Rex Glendenning is the king of land gross sales in North Texas’ quick rising communities

Driving north from Plano up Preston Highway, the indicators that say you’ve made it to Frisco learn “Rex Actual Property.”

Rex Glendenning’s property indicators line Preston Highway and the Dallas North Tollway all the way in which into Grayson County.

The property dealer has been peddling land north of Dallas for greater than 40 years. He’s dealt with trades of hundreds of acres for a few of North Texas’ greatest builders and traders.

“I’ve bought the southeast nook of the tollway and U.S. 380 13 occasions,” Glendenning mentioned. “That’s a file for me.”

This yr, Glendenning might be inducted into the North Texas Business Actual Property Corridor of Fame for his many years of property brokerage.

His wall of his workplace, on Preston Highway in Frisco, is roofed in aerial photograph maps that present land possession stretching virtually all the way in which north to Oklahoma.

“That map doesn’t look something like once I began,” Glendenning mentioned.

Again then, Frisco and Celina have been simply farm-country railroad whistle stops. At this time, they’re two of the quickest rising communities within the nation, with hundreds of recent homes being constructed on land Glendenning has bought over time.

Glendenning and his spouse are planning a trip in 2023 — one thing he hasn’t been capable of do for 2 and a half years as a result of his enterprise has been simply too frantic to step away from.

However that’s modified since final summer time.

“Our industrial credit score market froze in August or September of final yr,” he mentioned. “Right here on this workplace we had a number of hundred million {dollars} of offers that fell out by advantage of the industrial markets freezing.”

Builders and builders who have been shopping for up hundreds of acres hit the pause button when rates of interest soared and lenders tightened credit score due to worries a couple of recession

“There was a fairly large pullback from all of the nationwide builders in the entire nation — it wasn’t simply right here,” Glendenning mentioned. “The lenders have tightened their purse strings.

“It’s going to take perhaps a yr to right, however it’s in course of.”

Glendenning mentioned he’s gone by means of these cycles earlier than and doesn’t count on a extreme shakeout.

“We haven’t seen any hearth gross sales — there is no such thing as a blood within the streets,” he mentioned. “The best way we have now weathered this storm up to now, I’m completely satisfied.

“Some patrons are hoping this creates alternatives.”

When credit score loosens, Glendenning mentioned he expects gross sales of North Texas land to take off once more.

“There’s a demand and wish for extra housing up right here proper now,” he mentioned. “We aren’t overbuilt, if something we’re underbuilt.

“When issues get again according to rates of interest and debt, our market has a lot upside,” Glendenning mentioned. “I don’t suppose there’s a higher place within the U.S. or the world to be in than proper right here.”

Following the latest land gross sales rush, Glendenning mentioned a slowdown isn’t sudden.

“The market went up so quick within the pandemic that individuals who scored property in 2019 doubled of their worth in 2020 or 2021,” he mentioned.

Over the past couple of years, Rex Actual Property has brokered a few of the Dallas-Fort Value space’s greatest land purchases, together with the sale of the three,800-acre Veale Ranch west of Fort Value and three,200 acres for the brand new Legacy Hills group in Celina, north of Dallas.

Glendenning’s consumer record contains Dallas Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones’ Blue Star Land and developer Mehrdad Moayedi’s Centurion American Growth.

“He’s most likely the largest land dealer in North Texas,” mentioned Joe Hickman, president of Blue Star Land. “Rex is aware of the best way to get a deal performed.

“He has clearly been pal of ours,” Hickman mentioned. “The road of development has been proper in his again door.”

Glendenning brokered the land sale for the Dallas Cowboys’ $1.5 billion Star in Frisco mixed-use improvement on the Dallas North Tollway. He has been working with the Jones household on land purchases because the early Nineties.

“My offers are relationship-oriented,” Glendenning mentioned. “I’ve a handful of shoppers which were loyal to me for years. I’d say 70% or extra of my enterprise is repeat enterprise.”

Glendenning’s market data is based in his household’s deep roots within the space the place he works.

His pioneer household migrated to the Celina space from Scotland, shopping for up uncooked land.

“My nice grandfather got here right here in 1887 to farm,” Glendenning mentioned. “My grandfather and father purchased land right here from the time they may purchase it. I’ve all the time beloved land.”

After graduating from Celina Excessive Faculty and a school soccer stint on the College of North Texas, Glendenning got here dwelling to assist his father on the household farm. However all it took was one scorching summer time to persuade him to discover a new profession.

“I made a decision to go full into actual property from 1981 ahead.”

However he hasn’t completely stepped away from his household’s previous.

His Glendenning Farms in Celina raises purebred Texas longhorns. He received into the cattle enterprise after an early property commerce.

“Again in ‘84 or so a landowner up in Celina was adamant he was going to pay half my fee in longhorn heifers,” Glendenning mentioned. “I informed him no means. I wanted cash. He received out, and I took them.”

Glendenning began with three heifers and has expanded his Celina herd to about 200 head.

Whereas his cattle herd has grown, Glendenning’s actual property operation has stayed small.

“I’ve all the time tried to maintain it a high-level boutique agency of 4 or 5 brokers,” he mentioned. “I’d relatively keep within the discipline and promote offers than handle folks.”

The Rex Actual Property workforce contains Matthew Kiran and Robert Wyman.

And his son-in-law Caleb Lavey joined the agency in 2015.

“He’s a self-starter and has an important work ethic,” Glendenning mentioned. “You need to be taught this enterprise doing it. He’s most likely seen extra within the final eight years than I noticed and skilled in 20 or 25.”

Lavey mentioned that even with the credit score crunch, land offers are nonetheless getting performed.

“There may be nonetheless a whole lot of demand up right here — development occurring and transactions,” he mentioned. “It’s like we’ve been consuming from a hearth hose up right here. Seeing the expansion alongside the golden hall of the tollway and Preston Highway, no one desires to overlook out on the celebration.”

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