up, so if you like theFrontSteps, you’re going to like that too), but if you really want the cure, the drip is your answer.

Yup, we’re live (in beta) and we want you, and you, and you to check it out, use it, and tell 100 of your bestest of best Friends.

Non agents (i.e. Public) are welcome too! Just contact your agent if you see something you like.

Here’s the best thing…we’ve quietly been live and testing the site for a couple of weeks, and trying to keep it relatively under wraps, but already have agents who have joined us from Santa Rosa, San Francisco, San Diego, Burlingame, Belmont, Pacific Palisades, and Palo Alto, CA to name a few. Still other agents in Scottsdale, AZ, Miami Beach, FL, Bend, Oregon, and the number of agents joining are growing at a very surprising rate.

We’ve had great feedback from our initial users, four agents who’ve already contacted each other about potential matches, and we think we’re ready for all of you. So go check out and use PocketListings.net.

Here are some direct links to some noteworthy pocket listings already posted:
-Click here to see the very first pocket listing ever posted on our site (A $2.4M home in Scottsdale, AZ).
-Click here to see the most expensive pocket listing posted so far (A $5.5M home in Palo Alto, CA).
-Click here to see the most unexpected post so far (A $60,000 parking space in San Francisco, CA).

PocketListings.net is absolutely ROCKING and we haven’t even begun. Don’t wait, get in the game!

To keep updated on our happenings, we have a substantial number of “Friends” already on our Facebook Profile (also serving as our blog), so we’d be delighted to have you come join us there.

Our Twitter page is growing every day, and is also the place every single one of our posts is fed. Huh? Fed? Yep, you can follow us on Twitter, you can follow our hashtags for #plcity, and you’ll see every single post in real time. No need to search, no need to sort. Just browsing for all of you real estate porn addicts. Follow us @PocketListings.

If you liked watching theFrontSteps grow to over 500,000 readers*, you’re going to be more impressed with what we do with PocketListings.net, so we hope you find a way to be a part.

-PocketListings.net
-Facebook.com/pocketlistings
-Twitter.com/pocketlistings

*in our heyday, we had ~500,000 unique visitors per year, right here on these very theFrontSteps.