True or False? Real Estate at the Boca Country Club sells almost immediately!

BOCA RATON -- July 14, 2008 -- The correct answer is "false". As of this writing, 63 homes are available at the Boca Country Club. How long have they been on the market? Almost nine months, on average.

Does that mean the real estate bubble has popped? See our article on the housing bubble for the answer to that.

Despite the number of people who want to live in Florida, things definitely have slowed down. While prices continue to climb, sales are not on the same ladder.

Since the start of the year, less than 2 dozen homes have sold at the Club. That's about half the number that sold in the same time frame a year earlier. It's even worse than that compared to 2 years ago.

Also, the disconnect between sellers and buyers has widened. While sellers think they can move their property in a few months for increasing prices, the absorption rate suggests it takes over 2 years, for lower prices.

Sadly, some Realtors® suggest they can achieve "immediate sales" to get a listing. "I have a buyer for this home," they say. Once they take the listing, the buyer mysteriously disappears.

Moreover, many real estate agents equate taking a listing with their willingness to promise larger-than-likely prices. There's an old saying in the real estate business: "List To Last." Whoever has the listings relies on the nature of the market to reach enough sales to hang on to the lifestyle they enjoy, if they sell your home or not.

But when things start to slow down, it often leads to a frustrated seller. Some Realtors® reason that they just need more listings to reach their goals, since they sell fewer of them. New sellers enter the market willing to believe their homes are worth more than the market will pay. Over-promising agents grab the listing (at any price). They lower the price when the seller gets frustrated. They lower it more when it proves to be "stale" because it did not sell (at the right price) in the critical first three weeks of listing. They blame it all on the market. Eventually they make the sale. They move on to their next overpromise.

There is another way. If you want the truth, and hard work aimed at getting you the best price, list with us. Nobody understands cyberspace selling better than we do. And nobody does a better job of selling your home.