Game Changer in Fort Worth: Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Real Estate Swoops Up Not One but THREE Fort Worth Brokerages

Sit tight in your saddle, it is going to be a long, tough gun battle in Fort Worth for that red hot real estate market!

After a few delays, Robbie Briggs has come out of the gate with 98 agents working out of three real estate offices, including the main Fort Worth hub at 3131 West 7th Street, in the heart of Fort Worth’s rich Cultural District. It’s 9500 square feet overlooking the Fort Worth Modern Museum of Art.  The new office is stunning, loaded with beautiful art, and has plenty of space for agents, education and clients.

Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Real estate has amassed a team of veteran Fort Worth agents and brokers, with real estate roots reaching back to 1926!

Brants Realtors, which is Clay and Laurie Brants, has merged into BFSIR. Clay’s grandfather, Harry E. Brants, started in the insurance business in 1926 and created a real estate branch to service his insurance clients. Back in the 1930’s, the company represented the first luxury homes for sale in Westover Hills. It’s a fascinating story of how the residential real estate industry evolved and grew often as a complementary, secondary business to insurance and mortgage sales. Clay Brants, a third generation Fort Worth native, will be Director of Sales at the BFSIR Ranch and Land West office on Camp Bowie Boulevard.

Laurie Brants, Clay’s wife and business partner, has a background in pharmaceutical sales and sales training, most recently at Novartis. She will head up BFSIR Real Estate University at the West 7th Street headquarters.

Carol Van Hook and Laurie Spann, broker/owner of Mira Vista Realtors, brings another veteran team to BFSIR. Carol, another Fort Worth native, has been selling homes in Mira Vista for more than 30 years and bought her firm in 2008. Her daughter, Laurie, is an attorney who runs business operations. They will remain in their Mira Vista office where, as Carol told me, million buyers often just walk in the door with checkbooks in hand.

Then comes the Bloom Group, a trio of agents who left Williams-Trew three years ago to form their own firm. They have now merged with BFSIR at the new West 7th Street office. Appealing to millennials, this is the hip group that has been making waves in Fort Worth with extensive social media marketing and cutting edge selling that appeals to what is now the largest real estate consumer. To quote from Zillow’s Blog:

For millennials, the market is always on. As long as their smartphone or tablet is within reach, they are active buyers.

Fully connected and attached, millennials will look at listings and analyze data 24/7. Sellers must keep their home in tip-top shape and showing-ready at all times.

Don’t expect millennial buyers to wait around for an open house. Many prefer to see homes they like on their timeframe. Be ready to accommodate them.

Have great listing photos online the minute the home hits the market. Nothing is more frustrating to young buyers than to be notified via text or email about a property in an awesome location, only to find that the listing doesn’t include any photos.

Millennials are visual. Spend extra time on the photo shoot, and make sure your agent hires a professional photographer. Good photos get your buyers in the door. Give them what they want.

Those Bloom gals are Mary Caroline “MC” Gatzke, another Fort Worth born and bred, Zareen Khan, another esquire (both MC and Zareen attended Fort Worth Country Day School) , and Ashley Mooring,  who is from Houston, but says she got to Fort Worth as quickly as she could. Fort Worth, we love you!