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As one of the greatest advocates in the affordable housing industry by means of education, promotions, publications, and other innovative methods, Mr. Matarranz began developing new homes in the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth in 1994. Throughout the years, he has sold hundreds of new single-family homes within inner city areas. A native of Barcelona, Spain, Antonio graduated from Escuela Tecnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona as an architect, then moved to Tehran, Iran, in the mid-1970's to work with an international group of architects on a variety of government projects. This included the development of a study on affordable and public housing for extreme climates. In 1979 he returned to Barcelona to work for a multinational corporation and was transferred to Texas, USA, in 1980. For the following six years he managed its commercial and residential investments, as well as, property for its foreign partners in Dallas, Texas. In 1986 Matarranz established Avangard Real Estate Services, Inc., in Dallas, Texas. As Texas history reflects, the 1980's were a difficult period for the real estate industry in the state. It was during that time that Antonio discovered a market that was under-served. Through education and cultural understanding he has managed to successfully introduce Hispanics and affordable housing to lending institutions and all other housing related organizations. His efforts have pioneered a new mass-consumer group to the industry, and have created a great sense of hope to first time homebuyers. Throughout his achievements he is widely recognized as a professional expert on this topic. Mr. Matarranz speaks fluent English, Spanish, French, Catalan and Italian languages. He completed postgraduate courses in housing development and business administration in Spain and at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Antonio's knowledge and experience of the first time homebuyer market earned him an invitation to speak at various events. He was invited by HUD to present the Spanish portion of their "Homebuyer's School". In October 1998, he was invited to speak at the conference "Common Threads Regional Approaches to Community Development" by the Federal Reserve Bank. His work has been praised by the media in articles by Texas Realtor, The Dallas Morning News, The Wall Street Journal, La Fuente, D magazine, El Extra, and major television network reports. The media has quoted him as "the Mother Teresa of Dallas residential real estate". Matarranz may be in the real estate business yet his biggest job is education, teaching lenders, potential homebuyers and salespeople.
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