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At the end of 2023, the city had 156,016 housing units, a 2.26% increase from 2022. (Courtesy photo | City of Arlington)
” data-medium-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Houses.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Houses.jpg?fit=780%2C520&ssl=1″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button”>Calling their group “Just Vote No,” opponents of a proposed merger between the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors and the Arlington Board of Realtors are actively working to prevent the combination when the Arlington members vote on Oct. 10.The Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors will vote on Oct. 9.The votes originally were planned for June, but Arlington board President Larry Hurley earlier said a variety of reasons pushed the votes by the organizations’ members to October. “We have postponed the vote by our membership concerning moving ahead,” Hurley said in August. “We were originally scheduled to have the first vote on July 17, however, many members expressed concern that this coincided with vacations and many members would not be able to participate in the voting.Hurley said other concerns were raised, too.“Additionally, many past leaders expressed concern that we needed more time to continue communications to our members about the merger proposal,” he said.Martha Dent, a Realtor with RE/MAX Associates of Arlington, said that there are a number of people on the Arlington Board of Realtors who oppose merging the organizations.“There’s several key factors in it, one of which is that the people for the merger have not given us a good reason why we should vote for this,” Dent said. “We’re getting a lot of what we call fluff, a lot of big words, but no substance.”The current economy is one reason opponents are skeptical, Dent added. “We have a building that has just recently been paid off. We have non-dues revenue coming in from lease spaces at our building, and we have an event center,” Dent said. “We have enough money coming in to make our payments that we need to run the board for our members, should we lose a lot of members, and typically that happens when the economy has issues.” Earlier this year, a federal judge approved a $418 million antitrust settlement of a lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors, which led to an overhaul of the way people buy and sell their homes. A final approval hearing for the settlement is set for Nov. 26.“There are a lot of issues in the economy right now, but with the change in structure, with how commissions are dispersed, there’s a lot of controversy within the Realtor family and within the public about who pays commissions,” Dent said. A spokeswoman for the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors said she’s not aware of any organized opposition in the Fort Worth organization.Under the settlement terms, sellers’ agents no longer will be required to offer commissions to buyers’ agents. The settlement does not explicitly mean the end of the traditional 6% commission, split between the seller’s agent and the buyer’s agent, however. Commissions could fall because they will become competitive and negotiable, according to previous reporting. Because Dallas-Fort Worth is the hottest market in the country right now, the settlement’s effects may be slower to reach the region than other areas, Dent said. “But there’s really no reason for us to think about spending money joining another association and have to build another building in order to house the members for meetings. Right now, we have enough space for the people that want to attend on-site meetings and our luncheons,” Dent said. “If we join with Fort Worth, they’re in a building that they can’t use for their lunches. They have to go off-site there.”The Fort Worth association has more than 4,200 members, while the Arlington association has more than 3,100 members.“There’s no way that our building can service 7,000-plus members without us having to spend additional money to go off-site for our meetings or to build a new building,” Dent said. “And with this type of economy, it doesn’t make sense to be going out and spending that type of money not knowing if our membership is going to drop.”Dent said that the community is another factor in her group’s opposition. Many Realtors are involved in local political campaigns as well as Rotary, Lions Club and chambers of commerce, she said. “What we’re doing for the community and putting back — we have a foundation that helps to fix up code violations on homes for people that don’t necessarily have the money to take care of it,” she said. “And we’re concerned that, should we join with Fort Worth, that won’t be a major concern for them, and we certainly wouldn’t have the money to take on additional cities.”The Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors and the Arlington Board of Realtors provide a variety of services to the real estate industry, including access to the Multiple Listing Service, which lists properties for sale, as well as training for Realtors and advocacy for private property rights.Collectively, the two associations employ about 23 people. The board has hundreds of affiliate members who provide peripheral services to the real estate industry such as lenders, home inspectors and appraisers.In June, Fort Worth board President Blake Barry said the merger discussion was not new.“Originally, the idea started bouncing around maybe 10 years (ago) but got nowhere,” he said then. “Then it started picking up traction a year ago. Both Arlington and Fort Worth set up atask force of 10 members, five from each organization, and we’ve had several sessions since then, plus several member town hall meetings.”The Fort Worth association was established in 1918 as the city boomed with a mix of oil industry proximity and abruptly stronger demand for housing as America’s military veterans returned home from World War I. The Arlington association’s creation in 1949 resulted from both veterans returning home from World War II and an explosion of suburban growth as many residential or commercial property purchasers began a shift — a migration of sorts — from urban centers to the suburbs.In June, Hurley said such mergers are part of a developing trend, pointing to a recent example in Tampa Bay. “More and more associations are looking for that commonality and that greater geographic area and are merging their associations into one association, which in turn creates a higher efficiency of serving the membership,” Hurley said. Homebuyers no longer live within 15 miles of where they work due to a combination of rising housing costs and inflation, Hurley said. “And so, from the days when we were helping people buy something within, say, a 15-mile circle, that circle has widened to 50 miles,” he said. “This is something that is happening nationwide.”Hurley said there will be no downsizing or layoffs should a merger occur.“And because both associations are very efficient at this time, what we’re anticipating, if the membership improves and we move forward with this, we have assured both staffsthat everybody that is now employed will continue to be employed,” he said. Neither Hurley nor Barry anticipate either office will be closed within the near future. Both predict more satellite offices will be necessary. The Arlington association already has one satellite office in Waxahachie.Barry endorses unification and predicts it will pass.“We can both maintain our strong heritage and legacy identities as to who each of us are now,” he told the Report earlier this summer. “I think that we can combine and be better, not be bigger. Bigger was never the goal. Better is the goal.”Arlington Report columnist O.K. Carter contributed to this report.