Lyons: It’s a nice home, sure, but still a bad situation

Lyons: It’s a nice home, sure, but still a bad situation

She would rather I not write about her, but Siesta Key real estate agent Judi Berger was polite and forthcoming as I asked nosy questions.

Judging by her professional manner, I’m not too surprised she sold more than $13 million worth of homes last year. She credits long hours, hard work and lots of costly advertising for becoming, as her ads say, “Siesta Key’s top seller in 2009.”

But though she’s bounced back from leaner years that followed the residential market plunge that began in late 2005, my call about a personal financial matter was awkward.

An anonymous letter, possibly from a real estate rival, had urged me to think badly of Berger, because her home is in foreclosure. Berger, the writer suggested, is hypocritically choosing to live there for free, though surely able to make mortgage payments while collecting commissions on all the home sales her ads boast about, right?