Buying a house and buying a ranch are two entirely different ball games, and this week Mirr Ranch Group founder Ken Mirr joins us to break down why. In this episode, we walk through a practical, big-picture guide to preparing for your first or next ranch purchase. From envisioning your ideal property to setting realistic expectations around budget, location, and lifestyle, we cover the first steps that help shape a successful search.
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Links
6 Things to Know When Buying a Ranch with a Public Land Lease
4 Essential Questions to Ask Yourself Before Buying a Ranch
What is a Ranch?
Haley (00:06):
Welcome back to the Land Bulletin Podcast, where every other week we bring you experts in the field to impart their knowledge when it comes to the ranch and sporting property market, buying and selling advice, the latest best stewardship practices, as well as topics that impact landowners every day. I'm your host, Haley Mirr. Let's jump in.
Welcome back to the Land Bulletin podcast. I'm Haley Mirr, and today we'll be doing a little bit more of a 101 kind of how to prepare yourself as a buyer. We're going to be doing a beginner's guide or refresh of Ranch Buying, and helping me out today is the founder of Mirr Ranch Group, Ken Mirr. Welcome to the show, Ken.
Ken (00:44):
Hi, Haley. Thank you.
Haley (00:46):
Hello. We were on a ranch this morning for a few hours, and now we're doing this.
Ken (00:53):
Yeah, I've got cat hair.
Haley (00:55):
Yeah. I think I got a little sunburn. I didn't put anything on. So
Ken (00:59):
Maybe that's
Haley (00:59):
One of the first 101s, is wear sunscreen?
Ken (01:03):
Yeah. What is the temperature today? Anyways.
Haley (01:08):
It is March 19th and it's 88 degrees.
Ken (01:12):
Lovely.
Haley (01:13):
Yeah. It's
Ken (01:14):
Fine. I'm heading to Aspen after this to ski on slush.
Haley (01:19):
Yeah. We scaled some mountains this weekend and there was no snow. But that's not to say that it's a bad time to buy ranches. So they're still out there. And I think from what we can tell from the market, even Michael and I have been looking at even houses in Denver, but it's a really good time to be a buyer. There's a lot of power with buyers right now. So I think it's a really good time for us to really look at what are some of the things that buyers should be preparing for when purchasing a property. So we'll kind of go through, I know you've been doing this for 30 years.
Ken (01:59):
Yikes. 30 years. Yikes.
Haley (02:03):
Yeah. Jump scare. So this is old hat, but some people might just be getting into it like the nice couple we spoke to yesterday. So what questions should first time buyers be asking themselves before looking into purchasing a ranch?
Ken (02:18):
Right. It's like, why? And part of it is everybody has a different connotation of what a ranch is you find. What's the difference between a ranch and a farm? All these things. But typically, I guess when people are coming to the point when they're making the call, they've seen something, they've seen a painting, they've seen a movie or a photograph. They've been on a trip. There's a vision for something. And it's really trying to get that vision first and foremost to kind of like, what are you thinking about? And so I always just close your eyes and what do you envision? What's that ideal property look like? Because you work in different areas. I mean, Front Range of Colorado is way different than areas with more montage alpine settings, which are way different than parts of Northwest Colorado along the Yampa River, which are different than Wyoming, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Montana and deserts.
(03:30):
So you're really trying to get that because then it gives you a sense, okay, where have I seen that? Where might that be? A vision standpoint and the budget actually focusing on the budget kind of considerations are of course very big. This year we sold things from one and a half million to 120 million. So what does that look like in between? And so budget's very important and getting a sense of acreage. Those things are initially very important. And then all these other things fall into place after that.
Haley (04:16):
Right. And I think when people start looking, they might just be … Some people have bought ranches before and they're ranch collectors, but others this is their first purchase. And in looking at residential properties, there's must haves and nice to have. So for instance, when you're looking at residential properties, must haves might be school district. How do you differentiate the nice to haves versus the must haves when dreaming about a ranch property?
Ken (04:48):
Yeah. Well, I think the budget kind of helps and the acreage kind of helps. And then it's the other things, that's the amenities that are tied to that. You talk to some folks and they can't imagine being 30 minutes away from a restaurant or resort or maybe an hour. And there's people who are buying these things for hunting or maybe they're just buying it because it's pretty. And they want aspen trees and a creek or river going through the middle of the ranch and have lakes and ponds. And so you really do have to start identifying what that looks like. And it's funny, we sell things that might be 70,000 acres. And of course, for some people, that's just way out of the ballpark for what they want. And some can't imagine even thinking a hundred acres is a lot of property. So you're really getting a sense of what do they truly want?
(06:04):
Because a lot of times they're asking about a specific property. Sometimes they're asking about that, but you quickly learn when you start responding or answering questions about the property, but that they haven't really figured out where they want to be yet. So elevations really do matter, especially places like Colorado where we have higher elevations in say Montana, but Montana's further the north from a latitude standpoint, so weather and things like that make a difference. Climate makes difference.
Haley (06:36):
So we're gathering our nuts, we're figuring out what we like, we're looking at locations, we're figuring out, okay, these towns, once we figure out, okay, this is the location I want, this is a couple of reantries I want to look at. What are some of the things you should be doing to prepare even before those showings? What else are you doing in order to prepare even before stepping on the property?
Ken (07:01):
With the client particularly? Yeah. We're preparing them for drive time from wherever. You're preparing them for drive time, the access situation, how long it's going to take from a particular area to get to where we need to be. You know how it is sometimes. We can be driving hours from some particular town just to get to the ranch. And then sometimes you may be having something helicoptering out to the ranch, they haven't really experienced that and letting them know really what that experience is all about just to get there. And that's part of the beauty and the joy of some of these places is that part of getting there, seeing what it takes, how it's located, how everything is connected, the riverways, the roadways. I'm frequently taking, I think probably maps are probably my biggest tool for a lot of people where we can kind of show them where the public land features are, national parks, things like that.
(08:11):
Elevations will show topography maps and really get them prepared for the overall landscape that we're going to see and give them a sense of that flow because you don't get people … It takes a while just to get people to the showing, right? And we call them tours or I call them field trips because they're really a lot of fun. But heck, even getting people ready for field trips, it's like, okay, can you drive an ATV? Do you want to be a passenger? I found some people show up and they may be decked to the nines and here we are showing up in a pickup truck and things of that nature. We're really getting people prepared what we're going to experience. Are we going to do horseback and are we going to hike? You have to scratch and sniff these places to really get a sense of what you're looking at.
Haley (09:11):
Well, and as a broker, once you get to those places, what are you looking out for for your buyers? What are the things you might see where … I don't know that access doesn't seem like what they marketed. Or there's certain things you get on a ranch and immediately you want to tell your buyer what you're seeing, but you kind of have to wait till the end of the showing because you don't want to put on too much of a front. But what are some of the things that you're looking out for your client when you're touring a ranch?
Ken (09:38):
Well, you're looking for power. You're looking at the roadways themselves and getting into these properties. Some things may be connected to a county or a state highway. Access, I don't know why. Access just comes up so often because just even having a law background, I've helped so many clients. Actually, I bought a property years back and you're familiar with that, where we didn't have actually an access right. And I had to sue for access to gain, but I knew what the procedures were to obtain that access, but most people would never even remotely consider something like that. And you can be down a road and you think, “Oh, that's a county road,” but then you start looking into it. It's not a county maintained road. And then it might be a forest service road or a BLM road. And then what are the rights for you to utilize those roads?
(10:42):
Sometimes you'll look and there's no easement, there's no permit. Usually there's an easement or a permit or a right of way. So you want to look at those things and see … Those are the things I ask myself right away and there'll be other things like, “Oh, is there a road through the ranch and does somebody else have access to utilize that property?” And then when you start seeing irrigation ditches and you realize those ditches don't just service this property, might service another property, question mark in your head, “Okay, who else utilizes that? Who else may have access to maintain those ditches across your property?” You may not even have a water right out of those ditches.
(11:29):
There's so many things that go on. “Oh, there's a lake on your property. Oh, do you have a water right for that lake? “There are so many areas throughout the west where people back in the day just decided to create a pond or a lake, but they never got the water right to do that. And with the drought situation throughout the west in the last two decades or so, more and more area states are basically shutting those ponds down unless you can prove that you have a water right. Those are the things we're constantly looking at.
Haley (12:07):
And what are then, not to keep going sequentially through the process, but you go on a tour, you're with your buyer or a field trip, and then afterward you kind of figure out, all right, these are some of the things that we saw. These are some of the things we have questions on. Before even making an offer, what is some of the due diligence that you're doing with your buyers to prepare for an offer?
Ken (12:34):
Well, of course, the values are always really important. And so we're doing your best to collect data in advance of the tour of what you perceive to be like- kind properties that may have sold, that may be listed. In the West, some places it can be difficult to get that data because they are considered non-disclosure states. So we're always kind of trying to stay ahead. And as you know, we monitor all the sales that occur and we do this weekly and we have people within our group to just monitor listings across the way. Because we, as an organization, unlike a lot of, say, let's call it residential real estate that rely on the multi-list service, we operate in so many areas and oftentimes many of these ranches won't be on an MLS. They'll be just listed between a broker and a seller and they may have websites and they may have other things.
(13:40):
But as we say, we're very non-reliant on the multi-list service to do what we do. And so the data collection is a little more unique, a lot of times more difficult to obtain unless you have the connection to figure out what that is. So for me, that kind of valuation aspect is really big, but that valuation, of course, is influenced by what type of improvements do you have, what type of water right you have, what is your adjacency to some public lands or things like that. And then you get into improvements and infrastructure itself on the property and the list goes on and on.
Haley (14:23):
Well, I think a lot of this is done … That's why you have a due diligence process because as a buyer, you tend to have that time period in order to go through those things because title commitments are where a lot of these encumbrances and easements and restrictions, that's when a lot of this will come up. But it's always good, to your point, before even making an offer, really understand the market, the value, what are things going for? Do I have room to be a little bit more stingy or do I have more power? But then yeah, once you go under contract, there's all these other things. And typically, we as brokers, that's why you work with brokers have done a lot of this in the past in these different scenarios. So we're ready to go with that due diligence timeline, but what should people understand about restrictions?
(15:15):
So when you do get that title commitment, what are some of the things you're looking for as a broker that buyers might not be aware of that is a big part of what we do?
Ken (15:25):
Yeah. Well, and you mentioned title. Sometimes you may be looking at a property, it's not our listing, we're representing a buyer and we're going out to a property. Let's say it's listed. Well, do these brokers or sellers, do they have actually an updated commitment in hand to provide you as part of that? Getting them to disclose those things to you are so important. And clearly you would like a copy of a commitment before you make an offer because of those kind of access and those kind of fundamental things. So title commitments themselves, as you look at them, they provide a Schedule A of who owns it and what is the legal description? And then you really get into the schedule. What we really start looking at are the exceptions to title. What are the things that have … At least the title company has searched and found that maybe easements or easements, excuse me, or encroachments on the property.
(16:37):
Are there conservation? Is there a conservation easement on the property?
(16:41):
What are things that are there that impact value or impact your use? When you get a deed, typically we ask for a warranty deed and you get all these warranties and title, but all those warranties and title are subject to easements and title issues. So you're buying insurance to ensure you against all these things except these exceptions. So you better know what those exceptions are. And they can be as simple as a power line easement, so you have power to your property, things of that nature. But they can get, like I said, they can be a lot of different things. I mean, heck, it could be part of an HOA and you need to look at that. It could be part of a conservation easement. And then you look at these things and if you see that they're not insuring access, that's a big kind of hello.
(17:38):
So they're not insuring access. Therefore, there is a problem in defining deeded access. So let's say you're a buyer and you want to buy something instead of a cash buyer. We do a lot with cash buyers clearly, but let's say you want somebody that wants to finance that acquisition purchase and you find out that they're not insuring title, well, the lender may not be willing to lend money subject to these kind of access issues. So it's really important to know that what's the general makeup of these things. And title companies can be wrong sometimes too. When you look at these title commitments, they can be over-inclusive on their things. And then you need to say, “Well, no, you missed this. This is not actually applicable to this piece of property.” And so you can go through that little tussle here and there, and that happens quite a bit.
(18:36):
But then there's a lot of things that aren't even part of the title. And that's water.
(18:44):
Title insurance does not insure water. So then you got that whole … And title for water is very similar to title for land. There are documents recorded, and you need to find what those documents say, and have they been updated, and have they been abandoned? So there's this whole other process just for the water rights, very much like looking at title in some respect. But the interesting thing then about water is that can they prove they've been using this water? Have they been using it? Have they abandoned any of these rights? So that becomes so vital as you start entering into the processes. So you may get things and that'll say, oh, you have so many CFS, you got to convert that CFS to see how many acres that's supposed to irrigate, how many acres are they claiming they irrigating, that they are irrigating? And you break it down accordingly.
(19:46):
And like we were talking about even ponds, are there ponds there and have those things been registered properly? And there are so many things, you're right, that are more visual that you need to look into that you spot and that they're not always readily apparent just by pictures and things of that nature.
Haley (20:14):
Right. And there's tools. I mean, there's seller disclosure, seller property disclosures, thingd
(20:18):
Like that to help navigate some of those hidden items. But beyond the physical inspections, things like that, what's the team that a buyer needs to collect in order to go through the transaction other than the ranch broker, because we're here to help with values, we're here to look at title, we're here to do all these things, but what are some of the other experts in their fields that buyers should maybe look at hiring when purchasing a property?
Ken (20:50):
Yeah. Even though like I said before, I'm an attorney, I'm inactive anymore. So I can spot the issues and what need to be reviewed, but you still want legal counsel to review some of these things and document those. And especially getting to the values of these properties, they can get really significant. So that can be important. Occasionally we get into land use issues. One we had at Pitkin County was very interesting in that you have a property within the county that area of the county, well, the whole code for that matter, we'll talk about that later under something about the monastery though, that changed. And so you're worried about, okay, how does that change impact this property? And then you'll find within a given area, there may be a group, another kind of subsection or quasi-governmental entity that has also some impact on developability, development on the property and square footages and things like that.
(22:09):
So oftentimes you think about ranches and they could be very, very rural and they're agricultural zoning and it's great. Typically in those things, you can do quite a bit with the property that you have, but when you get into certain areas, Teton County, for instance, in Wyoming, Picken County, Boulder County, any more progressive counties, especially near resort areas, you're also thinking, okay, how does the county impacting this property? Regardless if there's a conservation easement or anything else, what are their impacts? What is the zoning allowed? Have you built out the maximum capacity for your improvements and how can you add value? Some land use is helpful. Looking at wildlife habitat, if you're hunting, what can you do? We, of course, as part of it, if somebody really interested in the hunting will break down the licensing regulations for that particular area, for that state, for that area, we're spending time looking at that.
(23:17):
Yeah, even streams and habitat improvements and how can you maintain those streams? And heck, even something as simple as a survey sold a lot of ranches in our time that never had surveys. And that can take some time to do too if it's never been surveyed. And it's not uncommon to work on thousand acres plus properties that have never been surveyed. And factoring that into any due diligence period of time is really important.
Haley (23:49):
And that's where we run into seasonality, because sometimes we go under contract and it's in the middle of winter, even though this winter's a little different. And we can't survey the property because the things you typically use to help survey, you just can't see because of the snow. And so it's like having all of this in mind when looking at ranches and going under contract and creating your timeline for due diligence, it all kind of plays a role. And sometimes they just take longer.
Ken (24:19):
Well, you're absolutely right. The seasonality, you forget about that. I mean, you can't see the ditches operating. You can't see the water flowing through the ditches. You have no idea. It's covered up, right? Right. So you're absolutely right. When the seasonality helps, that's why why do we tend to see a lot more things happen in the summer just because you can see it? And it's not uncommon to have 45 or 60-day period of time to do due diligence depending on … But it's not like a house where you got a week or whatever it is. It's not about … I'm less concerned about the inspection of the house. And even then, getting that and even knowing what kind of utilities do you have to service, do you have satellite? All those things really come into play when you start looking at these things and being engineering that.
(25:24):
We have clients that are very at this stage too in their lives, very concerned about personal safety and privacy. Those things are looked at from a certain angle that's different than, say, somebody else that used to. We were talking a little about some of the access. There are some ranchers over the years that have … And we're looking at a number of properties right now where they may have provided a lot of public access through their property. It was never memorialized in any document, but they've allowed people to gain access to some adjoining public lands. And then you buy it and let's say you're very somebody that's very private and you want to shut all that down. Oh, warning, those things can create problems from just a standpoint of your neighbors and everybody just saying, “Oh, here's a wealthy person shutting me out from this public land.” So when we work with clients, we're just kind of making sure you don't want to step into that fray, that hornet's nest either.
(26:29):
So there's a public relation aspect to what you do because you're asking them about what they want and we know these things are becoming issues. There have been people that own properties in the West and they don't like people floating down the river. And so they build bridges to stop floaters. Unintended consequences are you get people that are very mad. And so they go to their state legislator and I said, “Well, we don't like this. ” And then the state legislator, “I agree. You should have a right to float.” And all of a sudden you've created this huge controversy that impacts people throughout the state that have rivers going through their property. We've seen that, not good. So how do you even address people? What's the code of the west for some of these landowners? How do you deal with trespassing and things like that?
(27:25):
You're not necessarily in Brooklyn or New York or Chicago and saying, “You get off my property.” There's things that do happen and there's access that can happen. So you got to make sure people are understanding of what they're getting into too when they buy these things.
Haley (27:44):
Yeah. It's like knowing the community, knowing what's the demographic of the people who live here, what's the caucus that you're living in? What are these rules that you might not be aware? It might not be an HOA necessarily, but there are certain neighborhoods and areas where different things are expected from you. And that's where it's important just to lay it all out, do your research, maybe spend a few days in the town you're looking at before buying the ranch and see if you like the town. It's a big investment and you just want to be aware of everything.
Ken (28:21):
In so many things that we sell, there is an operational consideration. Very few are just ranches, especially when you buy a property that has irrigated hayfields that has run cows or some level of livestock over the years, now you're getting the operations and they're like, “Well, can you do this on your own? Do you want to outsource? Do you want to hire a new manager? Do you want to lease out your operations to someone?” “Oh, I have public land leases that adjoin my property for grazing cows. “Well, your lease on a forest service deal is a lot different than a lease on BLM or state land. You can assign over some of these leases on the BLM or state, for instance, to somebody in another company or another name. But if you have forest service leases, it's a whole nother deal. And you could lose your lease, which these leases can have a huge impact on value because you may have in some of these areas … And it becomes an issue of how important the operational considerations are.
(29:35):
But let's say you have maybe a low number of deeded acres, but a ranch over the years has been heavily reliant on leases in the mountains or could be just in the adjoining sagebrush sea next to you. And so a lot of times you want to keep these and you want to maintain these leases because they're important to the operat Operational character of the property.
Haley (30:03):
Yep. And I think we've had a couple different podcast episodes that we called Voices of the West, and we interview branchers who live the property every day and we know how to run the land. And the biggest advice they've always given too is just to know what tools are available to you. One of the coolest things about owning land versus an investment of stocks and bonds and things is there's so many ways you can use it. And there's so many tools at your disposal and funding mechanisms and federal grant programs. And obviously this isn't as applicable to every ranch, but there's so many ways you can leverage the tools at your disposal when it comes to owning land that I don't know if a lot of buyers are always aware of that.
Ken (30:53):
Well, we didn't even touch on the farm bill, things that help. We didn't talk about the tax considerations of conservation easements, where that sits in difference between even state eligibility and options there. You're right, getting certain grants for approvals to certain parts of your property. We were working on some areas where there's this big elk migration corridors where we helped somebody get recompensated for type of fencing, wildlife friendly fencing that instead of knocking down your barbed wire fence every year and having to put it up and all these things, there's type of wildlife friendly fencing. You're also there and you got elk grazing on your pastures. Oh, well, there's impact on your pastures. You might be able to get compensated for that. I mean, there's so many layers of … These are wild properties. And like I said, elk and deer and the thing have been migrating through those properties.
(32:08):
We were even covering some stuff when we were up in the … Worked with a buyer in Pinedale, Wyoming and helped him aggregate thousands of acres. And he never even operated a ranch before. So well before we put anything under contract, we worked with a good buddy of mine and a friend of mine that I worked with with the Western Landowners Alliance. We were on the board together and made him comfortable with what an operational looks like for grazing because the area is important from grazing, but it also had thousands of deer in the antelope that had been migrating in these areas for … And then you just look at it just like 2,000 years away, you're like, “Holy cow, I didn't even know that was possible.” And then you're thinking about operations and there's pinch points of where they have.
(33:07):
And it's fascinating when you hear about these things. And then you start letting people know, actually, there's an obligation that kind of rests on you when you're a landowner, especially those areas. Again, it's like the person that says you want to shut off public access. Well, now you got all this wildlife habitat, thousands of years have relied on your property to get to somewhere else. And how do you address that? And it's really cool when you start breaking that in. And I think, so you think about obligations, I do find that when people get to this level where they have the capacity to buy things, quite honestly, I think they become like the, I call them the Johnny Appleseed, where it's part of their life where they get to now get engaged in something that's kind of unique. It's not about managing people anymore. You're managing habitats and wildlife.
(34:04):
And I think many of them find it really actually captivating because it's not under your control. You can't say, it's not somebody on a shareholder on your board, you're trying to make happy. Now it's a whole different kind of enchilada. And I like that part of it because for them even it's like, hey, it takes them out of their typical zone of comfort. And then now they're actually thinking about these other things. And that's really cool to see that transformation. And just because you're rich and wealthy doesn't mean you don't care about these things. People look around and go, now they have the opportunity and to success in their life to do things that might make an impact.
Haley (34:47):
I think that's huge. And everything that we've talked about, it can sometimes feel overwhelming like, “Oh my gosh, there's so much I could do. How do I even get started?” But that's where we're here to help with some of this transition. And we have a lot of friends like you were talking about with North Waste Management. We have a lot of people that we can connect you with, good water attorneys because it is. It's this asset. Sometimes it takes time to figure out how to really use it in the best way, but that's okay. It's not going anywhere. And it's, I think, the coolest type of investment because as the markets fluctuate, as wars rage on, as all these things, land is kind of this asset that will always remain valuable and finite. And I think it's always a safe bet when looking to purchase a property.
Ken (35:40):
Yeah. These guys and some are multi-generational owners. And clearly we do have those folks who are multi-generational ranchers that inherited properties over time. Some of the new ownership might be different in scale and time. Maybe they only own these things for 20 years or whatever, but I tend to look at it as a law school and I take property law and you go back to the time of being able to own something and to measure it and understand what you have. And there's other areas of the world where a lot of the land was all part of the community or a tribe or things of that nature. So you have a chance to own property, let's say in the United States, more so than many other areas, but you also look at it and you say, “Well, you own it while you're alive, like anything, you can't take it with you.
(36:42):
So you're just trying to be hopefully a steward.
(36:49):
There are people out there who own land in areas that are known as slumlords and they just hang on and hang on and hang on. Well, you don't really want that to happen on some of these big assets that we deal with because that, they're just holding on because they're waiting for the next building to be built on it. Well, in most of these areas that we work in, they're probably so rural. There'll never really be any major development. They could be. You could be in the pathway of development for something in the future. And so maybe you don't have to manage it. But so often where we're at, you're operating a ranch and that's paying a fee or creating some income while you're operating, but your asset really is the land. And if you don't enhance it over time or take care of it, you lose value, unfortunately.
Haley (37:46):
Yeah. It's like any type of deferred maintenance, it's not just a house now, it's a whole property. So yeah, you're right. The only way that you could lose value on some of these things is if you just don't do what you're supposed to. Is Brother Raymond the one that told you that about that? Well,
Ken (38:05):
He talked about stewardship. He goes, “We're just stewards right now on it. And now we'll go to the next steward and they'll own it for a while and they'll take care of it and somebody else will.” And so you can call it your ownership, but maybe the way I look at it is there is a, between your ownership and somebody else, there is a financial occurrence where you get paid for kind of maintaining this over time. So you do a good job and you bought right and things like that, but you get paid for it, but you really get paid for that stewardship and the things that hopefully you do. And there's another way of thinking of it. And then it's just like, now you've done what you can and now it's ready for the next person. And you find families sometimes just after a certain period of time, maybe the kids just aren't as engaged as the parent was on those particular properties.
(38:58):
But yeah, Brother Raymond, we talked about that a lot on the monastery and nothing's forever and things, you learn that in the business the longer you're working on them. We have a lot of families that probably never thought that they would end up selling the ranch, but it gets to a point where the family starts having other interests and the matriarch patriarch may have passed away. And now instead of four heirs, you have 20 and that becomes difficult to manage and people just worry about it. And there'll be one or two people that might want to maintain that connection, but it's really hard. It's really hard to maintain that over time.
Haley (39:44):
Yeah, they don't make it anymore. And even just today, going somewhere that's less than an hour from home that I've never even been in that valley and you just feel this sense of solace that you can't really get from stocks and bonds and other investments. And the stressors of traffic in Denver, even though it's my favorite place, it's just a different type of asset. And it's just our responsibility as brokers to walk you through those next stages and steps in order to make a sound decision. But at the end of the day, we always say it's like dealing in fine art. If it speaks to you, it's meant to be, and we're here to help you.
Ken (40:24):
Yeah. Yeah. It's investment because these things, like I said, can cost a lot of money. There are obligations for you to take care of it really, because if you don't, your investment may not have been a wise investment. So there's investment strategies clearly in it, and it's always with land, it's always buying it, right? Quite frankly, it's always been my … Even when I was in the world of representing developers when I did some of that work and they would get entitlements to build homes and things like that. That was early in my career. That's fine. Those are those buyers. We just don't really … I don't know when the last time I had something. One of the biggest development pieces I ever was involved was like Wasatch Peaks Ranch. But even then, it was a big 12,000 acres and became like a Yellowstone Club two, so to speak.
(41:19):
But so much of our deals are really individual landowners buying for individual reasons, right?
Haley (41:27):
Right. Well, thank you, Ken. I know we spoke in more broad terms of what to expect and how to pray yourself as buyers. But if you're listening and any of these topics was of interest or you have more questions, please reach out. We'll go into more of the nitty-gritty details of each because Ken has decades of experience doing this and every transaction is different and you learn something new every time, even something that we're working on right now. So we're here to help. Don't feel bad about asking questions along the way. It's an important decision and there's a lot of tools out there to help you.
Ken (42:11):
Yeah. We realize the buyers of the … It's a fiduciary relationship. We want to make sure they do the right thing and it's really fun to introduce people to these properties. It's just, it's matchmaking in some respect.
Haley (42:27):
It is. Don't go into song. I'll cut you off before
Ken (42:30):
You do. I will. I thought about it.
Haley (42:32):
You're close. Well, thank you for being on the show, Ken. I'm excited for the next couple transactions that we have along the pipeline. And like we said, if you're a buyer and you don't know where to start, no place is too small, no ranches too small, we're here to answer any questions you have and help you on this process. So thanks for being on the show, Ken, and looking forward to speaking to you all soon. Thanks.
Ken (42:57):
Thanks, Hale.
Haley (42:59):
Thanks for joining us today. To learn more about the Ranch Real Estate Market or our ranch marketing process, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter on our website at Mirrranchgroup.com or give us a call at 303-623-4545. See you next time.