Merger of Arlington, Fort Worth Realtor groups won’t move forward following divided vote
The Fort Worth and Arlington boards of Realtors will not merge following a divided vote in October 2024. (Cristian ArguetaSoto | Fort Worth Report)
” data-medium-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/CAS_HOUSING-1.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/CAS_HOUSING-1.jpg?fit=780%2C520&ssl=1″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button”>A proposed merger between the Arlington Board of Realtors and the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors will not move forward after members of the Arlington group voted against the unification.Arlington members and the Fort Worth membership voted this week in separate elections.Blake Barry, president of the Fort Worth board, said 69% of his members voted for the merger, with 31% against. The Fort Worth association has more than 4,200 members, while the Arlington association has more than 3,100 members.Officials with the Arlington group did not immediately return calls or reply to emails Friday about their organization’s vote.“Honestly, I’m not disappointed at all,” Barry said Friday afternoon. “We really walked into this asking what is best for the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors, and if it’s not best for our membership, then we weren’t going to proceed.”Barry said he thinks the undertaking was a learning experience for his organization.“We learned about what we can focus on in the future, and I think that’s positive for Fort Worth. No disappointment at all,” Barry said.Originally, the votes were planned for June, but Arlington board President Larry Hurley said last summer that a variety of reasons pushed the votes by the organizations’ members to October. 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 Arlington, a group calling itself “Just Vote No” voiced opposition to the proposed merger between the two boards.Martha Dent, a Realtor with RE/MAX Associates of Arlington, told the Arlington Report in September several reasons why some members opposed unification.“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 another reason opponents were 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.” Some members also were concerned about the effects of an antitrust settlement approved earlier this year by a federal judge. The judge approved a $418 million 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. Under the settlement terms, sellers’ agents no longer will be required to offer commissions to buyers’ agents. However, the settlement does not explicitly mean the end of the traditional 6% commission, split between the seller’s agent and the buyer’s agent. Commissions could fall because they will become competitive and negotiable, according to previous reporting. Dent said in September that 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.At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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