Service Areas
Alamo, CAConcord, CADanville, CADiablo, CALafayette, CAMoraga, CAOrinda, CAPiedmont, CAPleasant Hill, CASausalito, CAWalnut Creek, CA
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About Steven Potts
Steven Potts is a REALTORA(R) with Compass in Walnut Creek, with over 15 years of experience in real estate. He helps homeowners, investors and first-time buyers buy and sell across Walnut Creek, Lamorinda, Pleasant Hill and the wider Contra Costa County.
What sets Steven apart is his background. Before becoming an agent, he was a real estate advisor and leader at international consultancies, advising major tech and financial firms, including Goldman Sachs, Time Warner, Google and Amazon, on projects exceeding $3 billion. That experience in real estate, finance and construction shapes how he works today: careful pricing, thorough preparation, honest advice and disciplined negotiation. Clients work directly with Steven from the first conversation to closing.
Designations: MRICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), PMP (Project Management Professional), LEED Green Associate, NAR Green Designation and Certified Probate & Trust Specialist (CPTS).
Originally from Ireland, Steven proudly calls Walnut Creek and the Bay Area home, and brings an international perspective and deep local knowledge to his practice. Outside work, he's an avid cyclist and hiker, and represented Ireland in trail running in his earlier years. He and his wife, Marissa, live in the East Bay with their two young daughters, and love exploring the area and traveling back to Ireland to see family and friends.
Areas served: Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda, Alamo, Diablo, Danville, Pleasant Hill, Concord, Clayton, Martinez, San Ramon, Berkeley and Piedmont.
OTHER LANGUAGES
English
Community Involvement
Annual warm coat drive, garage sales, shred events, swim clubs and participate in multiple local charities.
HOBBIES/INTEREST
Dad Life | Cycling | Home DIY Projects | Hiking
FAMILY
Married with two young kids frequently seen at swim meets amongst other kids sporting events
Read More About Steven
Credentials
LICENSE
Real Estate - California - # 02215986
Designation
Seniors Real Estate Specialist
Seller Representative Specialist
Certified Negotiation Expert
Licensed Realtor
Green Designation
Real Estate Investing
Top Producer
REALTOR
Specialties
- Buyer's Agent
- First Time Home Buyers
- Investment Properties
- Listing Agent
- New Construction
- Relocation
FAQ
The single biggest piece of advice I give every buyer is this: get clear on your why before you get clear on your budget. Understanding what you're actually optimizing for, whether that's school district, commute, space, lifestyle, or long-term equity, shapes every decision that follows, including which neighborhoods to target and what trade-offs are worth making.
Beyond that, in a market like Walnut Creek, preparation is everything. Get fully pre-approved, not just pre-qualified, before you start touring homes seriously. When a well-priced property comes on the market in Overlook, Larkey Park, or Northgate, you may have 48 hours to decide. Buyers who aren't ready lose out repeatedly.
I also advise clients to look past cosmetics. Paint colours, dated fixtures, and staging are noise. What you can't change easily, lot orientation, floor plan flow, street, and the bones of the structure, that's what to focus on. My construction and quantity surveying background means I can walk through a property with you and give you a grounded read on what you're actually buying, not just what's been dressed up for photos.
Finally, trust the process but not the algorithm. Zillow estimates are a starting point, not a valuation. I build a full Perceived Market Value report for every buyer, cross-referencing multiple platforms against a tailored comparable property market analysis, so you can make an offer with confidence, not guesswork.
Preparation and pricing are the two levers that determine everything. Get both right and you create competition. Get either one wrong and you're chasing the market.
On preparation: buyers in the $1M–$3M range in Walnut Creek have high expectations. They're comparing your home to everything else available, and first impressions form within seconds, online, before they ever step through the door. I work with sellers well in advance of listing, identifying the improvements that genuinely move the needle (and the ones that don't), coordinating trusted local contractors, and ensuring the home presents beautifully across photos, video, and in person. My background in construction means I can assess what needs doing and what's overkill, so you invest wisely, not excessively.
On pricing: Overpricing is the most common and costly mistake sellers make. A home that sits on the market loses momentum fast, and buyers assume something is wrong. I use a rigorous pricing methodology, benchmarking against recent comparable sales and current competition, to position your home where it will attract the strongest possible pool of buyers from day one.
The goal is always to create a multiple-offer scenario. When buyers are competing, you win on price, on terms, and on timeline.
My client base is genuinely varied, which I think reflects the breadth of the East Bay market itself.
I work with families relocating from San Francisco and Silicon Valley who are making that transition from city life to more space, better schools, and a different pace, and who need someone to help them decode the Walnut Creek and Lamorinda market quickly and confidently. I work with long-time East Bay homeowners who are selling a family home they've lived in for decades and want a trusted advisor, not just a transaction coordinator. I work with move-up buyers stepping from a starter home into something larger, often navigating the complexity of buying and selling simultaneously.
I also work with international and out-of-area buyers, many through the Irish of Compass and Brits of Compass networks I help run, who are purchasing in the Bay Area and need someone who understands both the local market and the experience of navigating property in a new country.
What most of my clients share is that they want a consultant, not just an agent. They want someone who will give them a straight answer, help them think through the decision clearly, and advocate hard for their interests when it counts.
One that stands out is 2291 Overlook Drive in Walnut Creek, a home in the Overlook subdivision that we took to market with a clear strategy: position it as the benchmark for the neighbourhood and let the quality of preparation and presentation do the work.
We invested significant effort in pre-sale preparation, the home was presented immaculately, and priced it to create competition rather than simply test the ceiling. The result was a record-setting sale for the Overlook subdivision, which I'm proud of not just as a number but because it validated the approach. The sellers trusted the process, we executed well, and the outcome reflected that.
What I particularly valued about that transaction was that it became a real reference point, something I could point to honestly when talking to other sellers in the area and say: here's what's possible when you prepare properly and price strategically.
I grew up in Ireland and spent the early part of my career in construction and quantity surveying, working on large-scale infrastructure and commercial projects and learning to assess buildings from the ground up, literally. That background took me into project management, and over time I transitioned into managing major capital projects for some of the world's largest companies, including Google, Amazon, and Goldman Sachs, overseeing portfolios worth billions of dollars.
I moved to the Bay Area over 15 years ago, and like a lot of people who arrive here, I became deeply embedded in the community, the East Bay, Walnut Creek, the neighborhoods, the schools, the rhythms of the place. When I moved into residential real estate, it felt like a natural convergence of everything I'd built: financial analysis, construction knowledge, project management discipline, and genuine roots in the community I served.
What I found was that most of what makes a great real estate advisor, rigorous thinking, honest communication, attention to detail, and the ability to manage a complex process and protect a client's interests, were skills I'd already spent 20 years developing. Real estate gave me the chance to apply them in a context I genuinely care about.
Yes, and it's something that genuinely sets this practice apart.
I hold the MRICS designation, Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which is one of the most respected professional credentials in the global property and construction industry. It reflects a rigorous standard of training in property valuation, construction, and professional ethics. Very few residential agents in the US hold this credential.
My background in quantity surveying means I can walk through a property and assess construction quality, identify potential issues, and give clients a grounded view of what they're actually buying or selling, beyond what a standard home inspection covers. That's particularly valuable when evaluating older homes, homes with deferred maintenance, or properties where sellers claim improvements that may not add as much value as they think.
Beyond that, I bring 20+ years of project management experience at Fortune 500 level, which translates directly into running a complex transaction: coordinating contractors, managing timelines, communicating clearly under pressure, and never losing sight of the client's actual objective.
I'm also a licensed California REALTOR® with Compass, operating in one of the most legally and procedurally complex real estate markets in the country. I invest continuously in keeping that knowledge current, because in California, the details matter enormously.
Contact Information
Location
1646 North California BoulevardWalnut Creek, CA, 94596
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