History of TALB

By Frank Childress

05-22-24

The Beginning: Summer of 1994

In the summer of 1994, the US Fish and Wildlife declared 33 counties of Central Texas as habitat of the Black-Capped Vireo and the Golden-Cheeked Warbler birds. The US Fish and Wildlife was in the process of arbitrarily passing an endangered species rule prohibiting landowners in those 33 Central Texas counties from cutting old-growth cedar and requiring permits for cutting cedar trees for fear of harassing the bird’s habitat. Naturally, this infuriated landowners.

The “Take Back Texas” Movement

That summer, Marshall Kuykendall was involved in the leadership of a pushback organization called “Take Back Texas,” which was a loose confederation of ranchers, farmers, ranch brokers, and private property rights folks in those 33 counties who were strongly against this bureaucratic power grab.

The “Take Back Texas” organization grew stronger and angrier, and in September of 1994, about 4,000 of us gathered in Austin to march on the Capitol. There were people riding horses, mules with big signs, and lots of hollering as we headed across the Colorado River up Congress Avenue to the steps of the Capitol building, where Marshall and other leaders gave booming protest speeches.

Political Context: Ann Richards vs. George W. Bush

At the time, Ann Richards was running for re-election as governor against George W. Bush. Well, Ann Richards was for the big Fish and Wildlife power grab, and George W. was against it, and the race was close.

The protest march shocked the US Fish and Wildlife Department, and they retracted their bird habitat rule. On November 8, 1994, Texans voted and chose George W. in a landslide, and the rest is history.

Formation of the Texas Land Brokers Club

Several of us ranch brokers were so pumped up about the success of “Take Back Texas” that we decided to keep on meeting. A small handful of us first met in October 1994 at Twin Sisters Café near Blanco, and we called ourselves the Texas Land Brokers Club. Marshall Kuykendall was elected as our first president.

Judon Fambrough, formerly of the Texas Real Estate Research Center, was one of our first educational speakers. We evolved and changed our name to the Texas Alliance of Land Brokers (TALB). And how we have grown!

TALB Growth through Partnerships

In 1993, Tom Alexander was struggling to get a four-color magazine advertising farm and ranch properties up and going. In 1995, he approached us with good advertising rates to get us on board. The Texas Farm and Ranch Magazine grew and prospered. All of this progress has come at great effort by Tom Alexander and hard-working, progressive TALB members.

Around 2001, Allen Shannon was just getting started in building a farm and ranch real estate website he called LandsofTexas.com. Allen was struggling to find customers for his new website. He connected with TALB member BJ Burton and presented our organization with a cut-rate deal if our members would just place our properties on his website. We thought it was a decent gamble and went for it. Allen Shannon did a wonderful job exposing our properties online and getting the buyers in touch with us as brokers. This turned out to be a great deal for Lands of Texas and TALB.

At that time, print media was our principal advertising method, and it was very expensive. The online searches with Lands of Texas took off, and we got great exposure at a good price. We are proud to be an important part of Allen Shannon’s LandsofTexas.com success.

TALB’s Influence in the Real Estate Sector

Now web advertising is the norm, and we have our own TALB website showcasing over 800 member properties. TALB has also been forceful in convincing the TREC Broker-Lawyer Committee in Austin to allow our commission statement to be included at the end of our farm and ranch contract.

We had a commission agreement in our contract in the early 1980s, and the residential brokers on the committee did not like it, so they had it removed. The Broker-Lawyer Committee was made up of lawyers and residential brokers, and we felt they had looked down on us and had dismissed our concerns as ranch brokers over the years.

The Battle for Broker Representation

This was evident in the mid-1990s when Joe Cullinan, Jacob Casanova, and myself, as members of the San Antonio Board of Realtors Farm and Ranch Committee, went before the Broker-Lawyer meeting in Austin to request that a clause be included in our contract that protects the broker’s commission on open listings. At that meeting, they more or less laughed us out of the room. It was humiliating.

So, around 2008, about thirty TALB members, led by Dan Hatfield, filed into the Broker-Lawyer semi-annual meeting to make our wishes known. Dan made an eloquent presentation; they were overwhelmed by our numbers and gave in to our wishes.

TALB’s Influence on the Industry

That TALB victory was very much against the Broker-Lawyer Committee’s strong desires. So, when you see the commission clause at the end of the farm and ranch contract, remember that it did not come easy and that TALB had to fight for it.

Furthermore, Dan Hatfield has been a very important member, not only in giving us monthly legislative updates but also in representing us and leading us in his relentless lobbying efforts on our behalf for TREC, TAR, the Rural Land Institute, NAR and the Land Broker COOP in Texas and Washington.

TALB’s Contributions to the Community

TALB has always promoted education, broker cooperation, ethics, marketing, private property rights, and camaraderie. Over the years, TALB has also donated substantially to organizations like Wounded Warriors, Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association Wildfire Fund, and American Stewards of Liberty.

Leadership and Growth

Over the last thirty years, there have been twenty-eight presidents, with Bobby Schwab and John Fambrough having served twice. Dozens of officers and over 100 directors have volunteered their time and expertise to serve. While there are too many to mention individually, each of them added to our success.

Our longest-serving secretary-treasurer is Jane Brown, who has done a great job, and our affiliate directors have also played a very important role in our success. Jodie Rapp was instrumental in re-organizing and energizing our committees, and Jodie, along with Mitch Smith, spearheaded starting our new North Texas regional meetings.

We now have about 400+ members on our rolls and continue to grow. Thank you to all who have made TALB’s success possible.