I’ve had many a guest think the same thing 
– even last year when my house was on the CRFG Festival of Fruit tour.
Richard, that is one beautiful and bushy Green Sapote tree you have! I wish you the best of luck with it. I’ve gotten a few Green Sapote trees recently and they are all pretty lanky, so I have a lot of work to do to make them look as good as yours.
How long do you expect to wait for the first flowers? I’ve heard it can take a long time.
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I’ve heard a dozen years from folks in Santa Monica canyon and Camarillo CA. So probably 6-8 years from now.
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Today I took a leisurely walk around the San Diego Zoo, admiring both their animal and plant collections. Here’s a photo from the NE corner of the premises with a Dragon Fruit (H. undatus) on the left, Red Guava on the right, and a Green Sapote tree casually in the middle of the sidewalk 
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Very very exciting and rewarding for all your patience. I sure hope it holds on to a few fruit. A friend in Silver Lake had fruit set on his GS last year and fruit took something close to a year to ripen.
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Yes, my expectation is about that – similar to avocado in my climate.
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Late this afternoon Janet and I looked at the Green Sapote buds and to our surprise found buds opening, flower bracts closing, a few flowers on the ground and fruit sets. The flowers appear to be perfect (bisexual).
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Just about every branch on the tree has buds now. You can also see “scars” where buds have dropped off. 
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Very unique way of setting fruits!
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If you aren’t getting enough fruit set, consider trying a technique that has been successfully used to coax fruit set out of shy Sapodillas (a Pouteria relative of Green Sapote). When the flower is open, give it a light squeeze to move the pollen to the stigmas. I’m going to try this once the flowers open on my Green Sapotes.
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