BBB Torch Awards
Fort Worth Zoo
Satuday, Feb. 20
6:30 p.m.
www.bbb.org/council/international-torch-awards
Fort Worth/Tarrant County Better Business Bureau recently presented its Torch Award for Marketplace Excellence to Clear Fork Royalty. The Torch Award honors local companies for exceptional ethics, community involvement and customer service.
With the ever- fluctuating price of oil and gas, it’s more important than ever for landowners to deal with people they can trust when they are ready to sell their royalty and mineral rights, Joseph DeWoody, president of Clear Fork Royalty, said.
“Our mission is to be recognized as the trustworthy and respected resource for oil-and-gas-interest owners to liquidate their assets fairly and in a timely manner,” DeWoody said. “Whether business is booming or contracting, we still operate consistently with the same core values and business principles.”
This is the second time in two years that Clear Fork has been honored for business ethics. Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce and Texas Christian University presented the Greater Tarrant Business Ethics Award to the company in September, 2014.
Clear Fork substantially validates what the Better Business Bureau is about, and that is trust, said Tom Eastman, chairman of the board of Fort Worth/Tarrant County BBB, in presenting the latest award.
“There are people who push the envelope of trust, and that’s what the Torch Award is for,” Eastman said.
The oil and gas mineral rights and royalty acquisitions company was founded by Joseph DeWoody, Ryan Haggerty, co owner of the company, and Michael DeWoody in 2009. It now has thousands of customers, large and small, in 24 states.
Clear Fork Royalty is proud of the fact that many of those customers have come back again and again.
“We have a gentleman from South Texas who has now sold to us 20 different times over the last four and a half years because, he says, he appreciates our very quick turnaround time to help meet his needs for cash and because we help him keep up with what he has left and what its value is,” Joseph DeWoody said.
“We love it when customers come in to discuss what they want to do, in person. That’s one reason why we print our physical address on every letter and piece of information we put out. We have walk-ins all the time,” he said. “We can’t always offer on every property, but we do our best.”
Unlike many such companies that solicit landowners with fake check offers and dummy contracts, sent out with only a post office box for identification, Clear Fork asks potential customers to come in or call to discuss their rights and royalties, what options are available, what contract law requires and what’s most important to them.
“We don’t put an offer in a letter without knowing anything other than the fact that a particular piece of land is available,” Ryan Haggerty noted.
“We want people to know what they own and what we value it at,” Haggerty said. “We want people to have a true and outright assessment of what their mineral portfolio looks like and how we can best be of service to them. That’s very difficult to do without a conversation.”
The company has built its reputation on prompt, fair responses and getting their money to people as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Haggerty recalled a Marine who was home on leave for his mother’s funeral when he learned that he had inherited some mineral rights.
“He was about to leave for Afghanistan and very much wanted to finalize a sale so that his wife would have the extra money and not have to deal with the contracts involved while he was away. We got it all taken care of for him in about two weeks,” Haggerty said.
“We are a company that a lot of customers rely on for fair and open service. We try to be as ethical and transparent as possible,” Joseph DeWoody said. “We operate in a spirit of transparency to ensure that our royalty sellers and our investors can feel total confidence in how we conduct business. Doing the right thing should never be conditional. With us it’s cultural…We are honored and humbled to receive this award.”
The Torch Awards will be presented at a gala at the Fort Worth Zoo on Feb. 20.
Award winners from other counties served by the Better Business Bureau of Fort Worth include, Baxter Chemicals & Janitorial in Stephenville for Erath County; Snodgrass Painting & Remodeling, Inc., Granbury, Hood County; Leland’s Industries, LLC, Grandview, Johnson County; Covenant Credit Repair, Willow Park, Parker County and DFW Ponds Inc., Decatur, Wise County.
For the first time this year the judging committee will select three of the winners for special awards, one for each criteria used in judging. Categories are: ethics, community service and customer service. Winners will be announced at the gala.