Over the past year, a LOT has happened in the industry, in our company, and in my personal life. I’d like to share some highlights from 2024, give you my predictions for 2025, and fill you in on the projects we’re working on.

How did we get here? 

In 2002, I found Jesus, met my wife, and stumbled into an opportunity in real estate.

Starting out, I just walked in faith and poured everything into being the best realtor I could be.

As my business grew, I looked for ways to use my negotiation skills and real estate knowledge to help my neighbors—and discovered a huge need in assisting people with property tax protests.

It’s really wild to see what started as helping neighbors has grown into a statewide movement that encompasses everything I hold dear, my faith and my family, and serving others.

Christmas and New Year’s bring all this to the surface. I’m in reflection mode… Grateful for where we’ve come from and excited for the future.

There is so much going on that I want to share with you. 

To keep it organized, I’ve broken everything down into:

1. Real Estate
2. Property Tax
3. My Predictions for 2025
4. A Few Personal Notes

Real Estate

Reflecting on 2024:

Winning Streak (as a Realtor)

• We’ve kept our winning streak alive! We had yet another year with not one review less than 5 Stars! That’s mind blowing. 
• For me, that’s a lot of dreams realized - shorter commute, more affordable living, extra bedrooms someone’s been wishing for. Each closing represents a new season in someone’s life, and I’m so grateful to be part of that.
• I truly feel like I have the best clients and best real estate team on earth.

There’s Something in the Water!!!

• We celebrated the arrival of 4 new babies into the CCR family!!!
• That may not sound like much to you, but for me, starting off in 2002 as the a guy living in a $365-all-bills-paid studio apartment with a lawnmower at the foot of my bed (to mow investment properties), it blows my mind to think that our little company was able to support FOUR ladies through maternity in 2024 alone. 
• Family is huge for me, so this was a really big deal for me and my wife personally. I’m so thankful. It wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for you. 
• I didn’t want to hog all the joy, so I included baby pics below.

Looking forward to 2025:

I have a dream… 

• Our website is awesome, but I don’t want just another real estate website. 
• In 2025, you will be able to find more houses for sale in Tarrant County on www.ChandlerCrouch.com than on any other website on earth!
• We’re making this dream a reality with something I call “ChandlersList.” I can’t wait to share more soon - stay tuned!

The NAR Lawsuit & My Solution

• This past year, the real estate world was abuzz with headlines about a lawsuit involving the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
• Changes that the media predicted didn’t live up to the hype (no surprise), however there have been some unintended consequences that nobody saw coming and very few people are talking about. 
• In short, homeowners are getting hurt. I’ll share more later. 
• Since nobody is solving the problem, I’ve decided to roll up my sleeves and develop a solution (along with some software). I’m excited to unveil it in 2025… stay tuned. 

How to Beat the Market & My Predictions 

• Predictions matter most to those trying to “beat the market.” So how do you beat the market?
• Two numbers to watch: Home Values and Interest Rates 
• Home Values: DFW historically appreciates about 5% annually. Our current (and forecasted) supply and demand are on track to support this. You can count on housing being more expensive in the future. 
  • So, if you want to buy low, the answer is to buy now. 
  • The only alternative is to buy in the past, and interdimensional time travel hasn’t been invented yet. We’re kind of stuck.
• Interest rates: They’re too unpredictable. Top experts from NAR to Fannie predict rates in 2025 will range anywhere from 5.77% to 6.13%, however the best experts routinely get it wrong. So, what do you do?
  • Consider this… if you predict rates will drop in the future and you wait to buy, do you think the number of buyers (ie demand) will increase? Of course. If demand increases, do you think the increased demand will drive home values up? Of course. 
  • So, how do you get the best of both worlds? You buy now while home prices are low and if rates drop, you refinance later... Wholla!
  • As an alternative, we’ve had great success lately helping people buy houses with assumable interest rates as low as 2.37%. Its like a real estate miracle when you see it happen.
• My Conclusion: Buy when it's right for you. If you have flexibility, buy now.

Property Tax

Reflecting on 2024:

• We had another record year, completing nearly 40,000 protests with an average reduction of $53,222 per home.
• We welcomed a new chief appraiser and new board members with open arms, including 3 elected by Tarrant County voters thanks to a new state law (that Tarrant *cough YOU* made happen). 
• We said goodbye to an era of corruption and the 16 “bad guys” who no longer work at TAD or got voted out of office, including the tax assessor.
• TAD’s website was hacked (again) and held for ransome, but the new board reacted with more public communication and transparency than previous hacks
• Two of the most influential board members wrapped up their service at the end of the year. Rich Deotte and Gary Losada were top-level, truth-seeking, values driven, taxpayer advocates. These guys stood up for me when it counted. Thank you for supporting these guys over the years. They couldn’t have done it without you. We wouldn’t be where we are without them! 

Looking forward to 2025:

• The media exploded with headlines when TAD’s board voted to freeze values for next year and limit increases to a max of 5% every two years. School districts pushed back, worried about funding cuts. But what’s really going to happen?
• Not Much Change: If home values in an area go up a lot, they’ll still be reappraised. If they didn’t rise much, TAD won’t likely raise them.
• 2025 Protests - What to Expect: The year after a massively successful protest (like we had in 2024), TAD usually doesn’t increase the value of a property. Since we were able to negotiate huge reductions for a lot of people, I’m not expecting huge reductions in protests in 2025. I’m also not expecting values to increase much. Either way, we’ll stay on top of it to help you win.

Personal

• For me, everything is personal. My faith, my family, my goals, and my charity are supported by my work, so I tend to blur the lines.
• I recently hired my children!. On top of the tax benefits, I cherish the time I’ve been able to spend with them.
• Stanley (14, still shorter than me) made thank you calls to the mind blowingly awesome people that donated. He was also eager to travel with me down to Austin to go to a tax protest conference where we had time to talk one-on-one with the most influential property tax lawmaker in the state - Senator Paul Bettencourt (pic below). 
• Jonah (11, hockey goalie) was part of the initial efforts to construct ChandlersList (more on this later). Jonah displayed his leadership skills by his insistence that we provide Shipley’s donuts to the entire office (pic below).  
• Caroline (8, natural-born choreographer) was instrumental in helping host our client appreciation parties at Outpost 36 and Coco-Shrimp.
• Finally, this past year, I’ve loved creating fun adventures to support local small businesses (and indulge my love of food) by riding bicycles at 5:30 a.m. with my boys to different coffee shops. Most recently, by popular demand, I even made a humorous attempt at raising awareness about a rarely discussed topic by documenting my prostate health journey. If you’d like to watch or join in the fun, feel free to follow me on my personal Facebook page: facebook.com/andlercha

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,

Chandler

 

Photo Gallery [7 Pics]