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 and 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 additional articles and started sending them out to all winery and vineyard owners in Napa and Sonoma Counties, two to three times a year. He has gained the reputation of dealing on a very confidential basis with these highly sophisticated real estate business transactions, and by the end of 2004 Bergman Euro-National was responsible for 40% of the Winery sales in Napa and Sonoma Counties along with selling other wineries throughout the state. In that same period of time the firm was invovled in 56% of all larger Vineyard / Estate property sales in the same counties.

John has been involved with some of the most well known winery names in the country in one way or another, and has stayed under the radar from the publicity of the media as most of his multi-million dollar transactions go un-noticed to the public until after they are closed and are made public record. Once made public notice and the sale hits media, the article talks about the new owner and seller, but never about the agent that made it all happen.

With his knowledge in Vineyard and Winery Values, John has conducted accredited seminars for Appraisers from all over Northern California. The last one also included the Secretary of Agriculture of California and other highly respected knowledgeable and well known professionals.

John got involved with the interenet in 1993 when he started his web site www.bergmanvineyards.com. Today that web site is known for its education of vineyard and winery ownership has a hit record of several hundred a day to over 10,000 hits a day from potential clients around the world.

The firm also includes David Ashcraft (Broker - Associate) that came aboard in 2000. David is John's son-in-law that someday will be taking the torch to maintain and keep the momentum of this business that has been around since 1967.

Bergman Euro-National became so popular that many media outlets have printed their articles and profiled listings in the following local, national, and international publications:

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 with his family.

For more informaiton call 707-887-9822

or email John Bergman