A unique two-story home in Palm Springs, CA, looks a bit like a riad you would find in the Moroccan desert.

Listed for $3,498,000, this Wallace Neff–designed home dates to the 1930s.

“It used to be part of the Singer sewing machine estate. This part of the house was actually the gardener’s cottage,” explains listing agent Sandra Quinn, with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. “It was one of the first houses in the desert to have a second story on it. Nobody ever had two floors.”

To preserve the views, two-story homes can no longer be built in the Tennis Club neighborhood, Quinn says. But this property is grandfathered in and it’s located just a couple of blocks from downtown.

The larger 10-bedroom Singer estate and the former gardener’s cottage were split into separate parcels in 1957.

“That’s when the owners made it more of Moorish Moroccan design. But there are several things in the house that you can see in the old original pictures from the ’30s, so it’s still the same house,” Quinn explains.

The 3,306-square-foot home has four bedroom suites. Two are on the main floor and the other two are on the second floor.

“There’s one downstairs that’s kind of a little casita, and it’s got a big red bathtub and the walls of the shower are cedar wood,” says Quinn. “If you don’t ever seal them, the wood stays perfect in there. It gets wet, and it dries back out. It’s really cool.”

Both floors come with full kitchens, and the second-floor great room is highlighted by a colorfully tiled fireplace. That great room opens out to a 1,200-square-foot terrace.

“It’s got unbelievable views that look out over the whole city over the tops of palm trees,” Quinn says. “The deck on the other side looks to the San Jacinto Mountains and down to the gorgeous pool.”

Lined with small cobalt-blue tiles, the pool is situated in the property’s front yard, which Quinn says is common in Palm Springs.

“They built the house so with the pool, you could have the best view of the mountains,” she explains. “When you’re sitting around the pool, everyone says they have to have a view of the mountains.”

The deck around the pool is quartz stone and the grass is real, a rarity in this parched part of the country.

“A lot of people put in fake grass, but out here in the desert, that gets so hot. You can’t walk on it, and your pets can’t walk on it,” Quinn says. “This is regular lawn, which is nice and cool under the feet when it’s hot.”

Even with the pool area, fire pit, and outdoor kitchen in front of the home, there’s no need to worry about prying eyes.

“It’s completely encircled with rock walls and an iron gate with cypress hedges, so it’s ultraprivate. You can’t see in,” Quinn explains. “It kind of makes you wonder because you can only see little bits and pieces if you look through the gates.”

The property is a popular vacation rental, with the current owners renting out the home when they’re not using it.

The popularity has created a bit of a “good news/bad news” situation for Quinn over the years as she has tried to sell the place, taking it on and off the market.

“A lot of people want to buy an investment property. They want to be able to come and use it as a vacation home when they want and have it make money when they’re not here,” she says. “Every time people would call me [to see it], it was booked, and the only time I could get people in was during a weekday afternoon for a couple hours. It has been just impossible to show.”

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