May 9, 2025 • 57 mins
The land market is speaking, and David Whitaker is here to translate what it's saying. In this expansive conversation, the renowned Iowa land broker returns to share market insights that go far beyond the headlines.
We begin by tracing the remarkable journey of farmland values since 2020 - from pandemic uncertainty through a 40% price surge fueled by low interest rates and government support, to the challenging 2024 market where auctions often struggled to find active bidders. David reveals how early 2025 has surprisingly brought renewed energy and stronger-than-expected prices, suggesting the wait-and-see period may finally be ending.
The conversation takes fascinating turns through controversial territory, examining Missouri's unprecedented legal move to seize Chinese-owned farmland and the complex balancing act between property rights and national interests. We explore how recreational land values continue defying conventional wisdom in many regions, often outpacing productive farmland prices.
Technology enthusiasts will appreciate our deep dive into practical AI applications transforming land marketing. David provides a master class in using tools like Claude and ChatGPT to create sophisticated "projects" that analyze property data, generate targeted marketing for different buyer personas, and streamline auction workflows. His innovative approach demonstrates how embracing AI can dramatically enhance efficiency without sacrificing the personal touch that defines great land brokerage.
Whether you're actively buying or selling land, or simply fascinated by the intersection of agriculture, technology and market forces, this episode delivers valuable perspectives from someone who lives at that crossroads every day. David's ambitious $100 million sales goal for 2025 reflects the optimism returning to the market - are you positioned to capitalize on it?
Subscribe, share your thoughts, and join us in exploring the ever-evolving world of land sales, where opportunity still abounds for those who know where to look.
DAVID WHITAKER
BROKER | AUCTIONEER
Licensed in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska
Email: David@wmgauction.com
Mobile: (515)-460-8585
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Today on the American Land Seller.
He's back for another episode,folks, and if you've been in the
land or auction world for anylength of time, you've heard the
name David Whitaker.
David's one of the hardestworking land brokers in the
state of Iowa.
Some know him just simply asthe land guy.
I'm lucky enough to know him asfriend.
He's the owner of WhitakerMarketing Group and brings deep
(00:24):
experience to every single dealhe touches.
David's a multi-state championauctioneer with titles in Iowa,
minnesota, nebraska and Missouri.
He's competed and won at thehighest levels, from national
contests to international stages, earning recognition as both a
finalist and a spokesman.
Beyond the fast talking, davidserved as president of the Iowa
(00:49):
chapter of the Realtors LandInstitute and chaired the Iowa
Auctioneers Association.
He holds the ALC AccreditedLand Consultant designation, as
well as AMM Auctioneer MarketingManagement and CAI Certified
Auctioneers Institutecredentials.
In short, he's earned hisstripes as one of the most
(01:10):
trusted names in the game.
Whittaker Marketing Group hasbeen named one of the top
brokerage and auction houses bythe Land Report.
Whether David's out in the fieldor up on stage, he's what we
like to call a farmland solutionarchitect.
Field or up on stage, he's whatwe like to call a farmland
solution architect, someone whocan navigate even the toughest
deals and deliver solid resultsfor landowners.
(01:31):
In this episode we cover somuch ground what makes a
farmland auction really succeedin today's market, smart tips
for setting up your land forsale to maximize exposure and
strong bidding, why auctioningis both science and art, and how
new auctioneers can sharpentheir skills, plus how David and
I are using AI to push theboundaries of marketing,
(01:51):
research and service in the landworld.
David also shares stories fromthe road, gives us the latest on
Iowa's land market and nosurprise, drops a few gold
nuggets on work ethic and doingthings the right way.
If you're in the land game orjust love hearing from the folks
who make it happen, you'regoing to want to stick around
for this one.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Welcome to the American Land Seller Podcast
with your host, kobe Rickardson.
Kobe is an accredited landconsultant and multi-state land
broker with High Point LandCompany.
Join us each week as we exploreall things land.
We bring you fresh insights andexpert guests on sales,
marketing, regulations,economics and so much more.
(02:31):
Visit wwwamericanlandsellercomand find us on one of your
favorite podcast platforms.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Okay, Kobe and our special guests, let's get
started and our special guests.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Let's get started and welcome back to the American
Land Seller.
We are here once again with thegreat David Whitaker, with
Whitaker Marketing Group.
David, how are we doing today?
Outstanding, I always lovetalking to you, man.
I just I learned something newand just right before we started
(03:05):
you taught me how to workRiverside here, the studio that
we tape in.
So I appreciate your help.
Hopefully that helps my video alittle bit, be a little bit
clearer.
So let's dig right into it.
Man, I know you're a busy man.
Let's talk about the news, nomatter what channel it is.
(03:26):
Trump is an interestingcharacter in the world.
Some people think the world'sburning to the ground.
I know, talking to the peoplethat we deal with across the
country and our world, I thinkthings are holding together
halfway decent.
What are you seeing in yourmarket?
What are you hearing from theland professionals across the
(03:48):
country?
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Well, I guess, to give a good answer, let's back
up to 2020.
2020, of course, covid year,covid-19,.
Market slowed.
Then we had market facilitationprogram.
This is the previous Trumpadministration.
Market facilitation program alittle bit previous Trump
administration Okay, marketfacilitation program.
A little bit of governmentinfluence out there to help with
crops.
(04:10):
We had lowest interest rateswe've ever seen and then we had
a new low market.
We'll say that way Low market.
So we had supply and demand.
So we have all the factors thatare adding up for a strong,
strong market that are coming.
Low interest rates.
(04:30):
Corn was up to $7 prior to that.
So we got some of the highestcommodity prices we ever had.
We got old grain out there.
We got a little markfacilitation program.
Then we had PPP money that cameout, payment protection program
.
So we as farmers felt prettydoggone good.
We had a little jingle in thepocket right.
Yep, land prices soared.
I don't know if you saw this,kobe, but land prices in my
(04:53):
world soared probably 40%,absolutely.
Okay, now let's level out to 22,23.
Market just kind of plateaued.
We saw some of the strongestprices we ever had.
The market just kind ofplateaued.
We saw some of the strongestprices we ever had.
I'm going to say 22 was thestrongest market and it was May
of 22 that I've seen Now go to23, 24.
(05:13):
23, we didn't know if it wouldhold.
Interest rates kind of wentback up, got a new
administration.
The new administration, bidenwanted to cut capital gains tax,
wanted to cut stepped-up basisand I'm not an economist, by the
way, this is just my take on itand then we get into 24 and 24,
(05:33):
we started to see a decline, alittle uncertainty, who's going
to get elected, and all of asudden now we have Trump back in
office.
Now I know you remember as wellas myself of the Realtor Land
Institute and I.
Well, we do a survey every sixmonths.
They saw it go down about 8%over the year.
(05:54):
So 2024 kind of got a littletougher.
I saw a lot more no sales atthe auctions and then brings us
to present day.
So now here we're at 2025.
2025 in January and February Iactually saw a resurgence.
I don't know if we want to callit a resurgence, but maybe a
(06:15):
back to normal, I guess back tonormal.
So now we know who's elected,we know we're there, but there's
still uncertainty there.
And now you talked about Trumpand tariffs and foreign trade
and et cetera, but all I canrelate it to is what does the
market tell me?
And at auctions I had a couplelast year Let me tell you they
(06:36):
were pretty tough.
I mean one or two bidders likebidding, actually bidding A lot
of people there, but not thatmany people bidding.
I've seen a lot of ourcompetitors actually go to
sealed bid auctions where youonly need one bidder.
I've seen people lower prices,myself included.
We've lowered a lot of pricesin 2024.
And then back to 2025, thefirst couple auctions I had this
(06:59):
year I mean blew it out of thewater.
I mean blew it out of the waterI was hoping for, you know,
$13,000 an acre and we get$18,000 an acre.
The last four auctions we hadhave been the most well-attended
auctions.
But what are you seeing, kobe?
I mean mine is like kind of Idon't want to know if I want to
use the word resurgence, butit's come back Like it feels
(07:22):
like the farmers have a goodattitude now.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
It feels like the farmers have a good attitude now
.
I think when you said peoplewaited to see what happened with
the election was exactly right.
It kind of felt like June, julyof last year.
Everybody just kind of heldtheir breath and I would almost
say November 8th.
It was like people were like,okay, well, you know what the
(07:53):
plane crashed and here's whosurvived, you know like I mean
it was, you know.
And now we know what we'redealing with and people started
to go back to work and startedto figure it out.
But yeah, we've seen exactly thesame thing auctions very, very,
very good luck at auctions.
Um, interestingly enough, oneof the things I would add to
that is a lot of the landownersthat not, you know, like the
(08:13):
absentee landowners I've I'vehad people talking to me about
selling that maybe I would nothave thought have of as sellers.
Uh, just because of the lowcommodity prices.
Those guys that have been kindof sharecroppers, you know that
have been, you know.
Just, you know for quite awhile living high on the hog,
(08:35):
that all of a sudden, two yearsin a row, commodity prices
haven't been there.
That you know they're just like, especially in Nebraska where
we have a high land tax,property taxes, so that's been.
The one interesting thing Icould say is that we've kind of
seen that.
But yeah, I agree with you.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Have you had anybody call you that what I call a sale
leaseback?
So for all your listeners, ofcourse, you and I are in
production agriculture, so cornand beans and sorghum and soy,
et cetera.
So I got a lot of guys thatactually put some 1031 money out
(09:16):
there on social media and Isaid, hey, guys typed it out on
social media, have $6 millionlooking to invest.
And I had like 12 differentpeople call me and say, hey,
dave, if you have 1031 text forexchange money, I'm looking for
an investor.
Now I want to farm it, but Idon't want anybody to know I'm
(09:37):
selling.
So I do think there is sometightening of the balance sheets
you know that is out there andthere are some that are either
really on the good side Ifyou're cash heavy and interest
rates don't bother you, thenyou're good.
But if you're buying anoperating note where you're
still at 10% or double digitoperating note, well it's tight.
And so I had a handful ofpeople, more than I expected,
(09:59):
reach out and when they reachedout they were saying well, I
want to sell it, I want it quiet, I don't want anybody to know,
don't go public.
But then my response is well,how much are you willing to give
cash rent, and so most of myinvestors are looking for a 3%
return, so 3% return on themoney.
(10:21):
So I'm like, hey, you guys canask $15,000 an acre, that's fine
, but I hope you give.
You can ask $15,000 an acre,that's fine, but I hope you give
$400 cash rent.
Or if you only want to give$200 cash rent, then lower that
blooming price of what you want.
So I bet I have 12 pocketlistings right now that are just
kind of I know about them, butthey're not out there and I've
placed a couple of them withinvestors.
(10:43):
So you know we're talking aboutthe market, do you?
Do you see that where you're atnebraska?
Speaker 1 (10:48):
tougher where I'm at, because my guys, my investors,
would want more because ofirrigation systems, you know.
So, like where you're at, whereyou've got a lot more dry land,
um, and it's a little bitsimpler for investors to own the
dirt and and it's, you know, um, my, my investors would want
four or four and a quarterprobably, where you guys, 3%
(11:11):
return would be good.
Gotcha, we have wells and wehave pivots, but yeah, I mean
we've.
But I would say, though I think, thanks to I'm going to give
them credit, even though mostpeople don't normally give their
bankers credit, I think theNebraska Banking Association
really had a different.
(11:34):
They really did beat on theirproducers a little bit the last
probably eight, nine years onwhat their requirements were for
renewals and things like thatand maybe drilling them down to
like per bushel costs and perbushel incomes, and and so I,
(11:56):
and then also I think we've seen, like at least in my area, a
lot of guys there was a big pushfor maybe having some cash on
hand where that had not been apush before, and so I think our
guys are maybe a little bitbetter shape because, like most
(12:17):
of the lenders I've talked to,the farmers aren't really
looking to sell any land thisyear, which I was kind of
shocked when I kind of wascalling around earlier in the
year, whereas when I was talkingto guys in like Minnesota, iowa
, missouri, even Kansas that isone of the things that's on the
table they were looking forthose investors that would want
(12:38):
to buy and then lease back, thatwould want to buy and then
lease back.
So I think Nebraska specifically, and then kind of that
northeastern Colorado, reallyhave not seen that.
You know, at least this year, Ithink maybe next year, that
conversation, if things stay thesame, that might happen.
But as far as this year, atleast in Nebraska or at least in
(13:01):
western Nebraska, these guys atleast have one more year.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
What are you seeing with mountain ground?
We have a lot of friends thatare out west that are
recreational ground In southernIowa.
In my backyard I still seepretty strong prices.
To tell you the truth, some ofthis hunting ground I sold for
more than production agricultureground this last year.
(13:27):
So when the market went downfor production I sold some
$10,000 plus recreational groundfor hunting and build a little
cabin.
Have you ventured Colorado,wyoming, montana, arizona?
I mean, have you seen Seth yourlicense in a lot more states
than I am.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Well, I've talked to, like Gary Hubbell and those
guys out there in the mountains,and then, you know, with the
conservation easement programsthat Colorado has specifically,
I mean they are game changersfor those guys.
They still have everythingfairly high.
I haven't really seen anything.
I mean, it's not like M4 andGary and those guys that are
(14:09):
selling out there.
It's not like you have theirstuff hanging out on the market
very long and then visiting withthem.
When we were in Arizona itseemed to me like they were.
You know, they were prettyexcited about life.
So, um, even to the point whereyou know, like I I don't know,
like I've I've got to see whatthey're working on, but the, the
(14:31):
federal conservation easementprogram where they can put, you
know, captures on on the use ofland but continue to farm it, um
, across the entire country anduse that for you know, tax
breaks.
Or you know, like I don't knowwhat that looks like yet, but
(14:52):
some of that stuff looks prettyenticing where you can put,
build envelopes on a propertybut yet continue to farm it and
protect it from development.
You know, and you know the, the180, like the tax code, 180 and
some of that interesting.
You know, like I don't there's.
There's so many things, I think,that are keeping land values up
(15:12):
there.
That used to be what 20 yearsago.
What can you do on it?
You know you can farm it andthat's it.
Now you've got, like you said,hunting.
We've got elk in the area whereI'm at that's driving up
pasture land where 10 years agoit was worth $800.
Now it's worth 2000 or betteran acre.
So it's you know it's more thanjust commodity prices that are
(15:37):
keeping the values up.
I think the hunters keeping itup and the investor can see more
than just the crop value.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
What are you seeing for investor-wise?
Iowa has a lot of data, they doa lot of studies, so my opinion
is about 80% the neighborfarmer.
Again, we're productionagriculture and maybe 20%
investor, but it's not theinvestors.
Everybody thinks, oh, china'sbuying farm ground in Iowa.
Well, no, we have ananti-foreign ownership policy
(16:08):
that you can't and it's reallynot outside interest.
It's too expensive.
So we have a lot of investors,but I'm going to call them local
investors or investment groups.
Do you get a lot of outsidemoney coming your way?
I mean, maybe that's why theywant a higher rate of return.
Our guys are very agriculturedriven people.
(16:30):
They're not like.
When people think investors,they think Wall Street and we
don't have that.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah, nebraska, I think, recently changed their
laws so corporations technicallycan't own farm ground.
I have yet to figure out howthat works.
I know trusts can, so there's alot of trusts that own it.
Ah, my thing on it is is like,how do we reconcile the property
(17:08):
rights advocacy that we want tohave, like the government needs
to stay out of property, right,you know, like our right to own
property, and yet have theprotection of our right to be a
sovereign nation, of our rightto be a sovereign nation?
That's a really fine line towalk, I think.
(17:32):
What's really, I think, goingto be more interesting and I
think we should maybe take abreak real quick and come back
and talk about it.
But Missouri recently had thatverdict that came through about
China and and where they'rethey're maybe going to have you,
you know, like where they had.
Maybe we'll talk about thatduring the break and come back,
(17:53):
cause we do need to take a breakreal quick.
But let's just do that andwe'll be right back.
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Join us today and experiencethe expertise of LandHub's land
marketing professionals, whetheryou're buying or selling.
(18:14):
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And we are back with DavidWhittaker from the Whittaker
(18:37):
Marketing Group in.
Where is it?
Are you at?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
in Iowa.
David, that's right.
Ames Iowa New State University.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
You're where now.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Ames.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Iowa.
That's right.
Yep, that's right.
You know, the town you're at isjust a little smaller town
right outside Ames, correct?
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Yes, so I office in.
Huxley about eight miles awaysouth of Ames Just more rural
community.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Great little restaurant there.
We've had lunch there before acouple times.
It's got some great burgers andstuff in the restaurant, so I
enjoy stopping there when I'm onmy way to the mothership out
there in northwestern Iowa.
Yeah, but anyway, during thebreak I looked this up.
Missouri had a lawsuit againstthe country of China about the
(19:31):
COVID-19 pandemic and won.
$24.5 billion was awarded in alawsuit against China.
China, of course, thinks thislawsuit is absurd and is
refusing to pay the award, andso Missouri is taking steps to
essentially take Chinesefarmland of the $24.5 billion
(20:02):
award.
So yeah, they're seizingChinese farmland, it looks like.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
You know this upsets a lot of people in two ways.
One is nobody likes Chinabuying farmland period.
They just think that's bad.
They want to know what's theloophole, what's the deal.
So apparently they boughtfarmland in Missouri.
And then the second thing thatnobody likes they might like it
in this case Kobe iscondemnation when people take
(20:33):
land, whether it's governmentfor a new interstate or it's
somebody for a new intersection,you know it's whatever the
condemnation rules might be, forthe better of the group.
You know people don't like bothof those things.
So you got you got a weirdscenario here.
They're using one thing thatpeople don't like condemnation
(20:54):
to take ground from somethingthat they don't like China.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, I mean, and again, this is probably one of
those things where, to yourpoint, I think it's going to be
a big smiley face from theAmerican people, or most of them
, to Missouri's government here,because, yeah, like I think
everybody agrees, we don'treally want China owning our
ground, and so, but in the samesense, it goes back to um,
(21:24):
property ownership and um, youknow and, and you know you can
get into the weeds of you know,kind of like, what does it do to
the other countries of theworld where we, you know, we've
already allowed this to happen.
Now we can just step in andchange the rules in the middle
(21:45):
of the game?
It goes back to the wholequestion of seizing the cash
that we had in the bank ofRussia, because those kind of
questions of what does it do toour global legitimacy to get
into some controversial stuffthere today?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
David to get into some controversial stuff there
today, david, the reason thatthe US is all Missouri, for that
matter.
I think there's like sevenmilitary bases in Missouri.
I was actually flying my drone.
If you've ever taken the Part107 drone class to learn how to
fly your drone, they'll talkabout forward operating bases or
(22:23):
MOAs, military operating base,and I'm like when I'm taking the
class, I'm like I am nevergoing to use this, there's not a
chance.
Well, I was down by Knob Noster, missouri, which is Whitman or
Whiteman Air Force Base, andsure enough I got to take off
and I'm looking left and there'slike a military plane flying.
I'm like maybe I shouldn't flymy drone right here.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So it does happen.
Yeah, no, it's well.
And there's like there havebeen.
Drones are interesting because,like there's been some times
where I've been flying a dronein the middle of nowhere where
you know, like I would havenever thought that there would
be anything, and here there's alike little plane flying around
out, and so it's definitelysomething that it's good to have
(23:10):
.
Those classes yeah, you haveyour pilot's license when you're
doing those.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
I remember taking the class and I thought there was
nothing in this class thattaught me anything about drones.
It's all about airspace.
It's all about where you can,where you can't, how many feet,
where we're at Uh it's.
It's more about uh etiquettethan it is about how to fly a
drone.
It doesn't teach you at all howto fly a drone.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah Well, and I, you know, when I first started
doing it, like I would havenever thought that, you know,
like checking with neighbors andthings like that, like how are
you bothering them?
You know, but I can't tell youhow many times that when I first
started I never would go talkto the neighbors.
And then you know people wouldthink they have like a swarm of
(23:54):
bees or something outside theirhouse.
And so you know, you just getinto the habit and make sure you
contact the neighbors andthings like that.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Well, there's a whole other conversation to be had.
So we talk about China.
Let's talk tech for a littlebit.
Let's talk, if you go into, thedrones.
Okay, good segue here.
Who makes the best drones?
Dji.
Well, if DJI makes the bestdrones, are they watching
everything we fly?
Could they, Can they?
(24:21):
There's a lot of technology inthose drones but, hands down, we
know that China makes the bestdrones.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
So thoughts yeah, DJI has been the best drone, but,
like I don't know, I've hadquite a bit of problems with
mine lately, so I wish I couldfind a better brand.
Not to not to disparage them,but I have seven of them and
(24:48):
three of them are crashed rightnow.
But, um, but yeah, that'sthat's.
Another great question is arethey recording everything that
we're doing and and uh, keepingtrack of it?
I don't know, I don't know.
Probably you have to assume it,don't you?
Yeah, my phone probably wasmade in China.
Probably everything I do hasbeen recorded.
(25:12):
I just assume.
I just assume, Between ourgovernment and whatever
government made my phone, it'sprobably everything I do is
being recorded.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
Well, you've got to assume that, of course, we had
the whole China debacle withTikTok, and so a huge social
media platform that's out therethat a lot of us as realtors are
using and then get into.
You know, it's like okay, evenif there was 10 million videos
out there from TikTok, what arethey doing with it?
(25:42):
Well then we get into AI, sothen we get into.
Are they using artificialintelligence to read our videos,
to determine how many acres wehave, et cetera, et cetera.
You know, we think back to.
You know what a CLU is?
Common Land Unit?
Yes, so the FSA.
Most people don't know that.
Most of those mapping systemsgo back to 2008.
(26:03):
So when we get that perfectlittle shape around on a mapping
system that's called a CLU, acommon land unit, those aren't
up to date.
The government stopped sharingthose back in 2008 because they
were worried about othercountries knowing where they
were.
Well, now are they getting ourCLUs some other way?
I don't know.
(26:24):
I don't know if it's reallyrelevant whether they have them
or not.
I wish they would get moreup-to-date ones.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Well, I don't know, like on that stuff, is that
going to be relevant to a war oranything?
Anyway, I mean, google isprobably the biggest help for a
war anywhere.
I don't know.
Like I said, the world is goingto be a different place.
It's a totally different placethan it was in any other global
(26:53):
war that's been fought.
So I think that the data'salready out there, so we're
dealing with what we're dealingwith.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
When I say that with anything, I have a saying.
I say all the time is data isthe currency of the Internet, or
data is the currency of thefuture, and whoever has the most
data is going to win.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
So you kind of touched on this,though with AI, what are you
using right now?
I have a fun story, but I wantto know what you're currently.
What's your favorite thingyou're playing with with
artificial intelligence?
Speaker 4 (27:29):
There's really three.
We've talked at length on adifferent episode.
If you're listening now, you'llhave to go back and listen to
one of Kobe's other episodesthat we talked about AI and its
face.
We'll go a little deeper here.
The three that I'm using bigtime chat, gpt Okay, that's the
one most people know Really goodfor content creation and ideas.
(27:49):
That's where I'll put that one.
I use Claude with an E,c-l-a-u-d-e.
Claude.
Ai is anthropotic and it wasreally good for analyzing data.
So if you are going to upload adocument or have it proofread
something or change something,it's really good.
(28:10):
Okay, so I use it for that.
Let's pretend for a second thatyou take all of your Google
Analytics of who visits yourwebsite.
Of whatever, which one would Iuse?
I'd use Claude.
Claude analyzes the data better.
It's unlike my wife.
Chat GPT reads a third of thedocument and assumes it knows
(28:32):
what the rest is going to say.
Claude reads the entiredocument, the way it should be
done, and then makes sure thatit all matches.
Okay.
So those two.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Let's clarify, before we all get in trouble here,
what part of that was like yourwife.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
The part where I only listen to a third of what she's
saying.
Okay, I'm more like Chad GPTSomething with her.
Yeah, I'm more like Chad GPT,for sure.
Yeah, then there's a new one Isay a new one.
It's been out for a little bitGrok is one not as familiar with
(29:09):
it and then perplexity.
So perplexity is more of a realtime.
So if there was a plane crashright now, we could go on
perplexity and it would give usup to date, ai driven but
up-to-date uh notices, if youwill.
So those, those are the, thethree main systems I've been
(29:29):
using.
There's other ones I use forsound or for for image creation,
but really, um, for the mostpart, those are the.
Those are the three.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I'm geeking out yeah, yeah, because the um now chat.
I think like probably mostpeople at this point have
accepted that ai is worthsomething and have gotten an
account on the free version ofchat, gpt or even gemini,
gemini's.
You know, I kind of use alittle bit of both because I use
(29:59):
google.
So you, you know um and you cankind of trick it back and forth
just to kind of check um, youknow um and then um.
I.
I'm a big fan of Grammarly too.
You can, if you're doingwriting and things like that,
you can bring Grammarly backinto it and and that um, um or
(30:21):
you like.
I'm a horrible as far as grammarand things like that.
So I'm a pretty good writer.
I have a lot of great thoughts,but not very good at sentence
structure and the spelling andthings like that.
So that's kind of how I've beenusing it is.
I'll write kind of like theytaught kindergartners when my
(30:42):
kids were going through howthings sound instead of how
things are, and then use it tokind of polish everything up.
It's all about prompts though,right, david?
I mean that's kind of what youtaught us at the LAN conference
a year and a half ago.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
It is, and you know, even I have an office manager
that her and I were working on aproject together.
She's like oh, I'll put it inai and she prompted it and it
didn't give the answer, Ithought.
But then I realized her promptwas 180 degrees different than
what I would have asked.
So I asked very simplequestions, but then sometimes I
get deeper and where we're goingto go.
(31:19):
So if you're not there yet, youshould be right and that is um,
um, I'm blanking out here.
Hold on one second.
Uh, projects, there we go.
Uh, projects is where wheremost people that are advancing
to the next level of ai areusing projects.
So what's a project?
A project is pre-saved promptsfor something you do repeatedly,
(31:45):
over and over, like grammar,spelling, et cetera, emails so
you can put a prompt.
I'll give you an example of aprompt that I'm using.
So in chat or in in Claude, youcan do this, and they have
projects.
Okay.
So I put in a project and theproject was here's everything
(32:06):
about my company.
Here's the top 10 ways to useGoogle AdWords.
Here's the top 10 things toknow about Facebook ads.
Here are the Google analyticsfrom my company of people that
click on our stuff.
Okay, and so again, data is thecurrency of the internet.
(32:26):
So I'm teaching.
A project is where I taught AIto do what I wanted it to do, so
first I had to teach everythingabout it.
So here's the, the the 10 mostused things on on Facebook.
Here's the 10 most used thingson Google.
Here's the 10 most ways thatpeople search for items on the
internet.
Here's the 10 most used thingson Google.
Here's the 10 most ways thatpeople search for items on the
internet.
Here's everything about mycompany that you need to learn
(32:47):
about my company.
Here are the past 800 customerswe've had.
Go search them and learn aboutthem.
So now I've taught it.
I haven't even asked it aquestion yet.
All I did is study thisinformation.
Now I'm going to write amulti-level prompt for my
project.
Okay, so a project is everytime I get a new auction, I want
(33:11):
you to take this URL on myauction, or take, let's do,
personal property.
Okay, personal property.
I'll just do it that way.
It's easy.
I go catalog all the personalproperty here's a tractor,
here's a cultivator, here's awhatever.
Okay, etc, etc.
And I go through and I have alist of 800 items and then I
upload this list.
(33:32):
So here is the next projectthat I have project air quotes
and and I upload it.
Do this every time I get a newproject.
So now we give it multipleprompts.
Well, every time we have aauction, we need to do these
things.
I want to make a heading.
I want to make metadata or metatext for Google to find it.
(33:53):
I want to make 10 catchytaglines for this auction that I
can put on Facebook.
I want to make 10 catchyheadlines that all follow the
Google algorithm, for Google,also called Google snippets,
need to be less than a certainamount of characters.
Okay, more than a certainamount, but less than a certain
amount.
That's why I taught at firsthow many characters do I need?
(34:16):
And go create all of thiscontent.
Oh, I'm going to need somethingfor my website that says hey,
the Rickardson auction is heldon the 28th, blah, blah.
It includes what?
Pick out six items from thelist that I uploaded to you and
put them into the header thatI'm going to put on my website.
So I'll upload this list.
(34:37):
I'll say study this list ofitems.
Also, go through this list andtell me if there's anything
unique in here that I might'vemissed.
Okay, so I've asked it already.
Like eight questions, oh, yeah.
And then here's the wholefolder full of pictures.
Look at these pictures and makesure that the pictures match
the item that we have and tellme if there's anything unique
(35:00):
about it.
Oh, did you know that this,this, uh, you know that this 806
John Deere or what you know?
It'll take a number that it hasthis.
It had the pony motor on theside.
I see in the picture it hadthis motor.
So it will go out and do theresearch for me and then it will
make a itemized list of the top10 things that I need.
(35:21):
Also, now, let's make in anytype of advertising, when we
talk AI, we talk about genres orsubset of characters.
Who would buy these items?
Here's the list of items.
Who would buy them?
Make me a list.
Okay, genres, or also in the AIworld, they're calling it
personas.
Who's the personality ofsomebody that's going to buy it?
Not to keep talking, butthere's so much more.
(35:43):
Kobe, then this persona, youtake it.
Okay, well, these are guys thatlike motorcycles.
Well, I had eight motorcycles onthis auction.
Well, tell me everything I needto know about these and create
an ad for these motorcyclepeople.
Here's the ad for themotorcycle people.
Here's the ad for the tractorpeople.
Here's the ad for the acreagepeople.
(36:04):
Here's the ad for the peoplethat like antiques that grandma
had inside.
And it will do all this work ina project.
So now, the next time it takesa little bit to set up a project
, but the next time I have anauction, my staff goes out and
catalogs all those items I bringthat list and I say hey,
whoever AI here's my project,here's a new one Do all the same
(36:27):
stuff and it puts it all onthere.
So now did we do what our staffis doing?
We all have systems andprocesses.
I have like 130 points to aland auction.
Could we knock off 65 of thosepoints with AI in a project?
Probably could have.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Yeah, well, and again , just take this podcast.
We're using very similar thingsto that too, because we put it
to you know like now we haveopportunities even in Riverside,
where Riverside is doing theproduction part of this.
You know to the point whereeverything, including the
(37:09):
background and you know of thevideo on YouTube and cleaning up
the audio and synchronizingeverything comes right out of
the Riverside app, and soChatGPT puts together all the
social media and the descriptionand everything of the podcast.
(37:31):
So, yeah, it's very timeefficient, but hey, let's take a
real quick break and we'll comeback for one more segment.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Land isn't just dirt.
It's where memories are made,families are raised and
livelihoods are built.
But when it comes time to sellor buy, the weight of the
decision is heavy.
Where do you even start?
Who can you trust to guide you?
(38:04):
For too long, land transactionshave been treated like a simple
exchange Numbers on a paper, asignature on a line.
But it's more than that.
At High Point Land Company, wedon't just list land, we walk it
, we learn its story and we findthe right buyer who understands
(38:27):
its worth.
You are not just another deal,you are the steward of something
bigger and we're here to helpyou navigate every step of the
way.
When it's time to sell, whenit's time to sell, when it's
(38:48):
time to buy.
We're here Because land is morethan just land.
It's your legacy.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
And we are back with Mr David man.
I always have such a good timewhen you're around, david.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
I appreciate it.
It's always fun.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
There's always so much to talk about because you
geek out on tech like I do,which I I love it.
So I know, you know, and thiswill probably be a little bit
longer than our normal 45minutes or whatever, but that's
all right, because I think, if Iremember it last time, this was
one of the more popular ones,um, that we had.
So, uh, because people like aiand they're even if they don't,
um, if they don't geek out on itlike you and I do they
(39:48):
definitely are interested in it.
So I'll tell you a really quickstory.
You'll get a kick out of this.
I have an agent that I haveknown for a long time.
He recently joined our teamhere at High Point.
Great guy, really really smartland agent.
Very big Luddite, hatestechnology.
Really smart land agent, verybig Luddite, hates technology.
(40:09):
And so we were driving down theroad one day and he was teasing
me about using chat, because Iuse chat all the time, and so I
had just done a deal where wewent and visited a client and I
had got on and was talking tochat about sending an email to
that client about what we hadjust talked about, and I wanted
chat to get the email and blah,blah, blah.
And then I copied and pastedand sent that email off while we
(40:30):
were driving down the road andhe was giving me a hard time
about, you know, being crippledby technology.
And so I had wrote a song andused chat and suno and wrote and
produced a song about him andplayed it for him while we were
driving down the road.
And just to prove howimpressive chat was, I figured
(40:53):
out a way to get it onto Spotifyand Apple iTunes, so just to
prove to him how powerful theuse of AI can be.
So if you're out there oniTunes, there's a song called
Boots in Three States.
You can download that onSpotify and that was written by
(41:14):
myself and ChatGPT about BrianReynolds in Nebraska.
There you go, just to prove tohim how impressive chat AI can
be.
But what are we thinking aboutthe rest of the year?
Man, are you bullish, are youbearish, or are you just
throwing your bones out thereand see what happens?
Speaker 4 (41:36):
I am bullish always, and the reason I am I've been
sharing this.
You talk about AI.
I asked AI.
I said, hey, ai, I want to do abetter job.
Write me a business plan.
So it did.
And I said we did really goodlast year, but I'd like to do
better.
There's always room to improve.
(41:56):
What can I do to improve?
So you've been in real estate along time and different
companies have like coachingprograms and team programs and
whatnot.
So I told it go study all thoseprograms and I don't need to
hire anybody.
I can read AI.
How about you just write me abusiness plan?
So I did.
I said what do I need to do tomake $100 million in gross sales
(42:18):
this year?
That's my goal.
What do we do?
So I set a 40% increased goalthan what I had last year and it
said to talk about it.
That's why I'm talking about it.
I thought, well, that's kind ofcocky, that's pompous, that's
arrogant, I don't want to dothat.
And it says, no, it builds ateam of people that want to see
you succeed and so maybe there'sa deal to be had that somebody
(42:42):
somewhere will be like well, Iknow, I know he's looking, he's
looking and I'm telling you whatit already worked.
Here's how much it alreadyworked.
I had an attorney call the otherday and the attorney says, hey,
I got this deal for you.
It was about $3 million.
And it's like man, I haven'theard from that attorney for
like six years.
And he says, well, I kind ofget you that $100 million.
How did you know about that it?
(43:02):
Well, he saw it on Facebook.
So, sharing your message,sharing your brand, what it is,
so I'm bullish.
I have set my attitude meter tobe very bullish in that I want
to do that, which is a huge,huge goal for us this year.
Now I don't know if the marketwill support Kobe.
I don't know if there's thatmany jobs out there.
If everybody's thinkingnegatively and press the pause
(43:24):
button, well, I'm going to tryto encourage them to go, because
I just got big goals and weneed to make that happen.
How about you?
You got a new company, yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
From the last time I talked with you.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
And sporting a new logo and tell me more about that
.
Let me reverse the roles here.
What happened?
Where are you at?
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Yeah, I've got the pretty bright green and and, uh,
lovely blue.
Now the high point land company.
No, um owned my own company forquite a while and decided, um,
that um it was.
You know, in our business,david, as you know, you sell
when you get the opportunity tosell.
You don't sell when you want tosell.
So, had the opportunity to sell.
(44:06):
You don't sell when you want tosell.
So I had the opportunity tosell our REMAX franchises.
I've always been the land personand the balloon is amazing, but
the balloon doesn't sell land,so it's kind of hard to push
that, you know, push that.
So I'm partnered with a reallygood land company and they're
kind of young, young couple thatowns it, which has been
(44:32):
exciting for me to be able tojust kind of give them the.
They're really super smart, butthey, you know my wisdom is a
little different than theirwisdom.
So they're a ball of firetrying to take over the world
and I can have, you know, well,I did this, you know, like I was
there once and here's, here'skind of how it went for me.
So take it for whatever it is,but but no, they, they're great
(44:55):
people, you know.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
Yeah, Good, good company.
They're very similar to ourcompany and except with a little
bigger, farther reach than whatwe have.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
so yeah, very similar , very similar people and yeah
it, it was a good fit at thetime.
And Shannon has come on boardmore in the last six, eight
months.
She kind of had her own thinggoing for a while and has been
able to scale it to the pointwhere she's got time to come on
(45:28):
and kind of take a more activemarketing and an advisory role
with High Point and she's been areal big asset and Jacob is a
big visionary.
So my job is I'm the designatedbroker for, I think, five
states that they have five orsix states, so kind of the
(45:52):
western states, and so it's beenexciting.
It has been and I'm with you,I'm very bullish, I'm super
excited.
I'm very similar to I did useAI not when I was doing my goals
and have been very bullish onthis year.
(46:16):
My goals are a little different.
I went to the referral.
I set a goal that I wanted topay out $100,000 in referral
fees this year, and so I've beentalking about that.
I really want to forgepartnerships with residential
and commercial agents in a waythat nobody in the land world
(46:36):
has really tried to do before,and so I went to the Nebraska
Real Estate.
The Realtors Association had abooth there, talked to a bunch
of agents, planned to do Kansasas well as maybe a couple other
residential deals.
So we were really well received, really shocked at how those
(46:57):
guys really never thought ofthat as an opportunity for them
and so, yeah, so I think thatthat's been a really good goal
to set and so looking forward tothose partnerships and working
with those guys.
But, yeah, it's been exciting,it's been fun.
I don't think I realized I hada little bit of a short step
(47:21):
with a company that just reallywasn't my speed company that
just really wasn't my speed, andI don't know, I don't know, I
don't think I realized howmiserable you can be if you're
in the wrong spot.
You know, until I made the jokewith my wife about something
about the last company and sheturned white and said no, you're
fine where you're at.
I mentioned something aboutgoing back and I must not have
(47:43):
been as happy as I am now.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
So well.
It is interesting because I'vebeen at a couple of different
companies I think I've been tothree different companies before
I started my own and there'sdefinitely a different fit for
different people.
There really is someone 100percent support.
Some like to be a little moreentrepreneurial and do it
themselves, and each company hasa different flavor to it.
And it's not that I used todiscredit people.
(48:07):
I think, like, oh man, theymoved, they moved.
They only stayed there for sixmonths.
They're gone again and goneagain.
But I look back at even mycareer and it's amazing how many
little things you picked upthat you didn't even know.
You learned while you werethere, and so you learned what
you didn't like.
Sometimes.
That's a good thing.
So then when you go to your own, you're like I don't want my
(48:33):
agents to have to have thatstruggle.
So even you can take thosenegative experiences and turn
them into positives at your owncompany which is great or at
your next company.
So, as people look at it, Iwish they wouldn't.
We're so judgy McJudgersonaround the world, but everybody
will land where they're supposedto eventually.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
So yeah, Well, it's been.
It's been difficult because,like I've been an owner of a
company, you know for so longthat the difficult part of it is
is just, you know, to realizethat it's not you know it's not,
it's not mine to.
You know so, so you have to youknow so, so, uh, you have to,
you know, make sure that you'rethat you're checking in and uh,
(49:12):
and not over overacting oroverreacting to to somebody
else's um, somebody else's babyUm, but uh, trying to do
whatever needs to be done.
And so so far it's been areally good fit and uh, they've
been, they've let me have a lotof awful lot of freedom to.
(49:34):
I want to get more intoeducation, which has been fun,
so but yeah, you're absolutelyright, you're a teacher for the
Land 101 with the Realtor LandInstitute, aren't you?
Yep, I have three classes that Iteach for our line getting
ready here in a couple weeks tohead to uh oklahoma to teach
boot camp, which is sold out.
it was sold out in four days Itried to send some of my guys to
(49:56):
it, but uh, their life is busy,you know, the sad thing was
this year was, um, our teamtraining is like it starts our
team training the first day ofour team training is like it
starts our team training thefirst day of our team training
is the first day of boot camp.
And so I was like I told some ofmy guys I said I think you can,
you know, you don't have to bethe whole time, but by the time
(50:17):
like we even thought about howwe could do it, it was already
sold out.
It was crazy, but that'll be afun one, super excited to be a
part of that.
And then I'm also working onsome three hour CE classes that
we're trying to get.
We're trying to work with likeat least the Midwest states to
(50:37):
get them, you know, certified sothat we can go teach like a
land 101 for residential agents.
Yeah, so that way if they getthemselves into a situation
where you know they at leastknow you know enough about it.
Speaker 4 (50:52):
I hope you get not shoot off the wrong direction,
but I hope you get paid for that.
And the reason I say that isI've been asked to speak a
couple more times at differentevents this last few years, and
you know, and you and I bothlove to talk and tell people
what we've learned.
I like to share what I'velearned, but of course we're
sharing with our competition.
That's one thing.
Of course, on top of that now,high tide rises all boats.
(51:15):
We like that, but it's justtime.
If you and I are out doingsomething or teaching somebody
else, what are we not doing?
We're not selling real estateback home, where we're supposed
to be, so we're losing money onthe back end doing stuff we
should do.
And time management is crucial.
Where do we put our time?
And it's not that you don'twant to teach, but I, so I give
(51:35):
credit to the people I've seenteach for years and years and
years.
It's like, okay, they're,they're ready to be done.
I get it.
They're ready to move on to adifferent stage in their life,
and that takes new people comingup to teach too.
But for everybody that doesn'tthink about it, I wish they
would.
I wish they'd realize it takesa lot of work to even prep that
or get the CE certified in thatstate or et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Yeah, no, that is, the goal is to get to the point
where we create enough valuethat um that we can, we can like
, like that's.
Actually, that is my goal is,within five years, as to to be a
speaker or uh, you know, in theindustry so, but right now it's
, it's kind of fun to just beable to go out there and just to
(52:19):
uh to do some to educate, likesome of the associations.
And you know, I want to get tothe point where I can go to some
of the state associations andbe a keynote speaker or
something for those guys and youknow, get up there.
I don't know that I'll ever bea coach, but definitely be a
speaker for people.
I think that'd be fun.
Speaker 4 (52:39):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
Have you ever done coaching?
What big plans you got for thisyear?
Speaker 4 (52:45):
Not much.
I'm trying to lay low a littlebit.
I got kids at home that areright into high school and so
they're busy with sports and,like I said, everybody puts a
time stamp and I never say no,which is bad.
So my goal is to say no somemore actually, but, like I said,
just big goals at the realestate company.
(53:05):
So trying to focus there andthen also focus on the family a
little bit.
Um, elk hunting I like to goelk hunting I bought tags.
You were talking about elkhunting earlier.
I'd like to do that.
Are you a big hunter?
Speaker 1 (53:18):
no, I'm not, nope.
I uh grew up.
Grew up on a farm.
Kid that we worked too much, somy dad was not a hunter and I
just never got into it.
I was able to help my son getinto it.
Speaker 4 (53:32):
That's good, he's a hunter.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
How old are your kids , Toby Huh?
Speaker 4 (53:37):
How old are your children?
Speaker 1 (53:39):
My youngest is 27.
My youngest is 28, so older ohgood, good.
Speaker 4 (53:45):
I got, I think, about three years left and one's
going to go to college, so we'llbe.
I guess it goes, quick is theway I'll say it.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
Yeah, it does go quick and you know, like I know
it's a pain right now, but enjoythe painfulness because you'll
miss those games and all thestuff once they're gone.
It's definitely true.
Speaker 4 (54:04):
Yeah, very good.
No, that's my plans for thisyear.
Stay up, there's so muchchanging.
I want to grow my team as well.
We got a new website coming.
That'll be cool.
Working through that man, it'sjust a lot of work.
Everything is Got to hustle.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
All right, we'll have to keep having you on here,
david, because you are so muchfun and, uh, it's always always
a good I I tell you I we nevereven have like any sort of time.
Uh, restraint on you because,um, we know it's not going to
work because you and I, uh, wehave, we always have so much to
talk about.
But, uh, I appreciate youtaking the time today here.
(54:44):
Y'all, we will see you all downthe road.
Speaker 3 (54:48):
As we wrap up another episode of the American Land
Seller Podcast.
Thank you for joining us.
Visit wwwamericanlandsellercomand find us on one of your
favorite podcast platforms.
If you would be so kind and youenjoyed today's insights,
please like, subscribe, rate,follow and review us on whatever
app you are listening orwatching on.
(55:08):
Connect with us on social mediafor updates.
Until next week.
Kobe wishes you success in yourland endeavors.
Speaker 1 (55:16):
God bless you and have a great week, the American
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We provide the expertise andintegrity you can trust.
Looking to buy or sell, weoffer a premier selection of
(56:44):
properties and a marketingstrategy designed to get you
results.
From productive farmland torecreational retreats.
We help you maximize yourinvestment.
Visitwwwhighpointlandcompanycom today
and experience the difference.
High Point Land Company, a trueleader in land sales.
Today on the American Land Seller.
He's back for another episode,folks, and if you've been in the
land or auction world for anylength of time, you've heard the
name David Whitaker.
David's one of the hardestworking land brokers in the
state of Iowa.
Some know him just simply asthe land guy.
I'm lucky enough to know him asfriend.
He's the owner of WhitakerMarketing Group and brings deep
(00:24):
experience to every single dealhe touches.
David's a multi-state championauctioneer with titles in Iowa,
minnesota, nebraska and Missouri.
He's competed and won at thehighest levels, from national
contests to international stages, earning recognition as both a
finalist and a spokesman.
Beyond the fast talking, davidserved as president of the Iowa
(00:49):
chapter of the Realtors LandInstitute and chaired the Iowa
Auctioneers Association.
He holds the ALC AccreditedLand Consultant designation, as
well as AMM Auctioneer MarketingManagement and CAI Certified
Auctioneers Institutecredentials.
In short, he's earned hisstripes as one of the most
(01:10):
trusted names in the game.
Whittaker Marketing Group hasbeen named one of the top
brokerage and auction houses bythe Land Report.
Whether David's out in the fieldor up on stage, he's what we
like to call a farmland solutionarchitect.
Field or up on stage, he's whatwe like to call a farmland
solution architect, someone whocan navigate even the toughest
deals and deliver solid resultsfor landowners.
(01:31):
In this episode we cover somuch ground what makes a
farmland auction really succeedin today's market, smart tips
for setting up your land forsale to maximize exposure and
strong bidding, why auctioningis both science and art, and how
new auctioneers can sharpentheir skills, plus how David and
I are using AI to push theboundaries of marketing,
(01:51):
research and service in the landworld.
David also shares stories fromthe road, gives us the latest on
Iowa's land market and nosurprise, drops a few gold
nuggets on work ethic and doingthings the right way.
If you're in the land game orjust love hearing from the folks
who make it happen, you'regoing to want to stick around
for this one.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Welcome to the American Land Seller Podcast
with your host, kobe Rickardson.
Kobe is an accredited landconsultant and multi-state land
broker with High Point LandCompany.
Join us each week as we exploreall things land.
We bring you fresh insights andexpert guests on sales,
marketing, regulations,economics and so much more.
(02:31):
Visit wwwamericanlandsellercomand find us on one of your
favorite podcast platforms.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Okay, Kobe and our special guests, let's get
started and our special guests.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Let's get started and welcome back to the American
Land Seller.
We are here once again with thegreat David Whitaker, with
Whitaker Marketing Group.
David, how are we doing today?
Outstanding, I always lovetalking to you, man.
I just I learned something newand just right before we started
(03:05):
you taught me how to workRiverside here, the studio that
we tape in.
So I appreciate your help.
Hopefully that helps my video alittle bit, be a little bit
clearer.
So let's dig right into it.
Man, I know you're a busy man.
Let's talk about the news, nomatter what channel it is.
(03:26):
Trump is an interestingcharacter in the world.
Some people think the world'sburning to the ground.
I know, talking to the peoplethat we deal with across the
country and our world, I thinkthings are holding together
halfway decent.
What are you seeing in yourmarket?
What are you hearing from theland professionals across the
(03:48):
country?
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Well, I guess, to give a good answer, let's back
up to 2020.
2020, of course, covid year,covid-19,.
Market slowed.
Then we had market facilitationprogram.
This is the previous Trumpadministration.
Market facilitation program alittle bit previous Trump
administration Okay, marketfacilitation program.
A little bit of governmentinfluence out there to help with
crops.
(04:10):
We had lowest interest rateswe've ever seen and then we had
a new low market.
We'll say that way Low market.
So we had supply and demand.
So we have all the factors thatare adding up for a strong,
strong market that are coming.
Low interest rates.
(04:30):
Corn was up to $7 prior to that.
So we got some of the highestcommodity prices we ever had.
We got old grain out there.
We got a little markfacilitation program.
Then we had PPP money that cameout, payment protection program
.
So we as farmers felt prettydoggone good.
We had a little jingle in thepocket right.
Yep, land prices soared.
I don't know if you saw this,kobe, but land prices in my
(04:53):
world soared probably 40%,absolutely.
Okay, now let's level out to 22,23.
Market just kind of plateaued.
We saw some of the strongestprices we ever had.
The market just kind ofplateaued.
We saw some of the strongestprices we ever had.
I'm going to say 22 was thestrongest market and it was May
of 22 that I've seen Now go to23, 24.
(05:13):
23, we didn't know if it wouldhold.
Interest rates kind of wentback up, got a new
administration.
The new administration, bidenwanted to cut capital gains tax,
wanted to cut stepped-up basisand I'm not an economist, by the
way, this is just my take on itand then we get into 24 and 24,
(05:33):
we started to see a decline, alittle uncertainty, who's going
to get elected, and all of asudden now we have Trump back in
office.
Now I know you remember as wellas myself of the Realtor Land
Institute and I.
Well, we do a survey every sixmonths.
They saw it go down about 8%over the year.
(05:54):
So 2024 kind of got a littletougher.
I saw a lot more no sales atthe auctions and then brings us
to present day.
So now here we're at 2025.
2025 in January and February Iactually saw a resurgence.
I don't know if we want to callit a resurgence, but maybe a
(06:15):
back to normal, I guess back tonormal.
So now we know who's elected,we know we're there, but there's
still uncertainty there.
And now you talked about Trumpand tariffs and foreign trade
and et cetera, but all I canrelate it to is what does the
market tell me?
And at auctions I had a couplelast year Let me tell you they
(06:36):
were pretty tough.
I mean one or two bidders likebidding, actually bidding A lot
of people there, but not thatmany people bidding.
I've seen a lot of ourcompetitors actually go to
sealed bid auctions where youonly need one bidder.
I've seen people lower prices,myself included.
We've lowered a lot of pricesin 2024.
And then back to 2025, thefirst couple auctions I had this
(06:59):
year I mean blew it out of thewater.
I mean blew it out of the waterI was hoping for, you know,
$13,000 an acre and we get$18,000 an acre.
The last four auctions we hadhave been the most well-attended
auctions.
But what are you seeing, kobe?
I mean mine is like kind of Idon't want to know if I want to
use the word resurgence, butit's come back Like it feels
(07:22):
like the farmers have a goodattitude now.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
It feels like the farmers have a good attitude now
.
I think when you said peoplewaited to see what happened with
the election was exactly right.
It kind of felt like June, julyof last year.
Everybody just kind of heldtheir breath and I would almost
say November 8th.
It was like people were like,okay, well, you know what the
(07:53):
plane crashed and here's whosurvived, you know like I mean
it was, you know.
And now we know what we'redealing with and people started
to go back to work and startedto figure it out.
But yeah, we've seen exactly thesame thing auctions very, very,
very good luck at auctions.
Um, interestingly enough, oneof the things I would add to
that is a lot of the landownersthat not, you know, like the
(08:13):
absentee landowners I've I'vehad people talking to me about
selling that maybe I would nothave thought have of as sellers.
Uh, just because of the lowcommodity prices.
Those guys that have been kindof sharecroppers, you know that
have been, you know.
Just, you know for quite awhile living high on the hog,
(08:35):
that all of a sudden, two yearsin a row, commodity prices
haven't been there.
That you know they're just like, especially in Nebraska where
we have a high land tax,property taxes, so that's been.
The one interesting thing Icould say is that we've kind of
seen that.
But yeah, I agree with you.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Have you had anybody call you that what I call a sale
leaseback?
So for all your listeners, ofcourse, you and I are in
production agriculture, so cornand beans and sorghum and soy,
et cetera.
So I got a lot of guys thatactually put some 1031 money out
(09:16):
there on social media and Isaid, hey, guys typed it out on
social media, have $6 millionlooking to invest.
And I had like 12 differentpeople call me and say, hey,
dave, if you have 1031 text forexchange money, I'm looking for
an investor.
Now I want to farm it, but Idon't want anybody to know I'm
(09:37):
selling.
So I do think there is sometightening of the balance sheets
you know that is out there andthere are some that are either
really on the good side Ifyou're cash heavy and interest
rates don't bother you, thenyou're good.
But if you're buying anoperating note where you're
still at 10% or double digitoperating note, well it's tight.
And so I had a handful ofpeople, more than I expected,
(09:59):
reach out and when they reachedout they were saying well, I
want to sell it, I want it quiet, I don't want anybody to know,
don't go public.
But then my response is well,how much are you willing to give
cash rent, and so most of myinvestors are looking for a 3%
return, so 3% return on themoney.
(10:21):
So I'm like, hey, you guys canask $15,000 an acre, that's fine
, but I hope you give.
You can ask $15,000 an acre,that's fine, but I hope you give
$400 cash rent.
Or if you only want to give$200 cash rent, then lower that
blooming price of what you want.
So I bet I have 12 pocketlistings right now that are just
kind of I know about them, butthey're not out there and I've
placed a couple of them withinvestors.
(10:43):
So you know we're talking aboutthe market, do you?
Do you see that where you're atnebraska?
Speaker 1 (10:48):
tougher where I'm at, because my guys, my investors,
would want more because ofirrigation systems, you know.
So, like where you're at, whereyou've got a lot more dry land,
um, and it's a little bitsimpler for investors to own the
dirt and and it's, you know, um, my, my investors would want
four or four and a quarterprobably, where you guys, 3%
(11:11):
return would be good.
Gotcha, we have wells and wehave pivots, but yeah, I mean
we've.
But I would say, though I think, thanks to I'm going to give
them credit, even though mostpeople don't normally give their
bankers credit, I think theNebraska Banking Association
really had a different.
(11:34):
They really did beat on theirproducers a little bit the last
probably eight, nine years onwhat their requirements were for
renewals and things like thatand maybe drilling them down to
like per bushel costs and perbushel incomes, and and so I,
(11:56):
and then also I think we've seen, like at least in my area, a
lot of guys there was a big pushfor maybe having some cash on
hand where that had not been apush before, and so I think our
guys are maybe a little bitbetter shape because, like most
(12:17):
of the lenders I've talked to,the farmers aren't really
looking to sell any land thisyear, which I was kind of
shocked when I kind of wascalling around earlier in the
year, whereas when I was talkingto guys in like Minnesota, iowa
, missouri, even Kansas that isone of the things that's on the
table they were looking forthose investors that would want
(12:38):
to buy and then lease back, thatwould want to buy and then
lease back.
So I think Nebraska specifically, and then kind of that
northeastern Colorado, reallyhave not seen that.
You know, at least this year, Ithink maybe next year, that
conversation, if things stay thesame, that might happen.
But as far as this year, atleast in Nebraska or at least in
(13:01):
western Nebraska, these guys atleast have one more year.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
What are you seeing with mountain ground?
We have a lot of friends thatare out west that are
recreational ground In southernIowa.
In my backyard I still seepretty strong prices.
To tell you the truth, some ofthis hunting ground I sold for
more than production agricultureground this last year.
(13:27):
So when the market went downfor production I sold some
$10,000 plus recreational groundfor hunting and build a little
cabin.
Have you ventured Colorado,wyoming, montana, arizona?
I mean, have you seen Seth yourlicense in a lot more states
than I am.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Well, I've talked to, like Gary Hubbell and those
guys out there in the mountains,and then, you know, with the
conservation easement programsthat Colorado has specifically,
I mean they are game changersfor those guys.
They still have everythingfairly high.
I haven't really seen anything.
I mean, it's not like M4 andGary and those guys that are
(14:09):
selling out there.
It's not like you have theirstuff hanging out on the market
very long and then visiting withthem.
When we were in Arizona itseemed to me like they were.
You know, they were prettyexcited about life.
So, um, even to the point whereyou know, like I I don't know,
like I've I've got to see whatthey're working on, but the, the
(14:31):
federal conservation easementprogram where they can put, you
know, captures on on the use ofland but continue to farm it, um
, across the entire country anduse that for you know, tax
breaks.
Or you know, like I don't knowwhat that looks like yet, but
(14:52):
some of that stuff looks prettyenticing where you can put,
build envelopes on a propertybut yet continue to farm it and
protect it from development.
You know, and you know the, the180, like the tax code, 180 and
some of that interesting.
You know, like I don't there's.
There's so many things, I think,that are keeping land values up
(15:12):
there.
That used to be what 20 yearsago.
What can you do on it?
You know you can farm it andthat's it.
Now you've got, like you said,hunting.
We've got elk in the area whereI'm at that's driving up
pasture land where 10 years agoit was worth $800.
Now it's worth 2000 or betteran acre.
So it's you know it's more thanjust commodity prices that are
(15:37):
keeping the values up.
I think the hunters keeping itup and the investor can see more
than just the crop value.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
What are you seeing for investor-wise?
Iowa has a lot of data, they doa lot of studies, so my opinion
is about 80% the neighborfarmer.
Again, we're productionagriculture and maybe 20%
investor, but it's not theinvestors.
Everybody thinks, oh, china'sbuying farm ground in Iowa.
Well, no, we have ananti-foreign ownership policy
(16:08):
that you can't and it's reallynot outside interest.
It's too expensive.
So we have a lot of investors,but I'm going to call them local
investors or investment groups.
Do you get a lot of outsidemoney coming your way?
I mean, maybe that's why theywant a higher rate of return.
Our guys are very agriculturedriven people.
(16:30):
They're not like.
When people think investors,they think Wall Street and we
don't have that.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Yeah, nebraska, I think, recently changed their
laws so corporations technicallycan't own farm ground.
I have yet to figure out howthat works.
I know trusts can, so there's alot of trusts that own it.
Ah, my thing on it is is like,how do we reconcile the property
(17:08):
rights advocacy that we want tohave, like the government needs
to stay out of property, right,you know, like our right to own
property, and yet have theprotection of our right to be a
sovereign nation, of our rightto be a sovereign nation?
That's a really fine line towalk, I think.
(17:32):
What's really, I think, goingto be more interesting and I
think we should maybe take abreak real quick and come back
and talk about it.
But Missouri recently had thatverdict that came through about
China and and where they'rethey're maybe going to have you,
you know, like where they had.
Maybe we'll talk about thatduring the break and come back,
(17:53):
cause we do need to take a breakreal quick.
But let's just do that andwe'll be right back.
The American Land Seller Podcastis brought to you in part by
LandHubcom.
Join us today and experiencethe expertise of LandHub's land
marketing professionals, whetheryou're buying or selling.
(18:14):
Let us show you the way in theever-evolving world of land
transactions.
Visit LandHubcom and discoverwhat the future of land
marketing looks like.
Landhubcom where your landjourney begins.
And we are back with DavidWhittaker from the Whittaker
(18:37):
Marketing Group in.
Where is it?
Are you at?
Speaker 4 (18:41):
in Iowa.
David, that's right.
Ames Iowa New State University.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
You're where now.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
Ames.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Iowa.
That's right.
Yep, that's right.
You know, the town you're at isjust a little smaller town
right outside Ames, correct?
Speaker 4 (18:57):
Yes, so I office in.
Huxley about eight miles awaysouth of Ames Just more rural
community.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Great little restaurant there.
We've had lunch there before acouple times.
It's got some great burgers andstuff in the restaurant, so I
enjoy stopping there when I'm onmy way to the mothership out
there in northwestern Iowa.
Yeah, but anyway, during thebreak I looked this up.
Missouri had a lawsuit againstthe country of China about the
(19:31):
COVID-19 pandemic and won.
$24.5 billion was awarded in alawsuit against China.
China, of course, thinks thislawsuit is absurd and is
refusing to pay the award, andso Missouri is taking steps to
essentially take Chinesefarmland of the $24.5 billion
(20:02):
award.
So yeah, they're seizingChinese farmland, it looks like.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
You know this upsets a lot of people in two ways.
One is nobody likes Chinabuying farmland period.
They just think that's bad.
They want to know what's theloophole, what's the deal.
So apparently they boughtfarmland in Missouri.
And then the second thing thatnobody likes they might like it
in this case Kobe iscondemnation when people take
(20:33):
land, whether it's governmentfor a new interstate or it's
somebody for a new intersection,you know it's whatever the
condemnation rules might be, forthe better of the group.
You know people don't like bothof those things.
So you got you got a weirdscenario here.
They're using one thing thatpeople don't like condemnation
(20:54):
to take ground from somethingthat they don't like China.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, I mean, and again, this is probably one of
those things where, to yourpoint, I think it's going to be
a big smiley face from theAmerican people, or most of them
, to Missouri's government here,because, yeah, like I think
everybody agrees, we don'treally want China owning our
ground, and so, but in the samesense, it goes back to um,
(21:24):
property ownership and um, youknow and, and you know you can
get into the weeds of you know,kind of like, what does it do to
the other countries of theworld where we, you know, we've
already allowed this to happen.
Now we can just step in andchange the rules in the middle
(21:45):
of the game?
It goes back to the wholequestion of seizing the cash
that we had in the bank ofRussia, because those kind of
questions of what does it do toour global legitimacy to get
into some controversial stuffthere today?
Speaker 4 (22:00):
David to get into some controversial stuff there
today, david, the reason thatthe US is all Missouri, for that
matter.
I think there's like sevenmilitary bases in Missouri.
I was actually flying my drone.
If you've ever taken the Part107 drone class to learn how to
fly your drone, they'll talkabout forward operating bases or
(22:23):
MOAs, military operating base,and I'm like when I'm taking the
class, I'm like I am nevergoing to use this, there's not a
chance.
Well, I was down by Knob Noster, missouri, which is Whitman or
Whiteman Air Force Base, andsure enough I got to take off
and I'm looking left and there'slike a military plane flying.
I'm like maybe I shouldn't flymy drone right here.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
So it does happen.
Yeah, no, it's well.
And there's like there havebeen.
Drones are interesting because,like there's been some times
where I've been flying a dronein the middle of nowhere where
you know, like I would havenever thought that there would
be anything, and here there's alike little plane flying around
out, and so it's definitelysomething that it's good to have
(23:10):
.
Those classes yeah, you haveyour pilot's license when you're
doing those.
Speaker 4 (23:16):
I remember taking the class and I thought there was
nothing in this class thattaught me anything about drones.
It's all about airspace.
It's all about where you can,where you can't, how many feet,
where we're at Uh it's.
It's more about uh etiquettethan it is about how to fly a
drone.
It doesn't teach you at all howto fly a drone.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah Well, and I, you know, when I first started
doing it, like I would havenever thought that, you know,
like checking with neighbors andthings like that, like how are
you bothering them?
You know, but I can't tell youhow many times that when I first
started I never would go talkto the neighbors.
And then you know people wouldthink they have like a swarm of
(23:54):
bees or something outside theirhouse.
And so you know, you just getinto the habit and make sure you
contact the neighbors andthings like that.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Well, there's a whole other conversation to be had.
So we talk about China.
Let's talk tech for a littlebit.
Let's talk, if you go into, thedrones.
Okay, good segue here.
Who makes the best drones?
Dji.
Well, if DJI makes the bestdrones, are they watching
everything we fly?
Could they, Can they?
(24:21):
There's a lot of technology inthose drones but, hands down, we
know that China makes the bestdrones.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
So thoughts yeah, DJI has been the best drone, but,
like I don't know, I've hadquite a bit of problems with
mine lately, so I wish I couldfind a better brand.
Not to not to disparage them,but I have seven of them and
(24:48):
three of them are crashed rightnow.
But, um, but yeah, that'sthat's.
Another great question is arethey recording everything that
we're doing and and uh, keepingtrack of it?
I don't know, I don't know.
Probably you have to assume it,don't you?
Yeah, my phone probably wasmade in China.
Probably everything I do hasbeen recorded.
(25:12):
I just assume.
I just assume, Between ourgovernment and whatever
government made my phone, it'sprobably everything I do is
being recorded.
Speaker 4 (25:22):
Well, you've got to assume that, of course, we had
the whole China debacle withTikTok, and so a huge social
media platform that's out therethat a lot of us as realtors are
using and then get into.
You know, it's like okay, evenif there was 10 million videos
out there from TikTok, what arethey doing with it?
(25:42):
Well then we get into AI, sothen we get into.
Are they using artificialintelligence to read our videos,
to determine how many acres wehave, et cetera, et cetera.
You know, we think back to.
You know what a CLU is?
Common Land Unit?
Yes, so the FSA.
Most people don't know that.
Most of those mapping systemsgo back to 2008.
(26:03):
So when we get that perfectlittle shape around on a mapping
system that's called a CLU, acommon land unit, those aren't
up to date.
The government stopped sharingthose back in 2008 because they
were worried about othercountries knowing where they
were.
Well, now are they getting ourCLUs some other way?
I don't know.
(26:24):
I don't know if it's reallyrelevant whether they have them
or not.
I wish they would get moreup-to-date ones.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:31):
Well, I don't know, like on that stuff, is that
going to be relevant to a war oranything?
Anyway, I mean, google isprobably the biggest help for a
war anywhere.
I don't know.
Like I said, the world is goingto be a different place.
It's a totally different placethan it was in any other global
(26:53):
war that's been fought.
So I think that the data'salready out there, so we're
dealing with what we're dealingwith.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
When I say that with anything, I have a saying.
I say all the time is data isthe currency of the Internet, or
data is the currency of thefuture, and whoever has the most
data is going to win.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
So you kind of touched on this,though with AI, what are you
using right now?
I have a fun story, but I wantto know what you're currently.
What's your favorite thingyou're playing with with
artificial intelligence?
Speaker 4 (27:29):
There's really three.
We've talked at length on adifferent episode.
If you're listening now, you'llhave to go back and listen to
one of Kobe's other episodesthat we talked about AI and its
face.
We'll go a little deeper here.
The three that I'm using bigtime chat, gpt Okay, that's the
one most people know Really goodfor content creation and ideas.
(27:49):
That's where I'll put that one.
I use Claude with an E,c-l-a-u-d-e.
Claude.
Ai is anthropotic and it wasreally good for analyzing data.
So if you are going to upload adocument or have it proofread
something or change something,it's really good.
(28:10):
Okay, so I use it for that.
Let's pretend for a second thatyou take all of your Google
Analytics of who visits yourwebsite.
Of whatever, which one would Iuse?
I'd use Claude.
Claude analyzes the data better.
It's unlike my wife.
Chat GPT reads a third of thedocument and assumes it knows
(28:32):
what the rest is going to say.
Claude reads the entiredocument, the way it should be
done, and then makes sure thatit all matches.
Okay.
So those two.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Let's clarify, before we all get in trouble here,
what part of that was like yourwife.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
The part where I only listen to a third of what she's
saying.
Okay, I'm more like Chad GPTSomething with her.
Yeah, I'm more like Chad GPT,for sure.
Yeah, then there's a new one Isay a new one.
It's been out for a little bitGrok is one not as familiar with
(29:09):
it and then perplexity.
So perplexity is more of a realtime.
So if there was a plane crashright now, we could go on
perplexity and it would give usup to date, ai driven but
up-to-date uh notices, if youwill.
So those, those are the, thethree main systems I've been
(29:29):
using.
There's other ones I use forsound or for for image creation,
but really, um, for the mostpart, those are the.
Those are the three.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I'm geeking out yeah, yeah, because the um now chat.
I think like probably mostpeople at this point have
accepted that ai is worthsomething and have gotten an
account on the free version ofchat, gpt or even gemini,
gemini's.
You know, I kind of use alittle bit of both because I use
(29:59):
google.
So you, you know um and you cankind of trick it back and forth
just to kind of check um, youknow um and then um.
I.
I'm a big fan of Grammarly too.
You can, if you're doingwriting and things like that,
you can bring Grammarly backinto it and and that um, um or
(30:21):
you like.
I'm a horrible as far as grammarand things like that.
So I'm a pretty good writer.
I have a lot of great thoughts,but not very good at sentence
structure and the spelling andthings like that.
So that's kind of how I've beenusing it is.
I'll write kind of like theytaught kindergartners when my
(30:42):
kids were going through howthings sound instead of how
things are, and then use it tokind of polish everything up.
It's all about prompts though,right, david?
I mean that's kind of what youtaught us at the LAN conference
a year and a half ago.
Speaker 4 (30:59):
It is, and you know, even I have an office manager
that her and I were working on aproject together.
She's like oh, I'll put it inai and she prompted it and it
didn't give the answer, Ithought.
But then I realized her promptwas 180 degrees different than
what I would have asked.
So I asked very simplequestions, but then sometimes I
get deeper and where we're goingto go.
(31:19):
So if you're not there yet, youshould be right and that is um,
um, I'm blanking out here.
Hold on one second.
Uh, projects, there we go.
Uh, projects is where wheremost people that are advancing
to the next level of ai areusing projects.
So what's a project?
A project is pre-saved promptsfor something you do repeatedly,
(31:45):
over and over, like grammar,spelling, et cetera, emails so
you can put a prompt.
I'll give you an example of aprompt that I'm using.
So in chat or in in Claude, youcan do this, and they have
projects.
Okay.
So I put in a project and theproject was here's everything
(32:06):
about my company.
Here's the top 10 ways to useGoogle AdWords.
Here's the top 10 things toknow about Facebook ads.
Here are the Google analyticsfrom my company of people that
click on our stuff.
Okay, and so again, data is thecurrency of the internet.
(32:26):
So I'm teaching.
A project is where I taught AIto do what I wanted it to do, so
first I had to teach everythingabout it.
So here's the, the the 10 mostused things on on Facebook.
Here's the 10 most used thingson Google.
Here's the 10 most ways thatpeople search for items on the
internet.
Here's the 10 most used thingson Google.
Here's the 10 most ways thatpeople search for items on the
internet.
Here's everything about mycompany that you need to learn
(32:47):
about my company.
Here are the past 800 customerswe've had.
Go search them and learn aboutthem.
So now I've taught it.
I haven't even asked it aquestion yet.
All I did is study thisinformation.
Now I'm going to write amulti-level prompt for my
project.
Okay, so a project is everytime I get a new auction, I want
(33:11):
you to take this URL on myauction, or take, let's do,
personal property.
Okay, personal property.
I'll just do it that way.
It's easy.
I go catalog all the personalproperty here's a tractor,
here's a cultivator, here's awhatever.
Okay, etc, etc.
And I go through and I have alist of 800 items and then I
upload this list.
(33:32):
So here is the next projectthat I have project air quotes
and and I upload it.
Do this every time I get a newproject.
So now we give it multipleprompts.
Well, every time we have aauction, we need to do these
things.
I want to make a heading.
I want to make metadata or metatext for Google to find it.
(33:53):
I want to make 10 catchytaglines for this auction that I
can put on Facebook.
I want to make 10 catchyheadlines that all follow the
Google algorithm, for Google,also called Google snippets,
need to be less than a certainamount of characters.
Okay, more than a certainamount, but less than a certain
amount.
That's why I taught at firsthow many characters do I need?
(34:16):
And go create all of thiscontent.
Oh, I'm going to need somethingfor my website that says hey,
the Rickardson auction is heldon the 28th, blah, blah.
It includes what?
Pick out six items from thelist that I uploaded to you and
put them into the header thatI'm going to put on my website.
So I'll upload this list.
(34:37):
I'll say study this list ofitems.
Also, go through this list andtell me if there's anything
unique in here that I might'vemissed.
Okay, so I've asked it already.
Like eight questions, oh, yeah.
And then here's the wholefolder full of pictures.
Look at these pictures and makesure that the pictures match
the item that we have and tellme if there's anything unique
(35:00):
about it.
Oh, did you know that this,this, uh, you know that this 806
John Deere or what you know?
It'll take a number that it hasthis.
It had the pony motor on theside.
I see in the picture it hadthis motor.
So it will go out and do theresearch for me and then it will
make a itemized list of the top10 things that I need.
(35:21):
Also, now, let's make in anytype of advertising, when we
talk AI, we talk about genres orsubset of characters.
Who would buy these items?
Here's the list of items.
Who would buy them?
Make me a list.
Okay, genres, or also in the AIworld, they're calling it
personas.
Who's the personality ofsomebody that's going to buy it?
Not to keep talking, butthere's so much more.
(35:43):
Kobe, then this persona, youtake it.
Okay, well, these are guys thatlike motorcycles.
Well, I had eight motorcycles onthis auction.
Well, tell me everything I needto know about these and create
an ad for these motorcyclepeople.
Here's the ad for themotorcycle people.
Here's the ad for the tractorpeople.
Here's the ad for the acreagepeople.
(36:04):
Here's the ad for the peoplethat like antiques that grandma
had inside.
And it will do all this work ina project.
So now, the next time it takesa little bit to set up a project
, but the next time I have anauction, my staff goes out and
catalogs all those items I bringthat list and I say hey,
whoever AI here's my project,here's a new one Do all the same
(36:27):
stuff and it puts it all onthere.
So now did we do what our staffis doing?
We all have systems andprocesses.
I have like 130 points to aland auction.
Could we knock off 65 of thosepoints with AI in a project?
Probably could have.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Yeah, well, and again , just take this podcast.
We're using very similar thingsto that too, because we put it
to you know like now we haveopportunities even in Riverside,
where Riverside is doing theproduction part of this.
You know to the point whereeverything, including the
(37:09):
background and you know of thevideo on YouTube and cleaning up
the audio and synchronizingeverything comes right out of
the Riverside app, and soChatGPT puts together all the
social media and the descriptionand everything of the podcast.
(37:31):
So, yeah, it's very timeefficient, but hey, let's take a
real quick break and we'll comeback for one more segment.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Land isn't just dirt.
It's where memories are made,families are raised and
livelihoods are built.
But when it comes time to sellor buy, the weight of the
decision is heavy.
Where do you even start?
Who can you trust to guide you?
(38:04):
For too long, land transactionshave been treated like a simple
exchange Numbers on a paper, asignature on a line.
But it's more than that.
At High Point Land Company, wedon't just list land, we walk it
, we learn its story and we findthe right buyer who understands
(38:27):
its worth.
You are not just another deal,you are the steward of something
bigger and we're here to helpyou navigate every step of the
way.
When it's time to sell, whenit's time to sell, when it's
(38:48):
time to buy.
We're here Because land is morethan just land.
It's your legacy.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
And we are back with Mr David man.
I always have such a good timewhen you're around, david.
Speaker 4 (39:19):
I appreciate it.
It's always fun.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
There's always so much to talk about because you
geek out on tech like I do,which I I love it.
So I know, you know, and thiswill probably be a little bit
longer than our normal 45minutes or whatever, but that's
all right, because I think, if Iremember it last time, this was
one of the more popular ones,um, that we had.
So, uh, because people like aiand they're even if they don't,
um, if they don't geek out on itlike you and I do they
(39:48):
definitely are interested in it.
So I'll tell you a really quickstory.
You'll get a kick out of this.
I have an agent that I haveknown for a long time.
He recently joined our teamhere at High Point.
Great guy, really really smartland agent.
Very big Luddite, hatestechnology.
Really smart land agent, verybig Luddite, hates technology.
(40:09):
And so we were driving down theroad one day and he was teasing
me about using chat, because Iuse chat all the time, and so I
had just done a deal where wewent and visited a client and I
had got on and was talking tochat about sending an email to
that client about what we hadjust talked about, and I wanted
chat to get the email and blah,blah, blah.
And then I copied and pastedand sent that email off while we
(40:30):
were driving down the road andhe was giving me a hard time
about, you know, being crippledby technology.
And so I had wrote a song andused chat and suno and wrote and
produced a song about him andplayed it for him while we were
driving down the road.
And just to prove howimpressive chat was, I figured
(40:53):
out a way to get it onto Spotifyand Apple iTunes, so just to
prove to him how powerful theuse of AI can be.
So if you're out there oniTunes, there's a song called
Boots in Three States.
You can download that onSpotify and that was written by
(41:14):
myself and ChatGPT about BrianReynolds in Nebraska.
There you go, just to prove tohim how impressive chat AI can
be.
But what are we thinking aboutthe rest of the year?
Man, are you bullish, are youbearish, or are you just
throwing your bones out thereand see what happens?
Speaker 4 (41:36):
I am bullish always, and the reason I am I've been
sharing this.
You talk about AI.
I asked AI.
I said, hey, ai, I want to do abetter job.
Write me a business plan.
So it did.
And I said we did really goodlast year, but I'd like to do
better.
There's always room to improve.
(41:56):
What can I do to improve?
So you've been in real estate along time and different
companies have like coachingprograms and team programs and
whatnot.
So I told it go study all thoseprograms and I don't need to
hire anybody.
I can read AI.
How about you just write me abusiness plan?
So I did.
I said what do I need to do tomake $100 million in gross sales
(42:18):
this year?
That's my goal.
What do we do?
So I set a 40% increased goalthan what I had last year and it
said to talk about it.
That's why I'm talking about it.
I thought, well, that's kind ofcocky, that's pompous, that's
arrogant, I don't want to dothat.
And it says, no, it builds ateam of people that want to see
you succeed and so maybe there'sa deal to be had that somebody
(42:42):
somewhere will be like well, Iknow, I know he's looking, he's
looking and I'm telling you whatit already worked.
Here's how much it alreadyworked.
I had an attorney call the otherday and the attorney says, hey,
I got this deal for you.
It was about $3 million.
And it's like man, I haven'theard from that attorney for
like six years.
And he says, well, I kind ofget you that $100 million.
How did you know about that it?
(43:02):
Well, he saw it on Facebook.
So, sharing your message,sharing your brand, what it is,
so I'm bullish.
I have set my attitude meter tobe very bullish in that I want
to do that, which is a huge,huge goal for us this year.
Now I don't know if the marketwill support Kobe.
I don't know if there's thatmany jobs out there.
If everybody's thinkingnegatively and press the pause
(43:24):
button, well, I'm going to tryto encourage them to go, because
I just got big goals and weneed to make that happen.
How about you?
You got a new company, yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:33):
From the last time I talked with you.
Speaker 4 (43:35):
And sporting a new logo and tell me more about that
.
Let me reverse the roles here.
What happened?
Where are you at?
Speaker 1 (43:45):
Yeah, I've got the pretty bright green and and, uh,
lovely blue.
Now the high point land company.
No, um owned my own company forquite a while and decided, um,
that um it was.
You know, in our business,david, as you know, you sell
when you get the opportunity tosell.
You don't sell when you want tosell.
So, had the opportunity to sell.
(44:06):
You don't sell when you want tosell.
So I had the opportunity tosell our REMAX franchises.
I've always been the land personand the balloon is amazing, but
the balloon doesn't sell land,so it's kind of hard to push
that, you know, push that.
So I'm partnered with a reallygood land company and they're
kind of young, young couple thatowns it, which has been
(44:32):
exciting for me to be able tojust kind of give them the.
They're really super smart, butthey, you know my wisdom is a
little different than theirwisdom.
So they're a ball of firetrying to take over the world
and I can have, you know, well,I did this, you know, like I was
there once and here's, here'skind of how it went for me.
So take it for whatever it is,but but no, they, they're great
(44:55):
people, you know.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
Yeah, Good, good company.
They're very similar to ourcompany and except with a little
bigger, farther reach than whatwe have.
Speaker 1 (45:06):
so yeah, very similar , very similar people and yeah
it, it was a good fit at thetime.
And Shannon has come on boardmore in the last six, eight
months.
She kind of had her own thinggoing for a while and has been
able to scale it to the pointwhere she's got time to come on
(45:28):
and kind of take a more activemarketing and an advisory role
with High Point and she's been areal big asset and Jacob is a
big visionary.
So my job is I'm the designatedbroker for, I think, five
states that they have five orsix states, so kind of the
(45:52):
western states, and so it's beenexciting.
It has been and I'm with you,I'm very bullish, I'm super
excited.
I'm very similar to I did useAI not when I was doing my goals
and have been very bullish onthis year.
(46:16):
My goals are a little different.
I went to the referral.
I set a goal that I wanted topay out $100,000 in referral
fees this year, and so I've beentalking about that.
I really want to forgepartnerships with residential
and commercial agents in a waythat nobody in the land world
(46:36):
has really tried to do before,and so I went to the Nebraska
Real Estate.
The Realtors Association had abooth there, talked to a bunch
of agents, planned to do Kansasas well as maybe a couple other
residential deals.
So we were really well received, really shocked at how those
(46:57):
guys really never thought ofthat as an opportunity for them
and so, yeah, so I think thatthat's been a really good goal
to set and so looking forward tothose partnerships and working
with those guys.
But, yeah, it's been exciting,it's been fun.
I don't think I realized I hada little bit of a short step
(47:21):
with a company that just reallywasn't my speed company that
just really wasn't my speed, andI don't know, I don't know, I
don't think I realized howmiserable you can be if you're
in the wrong spot.
You know, until I made the jokewith my wife about something
about the last company and sheturned white and said no, you're
fine where you're at.
I mentioned something aboutgoing back and I must not have
(47:43):
been as happy as I am now.
Speaker 4 (47:45):
So well.
It is interesting because I'vebeen at a couple of different
companies I think I've been tothree different companies before
I started my own and there'sdefinitely a different fit for
different people.
There really is someone 100percent support.
Some like to be a little moreentrepreneurial and do it
themselves, and each company hasa different flavor to it.
And it's not that I used todiscredit people.
(48:07):
I think, like, oh man, theymoved, they moved.
They only stayed there for sixmonths.
They're gone again and goneagain.
But I look back at even mycareer and it's amazing how many
little things you picked upthat you didn't even know.
You learned while you werethere, and so you learned what
you didn't like.
Sometimes.
That's a good thing.
So then when you go to your own, you're like I don't want my
(48:33):
agents to have to have thatstruggle.
So even you can take thosenegative experiences and turn
them into positives at your owncompany which is great or at
your next company.
So, as people look at it, Iwish they wouldn't.
We're so judgy McJudgersonaround the world, but everybody
will land where they're supposedto eventually.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
So yeah, Well, it's been.
It's been difficult because,like I've been an owner of a
company, you know for so longthat the difficult part of it is
is just, you know, to realizethat it's not you know it's not,
it's not mine to.
You know so, so you have to youknow so, so, uh, you have to,
you know, make sure that you'rethat you're checking in and uh,
(49:12):
and not over overacting oroverreacting to to somebody
else's um, somebody else's babyUm, but uh, trying to do
whatever needs to be done.
And so so far it's been areally good fit and uh, they've
been, they've let me have a lotof awful lot of freedom to.
(49:34):
I want to get more intoeducation, which has been fun,
so but yeah, you're absolutelyright, you're a teacher for the
Land 101 with the Realtor LandInstitute, aren't you?
Yep, I have three classes that Iteach for our line getting
ready here in a couple weeks tohead to uh oklahoma to teach
boot camp, which is sold out.
it was sold out in four days Itried to send some of my guys to
(49:56):
it, but uh, their life is busy,you know, the sad thing was
this year was, um, our teamtraining is like it starts our
team training the first day ofour team training is like it
starts our team training thefirst day of our team training
is the first day of boot camp.
And so I was like I told some ofmy guys I said I think you can,
you know, you don't have to bethe whole time, but by the time
(50:17):
like we even thought about howwe could do it, it was already
sold out.
It was crazy, but that'll be afun one, super excited to be a
part of that.
And then I'm also working onsome three hour CE classes that
we're trying to get.
We're trying to work with likeat least the Midwest states to
(50:37):
get them, you know, certified sothat we can go teach like a
land 101 for residential agents.
Yeah, so that way if they getthemselves into a situation
where you know they at leastknow you know enough about it.
Speaker 4 (50:52):
I hope you get not shoot off the wrong direction,
but I hope you get paid for that.
And the reason I say that isI've been asked to speak a
couple more times at differentevents this last few years, and
you know, and you and I bothlove to talk and tell people
what we've learned.
I like to share what I'velearned, but of course we're
sharing with our competition.
That's one thing.
Of course, on top of that now,high tide rises all boats.
(51:15):
We like that, but it's justtime.
If you and I are out doingsomething or teaching somebody
else, what are we not doing?
We're not selling real estateback home, where we're supposed
to be, so we're losing money onthe back end doing stuff we
should do.
And time management is crucial.
Where do we put our time?
And it's not that you don'twant to teach, but I, so I give
(51:35):
credit to the people I've seenteach for years and years and
years.
It's like, okay, they're,they're ready to be done.
I get it.
They're ready to move on to adifferent stage in their life,
and that takes new people comingup to teach too.
But for everybody that doesn'tthink about it, I wish they
would.
I wish they'd realize it takesa lot of work to even prep that
or get the CE certified in thatstate or et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Yeah, no, that is, the goal is to get to the point
where we create enough valuethat um that we can, we can like
, like that's.
Actually, that is my goal is,within five years, as to to be a
speaker or uh, you know, in theindustry so, but right now it's
, it's kind of fun to just beable to go out there and just to
(52:19):
uh to do some to educate, likesome of the associations.
And you know, I want to get tothe point where I can go to some
of the state associations andbe a keynote speaker or
something for those guys and youknow, get up there.
I don't know that I'll ever bea coach, but definitely be a
speaker for people.
I think that'd be fun.
Speaker 4 (52:39):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (52:40):
Have you ever done coaching?
What big plans you got for thisyear?
Speaker 4 (52:45):
Not much.
I'm trying to lay low a littlebit.
I got kids at home that areright into high school and so
they're busy with sports and,like I said, everybody puts a
time stamp and I never say no,which is bad.
So my goal is to say no somemore actually, but, like I said,
just big goals at the realestate company.
(53:05):
So trying to focus there andthen also focus on the family a
little bit.
Um, elk hunting I like to goelk hunting I bought tags.
You were talking about elkhunting earlier.
I'd like to do that.
Are you a big hunter?
Speaker 1 (53:18):
no, I'm not, nope.
I uh grew up.
Grew up on a farm.
Kid that we worked too much, somy dad was not a hunter and I
just never got into it.
I was able to help my son getinto it.
Speaker 4 (53:32):
That's good, he's a hunter.
Speaker 1 (53:35):
How old are your kids , Toby Huh?
Speaker 4 (53:37):
How old are your children?
Speaker 1 (53:39):
My youngest is 27.
My youngest is 28, so older ohgood, good.
Speaker 4 (53:45):
I got, I think, about three years left and one's
going to go to college, so we'llbe.
I guess it goes, quick is theway I'll say it.
Speaker 1 (53:52):
Yeah, it does go quick and you know, like I know
it's a pain right now, but enjoythe painfulness because you'll
miss those games and all thestuff once they're gone.
It's definitely true.
Speaker 4 (54:04):
Yeah, very good.
No, that's my plans for thisyear.
Stay up, there's so muchchanging.
I want to grow my team as well.
We got a new website coming.
That'll be cool.
Working through that man, it'sjust a lot of work.
Everything is Got to hustle.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
All right, we'll have to keep having you on here,
david, because you are so muchfun and, uh, it's always always
a good I I tell you I we nevereven have like any sort of time.
Uh, restraint on you because,um, we know it's not going to
work because you and I, uh, wehave, we always have so much to
talk about.
But, uh, I appreciate youtaking the time today here.
(54:44):
Y'all, we will see you all downthe road.
Speaker 3 (54:48):
As we wrap up another episode of the American Land
Seller Podcast.
Thank you for joining us.
Visit wwwamericanlandsellercomand find us on one of your
favorite podcast platforms.
If you would be so kind and youenjoyed today's insights,
please like, subscribe, rate,follow and review us on whatever
app you are listening orwatching on.
(55:08):
Connect with us on social mediafor updates.
Until next week.
Kobe wishes you success in yourland endeavors.
Speaker 1 (55:16):
God bless you and have a great week, the American
Land Seller is brought to you inpart by LandHubcom.
Are you in the market for theperfect piece of land?
Look no further than landhubcom, your solution to the biggest
challenges facing land buyersand sellers today.
At Landhub, we'rerevolutionizing land
transactions by effectivelyconnecting buyers and sellers.
(55:38):
Say goodbye to the struggle offinding or marketing land for
sale.
We understand the power of newmedia marketing, leveraging
social media and targeted ads tobring together the ideal
audience for all property types.
Join us today and experiencethe expertise of LandHub's land
marketing professionals.
Whether you're buying orselling, let us show you the way
(56:00):
in the ever-evolving world ofland transactions.
Visit LandHubcom and discoverwhat the future of land
marketing looks like.
Landhubcom, where your landjourney begins, and High Point
Land Company.
When it comes to buying andselling land, high Point Land
Company sets the standard forexcellence across the Midwest
(56:23):
and beyond.
Our expert land specialistsbring unmatched market knowledge
and a personal touch to everysingle transaction, whether it's
a farm, ranch, recreational oreven investment property.
We provide the expertise andintegrity you can trust.
Looking to buy or sell, weoffer a premier selection of
(56:44):
properties and a marketingstrategy designed to get you
results.
From productive farmland torecreational retreats.
We help you maximize yourinvestment.
Visitwwwhighpointlandcompanycom today
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High Point Land Company, a trueleader in land sales.
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