January volume was the highest the 50-associates firm has logged since closing $41 million in August 2003 sales. It also was the first time that Vance has eclipsed the $10-million mark in January, traditionally a slow period in the industry.
"In my more than 20 years of real estate experience, January has seldom been a month to get excited about," says company founder and owner Barbara Vance. "The excitement in our business doesn't usually begin until the spring."
Vance concedes January's numbers were bolstered by a $25-million land sale of a 1,200-acre tract in Osceola County owned by the Seminole Indian tribe. Vance averaged about $1.1 million on 40 closings in 2004.
To reach the $200-million sales goal this year, the firm would have to average $17 million per month, an increase from the average $11.25 million Vance Realty averaged last year on a total 475 transactions valued at $135 million.
"We realize that in order to achieve our goal for this year, it is essential that we come out of the gate quickly with a strong opening quarter," says Vance, a big sales hitter herself with several local brokerages before forming her own company in 1997. She is confident the $200-million goal is reachable because of "stable and attractive mortgage rates and our commercial real estate division operating in a very aggressive manner."
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