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Bob Melvin at a glance

Born: Feb. 3, 1956

Hometown: Elizabthtown, N.C.

Family: Married three years to wife, Addy, with four children.

Education: bachelor's degree in English from University of North Carolina-Wilmington.

Discovered Boca Grande: 1983.

Residences: Placida and Boca Grande.

Not including Boca Grande, where in the world would you most prefer to live? Placida. I'd live in a place warmer with more fish but there aren't too many of those places.

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Bob Melvin has been the leading real estate agent on Boca Grande for more than a decade and has been selling property around the island for roughly a quarter century. Melvin and his partners, Carol Stewart and Randy Wojcik, employ 10 agents and staff members at Gasparilla Properties, which is part of the Board of Luxury Real Estate, a collection of the world's elite land brokers. This week, Melvin tells how his business remains atop the local real estate sales charts, who the typical property buyer is on the island and what role banks have played in fouling up the real estate sector.

Question: How did you discover Boca Grande?

Answer: We were developing the Boca Grande Club in the late '70s. My brother and I were working at the sister club, the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo. It became an opportunity to get over to a special place like Boca Grande. After we came full time in 1983 we never left. As today, as then, it's a one-of-kind place.

Q: When did you sell your first Boca Grande property?

A: It was about 1984. My first sale was probably after working 6.5 days a week for that first year. I think the first year I made exactly one-and-half commissions. Didn't even get a full sale on one of the commissions.

Q: When did you join Gasparilla Properties?

A: I started Gasparilla Properties. I was at the Boca Grande Club for 10 years and sold most of the condominiums there and after 10 years I started with Gulf to Bay, now Gulf to Bay Sotheby's. I took that to the top-producing real estate company on the island. Then in 1999 I bought the Boca gas station property and have been here 10 years now.

Q: How have you and your company had so much success?

A: The harder you work, the luckier you get. It's pretty simple.

Q: Bank financing is much harder to arrange now. Is it holding back demand from the real estate market?

A: If you're dealing with local banks, if you have a buyer that's got a good credit score, a guy that puts down a good, strong down payment and a property that appraises at or more than the contract price, there's usually no problem getting the loan.

Q: But the larger national banks are still a problem in the industry, are they not?

A: Where the big banks fall short, especially with a condominium-type purchase, is the big banks are trying to sell their loans on the open market. That's where the problems begin. The big banks aren't quite smart enough to loan money to people who will pay it back. Obviously, a big part of the problem is the big banks not being smart enough to not loan money to people that couldn't pay it back.

Q: Have island property values held firm or have they begun to erode as they have in the rest of Florida?

A: This past year was the slowest year in many, many years. It's all about price for the most part. The people who really, really want to sell or have to sell have adjusted their prices and those are the properties that have sold or are selling.

Q: Exactly how bad was it in 2009?

A: Last year was the worst year in two decades probably.

Q: What's the best advice you can give a property owner considering selling at this time?

A: We tell our clients and our contacts that in this economy and this market, that if you don't have to sell, then why put another property on the market if you're not going to price it where the buyers are willing to pay? All it does is further erode the marketplace to put more properties that aren't going to sell on the market.

Q: Is there a typical Gasparilla Island real estate buyer?

A: Typically, it's a family oriented buyer looking for a laid-back, slower pace in life.

Q: Explain the Catch-22 between forces for progress and preservation on the island.

A: You need to have some progress. You want enough progress so people can make a living but you don't want it to be so commercialized it ruins the ambiance. It's a delicate balance.

Q: How much land is left to be developed on Gasparilla Island?

A: It's well over 90 percent developed.

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