What a ranch broker is and why you should use one

Home buying can often be accomplished over the course of a weekend. With only a car and the real estate section of a local daily, one can set off on a haphazard conquest of house shopping. With a simple ‘For Sale By Owner’ kit, anyone can buy or sell a house these days.

By: Grant Gannon
 
Ranch and land buying isn’t that simple, which is precisely why you’ll need the help of an established broker when you set out to buy land.

Brokers who specialize in the sale of ranch and raw land go beyond the standard neighborhood real estate agent. The local Century 21 or Remax agent is well-versed in a few zip codes. They are likely able to tell you exactly what to expect to pay for a house with certain amenities. It’s also possible they can also usher you to several properties over the course of a weekend. Brokers are well-versed in regions of the country and must possess a greater technical knowledge of the properties they sell.

According to Stoney Burke of Hall and Hall, “A ranch is a completely different animal there are no two alike. You’re dealing with all kinds of things in terms of state and federal grazing rights through the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Interior, the state of Montana.”  He continues, “You deal with mineral rights, timber rights, all kinds of boundary and access issues, livestock, multiple improvements, all kinds of things. How do you represent things and really understand what you’re selling?”

Burke says helping buyers identify and avoid the possible negative impact of issues like drilling or easements is crucial to a successful ranch broker. So finding one experienced not only in a state but a region is crucial.

“A ranch broker like Hall & Hall, we’re dealing in multiple states throughout the West. You need to be licensed not only in the state you’re living in but the states you’re working in,” Burke says. “We’re working in many states, and our company is licensed in nine or ten states in the West.”

Hall & Hall currently lists properties for sale in 10 states.

Burke stresses the difference in ranch and land. While the term “ranch” is commonly applied to a rural homestead that has some livestock and a barn, Burke says it goes much deeper than that.

“There is a difference between a large piece of land and a ranch. A ranch is a living thing. It has a lot of component parts that makes it a ranch as opposed to land,” Burke says. “The real bread and butter for a broker where the broker earns his keep is that he finds a ranch.”

Making sure the ranch is up to snuff is the other major role the broker plays.

“The second part is being sure, whether [the broker is] representing the buyer or the seller, is that proper due diligence is done so that the seller is making representation of what is actually there and the buyer understands everything he’s buying,” Burke says. “That involves a lot of different things in the process. Depending on the size and complexity of the ranch it can take anywhere from six weeks to sometimes six months. There are a lot of things to find out.”

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