DENYS PECHENENKO Denys Pechenenko - stock.adobe.c
House made of wooden blocks with a red heart inside on a blue ba
House made of wooden blocks with a red heart inside on a blue background. Flat lay, top view, copy space.
FW: Can you quickly sum up what it is that the Greater Fort Worth Association of REALTORS does?
RG: Yes. We have a little bit over 3,800 members, and all of our members are Realtors. To be a Realtor member, you have to agree to abide by the code of ethics. So, not everybody who has a real estate license is a Realtor, and I think that’s an important distinction. But our members will join, agree to abide by that. And then, through joining us, they receive access to the MLS [Multiple Listings Service]. So, we provide training and MLS support to all of our members; we manage the Supra Key Box system; and then we engage in advocacy on behalf of our members, both to local, state, and national level.
FW: How would you describe the current state of Fort Worth real estate? Is it a good time to buy a home?
RG: Yes, I think so. And we’ve seen for the last several years, actually, that our market, with the amount of people that we have moving into Fort Worth, is that the availability of homes just hasn’t been able to keep up with the demand. Certainly, it’s always a great investment to do so, but just the long-term trends are there for Fort Worth. If you look at our population growth, if you look at the way our economy is going. Obviously, the last couple of months have been a little bit different, but the foundations are still there for long-term price appreciation for Fort Worth real estate.
FW: What are some of the factors that contribute to this price appreciation?
RG: I would say Fort Worth, comparatively so, has been relatively affordable. Now, we have seen in certain areas of Fort Worth, where prices have gone up fairly quickly. So, in some areas, there is difficulty finding things below a certain price range. But, that being said, we still have a very abundant supply of housing throughout the city at affordable levels, which not every city and not every area around the country can say. So that allows people at all levels of the income scale to get into housing in Fort Worth, which, for a long time, that’s been our competitive advantage.
FW: How has COVID-19 changed the way that Realtors do business right now?
RG: It has led to a lot more use of virtual tours and virtual options. A lot of our members, first day, real estate was an essential business, but the guidance was really on limiting any personal contact as much as possible, only if you absolutely had to. So, we expanded a lot of the virtual open houses and virtual showing options, including some changes to the MLS system where you could include links directly to those and some of the vendors that we have, which provide those for our membership. So, you saw a big expansion of that.
As far as online notarization in the state of Texas, which is allowed, that’s becoming a much more expanded option. And then, in situations now where you do have some people doing open houses and you have people that have showings, maintaining those important guidelines has been key.
And so, agents are limiting the number of people who may be coming by to visit a property during a showing. They’ll have masks or gloves or sanitizer out. There’s a lot of adaptation that occurs, just depending on what the seller is comfortable with and then what the buyers might be comfortable with. But generally, the agents have adapted very well in being able to operate in a way that certainly respects all of the safety guidelines, but still being able to complete transactions.
Our Method The 2020 Top Realtors list was compiled by pulling a mix of Multiple Listing Services (MLS) data and broker-reported data to ensure as accurate and comprehensive a list as possible. The MLS list, provided to us by a trusted individual agent in Tarrant County, was first vetted and checked for accuracy. The magazine editorial staff then reached out to Greater Tarrant County real estate brokers to provide data on individual sales. The two data sets were then combined to create our 2020 Top Realtors list. All individuals or brokers on this list are reported to have sold over $8 million in real estate over the last calendar year.