Fairfield City Councilwoman leads the Butler-Warren Board of Realtors

For the second time in her long realtor career, Debbie Pennington will lead an area Board of Realtors.

Last month, Pennington was named president for the Butler-Warren Board of Realtors for 2018, a year after she was the organization’s president-elect. The two-county board was founded in January 2015 after it merged with the Middletown, Warren County and the Hamilton, Fairfield, Oxford boards of Realtors.

RELATED: 5 things to know about Fairfield’s new police chief

“We’ve come through a lot of changes,” said Pennington, who started her real estate career in 1977. “They all had their own bylaws that we had to work through and we took the best from each one.”

And the Board of Realtors in any community “is really the backbone” of the real estate industry, Pennington said. She said the boards lobby for change at the local, state and national levels and fight for homeowner rights and maintaining property values.

“Becoming a realtor enables us to become a trusted advisor during the most important financial transaction of a person’s life,” she said. “You play a central part in helping people achieve the American dream.”

Butler and Warren counties are two of the largest in Ohio — Butler County is the seventh largest and Warren County is the 12th largest — as an estimated 600,000 people resided in the areas, and are growing. There are more than 700 members of the Butler-Warren Board of Realtors.

Pennington was previously president of the Hamilton, Fairfield, Oxford Board of Realtors in 2009. She is Fairfield’s Third Ward City Council member, serving her second term.

Liberty Twp. is set up to be one of the largest, if not the largest, townships in the state, according to Joe Hinson, president and CEO of West Chester-Liberty Chamber Alliance. But Pennington sees significant growth in the Ross Twp. area, just west of Hamilton.

RELATED: Here’s how an interchange opened explosive growth in Liberty Twp.

“When I really think of the future, I really would like to see it go out this way, (in western Butler County),” she said. “I see that’s where the land is.”

But Pennington’s involvement in City Council and the Butler-Warren Board of Realtors is just an extension of her nature.

“It’s really just giving back,” she said. “When I was a Girl Scout, I was taught at an early age that you leave something better than when you came. And that’s my attitude. My success is helping others, and I like helping people. With City Council and being board president, it’s really an extension of what I do.”

Other community involvement includes with the Fairfield Women, Fairfield Historical Society and Fairfield Church of Christ.

“Life is 10 percent of what happens to you, and 90 percent of how you react to it,” Pennington said.

About the Author