Many years ago I was at a Seminar for Realtors and the guest speaker was Alan Dalton. In my opinion, he was a Marketing guru and any time I had the opportunity to hear him speak, I would arrive early to get a front row seat. I never wanted to miss a word, and sometimes that was hard,as Alan could talk in circles and use unfamiliar words and in some cases non-words. I think he did this to see if his audiences were paying attention. When we all looked totally confused, and he knew we were listening, he would say something very profound that would make us sit up and listen. One such time, when we were looking especially puzzled, he said…some times I become very worried about the real estate sales person because when I go to a cocktail party, or a gathering where people are talking about what they do, if they say they are in any type of sales, people will usually steer clear of them unless they are in immediate need of their services such as insurance or a phone etc., but if they say they are in real estate people run towards them, they stand in line to talk to them. That could mean one of two things…we are so timid and laid back that we don’t threaten them as sales people,(which is not good, after all that is what we are suppose to be doing) or it could mean that everyone wants what we have, and that is information. He concluded that he felt it was the second reason and proceeded with his speech regarding the role information plays in the success of an agent. With that thought in mind and knowing my real estate background, you are probably anxious to hear what I have to say. Here’s some real estate information you might find interesting. Properties of The Villages reported 3,669 homes sold this past year, of which 1398 were pre-owned homes. That means not quite half the homes sold were pre-owned. So far the first quarter of this year there have been 862 new homes sold and 545 pre-owned homes sold.   South of Rt.#466A they have already sold 585 homes, there are 224 under construction and 489 home sites are already reserved. As of last Wednesday night only 208 new homes are available north of Rt#466A. At the rate the homes are being reserved, built and sold it won’t be long until there will only be pre-owned homes to sell, and it is my personal opinion, that our home values will escalate considerably, as I’m sure you will agree, there is no other place like the Villages anywhere.  I hope I did Alan proud with my statistical knowledge, and you are left thinking two things…what a great investment I have,  and  there’s a  recession, where?  Not here, that’s for sure.