RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR

ROBBIE BRIGGS

After earning a master's degree in architecture from Tulane University, Robbie Briggs got a job designing commercial buildings for a small firm in Dallas. He soon discovered that he didn't have a "starving artist" love for the profession, though , and segued into resident ial real estate by joining a Highland Park firm run by his father. The younger Briggs raised eyebrows by getting a pager and talking hi s dad into buying a fax machine. " I wanted to be accessible," he says. "I didn 't wan t to miss any deals." After taking the helm of the firm in the 1980s, Briggs realized he could recruit better agents if he didn 't compete with them. Instead, he focused on supporting them and building the business, innovating again by creating in-house market­ing and training divisions. Today, Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty has more than 300 agents. The firm should top $3 billion in annua l home sales once its new Fort Worth and Plano-Frisco offices are up and running, Briggs says. Innovation is important, he adds, but it always comes back to the basics: "Hire good people, take care of your people, and make sure they 're taking care of their people. Technology doesn't replace that."

It's the baby boomers, though, who will drive multifamily demand in the future. According to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, older Americans are "increas­ingly downsizing," especially as they enter their 70s. The oldest boomers will turn 70 next year.

Sue Ansel, president and CEO of Gables Resi­dential, says her company is experimenting with bigger floorplans to meet the needs ofbaby boom­ers. "As an industry, we haven't done a good job of providing the size of apartments that gen­eration wants;' she says. "They've accumulated things that don't necessarily fit into an 800- or 900-square-foot apartment home."

StreetLights Residential's newest project, The McKenzie, a 22-story high-rise at Harvard Av­enue and Tracy Street in the Knox-Henderson area, is designed to cater to that emerging base with much larger units, higher-end finishes, and amenities like concierge and valet services. "It's really for residents who would choose to sell their homes and have this as a rental option," says Doug Chesnut, StreetLights' CEO. "In our experience, this market has not been tapped, outside of the northeast and in places like San Francisco and Los Angeles."

Even with brisk development, demand has pushed North Texas apartment occupancy to 95.5 percent, according to statistics from Axio­metrics Inc. Annual rent growth in Dallas came in at 6.4 percent in June.

"When we project the top-performing markets for rent growth and occupancy, typically they're on the East Coast or West Coast;' says Jay Den­ton, senior vice president at Axiometrics. "Now Dallas is up there with that group, and we expect that to continue going forward."

Rent growth is expected to moderate to around 4 percent over the next three years, but ongoing increases likely will compel renters to begin considering other options. Some, Denton says, will look at doubling with a roommate. It could also push more renters into-you guessed it-home ownership.

But affordability is a looming concern for the single-family market, too. Interest rates are bound to tick up, says Wilson of Residential Strategies, and another is percent increase in housing prices would not be surprising. "The impact of those two increases means a typical payment for the same house could become 25 percent higher than it is today," he says. "Builders are looking at the situation and scratching their heads. The hope is that, with the very tight employment situa­tion we have right now, increases in wages will be forthcoming." [i]

For extended profiles of all Residential Real Es­tate Awards winners, visit D Real Estate Daily at realestate.dmagazine.com.

OCTOBER 2015 D CEO 47