June 28, 2024 • 47 mins
Ever wondered how land investment can shape not just your financial future but your overall quality of life? We’ve got land broker extraordinaire Jacob Hart of High Point Land Company to guide you through the journey. From his first rental property fresh out of high school to leading a top-notch land real estate and auction company, Jacob’s story is nothing short of inspirational. He breaks down his philosophy on believing in what you sell and shares his dedication to nurturing agents to build not just profitable businesses, but fulfilling careers.
Our conversation takes a deep dive into the strategic aspects of real estate growth and franchise development. Jacob sheds light on the often overlooked importance of hiring the right people and how meticulous planning can make or break a real estate venture. With services ranging from land auctions to appraisals and farm management, High Point Land Company stands out in a competitive market through innovative and ethical practices. Jacob’s insights into the real estate market provide valuable lessons on cooperation, marketing, and leadership that are essential for anyone looking to thrive in this field.
We also tackle the comparative benefits and challenges of investing in commercial versus agricultural properties, highlighting the stability of farmland investments. Jacob discusses how platforms like Landhub are revolutionizing land transactions through advanced marketing techniques, making land investments more accessible and efficient. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting out, this episode is packed with actionable insights and inspiring stories that will leave you eager to explore the land real estate market. Tune in to gain wisdom from one of the industry's leading experts and get ready to rethink your investment strategies.
Jacob Hart
507-259-1065
jacob@highpointlandcompany.com
www.highpointlandcompany.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Joining us today on the American Land Seller is
Jacob Hart, a multi-state landbroker and founder of High Point
Land Company in Waverly, iowa.
Jacob brings a wealth ofexperience in both land
brokerage and real estateinvestment and is a world-class
auctioneer.
Auctioneer, his journey beganright out of high school when he
(00:23):
purchased his first rentalproperty, focusing on building a
robust real estate investmentportfolio within a walking
distance of the renowned MayoClinic.
Jacob's early career saw himworking for the national auction
firm, ameribid, based in Tulsa,oklahoma, where he played a
pivotal role in large-scale realestate dispersals, selling
(00:46):
hundreds of properties atauction in one single day.
This experience laid a strongfoundation for his future
endeavors.
A proud alum of SDSU and theWorldwide College of
Auctioneering Realtors LandInstitute in 2017, his desire to
create the best land realestate and auction firm in the
(01:07):
country is evident in everyaspect of his work.
Jacob firmly believes that ifyou're selling something, you
should believe in it and investin it yourself.
His passion lies in landinvestment and training land
agents to build not just greatbusinesses but also great lives
for themselves.
Today, we'll dive into Jacob'sremarkable journey, his insights
(01:30):
on the land market and hisvision for the future of High
Point Land Company.
So sit back, relax and getready to be inspired and, as
always, we hope you take awaysomething from this episode.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Welcome to the American Land Seller Podcast
with your host, coby Rickardson.
Coby is an accredited landconsultant and multi-state land
broker with American Legacy 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.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Visit wwwamericanlandsellercom and
find us on one of your favoritepodcast platforms.
Okay, kobe and our specialguests let's get started.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Hey everybody, Welcome back to the American
Land Seller Podcast.
Super excited today we haveJacob Hart from High Point Land
Company.
Jacob, how are we today Doing,great Kobe, how are you?
I'm doing?
Amazing actually.
It's just the weather'sstarting to warm up a little bit
.
It was a pretty cold winterwhere I'm at in Nebraska.
I don't know how you guys'weather's been, but so we are
happy to have the 60s and 70s,even if it's just for a little
(02:44):
bit.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah, we need the moisture.
I mean, I'm primarily in theMidwest Minnesota, iowa,
wisconsin, missouri currentlyand it's just been so dry and
the moisture is what we'rereally after.
We usually get 50 to 75 inchesof snow, cumulative over the
course of the year, but theground's usually frozen so it
just runs off in the spring andfills the creeks and rivers and
(03:05):
it's gone.
But this year it's like oh, weget an inch or two of snow here
or there.
It's great because we don'thave any frost in the ground.
So that's well received.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
We'll take the moisture, yeah, no, and
definitely the Midwest all overneeds some more moisture than
what we've gotten this winter.
So let's talk about you.
Guys are growing like I don'twant to say weeds, but you're
growing fast and and and strong.
Let's talk a little bit aboutHigh Point and kind of what your
philosophy is on on.
(03:34):
You know, like why you're doingwhat you're doing.
What's your secret sauce here,bud?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Yeah, good question, gosh, why I'm doing what I'm
(04:00):
doing.
I could go all day about owningPoint Land Company, taking on
agents when we're ready to andgrowing when we're ready to, and
having a lot of success at itis the client.
From that perspective, beingthe agent and the agent winning
in the real estate business justfires me up.
And building a team of peopleand teaching them how to do
(04:22):
things in the land real estatebusiness and then having them be
able to go, be successful inthat and then experience the
ownership of land or cash flowor tax advantages of owning real
estate and teaching good peoplethat wouldn't otherwise have a
resource to be able to go findwhere to get that information
really cranks me up.
And then on the client side, Ican sell 50 to 100 farms a year
(04:42):
if I really had a good team andI was really, you know, fired up
on doing that and that alone,like I, I know how to do that.
I can do that, but I'd ratheraffect more people positively.
I mean, it's the client we getto deal with is owning the farm
for a hundred to 200 years plusand the transaction means the
world to them and the higherfrequency, the more of those
transactions I can positivelyaffect people and they're not
(05:05):
going to get taken advantage of.
They're going to know what todo with the money afterwards.
They're going to be helped andled instead of told and
controlled.
I'd rather do the right thingby those people and if I have
more successful agents, I get totouch more of those people and
they get to have a better landexperience because of it land
experience because of it.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, and I think I think what I really like about
you, jacob, is that you are likethe one.
You know there's there's somany guys that want to just hold
on to the old days of of, uh, Idon't want any cooperation.
You know, like we don't work,we do it our way and that's the
only way type of a mindset, andyou know like you're just a
breath of fresh air in the senseof your marketing is really
forward thinking.
Your attitude towardsleadership is just really,
(05:52):
really impressive.
And so talk just a little bitlike developing agents is really
tough, especially when you'recoming at it from the standpoint
of I want my guys to besuccessful not just successful,
but huge successes.
That's a lot of investment,time, money, energy.
Talk about like how do youselect somebody and what's that
(06:13):
process look like for liningyour guys up for success.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, that's a great question.
Thank you for the kind words.
I get asked a lot.
You know you could besuccessful as an agent as an
auctioneer.
You have been.
You know you could besuccessful as an agent as an
auctioneer you have been.
You know you've done that.
You own these things.
And we know that you have cashflow like why are you doing this
if it's not for the money?
And you know the bigger scaleof that is.
I think the way I take it maybenot everybody's appeal is if you
(06:39):
get to do something where it'slike if money wasn't a thing,
what would I be doing?
And if you could go do thatevery day, then it's the old
saying of you never work a dayin your life.
But with the agents you reallyhave to make sure when selecting
the right agent.
I mean I've probably had 60licensees under my broker
licenses since I started HighPoint and like 20 of those
(07:03):
haven't worked out.
Because it's like oh, you'vetold me you want to be
successful, you told me you wantto become rich and then you
want to become wealthy.
And now you know we'reunderstanding what that means.
And then you figure out what ittakes to do that and it's like
here's the Kool-Aid you know,here's the system, here's the
process that's been proven,here's what you got to do.
You know, following the trackof other agents that have come
before you and those you know 20examples that didn't work out
(07:26):
to not only talk about thepositive but the negative.
The ones that didn't work out,they're just like gosh, I
thought I wanted this and Idon't want to work that hard.
Or I thought I wanted you knowthis amount of money or this
amount of cash flow and Ithought it was going to be
easier.
Or I'm not willing to do thosethings that you're telling me
that it's going to take.
So we really try to find peoplethat match a personality type
(07:47):
where it's like, okay, theyreally do want this and they're
really going to burn the boatsand they're really going to give
it everything and they're goingto drink the Kool-Aid, they're
going to follow the rules.
And then you have to pair that,or you have to narrow that down
further to where it's likethey're a great person and
they're going to take the highroad and they're going to be in
this for a long time.
And we had a couple agents thatbecame so successful so quick,
they just retired and it waslike, well, that was a lot of
(08:09):
hard work.
You know, I'm glad yourfour-year adventure was great,
but you know that was not what Iplanned.
I thought you were going to behere for a long time and help.
You know a lot of people so youreally got to select the right
person.
You really got to have a goodteam behind them that just
encourages them on a regularbasis and go through a lot of
things.
Because what you don't realizeI mean I worked for a couple of
(08:31):
residential brokerages nationalfirms, commercial brokerages, a
couple auction companies andit's like it's going to be
really hard.
But then when you, after you getover hard, you know you have a
lot of things that happen whereit's like you may need to cut
some people out of your lifethat aren't good for you, that
are holding you back.
You might have to make somechanges that are really
uncomfortable to your health, toyour wellness, to your
(08:54):
relationships.
I mean you start as a realestate agent.
You get approved and then youget trained and then you start
going through this process andthen you start experiencing
success at some level and thenfrom there to get to like
everybody can get here, comefrom here and get here, and then
it caps out with an agent.
Don't matter what type of nichethey're in, but when they want
to go from here to here and like10X their income, that space
(09:16):
right there where it's like,okay, you got to six figures or
multiple six figures and youwant to go to seven figures or
more, bigger money, and then youwant to try to do that
consistently, like the hardestthing is to get out of here.
Next hardest thing is to go here.
The really hard thing is tostay here and maintain that,
because it's like, especially inthe midwest where primarily are
, you know, colorado like youmake seven figures in a business
(09:40):
, how many years are you goingto do that?
You really got to want to dothat, um, and feel good about it
and think about, think aboutthings that are more important
than money.
So when you do that and youlike you got to find that person
in advance of hiring them andtraining them to get to the top,
that's, that's the challengingpart, but it's the challenge
that I also just love.
I mean making those, seeingthose people's faces and their
(10:01):
families when they experiencesuccess and are able to go, do
things and have the freedoms andown the land and do the things
they've always dreamed about andtalked about.
It's like, oh man, sign me upIf I could do that every day.
That's what cranks me up.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, that you know like you.
I think what's interesting whenyou're talking about this and
you're kind of like well, therewas breakage, you know like
there was those that didn't work.
Like, well, there was breakage,you know like there was those
that didn't work, you know therewas those that we actually over
success and they, like weliterally shot them off into a
road ditch of success somewherewhere they live in Napoli ever
after.
You know that's just kind ofthat's kind of funny.
(10:37):
But no, I mean, I think that'sthe thing is.
Is you got to also realize,obviously you have.
Is that not everybody's goingto be your style?
They're not going to maybesucceed under you?
I personally think that that'skind of your philosophy of the
(10:57):
burn the ships is really wherereal estate agents have to like,
if you're not willing to justkind of say it's going to work
and give up that full-time jobor part-time job at one point,
you know it's it's really goingto be a struggle for you.
So that's that's really smart.
Now that you know, like, how doyou we're we're kind of growing
(11:20):
too in our company, but how doyou figure out, like identify
which state you're going to bein next?
I know you're a multi-statebroker, how do you look at
things?
Is it just a personnel optionthat you have and then you kind
of go figure out how to, how tomake it work in that state?
Or are you kind of deliberatelysaying I'm going to go after
Colorado or Missouri or whatever?
(11:41):
Good question.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
We could.
Our biggest challenge at HighPoint is strategic growth.
You know, we grew again lastyear, even though it was a down
market.
I mean we grew substantiallylast year again and we could
probably double or triple agentsby the end of the year.
No problem.
I mean we have the applications, we have the interest, but we
want to grow strategically.
You know we don't want to bringon agents that are going to be
(12:05):
rogue and bad people.
We want good people, long-termsuccess, long-term strategic
growth.
And that takes time.
You got to do it right.
You got to hire the rightpeople, because if you bring on
the wrong person or the wrongset of people, it gets
overwhelming very fast.
Where they're not following therules, they're not filling out
the input forms, they're notmaking the drone videos and the
(12:27):
property videos and thedescriptions of the properties
and the directions and all thepieces of the puzzle, if they
don't follow that rule, you areyour weakest link.
So if you're a burger franchiseand you have one location that
doesn't clean the countertopsright and then they get a
foodborne illness, all locationsare now bad, so you have to
(12:48):
treat it like a franchisewithout it being a franchise,
because the people don't want towork for that.
They want to work for aboutique and have a phone number
they can call all the times ofthe day and deal with all kinds
of questions.
But they also want the power ofa big national marketing firm
and a bunch of strategic growth.
So you got to really hold thatback because it would be really
(13:09):
easy to just go pick up agents.
And then it's like, oh, we'renot training them.
Row crop agriculture by volume,a lot of row crop, corn and
soybeans, a lot of land auctions, traditional listings are off
(13:31):
market 1031 exchange business.
Or we have an investor poolthat they're buying ground and
1031 exchanging it.
So we manage those farms andthere's always new folks coming
into that and we do appraisals.
So it really makes sense ifwe're going to grow where it's
like, okay, can we just do realestate there?
Can we do auctions?
Can we do traditional listings?
(13:51):
Can we do what High Point'sbrand is?
Can we do these seven types ofsale method?
Can we also do appraisal?
Can we also do farm management?
Are we able to do all thosethings or is it going to take a
long time to get licensed there?
And then we also look at thevolume opportunity if there's,
you know, if, if land doesn'tever turn over there, if we
check that state or that part ofthat state we're going to get
(14:12):
involved in and we there's novolume there.
You know there's counties.
There's counties in iowa, forexample, that did not have a
transaction all of 2023, youknow.
So there's like parts of otherstates that are like that too,
where land is held reallytightly.
If that's the case, we can'tput an agent there in advance or
even go get into business inthat part of the state in
advance if we have nocompetitive advantage.
We're only going to go placesstrategically that we have a
(14:36):
competitive advantage and wherewe know we're going to be
successful in advance of beingin success in that path.
So in doing that, we figure outall those things first and then
we go find the agent to fulfillit.
And you know there's there'sother steps of support, staff
and licensing and and all thosethings.
So when we go to grow into astate it's going to, it's going
(14:58):
to be like okay, can we do 75%agriculture in this other?
Is there high quality huntingground that's going to get a lot
of attention, with big deer anda lot of turkeys and pheasants
and awesome experience.
Or is it a spot where it's likea lot of land doesn't turn over
.
There's not a lot of auctionopportunity there isn't.
You know this hunting landpiece and it has to fit our
brand in advance.
(15:18):
If it's all small, you know lakelots and that sort of thing, we
have to make sure the agent weput there isn't going to be
focused on deer hunting land orrow crop agriculture.
So the steps we take in advanceon the backside are a lot.
I mean, it's surprising howmuch research we have to do to
make sure when we get thatperson and we ask them to change
(15:39):
their life and burn the boatsand go after that, it's like
here's why.
And if you're not willing to dothat, you need to tell us right
now because you're not theright fit for it, because we've
done the research.
We want to make sure you havethe stomach to hang on Right.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, that's.
There is a lot of research thatgoes into especially laws and
everything else when you'reentering new states, but having
the right people in place thatis definitely a start.
If you don't mind, let's take aquick break and we will be
right back.
The American Land SellerPodcast is brought to you in
(16:13):
part by LandHubcom.
Join us today and experiencethe expertise of Landhub's land
marketing professionals.
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Visit landhubcom and discoverwhat the future of land
(16:34):
marketing looks like.
Landhubcom where your landjourney begins.
All right, we're back here withJacob Hart from Highport Land
Company.
Jacob, you had mentioned in theprevious segment that you guys
have seven products basicallythat you offer.
Let's just kind of dig intothose seven and and kind of how
(17:00):
that's kind of set up with yourcompany.
So if you don't mind, yeah,absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
When, when I started High Point, it was, you know, if
there was a company that didwhat we do now, I would probably
just work for them and you knowmy week would be a third
shorter, I'd work 40 hours aweek and, you know, have less
gray hair.
So we do live auction, onlineauction, sealed bid sales,
private treaty you knowtraditional listings, online,
(17:29):
offline, private, you name it.
So seven different ways that wesell farms.
And then we also do appraisalsfor basis establishment and we
have certified general andcertified general trainers to
get the folks trained to docertified general appraisals,
not just the residential, youknow.
They have to be certifiedgeneral, which is commercial and
(17:49):
agricultural, a different levelof appraisal, which is a
challenge to get them to achieve.
It just takes time anddedication.
And then we also do farmmanagement.
So our goal is for people to ifthey want to buy a farm and they
want it as an investment, butthey don't want to manage it and
they want to make sure they'renot getting taken advantage of
on the rent side, or they wantto have it appraised and get it
refinanced and don't want towait for that appraisal or have
(18:12):
it be super expensive andinaccurate, or you know, we just
want to be a I don't want tosay a one-stop shop, but we want
to be an extreme niche of ifyou are interested in investing
in agriculture or hunting landand you want to have the most
resources available for forpeople that actually believe in
it and actually own this stuffon their own and trust it and
and buy it themselves, we wantthose, our agents, to be that
(18:35):
resource and high point to bethat resource.
And also, if they've owned afarm for their entire life
hunting farm or tillable farm,whatever it is you get one
chance to sell that right and tosell it well.
I mean, it happens all the timewhere clients they've become
clients People go buy farms fromother real estate brokerages
and then a year later come andsell them with High Point and
(18:55):
it's like that family owned thatfarm for 150 years and you just
made 20% on it because youbought it from somebody that
didn't have the knowledge or thetools to market it properly.
That doesn't sit very well withus as a company, but it's like.
That's why these people arehiring us and we wish the people
that originally owned the farmwould contact us and give us a
shot and let us just show themthe difference of how hard we
(19:18):
try to get them the best priceand the best outcome possible
for them.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, I think that's a really good point.
I market to people and say, hey, I don't necessarily think you
need to call me to be theend-all, be-all, but I would
like a shot, I'd like to comesit down with you and it's one
of those things in our part ofthe world.
It's a fine line of you know,like how do we let the local
(19:48):
neighbors and everybody be apart of it and also open it up
to make sure that we're gettingthe best price for the property,
which is a tough road to, tohoe every you know when you're
trying to to get the best valuebut still be sensitive to the to
the neighbor aspect of it.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
And that I mean like we want.
We want farms to stay in thehands of good people.
We want people to expand theiroperations.
We want people to buy land andrent it out to local operators
and have everybody benefit fromit.
You know, people get a get abig mouth and a big shield and
sword online and think they say,oh, don't sell to investors.
But it's like oh, you want toexpand your operation and have
(20:26):
somebody buy a farm at auctionthat you can rent.
And now you're oh, I'm okaywith an investor now that's
going to rent it to me for afair price and farms in another
state and is a farmer investor.
It just wants to diversifycrops.
So there's a lot of things likethat, where people get a big
mouth online and think they canpuff their chest.
But the reality is the majorityof people that are buying land
(20:50):
are good people.
They want to be in that assetclass.
You can go make more money inother things asset class wise.
But I think it's reallysurprising how easy it can be to
get creative.
Folks will say, gosh, I reallywant X amount of dollars an acre
for the farm or this is what itappraised for.
And then you get a tenant or afamily member or a neighbor and
it's like okay, there's a gapthere.
(21:11):
There's a $2,000 per acre gap.
The seller will hire us toachieve that gap, even if we
sell it to their family memberor their tenant or their
neighbor, because they it's likethis is my investment, I want
to be treated fairly on it and Iwant as much money possible.
Hard to blame them for that.
These folks over here, theydon't want to pay as much
because they are in it for theirbest interest.
(21:32):
So it's understandable.
But it's like okay, have welooked at all the financing
options?
Do you have another farm thatyou can sell out of over there?
That makes your operationreally inefficient and it's low
quality.
Let's sell that one for you fortoo much money so you can buy
this one over here for too muchmoney because it's right next
door.
How do we take a little bitextra time instead of just
turning the farm and selling thefarm, to make it work for the
(21:54):
people?
The seller and the buyer areboth like blown out of the water
with happiness and success intheir intentions at the end of
the day.
Take that extra step.
Acquire the knowledge to makeit possible for the individual.
However you can do that, andthat's one of the huge regions
we're growing so fast is likejust taking those extra steps
(22:14):
for those people where it's like, oh, here comes the enemy.
The auctioneer, the real estateagents are going to sell it for
too much money.
Let's figure out how to make itwork for everybody.
Sometimes it doesn't, whereit's like, hey, they just want
too much so it doesn't sell, orthese people aren't financeable
or don't have the equity to pullit off and somebody else comes
along and buys it.
But the majority of the time wecan work out a win-win.
And when people realize thatnow the people that were once
(22:38):
saying we were bad folks arecoming back and saying, man, I
would never do a real estatetransaction without using you
guys in the future.
So those extra steps are justhuge and I think it helps people
trust land real estate agentsthat are niching that business
along the way, because they justsee that you're trying really
hard.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that, and it just
surprises me, though, when yougo talk to somebody and you're
like, well, we're going to wantyou know, a couple of weeks at
least to get marketing together,get everything ready, to go get
your listing out, and peopleare kind of shocked at like,
well, I talked to somebody thatsaid they could have it online
tomorrow.
How, Like, I don't know howyou're going to do that, but
(23:18):
yeah, the extra steps and thenagain, making sure that
everybody has a shot is, I think, incredibly valuable to people
that are both selling and buyingland.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yeah, I mean what's crazy is, unfortunately, a huge
portion of the people that ownthe land real estate asset have.
I mean our client.
The majority, like 85% of theclient, acquires the land via
estate and they've owned it fora couple of years and been in
control of it and their familiesowned it for a long time.
So there's equity that's veryhigh and a low basis in the
(23:55):
property.
And it's amazing how folksthink, okay, I'm going to hire a
real estate agent and theythink that's going to be an
adequate job, as if I hire thisfolks, these guys over here,
these guys over here, and thecommission question comes up and
folks are you know, they wantto get the best deal.
I understand that, but it'sreally if you looked at the
(24:15):
magnitude of, you know some ofthese farms are selling for
millions or tens of millions ofdollars and even if it's
hundreds of thousands, thatequity has been acquired over a
very long time and if you make amistake and save a couple
percent on commission and hirethe wrong company that doesn't
know what they're doing, youwill lose 10x that equity.
I mean just like that, if theycan do the marketing and get it
(24:38):
online tomorrow I would have alot of questions as to why.
And the reality is today morethan ever, is there sharks just
waiting out there in the waterthat are going to say, hey, I
see that property poorlymarketed.
I'm going to go buy thatproperty, I'm going to bring it
to somebody that knows whatthey're doing and I'm going to
make a bunch of money on it.
And if you're a seller of apiece of property and you have
that opportunity, it's like it'syour best foot forward If you
(25:05):
spend an extra 5% and it makesyou an extra 40% at the end of
the day.
You want to pick someone good,that really knows what they're
doing and has a track record atthat, because this is a major
real estate transaction with aton of equity and the difference
in that percentage can behundreds of thousands or
millions of dollars.
And you got to choose the rightperson.
And a lot of folks theyliterally don't know land.
(25:26):
Real estate professionals are aniche that even matters.
They think, oh, it holds a realestate license, good enough.
You got to really do thatresearch on the company you're
going to choose to sell it andmake sure they're good on the
company you're going to chooseto sell it and make sure they're
good.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Well, and that I mean , you bring up another good
point.
You know like knowing whatyou're doing is very important
in any aspect of real estate,right?
You know like I'm not going togo to Omaha and sell skyscrapers
in downtown Omaha because Ihave no idea where to start.
You know, I can figure out abar in Arnold, nebraska or
something like that, probably.
(26:00):
But and again it's like, ifyour specialty is residential
real estate, you know, thenawesome You're.
You know like I'm going torefer a ton of stuff to you,
hopefully, if you're good, youknow, but you don't have any
business going and selling acenter pivot in Nebraska.
You know, yeah, exactly yeah, Idon't have any.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
These folks haven't ever owned anything.
You know it's like.
If you don't desire to own land, how are you going to sell it
to a buyer as an investment Ifyou've never sold a piece of
real estate yourself or owned afarm or a hunting track, or
you've never done a timberharvest?
You've never done that.
There's a whole new level ofunderstanding when it's your own
neck on the line.
If you've had to go througheverything farmland ownership or
(26:41):
hunting land ownership or ruralproperty how you're suited to
be giving better advice tosomebody who's buying or selling
because you've experienced thatentire process.
So that's another question Iwish sellers would ask is like
how many times have you donethis personally?
Have you done it for a client ordo you like?
If you don't believe in land asan investment, how are you
going to sell it to a buyer fortoo much money or have them go
(27:03):
experience that thing if youlive in town also?
So there's some other thingsthere where, just like you said,
if somebody called you up andsaid, hey, can you go sell my
residential house here or mycommercial building there, the
land real estate agent thattakes that deal I would have
some questions for them as well.
Is there not enough businessfor you to go win over here?
Or why are you taking this,this one, over here?
(27:23):
Do you add value there?
We do some of those deals with.
Our agents will do an auction,but it's an absolute auction
selling a commercial building topeople that own an excavating
company or own a concretecompany.
A lot of times those are ourexact same client but skyscraper
, apartment complex, that sortof thing.
On a traditional listing level.
(27:43):
I mean, as an agent, I feellike you should have enough
business and enough flow in thatyou're taking like 50% of the
opportunities and when you'rereally good and you're really
trying, you should be referringout another 50%.
I mean that's just a randomvolume number.
But if you're not getting 50%of your business opportunity,
isn't referrals out?
(28:04):
You don't know enough people,yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Well, and I think that the big thing is is getting
over that anxiety of you know,it's okay to refer it out,
because you're really not sayingno to business, You're just
doing the absolute best for thatclient that you can't, you know
.
And then, um, but yeah, that's,that's very smart.
Um, Jacob, if you don't mind,let's just take another break.
And uh, if you got one moresegment in you, yeah let's do it
(28:27):
All right, we'll do a, we'll doa quick break and then we will
be right back.
The American Land SellerPodcast is brought to you in
part by American Legacy LandCompany.
At American Legacy, ourseasoned agents set us apart,
providing unmatched service witha personal touch that goes
beyond expectations.
With a wealth of marketknowledge and a diverse
(28:47):
portfolio including farms,ranches, development lands and
recreational properties, weforge lasting connections with
clients through honesty,integrity and transparency.
Visit us atAmericanLegacyLandCocom and find
the land that defines yourlegacy.
All right, we're back with JacobHart from High Point Land
(29:08):
Company.
Jacob, you and I were talkingjust during the break and you
had mentioned something in thelast segment that I kind of
wanted to drill into.
You had talked about if youdidn't own property, it's tough
to sell it.
Like, if you didn't ownproperty, it's tough to sell it.
I mean, it's really tough tohave the idea of the value in
your head.
If you've never had skin in thegame type of thing and I know
(29:31):
you are an investor, you'veinvested in several different
properties If you don't mind,just tell us a little bit about,
like, what the investor side ofyou is, kind of not only seeing
now, but where your history isand stuff like that.
Sure.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yeah, I mean I started buying rental properties
.
Gosh, I had to be like justafter 18.
I mean, I remember going.
I went to the most expensiveneighborhood, you know where all
the rich people lived, and Iknocked on their doors like a
lot of doors and just said, hey,this is my name, this is where
I'm from.
I desire to be successful.
(30:06):
Can I have two minutes of yourtime?
How'd you get here, how'd youget this place?
And the majority said I own realestate, I own rental properties
, I own farms, I own commercialbuildings.
I do all that.
And it was amazing how muchtime they gave me.
I mean, like knocking on theirdoor, like sometimes I left.
One time I left with like alike a cheeseburger, like a like
(30:27):
a gourmet, beautifulcheeseburger and lunch.
You know ladies, like, oh, youknow, good luck, here you go.
This is some, you know,leftover sandwich.
So they're really nice.
(30:47):
But they told me, likeconsistently, I do this, but I
also made more money than it.
I had a couple of them.
They were like you know, I'm aphysician and I've made more
money in real estate, or I'm Iown this business and I make all
my money in real estate whileI'm sleeping or in appreciation,
or that's where my tax benefitscome from, so all that.
So you know, my parents were,they had rental properties and
they were entrepreneurial andthey had a couple of different
businesses while I was growingup that my sister and I were
pushed to work in and didn'treally have a choice.
So that really taught us like agood work ethic but they were
pushing us towards.
(31:07):
You know, make sure you learnabout rental properties, make
sure you learn about real estate, all that.
And then I did the doorknocking thing and they told me
the same thing.
So for that I started buyingrental properties and then that
gave me like cashflow andknowledge and equity and all
that.
And I mean I heard no fromevery bank in town, I mean
probably 15, 20 of them.
And then I figured out how tobuy them with like contract for
(31:29):
deeds and how to work throughthat and then got into
commercial and then got intoDSTs and short-term, long-term,
you know, airbnb, vrbos,different states, all that.
And then at some point land waslike really, really of interest
because I'd gone through.
When you learn more aboutsomething you learn about, you
(31:50):
don't learn about more positives.
You usually learn about thenegatives that were not the
headlines.
So the rental properties andall forms and the DSTs and all
that were just like okay, Iwould like to maintain control,
I would like to maintain taxbenefits, I would like to
maintain guaranteed cashflow andthat's where land is an
investment tillable farms,timber farms, rural rental
(32:12):
properties, stuff like thatwhere it was like okay, I want
most of my in the future, I wantmost of my eggs in that basket,
because I learned that you canbuild more houses and more
apartments and more commercialand vacancy rates are a thing.
There was a town one time I hada bunch of rentals in and it
was a town of like 100,000 andthey built like 5,000 apartment
(32:32):
complex units there in no timeand we went from having 100%
occupancy to we couldn't givethe places away Two, three
months free to move in.
You get a whole three-bedroom,four-bedroom house, whatever.
No tenants, no applications, no, nothing.
It's like okay, maybe ourtenants should be based on food
(32:53):
or should be based on fuel orshould be based on products that
either grow or feed otherproducts, and there's a scarcity
of that.
Coming down the line that, Ithink, is I mean, if you read
(33:20):
about agriculture orrecreational ground and the
scarcity and the demand that'sgoing to happen.
But if you look at it it's like, okay, start there, start with
bigger cap rates, start withmore management, start with all
that.
And then you look at this forthe long-term hold this land
thing is.
There's a reason Hedge funds,corporations, big money, big,
big money.
That's why they're buying.
It is extreme hedge on the longterm because it's crazy what's
(33:42):
going to happen in the future inthe crystal ball of agriculture
and recreational real estate.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
In my opinion, Well, and I think you can like to your
point, I think you can look atlike all the other forms of real
estate and you can see theroller coasters that have
happened.
Whereas you take a 100-yeartrend on farm ground and it's
pretty steady up, you know likethere's maybe a few corrections,
but we're talking about acorrection is like a percent or
(34:07):
a half a percent over an entireyear, after you have a raging
increase, you know like, and soyou just really have that
stability and in a 10 yearsnapshot you don't know of any
instance where you're, you'renot really up at the end of it
and the maintenance is prettylow if you have the right
tenants on your properties.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Yeah, and especially when you don't have time, when
you have a business or you havea job or some other obligation
children or traveler or whateveryou spend your time doing Okay,
you get a 4% or 5% net rate ofreturn on a farm and you get a
check once a year and it's paidupfront in advance of the tenant
ever going onto the property.
It's like you, you can go findanother deal and make up the
(34:50):
other 5% or the or the taxbenefits of depreciation or cost
seg or whatever you're going todo.
You can go find those deals andjust make.
You could probably just makethat cashflow up in appreciation
or in your other business overhere where you don't have to
worry about all these othermanagement problems or vacancies
.
I mean I could sell you a 10%ROI commercial ground all day,
(35:12):
but I can't guarantee that thetenant's going to be there by
the end of the lease.
You know it's like thecommercial crisis that's going
on right now with like officebuildings and other commercial
property.
It's like I mean I've hadtenants, I've had vacancies on
commercial property for like 18months.
What's that show up Like?
How does that affect the returnover the five-year hold or the
10-year hold.
You know it's like you don'tplan for that vacancy rate.
(35:34):
I've never seen a farm vacantor not able to be rented.
In the you know row cropagricultural crops that are
primarily in the Midwest there'susually really good tenants, I
mean always.
I have no experience.
I'm sure there's one out there,but I have zero experiences of
not being able to rent a farm.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah, and I think like well, it's interesting,
I've heard from severaldifferent people that like, the
real estate bubble in thecommercial market, like right
now, is like four or five timesworse than the 08 housing bubble
was you know.
And so if you know like and toyour point, like, not only do
you have not a very hard timefinding tenants for your
(36:14):
properties with farm ground, butyou also have a higher quality
of tenant a lot of times thanyou know, like most farmers that
I know are going to leave aparticular piece of property way
better than when they got it.
You know it's going to bebetter when they leave it.
And so that's another positiveattribute to farmland ownership,
(36:37):
I think.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Yeah, yeah, and I can't give you know, financial
advice and do all that.
I'm not licensed to do so anddon't pretend to be.
But the farmer is running hisbusiness.
It is out there.
It's in his or her bestinterest to do the best job for
the farm.
Long-term tenant in place.
(37:02):
We put a fair rent on it.
They want to take care of thefarm because it's in their best
interest to get the highestyield and to continue to have
that farm in their operation forefficiency and buying at scale
of bulk products and inputs.
So it'd be like somebody goinginto a commercial building.
It's not only somebody goinginto a commercial building.
You put Verizon as a tenant inor Subway or Edward Jones or
whatever as a tenant in orSubway or Edward Jones or
(37:23):
whatever Anchor.
So there's like corporateAnchor or Big One, and then
corporate structure, tenant,guaranteed lease, all the things
.
And then there's like the stepdown of the pretty good tenant
that's got a good business andthen there's a tenant that's
tough and doesn't have thebackbone financially or doesn't
have a lot of corporatestructure.
So, depending on what type oftenant that you have, again
(37:46):
you're dealing with probably acorporation instead of an
individual If you have a problem, good luck getting a hold of
anybody that can make a decision, or you have somebody that
doesn't have the financialsupport.
With agriculture, especially,and with renting hunting land, I
mean, there's just so manyoptions.
I could talk about it all day.
Agriculture, especially, andwith renting hunting land, I
mean there's just so manyoptions.
I could talk about it all day.
But the farm is backed by thegovernment.
(38:08):
It's backed by subsidy-growingproducts.
So if a farmer doesn't make it,I understand it's hard.
I understand there's weather, Iunderstand there's inputs.
I understand all these things.
But in land and in farmingthere's always another crop.
There's always a better way todo it, different, or a different
way to do it better.
There's always an opportunityto do something with a piece of
(38:29):
land.
It's like okay, I can't rent itout, can I put it in a CRP?
Can I put it in a WRP?
Can I log the timber?
Can I put up a solar field?
Can I put up a wind farm?
Can I extract the dirt and sellall the topsoil?
What are the options With acommercial building?
It's like only A quality retailor only B quality industrial and
only these tenants in that area.
(38:51):
You just have far less optionsto get creative if you really
need to and a lot of timesyou're not dealing with if it is
a strong backbone.
You.
You're dealing with a farmerthat's running a business and
they're really good at that.
If they're successful at all infarming, they're great at it to
(39:11):
make it.
In today's world, in commercialman, things change so fast to
where that tenant can go out ofbusiness, where there's
liability there, where you'vegot to worry about people and
breaking into your property orfalling down on the ice or the
roof leaking or the.
I mean I had a giant AC unit godown the other day.
It's like those things are like25 grand.
(39:32):
You know, if I have a tile lineget plugged or you know a tree
go down, it's like, oh, thefarmer has the equipment to help
me out.
The tenant, the tenant's nevergoing to help me out with the
$25,000 AC unit.
I know that.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
That's a good.
That's a really good point, toois that you know.
A lot of times you don't evenknow there was a problem.
The farmers just take care ofit, the ranchers just take care
of it.
They don't even call you.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Yeah, I bought a farm a couple months ago here and I
told the tenant hey, I know thedriveways need to be widened so
you guys get bigger equipment inthere.
I know those trees out backneed to get scrubbed up and you
know that rock pile get pushedback a little bit.
You know here's what we'replanning on doing it.
And he's like no, you don'thave to do that.
If we're renting ground fromyou, we'll take care of it all.
I I prefer we take care of itand we'll let you know when
(40:15):
we're done.
And I was like no, we'll treatit like our own.
We appreciate your rent andoutground to us, we'll take care
of it, not a problem at all.
Let us know if you find anotherfarm that you'd like to be an
investor on.
I've had a lot of rentals Not alot compared to a lot of folks,
but I've had enough to see it atscale.
(40:39):
I've never had that happen inany other asset class of real
estate.
It just doesn't happen.
I mean, I have people likethey'd paint or replace
something they broke, but you'renot going out of their way to
make your property better.
It's about them, not about you.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
And then you know, yeah, just goes back to say is
like, most of the time when theymove out it's not as good as it
was when they moved.
So there's investment thatneeds to be done.
All right, jacob, I'm going toput you on the spot.
(41:10):
Past year or two years, we'veseen quite a few records in farm
grant sales.
Do we have some more recordscoming in 2024 here, or are we
going to take a break from thatfor a while?
Do you think?
Speaker 3 (41:19):
I mean I think we were the first one to sell a
farm in Iowa for $30,000 an acre.
They were bouncing around inthe 20s and it was amazing who
was buying and who's stillbuying.
We sold the farm the other dayto a 30-year-old female as an
investment and it's like peoplethink, oh, investor, and all
these big corporations and allthis.
It's like let me show you someinvestors, look how cool these
(41:41):
people are and what they'redoing, what they have going on.
So farmland, hunting land,recreational ground, rural real
estate, if interest is going tobe 7% plus and corn is going to
be $4 or less, and pork and youknow all these input prices
being crazy, it has to come downLike it is overpriced and it
(42:03):
has to come down.
But the thing that is loomingback there all the time is the
scarcity factor or the peoplethat are involved with a 1031
exchange.
I mean we sold like seven farmsin the last 72 hours over the
course of the weekend and six ofthem were 1031 exchanges out of
other real estate, primarilyfarms adjacent to cities or road
(42:25):
projects or solar projects orwind projects, or 1033 exchanges
out of Corps of Engineers stuff.
So, to answer your question, Idon't know that we're going to
see it in 2024, but I bet we'llsee it again before 2034.
You know, I think land ingeneral is going up and down as
(42:48):
it goes up because of a scarcity.
From a scarcity standpoint, wehave less farmland, less hunting
land, less of this high-qualityproduct that grows food and
fiber every day.
So like you can't build more ofit, and if you do build
anything, you're building on itand taking away those acres.
We're losing a million acres ayear in farmland certified
cropland acres a year in the US,and I bet we're losing double
(43:09):
to triple of that inrecreational ground.
So it's done pretty welloutside of the 80s and that
crisis.
But that was a debt leverageproblem and a commodity problem.
Could we have that again?
Sure, but there's so much moreequity in the dirt today, the
(43:30):
amount of people that have loanson land today they're primarily
owned without debt.
Big interest rates, lowcommodity prices.
I don't know that that crasheslike it did before because that
was a debt leverage problem andcash flow went away because of
the trade issues and the supplyand demand issues of the crop.
So I don't think, to answeryour question, that it's going
to be in 2024, but I bet we willsee it again before 2034.
(43:51):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
That's a fair answer yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
I mean if I had the crystal ball I would have all
the money in the world.
But the reality is, if you'reconsistently advancing,
consistently taking care of goodfarms, they're going to bring
good value if you need to sellout of them, whether the
market's up, down or sideways.
I mean we thought there wasgoing to be a huge crash and a
huge buying opportunity and allthese investors had tens of
millions of dollars waiting onthe sidelines for us to go help
(44:19):
them, put it into farms to buyor identify.
Then it was like oh, oh, whothought land would double or
triple?
Because the government wouldgive away all this, you know,
random money that was warrantedor not?
Um, so you don't know it'sgoing to happen, but everybody
that's bought consistently overtime, I mean I know they're
still up today.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Yeah jacob, how can we get a hold of you if we're
looking to to buy or sell someland in your part of the country
?
Speaker 3 (44:44):
Yeah, absolutely, highpointlandcompanycom all
spelled out.
Otherwise, we got 40, 45 agentsin Minnesota, iowa, wisconsin,
missouri and Colorado.
Do land auctions, sealed bidsales, traditional listings,
appraisals, farm management, youname it.
We have some very high qualitypeople.
But highpointlandcompanycom andif you ever have a question
(45:06):
about how to find an abstract orwhat that's going to look like
or how to do something on apiece of ground, our YouTube
channel, which is just HighPoint Land Company on YouTube,
is really trying to educatepeople on the topic and make
them feel comfortable with thebiggest transaction of their
family's lifetime.
So those are the places to findus online.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
Yep, I've I've watched several of your videos.
They are very informative and,yeah, so I will put all that in
the show notes so if people wantto check that and then they can
, they can get ahold of you guysso well.
Thank you so much for your time.
I know time is valuable and Iappreciate you taking the time
to hang out with us for a whiletoday.
(45:47):
I hope any 24 is good for you.
I hope you do double your size.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
We hope so Also.
I appreciate the opportunityvery much, kobe, and wish you
nothing but but happiness andpeace and prosperity.
All right, thank you sir.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
And we will see you all down the road.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
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.
Connect with us on social mediafor updates until next week.
(46:29):
Kobe wishes you success in yourland endeavors.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
God bless you and have a great week the american
land seller podcast is broughtto you in part by landhubcom.
At Landhub, we'rerevolutionizing land
transactions by effectivelyconnecting buyers and sellers.
Say goodbye to the struggle offinding or marketing land for
sale.
We understand the power of newmedia marketing, leveraging
(46:56):
social media and targeted ads tobring together the ideal
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Landhubcom, where your landjourney begins, and American
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At American Legacy, we redefineexcellence in real estate.
Explore our top qualityofferings, featuring farms,
(47:18):
ranches, recreational propertiesand even development projects
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Visit us atAmericanLegacyLandCocom for a
premium experience that alignswith your land ownership goals.
Whether you're looking atbuying or selling, we're
dedicated to helping you findthe land that defines your
(47:38):
legacy.
Joining us today on the American Land Seller is
Jacob Hart, a multi-state landbroker and founder of High Point
Land Company in Waverly, iowa.
Jacob brings a wealth ofexperience in both land
brokerage and real estateinvestment and is a world-class
auctioneer.
Auctioneer, his journey beganright out of high school when he
(00:23):
purchased his first rentalproperty, focusing on building a
robust real estate investmentportfolio within a walking
distance of the renowned MayoClinic.
Jacob's early career saw himworking for the national auction
firm, ameribid, based in Tulsa,oklahoma, where he played a
pivotal role in large-scale realestate dispersals, selling
(00:46):
hundreds of properties atauction in one single day.
This experience laid a strongfoundation for his future
endeavors.
A proud alum of SDSU and theWorldwide College of
Auctioneering Realtors LandInstitute in 2017, his desire to
create the best land realestate and auction firm in the
(01:07):
country is evident in everyaspect of his work.
Jacob firmly believes that ifyou're selling something, you
should believe in it and investin it yourself.
His passion lies in landinvestment and training land
agents to build not just greatbusinesses but also great lives
for themselves.
Today, we'll dive into Jacob'sremarkable journey, his insights
(01:30):
on the land market and hisvision for the future of High
Point Land Company.
So sit back, relax and getready to be inspired and, as
always, we hope you take awaysomething from this episode.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Welcome to the American Land Seller Podcast
with your host, coby Rickardson.
Coby is an accredited landconsultant and multi-state land
broker with American Legacy 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.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Visit wwwamericanlandsellercom and
find us on one of your favoritepodcast platforms.
Okay, kobe and our specialguests let's get started.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Hey everybody, Welcome back to the American
Land Seller Podcast.
Super excited today we haveJacob Hart from High Point Land
Company.
Jacob, how are we today Doing,great Kobe, how are you?
I'm doing?
Amazing actually.
It's just the weather'sstarting to warm up a little bit
.
It was a pretty cold winterwhere I'm at in Nebraska.
I don't know how you guys'weather's been, but so we are
happy to have the 60s and 70s,even if it's just for a little
(02:44):
bit.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah, we need the moisture.
I mean, I'm primarily in theMidwest Minnesota, iowa,
wisconsin, missouri currentlyand it's just been so dry and
the moisture is what we'rereally after.
We usually get 50 to 75 inchesof snow, cumulative over the
course of the year, but theground's usually frozen so it
just runs off in the spring andfills the creeks and rivers and
(03:05):
it's gone.
But this year it's like oh, weget an inch or two of snow here
or there.
It's great because we don'thave any frost in the ground.
So that's well received.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
We'll take the moisture, yeah, no, and
definitely the Midwest all overneeds some more moisture than
what we've gotten this winter.
So let's talk about you.
Guys are growing like I don'twant to say weeds, but you're
growing fast and and and strong.
Let's talk a little bit aboutHigh Point and kind of what your
philosophy is on on.
(03:34):
You know, like why you're doingwhat you're doing.
What's your secret sauce here,bud?
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Yeah, good question, gosh, why I'm doing what I'm
(04:00):
doing.
I could go all day about owningPoint Land Company, taking on
agents when we're ready to andgrowing when we're ready to, and
having a lot of success at itis the client.
From that perspective, beingthe agent and the agent winning
in the real estate business justfires me up.
And building a team of peopleand teaching them how to do
(04:22):
things in the land real estatebusiness and then having them be
able to go, be successful inthat and then experience the
ownership of land or cash flowor tax advantages of owning real
estate and teaching good peoplethat wouldn't otherwise have a
resource to be able to go findwhere to get that information
really cranks me up.
And then on the client side, Ican sell 50 to 100 farms a year
(04:42):
if I really had a good team andI was really, you know, fired up
on doing that and that alone,like I, I know how to do that.
I can do that, but I'd ratheraffect more people positively.
I mean, it's the client we getto deal with is owning the farm
for a hundred to 200 years plusand the transaction means the
world to them and the higherfrequency, the more of those
transactions I can positivelyaffect people and they're not
(05:05):
going to get taken advantage of.
They're going to know what todo with the money afterwards.
They're going to be helped andled instead of told and
controlled.
I'd rather do the right thingby those people and if I have
more successful agents, I get totouch more of those people and
they get to have a better landexperience because of it land
experience because of it.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, and I think I think what I really like about
you, jacob, is that you are likethe one.
You know there's there's somany guys that want to just hold
on to the old days of of, uh, Idon't want any cooperation.
You know, like we don't work,we do it our way and that's the
only way type of a mindset, andyou know like you're just a
breath of fresh air in the senseof your marketing is really
forward thinking.
Your attitude towardsleadership is just really,
(05:52):
really impressive.
And so talk just a little bitlike developing agents is really
tough, especially when you'recoming at it from the standpoint
of I want my guys to besuccessful not just successful,
but huge successes.
That's a lot of investment,time, money, energy.
Talk about like how do youselect somebody and what's that
(06:13):
process look like for liningyour guys up for success.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yeah, that's a great question.
Thank you for the kind words.
I get asked a lot.
You know you could besuccessful as an agent as an
auctioneer.
You have been.
You know you could besuccessful as an agent as an
auctioneer you have been.
You know you've done that.
You own these things.
And we know that you have cashflow like why are you doing this
if it's not for the money?
And you know the bigger scaleof that is.
I think the way I take it maybenot everybody's appeal is if you
(06:39):
get to do something where it'slike if money wasn't a thing,
what would I be doing?
And if you could go do thatevery day, then it's the old
saying of you never work a dayin your life.
But with the agents you reallyhave to make sure when selecting
the right agent.
I mean I've probably had 60licensees under my broker
licenses since I started HighPoint and like 20 of those
(07:03):
haven't worked out.
Because it's like oh, you'vetold me you want to be
successful, you told me you wantto become rich and then you
want to become wealthy.
And now you know we'reunderstanding what that means.
And then you figure out what ittakes to do that and it's like
here's the Kool-Aid you know,here's the system, here's the
process that's been proven,here's what you got to do.
You know, following the trackof other agents that have come
before you and those you know 20examples that didn't work out
(07:26):
to not only talk about thepositive but the negative.
The ones that didn't work out,they're just like gosh, I
thought I wanted this and Idon't want to work that hard.
Or I thought I wanted you knowthis amount of money or this
amount of cash flow and Ithought it was going to be
easier.
Or I'm not willing to do thosethings that you're telling me
that it's going to take.
So we really try to find peoplethat match a personality type
(07:47):
where it's like, okay, theyreally do want this and they're
really going to burn the boatsand they're really going to give
it everything and they're goingto drink the Kool-Aid, they're
going to follow the rules.
And then you have to pair that,or you have to narrow that down
further to where it's likethey're a great person and
they're going to take the highroad and they're going to be in
this for a long time.
And we had a couple agents thatbecame so successful so quick,
they just retired and it waslike, well, that was a lot of
(08:09):
hard work.
You know, I'm glad yourfour-year adventure was great,
but you know that was not what Iplanned.
I thought you were going to behere for a long time and help.
You know a lot of people so youreally got to select the right
person.
You really got to have a goodteam behind them that just
encourages them on a regularbasis and go through a lot of
things.
Because what you don't realizeI mean I worked for a couple of
(08:31):
residential brokerages nationalfirms, commercial brokerages, a
couple auction companies andit's like it's going to be
really hard.
But then when you, after you getover hard, you know you have a
lot of things that happen whereit's like you may need to cut
some people out of your lifethat aren't good for you, that
are holding you back.
You might have to make somechanges that are really
uncomfortable to your health, toyour wellness, to your
(08:54):
relationships.
I mean you start as a realestate agent.
You get approved and then youget trained and then you start
going through this process andthen you start experiencing
success at some level and thenfrom there to get to like
everybody can get here, comefrom here and get here, and then
it caps out with an agent.
Don't matter what type of nichethey're in, but when they want
to go from here to here and like10X their income, that space
(09:16):
right there where it's like,okay, you got to six figures or
multiple six figures and youwant to go to seven figures or
more, bigger money, and then youwant to try to do that
consistently, like the hardestthing is to get out of here.
Next hardest thing is to go here.
The really hard thing is tostay here and maintain that,
because it's like, especially inthe midwest where primarily are
, you know, colorado like youmake seven figures in a business
(09:40):
, how many years are you goingto do that?
You really got to want to dothat, um, and feel good about it
and think about, think aboutthings that are more important
than money.
So when you do that and youlike you got to find that person
in advance of hiring them andtraining them to get to the top,
that's, that's the challengingpart, but it's the challenge
that I also just love.
I mean making those, seeingthose people's faces and their
(10:01):
families when they experiencesuccess and are able to go, do
things and have the freedoms andown the land and do the things
they've always dreamed about andtalked about.
It's like, oh man, sign me upIf I could do that every day.
That's what cranks me up.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, that you know like you.
I think what's interesting whenyou're talking about this and
you're kind of like well, therewas breakage, you know like
there was those that didn't work.
Like, well, there was breakage,you know like there was those
that didn't work, you know therewas those that we actually over
success and they, like weliterally shot them off into a
road ditch of success somewherewhere they live in Napoli ever
after.
You know that's just kind ofthat's kind of funny.
(10:37):
But no, I mean, I think that'sthe thing is.
Is you got to also realize,obviously you have.
Is that not everybody's goingto be your style?
They're not going to maybesucceed under you?
I personally think that that'skind of your philosophy of the
(10:57):
burn the ships is really wherereal estate agents have to like,
if you're not willing to justkind of say it's going to work
and give up that full-time jobor part-time job at one point,
you know it's it's really goingto be a struggle for you.
So that's that's really smart.
Now that you know, like, how doyou we're we're kind of growing
(11:20):
too in our company, but how doyou figure out, like identify
which state you're going to bein next?
I know you're a multi-statebroker, how do you look at
things?
Is it just a personnel optionthat you have and then you kind
of go figure out how to, how tomake it work in that state?
Or are you kind of deliberatelysaying I'm going to go after
Colorado or Missouri or whatever?
(11:41):
Good question.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
We could.
Our biggest challenge at HighPoint is strategic growth.
You know, we grew again lastyear, even though it was a down
market.
I mean we grew substantiallylast year again and we could
probably double or triple agentsby the end of the year.
No problem.
I mean we have the applications, we have the interest, but we
want to grow strategically.
You know we don't want to bringon agents that are going to be
(12:05):
rogue and bad people.
We want good people, long-termsuccess, long-term strategic
growth.
And that takes time.
You got to do it right.
You got to hire the rightpeople, because if you bring on
the wrong person or the wrongset of people, it gets
overwhelming very fast.
Where they're not following therules, they're not filling out
the input forms, they're notmaking the drone videos and the
(12:27):
property videos and thedescriptions of the properties
and the directions and all thepieces of the puzzle, if they
don't follow that rule, you areyour weakest link.
So if you're a burger franchiseand you have one location that
doesn't clean the countertopsright and then they get a
foodborne illness, all locationsare now bad, so you have to
(12:48):
treat it like a franchisewithout it being a franchise,
because the people don't want towork for that.
They want to work for aboutique and have a phone number
they can call all the times ofthe day and deal with all kinds
of questions.
But they also want the power ofa big national marketing firm
and a bunch of strategic growth.
So you got to really hold thatback because it would be really
(13:09):
easy to just go pick up agents.
And then it's like, oh, we'renot training them.
Row crop agriculture by volume,a lot of row crop, corn and
soybeans, a lot of land auctions, traditional listings are off
(13:31):
market 1031 exchange business.
Or we have an investor poolthat they're buying ground and
1031 exchanging it.
So we manage those farms andthere's always new folks coming
into that and we do appraisals.
So it really makes sense ifwe're going to grow where it's
like, okay, can we just do realestate there?
Can we do auctions?
Can we do traditional listings?
(13:51):
Can we do what High Point'sbrand is?
Can we do these seven types ofsale method?
Can we also do appraisal?
Can we also do farm management?
Are we able to do all thosethings or is it going to take a
long time to get licensed there?
And then we also look at thevolume opportunity if there's,
you know, if, if land doesn'tever turn over there, if we
check that state or that part ofthat state we're going to get
(14:12):
involved in and we there's novolume there.
You know there's counties.
There's counties in iowa, forexample, that did not have a
transaction all of 2023, youknow.
So there's like parts of otherstates that are like that too,
where land is held reallytightly.
If that's the case, we can'tput an agent there in advance or
even go get into business inthat part of the state in
advance if we have nocompetitive advantage.
We're only going to go placesstrategically that we have a
(14:36):
competitive advantage and wherewe know we're going to be
successful in advance of beingin success in that path.
So in doing that, we figure outall those things first and then
we go find the agent to fulfillit.
And you know there's there'sother steps of support, staff
and licensing and and all thosethings.
So when we go to grow into astate it's going to, it's going
(14:58):
to be like okay, can we do 75%agriculture in this other?
Is there high quality huntingground that's going to get a lot
of attention, with big deer anda lot of turkeys and pheasants
and awesome experience.
Or is it a spot where it's likea lot of land doesn't turn over
.
There's not a lot of auctionopportunity there isn't.
You know this hunting landpiece and it has to fit our
brand in advance.
(15:18):
If it's all small, you know lakelots and that sort of thing, we
have to make sure the agent weput there isn't going to be
focused on deer hunting land orrow crop agriculture.
So the steps we take in advanceon the backside are a lot.
I mean, it's surprising howmuch research we have to do to
make sure when we get thatperson and we ask them to change
(15:39):
their life and burn the boatsand go after that, it's like
here's why.
And if you're not willing to dothat, you need to tell us right
now because you're not theright fit for it, because we've
done the research.
We want to make sure you havethe stomach to hang on Right.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, that's.
There is a lot of research thatgoes into especially laws and
everything else when you'reentering new states, but having
the right people in place thatis definitely a start.
If you don't mind, let's take aquick break and we will be
right back.
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(16:13):
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Join us today and experiencethe expertise of Landhub's land
marketing professionals.
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(16:34):
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All right, we're back here withJacob Hart from Highport Land
Company.
Jacob, you had mentioned in theprevious segment that you guys
have seven products basicallythat you offer.
Let's just kind of dig intothose seven and and kind of how
(17:00):
that's kind of set up with yourcompany.
So if you don't mind, yeah,absolutely so.
Speaker 3 (17:06):
When, when I started High Point, it was, you know, if
there was a company that didwhat we do now, I would probably
just work for them and you knowmy week would be a third
shorter, I'd work 40 hours aweek and, you know, have less
gray hair.
So we do live auction, onlineauction, sealed bid sales,
private treaty you knowtraditional listings, online,
(17:29):
offline, private, you name it.
So seven different ways that wesell farms.
And then we also do appraisalsfor basis establishment and we
have certified general andcertified general trainers to
get the folks trained to docertified general appraisals,
not just the residential, youknow.
They have to be certifiedgeneral, which is commercial and
(17:49):
agricultural, a different levelof appraisal, which is a
challenge to get them to achieve.
It just takes time anddedication.
And then we also do farmmanagement.
So our goal is for people to ifthey want to buy a farm and they
want it as an investment, butthey don't want to manage it and
they want to make sure they'renot getting taken advantage of
on the rent side, or they wantto have it appraised and get it
refinanced and don't want towait for that appraisal or have
(18:12):
it be super expensive andinaccurate, or you know, we just
want to be a I don't want tosay a one-stop shop, but we want
to be an extreme niche of ifyou are interested in investing
in agriculture or hunting landand you want to have the most
resources available for forpeople that actually believe in
it and actually own this stuffon their own and trust it and
and buy it themselves, we wantthose, our agents, to be that
(18:35):
resource and high point to bethat resource.
And also, if they've owned afarm for their entire life
hunting farm or tillable farm,whatever it is you get one
chance to sell that right and tosell it well.
I mean, it happens all the timewhere clients they've become
clients People go buy farms fromother real estate brokerages
and then a year later come andsell them with High Point and
(18:55):
it's like that family owned thatfarm for 150 years and you just
made 20% on it because youbought it from somebody that
didn't have the knowledge or thetools to market it properly.
That doesn't sit very well withus as a company, but it's like.
That's why these people arehiring us and we wish the people
that originally owned the farmwould contact us and give us a
shot and let us just show themthe difference of how hard we
(19:18):
try to get them the best priceand the best outcome possible
for them.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, I think that's a really good point.
I market to people and say, hey, I don't necessarily think you
need to call me to be theend-all, be-all, but I would
like a shot, I'd like to comesit down with you and it's one
of those things in our part ofthe world.
It's a fine line of you know,like how do we let the local
(19:48):
neighbors and everybody be apart of it and also open it up
to make sure that we're gettingthe best price for the property,
which is a tough road to, tohoe every you know when you're
trying to to get the best valuebut still be sensitive to the to
the neighbor aspect of it.
Speaker 3 (20:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
And that I mean like we want.
We want farms to stay in thehands of good people.
We want people to expand theiroperations.
We want people to buy land andrent it out to local operators
and have everybody benefit fromit.
You know, people get a get abig mouth and a big shield and
sword online and think they say,oh, don't sell to investors.
But it's like oh, you want toexpand your operation and have
(20:26):
somebody buy a farm at auctionthat you can rent.
And now you're oh, I'm okaywith an investor now that's
going to rent it to me for afair price and farms in another
state and is a farmer investor.
It just wants to diversifycrops.
So there's a lot of things likethat, where people get a big
mouth online and think they canpuff their chest.
But the reality is the majorityof people that are buying land
(20:50):
are good people.
They want to be in that assetclass.
You can go make more money inother things asset class wise.
But I think it's reallysurprising how easy it can be to
get creative.
Folks will say, gosh, I reallywant X amount of dollars an acre
for the farm or this is what itappraised for.
And then you get a tenant or afamily member or a neighbor and
it's like okay, there's a gapthere.
(21:11):
There's a $2,000 per acre gap.
The seller will hire us toachieve that gap, even if we
sell it to their family memberor their tenant or their
neighbor, because they it's likethis is my investment, I want
to be treated fairly on it and Iwant as much money possible.
Hard to blame them for that.
These folks over here, theydon't want to pay as much
because they are in it for theirbest interest.
(21:32):
So it's understandable.
But it's like okay, have welooked at all the financing
options?
Do you have another farm thatyou can sell out of over there?
That makes your operationreally inefficient and it's low
quality.
Let's sell that one for you fortoo much money so you can buy
this one over here for too muchmoney because it's right next
door.
How do we take a little bitextra time instead of just
turning the farm and selling thefarm, to make it work for the
(21:54):
people?
The seller and the buyer areboth like blown out of the water
with happiness and success intheir intentions at the end of
the day.
Take that extra step.
Acquire the knowledge to makeit possible for the individual.
However you can do that, andthat's one of the huge regions
we're growing so fast is likejust taking those extra steps
(22:14):
for those people where it's like, oh, here comes the enemy.
The auctioneer, the real estateagents are going to sell it for
too much money.
Let's figure out how to make itwork for everybody.
Sometimes it doesn't, whereit's like, hey, they just want
too much so it doesn't sell, orthese people aren't financeable
or don't have the equity to pullit off and somebody else comes
along and buys it.
But the majority of the time wecan work out a win-win.
And when people realize thatnow the people that were once
(22:38):
saying we were bad folks arecoming back and saying, man, I
would never do a real estatetransaction without using you
guys in the future.
So those extra steps are justhuge and I think it helps people
trust land real estate agentsthat are niching that business
along the way, because they justsee that you're trying really
hard.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that, and it just
surprises me, though, when yougo talk to somebody and you're
like, well, we're going to wantyou know, a couple of weeks at
least to get marketing together,get everything ready, to go get
your listing out, and peopleare kind of shocked at like,
well, I talked to somebody thatsaid they could have it online
tomorrow.
How, Like, I don't know howyou're going to do that, but
(23:18):
yeah, the extra steps and thenagain, making sure that
everybody has a shot is, I think, incredibly valuable to people
that are both selling and buyingland.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yeah, I mean what's crazy is, unfortunately, a huge
portion of the people that ownthe land real estate asset have.
I mean our client.
The majority, like 85% of theclient, acquires the land via
estate and they've owned it fora couple of years and been in
control of it and their familiesowned it for a long time.
So there's equity that's veryhigh and a low basis in the
(23:55):
property.
And it's amazing how folksthink, okay, I'm going to hire a
real estate agent and theythink that's going to be an
adequate job, as if I hire thisfolks, these guys over here,
these guys over here, and thecommission question comes up and
folks are you know, they wantto get the best deal.
I understand that, but it'sreally if you looked at the
(24:15):
magnitude of, you know some ofthese farms are selling for
millions or tens of millions ofdollars and even if it's
hundreds of thousands, thatequity has been acquired over a
very long time and if you make amistake and save a couple
percent on commission and hirethe wrong company that doesn't
know what they're doing, youwill lose 10x that equity.
I mean just like that, if theycan do the marketing and get it
(24:38):
online tomorrow I would have alot of questions as to why.
And the reality is today morethan ever, is there sharks just
waiting out there in the waterthat are going to say, hey, I
see that property poorlymarketed.
I'm going to go buy thatproperty, I'm going to bring it
to somebody that knows whatthey're doing and I'm going to
make a bunch of money on it.
And if you're a seller of apiece of property and you have
that opportunity, it's like it'syour best foot forward If you
(25:05):
spend an extra 5% and it makesyou an extra 40% at the end of
the day.
You want to pick someone good,that really knows what they're
doing and has a track record atthat, because this is a major
real estate transaction with aton of equity and the difference
in that percentage can behundreds of thousands or
millions of dollars.
And you got to choose the rightperson.
And a lot of folks theyliterally don't know land.
(25:26):
Real estate professionals are aniche that even matters.
They think, oh, it holds a realestate license, good enough.
You got to really do thatresearch on the company you're
going to choose to sell it andmake sure they're good on the
company you're going to chooseto sell it and make sure they're
good.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Well, and that I mean , you bring up another good
point.
You know like knowing whatyou're doing is very important
in any aspect of real estate,right?
You know like I'm not going togo to Omaha and sell skyscrapers
in downtown Omaha because Ihave no idea where to start.
You know, I can figure out abar in Arnold, nebraska or
something like that, probably.
(26:00):
But and again it's like, ifyour specialty is residential
real estate, you know, thenawesome You're.
You know like I'm going torefer a ton of stuff to you,
hopefully, if you're good, youknow, but you don't have any
business going and selling acenter pivot in Nebraska.
You know, yeah, exactly yeah, Idon't have any.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
These folks haven't ever owned anything.
You know it's like.
If you don't desire to own land, how are you going to sell it
to a buyer as an investment Ifyou've never sold a piece of
real estate yourself or owned afarm or a hunting track, or
you've never done a timberharvest?
You've never done that.
There's a whole new level ofunderstanding when it's your own
neck on the line.
If you've had to go througheverything farmland ownership or
(26:41):
hunting land ownership or ruralproperty how you're suited to
be giving better advice tosomebody who's buying or selling
because you've experienced thatentire process.
So that's another question Iwish sellers would ask is like
how many times have you donethis personally?
Have you done it for a client ordo you like?
If you don't believe in land asan investment, how are you
going to sell it to a buyer fortoo much money or have them go
(27:03):
experience that thing if youlive in town also?
So there's some other thingsthere where, just like you said,
if somebody called you up andsaid, hey, can you go sell my
residential house here or mycommercial building there, the
land real estate agent thattakes that deal I would have
some questions for them as well.
Is there not enough businessfor you to go win over here?
Or why are you taking this,this one, over here?
(27:23):
Do you add value there?
We do some of those deals with.
Our agents will do an auction,but it's an absolute auction
selling a commercial building topeople that own an excavating
company or own a concretecompany.
A lot of times those are ourexact same client but skyscraper
, apartment complex, that sortof thing.
On a traditional listing level.
(27:43):
I mean, as an agent, I feellike you should have enough
business and enough flow in thatyou're taking like 50% of the
opportunities and when you'rereally good and you're really
trying, you should be referringout another 50%.
I mean that's just a randomvolume number.
But if you're not getting 50%of your business opportunity,
isn't referrals out?
(28:04):
You don't know enough people,yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Well, and I think that the big thing is is getting
over that anxiety of you know,it's okay to refer it out,
because you're really not sayingno to business, You're just
doing the absolute best for thatclient that you can't, you know
.
And then, um, but yeah, that's,that's very smart.
Um, Jacob, if you don't mind,let's just take another break.
And uh, if you got one moresegment in you, yeah let's do it
(28:27):
All right, we'll do a, we'll doa quick break and then we will
be right back.
The American Land SellerPodcast is brought to you in
part by American Legacy LandCompany.
At American Legacy, ourseasoned agents set us apart,
providing unmatched service witha personal touch that goes
beyond expectations.
With a wealth of marketknowledge and a diverse
(28:47):
portfolio including farms,ranches, development lands and
recreational properties, weforge lasting connections with
clients through honesty,integrity and transparency.
Visit us atAmericanLegacyLandCocom and find
the land that defines yourlegacy.
All right, we're back with JacobHart from High Point Land
(29:08):
Company.
Jacob, you and I were talkingjust during the break and you
had mentioned something in thelast segment that I kind of
wanted to drill into.
You had talked about if youdidn't own property, it's tough
to sell it.
Like, if you didn't ownproperty, it's tough to sell it.
I mean, it's really tough tohave the idea of the value in
your head.
If you've never had skin in thegame type of thing and I know
(29:31):
you are an investor, you'veinvested in several different
properties If you don't mind,just tell us a little bit about,
like, what the investor side ofyou is, kind of not only seeing
now, but where your history isand stuff like that.
Sure.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yeah, I mean I started buying rental properties
.
Gosh, I had to be like justafter 18.
I mean, I remember going.
I went to the most expensiveneighborhood, you know where all
the rich people lived, and Iknocked on their doors like a
lot of doors and just said, hey,this is my name, this is where
I'm from.
I desire to be successful.
(30:06):
Can I have two minutes of yourtime?
How'd you get here, how'd youget this place?
And the majority said I own realestate, I own rental properties
, I own farms, I own commercialbuildings.
I do all that.
And it was amazing how muchtime they gave me.
I mean, like knocking on theirdoor, like sometimes I left.
One time I left with like alike a cheeseburger, like a like
(30:27):
a gourmet, beautifulcheeseburger and lunch.
You know ladies, like, oh, youknow, good luck, here you go.
This is some, you know,leftover sandwich.
So they're really nice.
(30:47):
But they told me, likeconsistently, I do this, but I
also made more money than it.
I had a couple of them.
They were like you know, I'm aphysician and I've made more
money in real estate, or I'm Iown this business and I make all
my money in real estate whileI'm sleeping or in appreciation,
or that's where my tax benefitscome from, so all that.
So you know, my parents were,they had rental properties and
they were entrepreneurial andthey had a couple of different
businesses while I was growingup that my sister and I were
pushed to work in and didn'treally have a choice.
So that really taught us like agood work ethic but they were
pushing us towards.
(31:07):
You know, make sure you learnabout rental properties, make
sure you learn about real estate, all that.
And then I did the doorknocking thing and they told me
the same thing.
So for that I started buyingrental properties and then that
gave me like cashflow andknowledge and equity and all
that.
And I mean I heard no fromevery bank in town, I mean
probably 15, 20 of them.
And then I figured out how tobuy them with like contract for
(31:29):
deeds and how to work throughthat and then got into
commercial and then got intoDSTs and short-term, long-term,
you know, airbnb, vrbos,different states, all that.
And then at some point land waslike really, really of interest
because I'd gone through.
When you learn more aboutsomething you learn about, you
(31:50):
don't learn about more positives.
You usually learn about thenegatives that were not the
headlines.
So the rental properties andall forms and the DSTs and all
that were just like okay, Iwould like to maintain control,
I would like to maintain taxbenefits, I would like to
maintain guaranteed cashflow andthat's where land is an
investment tillable farms,timber farms, rural rental
(32:12):
properties, stuff like thatwhere it was like okay, I want
most of my in the future, I wantmost of my eggs in that basket,
because I learned that you canbuild more houses and more
apartments and more commercialand vacancy rates are a thing.
There was a town one time I hada bunch of rentals in and it
was a town of like 100,000 andthey built like 5,000 apartment
(32:32):
complex units there in no timeand we went from having 100%
occupancy to we couldn't givethe places away Two, three
months free to move in.
You get a whole three-bedroom,four-bedroom house, whatever.
No tenants, no applications, no, nothing.
It's like okay, maybe ourtenants should be based on food
(32:53):
or should be based on fuel orshould be based on products that
either grow or feed otherproducts, and there's a scarcity
of that.
Coming down the line that, Ithink, is I mean, if you read
(33:20):
about agriculture orrecreational ground and the
scarcity and the demand that'sgoing to happen.
But if you look at it it's like, okay, start there, start with
bigger cap rates, start withmore management, start with all
that.
And then you look at this forthe long-term hold this land
thing is.
There's a reason Hedge funds,corporations, big money, big,
big money.
That's why they're buying.
It is extreme hedge on the longterm because it's crazy what's
(33:42):
going to happen in the future inthe crystal ball of agriculture
and recreational real estate.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
In my opinion, Well, and I think you can like to your
point, I think you can look atlike all the other forms of real
estate and you can see theroller coasters that have
happened.
Whereas you take a 100-yeartrend on farm ground and it's
pretty steady up, you know likethere's maybe a few corrections,
but we're talking about acorrection is like a percent or
(34:07):
a half a percent over an entireyear, after you have a raging
increase, you know like, and soyou just really have that
stability and in a 10 yearsnapshot you don't know of any
instance where you're, you'renot really up at the end of it
and the maintenance is prettylow if you have the right
tenants on your properties.
Speaker 3 (34:29):
Yeah, and especially when you don't have time, when
you have a business or you havea job or some other obligation
children or traveler or whateveryou spend your time doing Okay,
you get a 4% or 5% net rate ofreturn on a farm and you get a
check once a year and it's paidupfront in advance of the tenant
ever going onto the property.
It's like you, you can go findanother deal and make up the
(34:50):
other 5% or the or the taxbenefits of depreciation or cost
seg or whatever you're going todo.
You can go find those deals andjust make.
You could probably just makethat cashflow up in appreciation
or in your other business overhere where you don't have to
worry about all these othermanagement problems or vacancies
.
I mean I could sell you a 10%ROI commercial ground all day,
(35:12):
but I can't guarantee that thetenant's going to be there by
the end of the lease.
You know it's like thecommercial crisis that's going
on right now with like officebuildings and other commercial
property.
It's like I mean I've hadtenants, I've had vacancies on
commercial property for like 18months.
What's that show up Like?
How does that affect the returnover the five-year hold or the
10-year hold.
You know it's like you don'tplan for that vacancy rate.
(35:34):
I've never seen a farm vacantor not able to be rented.
In the you know row cropagricultural crops that are
primarily in the Midwest there'susually really good tenants, I
mean always.
I have no experience.
I'm sure there's one out there,but I have zero experiences of
not being able to rent a farm.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah, and I think like well, it's interesting,
I've heard from severaldifferent people that like, the
real estate bubble in thecommercial market, like right
now, is like four or five timesworse than the 08 housing bubble
was you know.
And so if you know like and toyour point, like, not only do
you have not a very hard timefinding tenants for your
(36:14):
properties with farm ground, butyou also have a higher quality
of tenant a lot of times thanyou know, like most farmers that
I know are going to leave aparticular piece of property way
better than when they got it.
You know it's going to bebetter when they leave it.
And so that's another positiveattribute to farmland ownership,
(36:37):
I think.
Speaker 3 (36:38):
Yeah, yeah, and I can't give you know, financial
advice and do all that.
I'm not licensed to do so anddon't pretend to be.
But the farmer is running hisbusiness.
It is out there.
It's in his or her bestinterest to do the best job for
the farm.
Long-term tenant in place.
(37:02):
We put a fair rent on it.
They want to take care of thefarm because it's in their best
interest to get the highestyield and to continue to have
that farm in their operation forefficiency and buying at scale
of bulk products and inputs.
So it'd be like somebody goinginto a commercial building.
It's not only somebody goinginto a commercial building.
You put Verizon as a tenant inor Subway or Edward Jones or
whatever as a tenant in orSubway or Edward Jones or
(37:23):
whatever Anchor.
So there's like corporateAnchor or Big One, and then
corporate structure, tenant,guaranteed lease, all the things
.
And then there's like the stepdown of the pretty good tenant
that's got a good business andthen there's a tenant that's
tough and doesn't have thebackbone financially or doesn't
have a lot of corporatestructure.
So, depending on what type oftenant that you have, again
(37:46):
you're dealing with probably acorporation instead of an
individual If you have a problem, good luck getting a hold of
anybody that can make a decision, or you have somebody that
doesn't have the financialsupport.
With agriculture, especially,and with renting hunting land, I
mean, there's just so manyoptions.
I could talk about it all day.
Agriculture, especially, andwith renting hunting land, I
mean there's just so manyoptions.
I could talk about it all day.
But the farm is backed by thegovernment.
(38:08):
It's backed by subsidy-growingproducts.
So if a farmer doesn't make it,I understand it's hard.
I understand there's weather, Iunderstand there's inputs.
I understand all these things.
But in land and in farmingthere's always another crop.
There's always a better way todo it, different, or a different
way to do it better.
There's always an opportunityto do something with a piece of
(38:29):
land.
It's like okay, I can't rent itout, can I put it in a CRP?
Can I put it in a WRP?
Can I log the timber?
Can I put up a solar field?
Can I put up a wind farm?
Can I extract the dirt and sellall the topsoil?
What are the options With acommercial building?
It's like only A quality retailor only B quality industrial and
only these tenants in that area.
(38:51):
You just have far less optionsto get creative if you really
need to and a lot of timesyou're not dealing with if it is
a strong backbone.
You.
You're dealing with a farmerthat's running a business and
they're really good at that.
If they're successful at all infarming, they're great at it to
(39:11):
make it.
In today's world, in commercialman, things change so fast to
where that tenant can go out ofbusiness, where there's
liability there, where you'vegot to worry about people and
breaking into your property orfalling down on the ice or the
roof leaking or the.
I mean I had a giant AC unit godown the other day.
It's like those things are like25 grand.
(39:32):
You know, if I have a tile lineget plugged or you know a tree
go down, it's like, oh, thefarmer has the equipment to help
me out.
The tenant, the tenant's nevergoing to help me out with the
$25,000 AC unit.
I know that.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
That's a good.
That's a really good point, toois that you know.
A lot of times you don't evenknow there was a problem.
The farmers just take care ofit, the ranchers just take care
of it.
They don't even call you.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Yeah, I bought a farm a couple months ago here and I
told the tenant hey, I know thedriveways need to be widened so
you guys get bigger equipment inthere.
I know those trees out backneed to get scrubbed up and you
know that rock pile get pushedback a little bit.
You know here's what we'replanning on doing it.
And he's like no, you don'thave to do that.
If we're renting ground fromyou, we'll take care of it all.
I I prefer we take care of itand we'll let you know when
(40:15):
we're done.
And I was like no, we'll treatit like our own.
We appreciate your rent andoutground to us, we'll take care
of it, not a problem at all.
Let us know if you find anotherfarm that you'd like to be an
investor on.
I've had a lot of rentals Not alot compared to a lot of folks,
but I've had enough to see it atscale.
(40:39):
I've never had that happen inany other asset class of real
estate.
It just doesn't happen.
I mean, I have people likethey'd paint or replace
something they broke, but you'renot going out of their way to
make your property better.
It's about them, not about you.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
And then you know, yeah, just goes back to say is
like, most of the time when theymove out it's not as good as it
was when they moved.
So there's investment thatneeds to be done.
All right, jacob, I'm going toput you on the spot.
(41:10):
Past year or two years, we'veseen quite a few records in farm
grant sales.
Do we have some more recordscoming in 2024 here, or are we
going to take a break from thatfor a while?
Do you think?
Speaker 3 (41:19):
I mean I think we were the first one to sell a
farm in Iowa for $30,000 an acre.
They were bouncing around inthe 20s and it was amazing who
was buying and who's stillbuying.
We sold the farm the other dayto a 30-year-old female as an
investment and it's like peoplethink, oh, investor, and all
these big corporations and allthis.
It's like let me show you someinvestors, look how cool these
(41:41):
people are and what they'redoing, what they have going on.
So farmland, hunting land,recreational ground, rural real
estate, if interest is going tobe 7% plus and corn is going to
be $4 or less, and pork and youknow all these input prices
being crazy, it has to come downLike it is overpriced and it
(42:03):
has to come down.
But the thing that is loomingback there all the time is the
scarcity factor or the peoplethat are involved with a 1031
exchange.
I mean we sold like seven farmsin the last 72 hours over the
course of the weekend and six ofthem were 1031 exchanges out of
other real estate, primarilyfarms adjacent to cities or road
(42:25):
projects or solar projects orwind projects, or 1033 exchanges
out of Corps of Engineers stuff.
So, to answer your question, Idon't know that we're going to
see it in 2024, but I bet we'llsee it again before 2034.
You know, I think land ingeneral is going up and down as
(42:48):
it goes up because of a scarcity.
From a scarcity standpoint, wehave less farmland, less hunting
land, less of this high-qualityproduct that grows food and
fiber every day.
So like you can't build more ofit, and if you do build
anything, you're building on itand taking away those acres.
We're losing a million acres ayear in farmland certified
cropland acres a year in the US,and I bet we're losing double
(43:09):
to triple of that inrecreational ground.
So it's done pretty welloutside of the 80s and that
crisis.
But that was a debt leverageproblem and a commodity problem.
Could we have that again?
Sure, but there's so much moreequity in the dirt today, the
(43:30):
amount of people that have loanson land today they're primarily
owned without debt.
Big interest rates, lowcommodity prices.
I don't know that that crasheslike it did before because that
was a debt leverage problem andcash flow went away because of
the trade issues and the supplyand demand issues of the crop.
So I don't think, to answeryour question, that it's going
to be in 2024, but I bet we willsee it again before 2034.
(43:51):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
That's a fair answer yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:58):
I mean if I had the crystal ball I would have all
the money in the world.
But the reality is, if you'reconsistently advancing,
consistently taking care of goodfarms, they're going to bring
good value if you need to sellout of them, whether the
market's up, down or sideways.
I mean we thought there wasgoing to be a huge crash and a
huge buying opportunity and allthese investors had tens of
millions of dollars waiting onthe sidelines for us to go help
(44:19):
them, put it into farms to buyor identify.
Then it was like oh, oh, whothought land would double or
triple?
Because the government wouldgive away all this, you know,
random money that was warrantedor not?
Um, so you don't know it'sgoing to happen, but everybody
that's bought consistently overtime, I mean I know they're
still up today.
Speaker 1 (44:37):
Yeah jacob, how can we get a hold of you if we're
looking to to buy or sell someland in your part of the country
?
Speaker 3 (44:44):
Yeah, absolutely, highpointlandcompanycom all
spelled out.
Otherwise, we got 40, 45 agentsin Minnesota, iowa, wisconsin,
missouri and Colorado.
Do land auctions, sealed bidsales, traditional listings,
appraisals, farm management, youname it.
We have some very high qualitypeople.
But highpointlandcompanycom andif you ever have a question
(45:06):
about how to find an abstract orwhat that's going to look like
or how to do something on apiece of ground, our YouTube
channel, which is just HighPoint Land Company on YouTube,
is really trying to educatepeople on the topic and make
them feel comfortable with thebiggest transaction of their
family's lifetime.
So those are the places to findus online.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
Yep, I've I've watched several of your videos.
They are very informative and,yeah, so I will put all that in
the show notes so if people wantto check that and then they can
, they can get ahold of you guysso well.
Thank you so much for your time.
I know time is valuable and Iappreciate you taking the time
to hang out with us for a whiletoday.
(45:47):
I hope any 24 is good for you.
I hope you do double your size.
Speaker 3 (45:53):
We hope so Also.
I appreciate the opportunityvery much, kobe, and wish you
nothing but but happiness andpeace and prosperity.
All right, thank you sir.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
And we will see you all down the road.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
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.
Connect with us on social mediafor updates until next week.
(46:29):
Kobe wishes you success in yourland endeavors.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
God bless you and have a great week the american
land seller podcast is broughtto you in part by landhubcom.
At Landhub, we'rerevolutionizing land
transactions by effectivelyconnecting buyers and sellers.
Say goodbye to the struggle offinding or marketing land for
sale.
We understand the power of newmedia marketing, leveraging
(46:56):
social media and targeted ads tobring together the ideal
audience for all property types.
Landhubcom, where your landjourney begins, and American
Legacy Land Company.
At American Legacy, we redefineexcellence in real estate.
Explore our top qualityofferings, featuring farms,
(47:18):
ranches, recreational propertiesand even development projects
spanning 10 Midwest states.
Visit us atAmericanLegacyLandCocom for a
premium experience that alignswith your land ownership goals.
Whether you're looking atbuying or selling, we're
dedicated to helping you findthe land that defines your
(47:38):
legacy.
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