Going With a Ranch Management Company

For some it’s a lawn crew. For others, a cleaning service or a pool boy. Upkeep on your primary residence often requires professional support. The same is true for a recreational property, particularly a larger one. This is where ranch management firms come into play.

By: Grant Gannon
 
A good ranch management firm can help make sure the best plans and people are working on your property. Jerome Chvilicek, director of management for Hall and Hall, says his company manages ranches ranging in size from 1,000 to 150,000 acres with the goal being to provide landowners the opportunity to have a prosperous operation.

As Chvilicek states simply, “We help absentee landowners manage their property.” Of course, there’s more to it than that.

“Some properties are leased to a tenant, and we will oversee the lease and monitor capital improvements and negotiate a new lease,” Chvilicek said. “Another aspect is where you have an absentee landowner that actively operates the farm or ranch, and we will help that landowner with marketing decisions, livestock purchase, and employee-related issues.”

In either case, the initial meeting between landowner and management firm usually consists of goal setting.

“We’ll do a ranch management plan for that landowner, which incorporates his goals for the property and how to achieve them. After that, we will help him implement those plans to meet those goals,” Chvilicek said.

As expected, Chvilicek says the main focus of management plans is to increase the profitability of the ranch.

“Long-term capital appreciation is a big goal,” Chvilicek says. “The capital appreciation would include, in some cases, wildlife habitat improvements to the property. At the end of the day, those habitat improvements would increase the value of the property.”

With a management firm on your side, you can rely on them to oversee capital improvement projects while you’re away. But they may also offer recommendations as to how to further improve your property and your profitability.

“We’ll collect rent, but probably the biggest part spent on [a] project is overseeing capital improvements and making recommendations to capital improvements needed on the ranch,” Chvilicek said. “It’s replacing pivots, redoing irrigation systems, redoing reservoirs, and things like that.”

They also help find and hire effective ranch managers and caretakers for absentee owners.

Recalling one client who owns a ranch that Hall and Hall leases, Chvilicek said, “That client came to us back in the early ‘90s where they had an individual on the ranch looking after the ranch for them. That individual couldn’t stay on the ranch, so we stepped in and started managing the ranch for them and managing the lease for the owner. We’ve been doing that for roughly 15 or 16 years.”

The key for Hall and Hall is experience. With 20-plus years in ranch management and more than 60 years in ranch sales, this company knows the ropes.

“The biggest thing we bring to the table is the diversity of our experience,” Chvilicek said. “We see a lot of operations and a lot of properties. We know what will work and what won’t work in a given area.”

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