Real estate agent closes 2012 in a blur

Looming tax changes for 2013 meant many Gulf Coast real estate dealmakers had super-busy Decembers.

Take Cheryl Loeffler, a 25-year residential real estate veteran. Loeffler, with the Sarasota office of Premier Sotheby's International Realty, says the last month of 2012 was a flurry of activity.

In fact, Loeffler juggled six pending sales of properties less than a week before Christmas, from a downtown Sarasota condo to a home on Anna Maria Island. All the buyers, Loeffler tells Coffee Talk, sought to close the deals by Dec. 31. Many of the sellers, added Loeffler, wanted to close by the end of the year to avoid paying more in capital gains taxes in 2013.

The value of the properties being sold, Loeffler says, ranged from $1.9 million to $4.4 million — so some big commissions were at stake. “It's been a challenge,” says Loeffler, “but an interesting challenge.”

The hurdles to a final close weren't out of the ordinary, with issues like title typos and inspection questions. But the accelerated time frame was certainly unique. “It's been a long time since the boom days,” says Loeffler, “when I had this much work in this short a period of time.”