Dear BBF Southwest Florida District Members,

I trust this message finds you well. Serving as your President in 2023 has been a privilege, and I’m thrilled to bring you some exciting updates and news about the BBF’s Southwest District – including announcing our inaugural BBF Holiday Luncheon and Charity Bowl on December 12, 2023, our first 2024 Lunch & Learn Event planned for the first quarter (Date TBD), and the BBF Bi-Annual Conference Scheduled for August 24-25 at the Caribe Royale Orlando.

Southwest District Achievements

Southwest District’s performance:  2023 has proven to be a challenging year for our District.  Hurricane Ian and rising interest rates greatly impacted the total number and dollar volume of sales. However, our future is bright as the number of new listings year-over-year are up 9% and the average listing price is up nearly 180%. This bodes well for fourth quarter 2023 and beyond.

Co-brokered and Withheld Deals:  The Southwest District level of cooperation lags significantly behind other districts in co-brokering and withheld listings.

• Our 17% of co-brokered deals runs less than 50% of the percentage other districts’ co-brokered percentages.
• We are way above other districts in the percentage of withheld listings.  Statewide the percentage for withheld listings is 13%.  Our SWFL District has nearly 50% of all listings withheld.

On a positive note, these are improvements from past performance!  We need to continue our trend of cooperation and move the percentage of co-brokered deals into the thirty percentile and the percentage of withheld listings into the teens.  We can work together to do it!

Education 

The Southwest District met our 2023 educational goals.  Our first three Lunch & Learn sessions were a huge success!  All received glowing reviews.  Please attend our future sessions!

• BBF Holiday Luncheon and Charity Bowl:  Mark your calendars for our Holiday Luncheon on December 12, 2023, from 11am to 2pm at Head Pinz in Fort Myers.  We’ve got a fantastic luncheon planned with great food, drinks, and the opportunity to compete in a bowling tournament to win money for your favorite local charity.  Stay tuned for more details!
• Our next Lunch & Learn is planned for mid first quarter 2024, back at Connor’s Steakhouse.  The topic will be ‘Taking Advantage of Your IBBA and BBF Membership Resources.’  This will also be a membership drive.  If you are aware of brokers who are selling businesses in SWFL and would benefit by becoming members, let me know so we can invite them.  Note:  We are looking to add legitimate business brokers who meet our criteria for membership – not brokers who just want to dabble in business brokerage as a sideline or add-on.
• Mark your calendars as BBF will be holding their Bi-Annual Conference on August 24-25, 2024 at the Caribe Royale Orlando.  Those of you who participated in the 2022 conference held in Naples understand the benefits of learning from the industry’s best and networking with your fellow BBF members at these events.  This will be a can’t miss!

Volunteers

• We invite you to be a part of making our association better for everyone.  Please do not hesitate to reach out if you want to get involved and give back.  We welcome input and participation from all members!
• Thank you to our dedicated ‘volunteer’ Southwest Florida Board members, Troy Wolfe, David Whitcomb, Joe Alter, Jeff Kohn, and Janet Badalow whose active dedication significantly contributes to all our success.

I look forward to seeing you at our BBF Holiday Luncheon and Charity Bowl on December 12^th!  Space is limited so RSVPs early by emailing me at eric@edisonba.com

Best Regards,

Eric J. Gall, MBA, CM&AP, CBI, ABI, M&AMI
BBF SWFL District President