By Judith Pannebaker, Bandera County Courier – www.bccourier.com
If it’s one thing real estate agents and brokers understand it’s “location, location, location.” Bandera’s Medina River Ranch could not have been a more appropriate – or gorgeous – location for a seminar of Region 7 Realtors of the Texas Association of Realtors (TAR). Hosted by the Bandera County Board of Realtors, the two-day session took place on Thursday and Friday, June 17 and 18. During a working luncheon on Friday, Bill Jones, TAR chairman of the board and Travis Kessler, TAR president and CEO, spoke to realtors from Bandera, Canyon Lake, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Fredericksburg, Kerrville, Laredo, New Braunfels, Seguin and Uvalde. “We have attended more than 19 conferences similar to this across the state, meeting with the leadership of our membership,” Jones said. One of the mandates of TAR is to protect the private property rights so that landowners and homeowners do not become unduly burdened by ever-increasing taxes. “Texas is growing rapidly and the two greatest issues facing residents today are those of transportation and water,” he noted, adding, “Texas has plenty of water. It’s just in the wrong place.” TAR’s other function is to make the Texas Legislature aware of issues facing its members. Jones candidly asserted that the TAR is a lobbying group. “However, we only address one issue – private property rights.” “If it’s good for the Texas consumer, it’s good for Texas,” Kessler added. He also said that by meeting with grassroots realtors in meetings, TAR directors could identify concerns that may soon be facing them on a statewide level. “We listen to the issues that are particular to one area,” he said, “and that often helps us spot future problems.” TAR has members in all 254 Texas counties. “When we started 17 years ago, we had 43 members,” Kessler said. During a question and answer session, Kessler also warned realtors to beware of real estate scams emanating online. “Unscrupulous people are taking a realtor’s information and posting it on social networks and Craigslist,” he explained. “This is an insidious problem and there’s no one solution. They do it because, as of now, they can get away with it.”
Bandera County Board of Realtors 