| John C. Bergman John began his real estate career in 1967 in Millbrae, California. While working for Trotter Realty as a residential agent, he was selected “Salesman of the Year” for the state of California in 1969. In January of 1970, John acquired his broker’s license and opened Bergman & Associates Realtors in San Mateo. By 1973, there were eight Bergman offices, with over 300 agents. John became one of the original directors of Founders Title Company, and sat on their Board of Directors for nine years. Founders became the largest title company in Northern California. It was sold to Old Republic, and today carries that name. In the early 70’s, John was designated President of Century 21 offices in San Mateo County. During his time with the company, he designed a concept called “One Call Does It All.” This was to be the National Relocation Program, which helped Century 21 become the largest real estate company in the world. During his time with Century 21, John traveled across the nation giving seminars and opening other offices. John developed subdivisions of estate homes in Hillsborough and Redwood Shores from 1974 through 1976. This amounted to hundreds of high-end residential properties. In late 1975, John restructured Bergman Enterprises from a residential oriented company, to seven integrated, yet independent corporations. During the 70’s, John traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East dealing with foreign investors. One transaction consisted of the sale of the Queen’s Guardsman Palace in London, England to a group of Saudi Arabians who turned it into a hotel casino called “The Arab Knights.” John put together a $60,000,000 investment fund established in Europe, and invested in Reno, Nevada. This fund was used to acquire two major hotel casinos, six motels, four large apartment complexes, and the Mill International Building, which sat across from the yet to be built MGM Grand. In 1976, John was selected “Exchanger of the Year” in California for putting together a tax deferred exchange involving 21 properties, spread over seven states, adding up to over $30,000,000 in value. In 1980, he attended the presidential inauguration and private ball for President Bellaunda of Peru. During his time there, he put together a development project along the 14-mile coastline known as Costa Verde. Besides his own projects, John has traveled throughout the United States dealing with large NNN leased National Credit Tenant real estate portfolio owners, marketing their properties. He worked with small, select clientele, who used his advice and consultation expertise with respect to their real estate selling, buying, and exchanges. Most of his transactions were consolidated in $100,000,000 packages then sold to Wall Street investment consultants. In late 1981, John moved to Saratoga. While living in Saratoga, he pursued his philanthropic interests by becoming the Chairman of the Santa Clara County Chapter of AASK (Aid for the Adoption of Special Kids). AASK is an organization that specializes in helping handicapped children find loving families to adopt them. During the early 1980’s, John organized fundraisers and offered professional advice for families, making him directly responsible for the placement of hundreds of special kids in Northern California. John was recognized for his hard work, and given the honor of appearing on the front cover of Executive Magazine, with a full feature article in October of 1984. In 1987, John sold his real estate companies in Saratoga and moved to Napa Valley to live the dream. He quickly learned about the vineyard and winery business. In doing so, he researched the development of vineyard properties and their values over the past 50 years. He poured through financial analyses using spreadsheets, and developed charts showing the growth of values in vineyard properties spanning the last three decades. John began writing articles on the history of vineyard and winery values, and how their appreciation has affected the wine business in California. His first article was called “Vineyard Values: Past, Present and Future.” The article was written in early 1988 with the assistance of Napa County Assessor, John Tudor. The article was such a hit, that it was published in twelve national news media publications. As more clients began to call, John wrote more articles. He began dealing with winery and vineyard owners. As a result, John ended up selling eight wineries and thousands of acres of vineyard land in a very short period of time. One of the winery sales was valued at over $38,000,000. The Internet came along, and John established his first web site in 1993. This was the perfect outlet for his educational articles about the ownership of vineyard properties. They became in such demand, that John began receiving 300 to 500 hits a day from readers around the world. He now has more potential buyers than he would like to admit! Today, John can boast to having sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of vineyard related properties to some of the most high profile, influential clients in the world. John’s articles became so popular that they have been printed by the following publications: Practical Winery & VineyardCalifornia FarmerNew Homes magazine (monthly for 6 years)Financial Times in LondonUnique HomesNapa NewsProperty Review (Singapore’s largest real estate marketing magazine)The Blitz Newspaper, SwitzerlandReal Estate Reader, a wine country newspaperNew York TimesVine Times Today John spends his time working with sellers and qualified buyers for vineyard related properties in Mendocino, Sonoma, and Napa Counties. He is also involved in buying, selling, and running his own vineyard estate properties. His other passion is, of course, growing ultra premium wine grapes for the top wine makers in Sonoma and Napa County. Last, but certainly not least, John enjoys living the good life in the wine country. For more information call 707-887-9822 | ||
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