How I sell

What does a listing agent actually do here?

Beyond the standard work, three things are specific to this market: pulling the bond balance on your home and on every comparable so pricing reflects total obligation, marketing to an almost entirely out-of-state buyer pool, and managing the bond and district paperwork that unfamiliar lenders slow down at closing.

What it costs

3 percent, full service, every listing. There is no basic tier and no premium tier: a $250,000 villa gets the same program as a $900,000 premier home. Over $5,300 of included services, and an Easy Exit Listing Agreement that lets you cancel any time before an offer is received.

The full list of what is included is on the seller page. Commission is always negotiable and is not set by law or by any association of REALTORS®.

Phase 1: Research

Before a number gets discussed, I pull:

• Every 2026 closing in your section, by address, with price, size, days on market, and sale-to-list ratio
• The bond balance and annual payment on each of those comps, and on yours
• Every active and pending listing you are competing against right now
• Every expired and cancelled listing in your section, which tells you where the ceiling is more honestly than the closings do
• The district assessment and current amenity fee for your address

That last item matters more than sellers expect. The failed listings are the map of what buyers refused to pay. Most agents never show them to you.

Phase 2: Pricing

The number comes from three inputs: what closed, what failed, and where the days-on-market curve turns in your band. In 2026 the $300,000 to $400,000 bands moved fastest at 34 to 37 median days, while homes under $250,000 took a median 57 days and closed at 96 percent of list.

Then we have the honest conversation. If the number you need and the number the market supports are different, I will tell you that on the first call rather than three months into a listing. The full pricing data is here.

Phase 3: Marketing

Most of your buyers are not in Florida yet. They are in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and New Jersey, researching from a thousand miles away, and they will decide whether to fly down based on what they can see online.

• Professional photography and video, plus drone where the lot or the view justifies it
• MLS syndication across the major portals
• Paid social targeting the origin states that actually send buyers here, using the same retargeting infrastructure I run on my other sites
• A property page that answers the questions an out-of-state buyer will ask before they book a flight, including the bond

The relocation guides on this site exist partly for this reason: they bring the exact buyer your listing needs.

Phase 4: Negotiation

The buyers watching for new listings in your price range see yours first, and they are the most motivated. In 2026 the homes that sold took a median 46 days at 97 percent of list. The ones that missed their early window sat a median 117 days and mostly did not sell at all.

So the plan for the first ten days is made before the listing goes live: how showings are scheduled, how offers are handled if more than one arrives, and what we do if the first weekend is quiet. A quiet first weekend is information, and it is much cheaper to act on in week two than in month four.

Phase 5: Closing

Inspection, appraisal, title, and the part specific to here: the bond and district paperwork. Out-of-state buyers and their lenders frequently have never seen a CDD bond before, and that unfamiliarity is a common source of delay. Getting the documentation in front of them early prevents most of it.

I work with a transaction coordinator and with title companies I use regularly, so the file does not sit waiting on someone learning the market for the first time.

Source: Stellar MLS residential listings inside The Villages, compiled by Cristian Gonzalez, eXp Realty, pulled September 21, 2026. Current-market figures cover the trailing window from May 4, 2026 and include every area. Listing-outcome figures cover January 1 to September 21 and exclude ZIP 32162, whose sold data starts in May. A comparative market analysis is an opinion of value, not an appraisal. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Updated September 2026.