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American Land Seller Podcast
Welcome to The American Land Seller, the podcast dedicated to landowners, buyers, and investors seeking expert insights into the evolving land market. Hosted by Koby Rickertsen, an Accredited Land Consultant and Multi-State Land Broker with High Point Land Company, this show dives deep into market trends, investment strategies, and real-world experiences in farm, ranch, and recreational land sales.
Each episode features industry professionals, seasoned investors, and landowners sharing their expertise on topics such as:
✅ Land market trends and valuation strategies
✅ 1031 exchanges and tax implications
✅ Seller financing and creative deal structures
✅ Conservation easements and government programs
✅ Navigating legal and zoning challenges
✅ Building generational wealth through land ownership
Whether you're a first-time land buyer, a seasoned investor, or a landowner looking to sell, The American Land Seller provides the knowledge and tools you need to succeed in today’s competitive land market.
American Land Seller Podcast
#28 - Empowering Land Brokers & the Future of Land Broker Co-op/ MLS with David Light
In this episode of the American Landseller Podcast, we sit down with David Light, Chief Development Officer of the Land Broker Co-op and Publisher of the Land Broker MLS Magazine. David has played a pivotal role in transforming the land brokerage industry by empowering brokers and agents with greater control over their listings, marketing, and data.
We explore how the Land Broker Co-op, the only broker/agent-owned cooperative in the land industry, is changing the game for rural real estate professionals. David shares insights into the evolution of land MLS platforms, the challenges and opportunities facing land brokers today, and the future of digital marketing in real estate. We also discuss the impact of Land Broker MLS Magazine, its role in showcasing premier rural properties, and how technology continues to shape the land sales landscape.
If you’re a land broker, investor, or real estate professional, this is an episode you don’t want to miss!
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🌐 Learn more about Land Broker Co-op: www.landbrokermls.com
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#LandBrokerCoop #LandMLS #RuralRealEstate #LandBrokerage #RealEstateTechnology #LandInvestment #AmericanLandsellerPodcast
Hey everybody, it's Kobe. I just wanted to give you a couple quick notes before you dug into this episode. First of all, the episode that you're about to see was taped last year, about nine months ago, and so some of the things that you might hear in it might sound a little bit dated, but 99% of the episode we went through we reviewed it is still very relevant, and David Light is always an incredible person to sit down and have a conversation with, so I think you're going to really enjoy it. Second thing is we did take some time off last year kind of trying to figure out where we wanted to go with the podcast, Did some stuff, I changed companies, and so I wanted to let you know that we are committed to coming back to our every Friday at 10 am, central Time release, and so we will have these every week going forward, and we're excited to show you what we've came up with this year as far as new ideas, new folks to visit with. We appreciate you giving us that time last year to get some things together and get organized, and now we're excited to come back even better than ever. So look forward to what we bring this year and enjoy this episode Today on the American Land Seller, we have David Light, chief Development Officer of the Land Broker Co-op and the publisher of the Land Broker MLS Magazine.
Speaker 1:With a deep commitment to empowering land professionals, david has been instrumental in developing platforms that prioritize brokers and agents' control over their data and marketing strategies.
Speaker 1:In his role at the Land Broker Co-op, david oversees initiatives that provide land real estate specialists with tools to manage their listings effectively. The co-op, launched in 2018, stands as the only broker-agent-owned cooperative in the land industry, providing members equal ownership and a unified voice in the marketplace. Under David's leadership, the co-op has expanded its reach, featuring over 60,000 active land listings and attracting more than 4.5 million monthly views across its network of sites. As the publisher of the land broker MLS Magazine, david curates content that showcase exceptional properties and provides valuable insight to the market. The magazine serves as a premier resource for buyers and sellers worldwide, reflecting David's dedication to delivering quality information and enhancing the visibility of members' listings. Beyond his role at the co-op and the magazine, david is the founder of Open Fences Media, further demonstrating his entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to the land brokerage community. Today, we delve into David's journey, discuss the evolution of the land broker co-op and explore the future of land brokerage in an increasingly digital world. Stay tuned for an enlightening conversation with David Light right here on the American Land Seller Podcast.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the American Land Seller Podcast marketing regulations, economics and so much more. Visit wwwamericanlandsellercom and find us on one of your favorite podcast platforms.
Speaker 3:Okay, Kobe and our special guests, let's get started.
Speaker 1:All right, welcome back to the American Landseller podcast. We have with us today David Light with Land Broker Co-op. Land Broker MLS. David, how are we doing today? I'm very well. Kobe, very well, how are you? I am doing great. I'm excited to have you on to kind of talk about the Land Broker Co-op. I'm actually an ambassador for Land Broker Co-op, so I'm a big fan of it. But, um, talk to me just a little bit about um, like maybe your history a little bit david, so people can get to know you, and then let's dig into how come we have the land broker co-op today sure, yeah, happy to.
Speaker 4:Uh, thanks for having me on. I appreciate the offer, the opportunity. Um, I've been bouncing around the land industry for over 20 years on the media side of the business. I started with Farm and Ranch magazine when it was basically the magazine was the MLS there were no websites that's pretty much how old I am at this point and then after that went on to start Open Fences magazine and we acquired, through a partnership we acquired Landbroker MLS, which was the existing website, became the website for the magazine and did that for a number of years. And that was acquired by a large group of industry brokers and it was turned into sort of the basis of what is now the Landbroker Co-op by a large group of industry brokers and it was turned into sort of the basis of what is now the Landbroker Co-op.
Speaker 4:And I've retained an interest in full disclosure because I love the concept of the co-op. I think it's a very important part of the industry and was becoming more important every day as this industry shifts a little bit. But yeah, so I've been around for quite some time and you know, just love, I just love the space, I like people, I love land, I own land, I'm a land guy myself, um and uh, so it's always felt like the right fit being a Brit. It's always also surprised people like why? Why like the right fit being a brit? It's always also surprised people like, why, why does this guy have an accent? But you know, I grew up fascinated by the west, I guess, and ended up here and ended up working in the space that's very cool.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, that's, and you brought up an interesting point through that. This is, uh, this product is, is owned, and uh, by land. It was kind of a vision for brokers to be able to control their own marketing. Talk to us a little bit about the origin of land broker co-op and then how the brokers have kind of gotten involved the broker owners.
Speaker 4:You know, the land brokerage space is sort of the the dusty corner of the real estate industry, right, everybody's very familiar with, uh, residential real estate it affects all of us, um and commercial real estate and that and those two things um have existed side by side but are really quite different, and a different set of tools are needed to be really competent in those spaces. And there's certainly crossover. And the land industry for a long time has always been sort of not one but not the other, but the lines were fuzzy, okay, for a long time, unless you were, you know, really, a farm guy and you were just selling sections and half sections and, um, that's probably kept you pretty busy and I'm talking back in the day, right but it's always struggled a little bit to have its own identity, because it certainly requires its own identity. Um, I think the realtors Land Institute is an example of a group that have worked very hard and tirelessly to sort of promote that over the years and we see the co-op being. You know, we're the other side of the same coin with RLI. We work very closely with them and we have a lot of the same goals. We just sort of come at it from two different directions.
Speaker 4:So we were frustrated by the fact that we didn't really have our own space, as it were, and we were also noticing that technology entered the space some years ago and that was great, right, everything. The technology usually makes things better to a point, at least in my experience. So that was a welcome change. It needed to be freshened up. But that technology comes with a price tag, um, and it became cost prohibitive to be in the land specs. Um, in the residential space you might get a listing in. You know, six months is a long shelf life and there's deals that will sit out there for four or five years in the land space because they're so specialized. So you're paying the same kind of bills but for much lower moving product. And it really became difficult for people to afford their marketing. And a group of brokers got together and said what are we going to do about this? The costs are going up 50%, 100%, 200% and it just isn't there. So that's how the co-op really came about.
Speaker 4:Our suggestion was, if we create a co-op and everyone who is a full member is an owner and they will receive a dividend at the end of the year, we can put this cooperative in the middle of this industry and work with everybody. Right, we want to work with every website out there. We want to work with every technologist out there. We work with a lot of them because we believe we can build value for the broker. Everything points back to the land broker. At the end of the day, a healthy land broker is a healthy industry, right?
Speaker 4:So, um, there was a need. It was financial. It was also people were very sensitive to wanting to control their data. They they go out and in all weathers and take photos and videos and pay a lot of money for this drone photography and all the things you have to have now maps and just to then hand it off to a multi, multi, multi-billion dollar companies who then basically own it at that point. And that was, and that was a rough patch for people, and so we wanted to be a filter for that as well, and we got huge support right from the beginning. Everybody recognized the need for this, and if we made one mistake, it was probably starting too quickly and not taking a breath because there was such a momentum, which also has been very encouraging, of course, but I mean, that's really the reason we're here.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, it's been a journey well, you know, you, you kind of had mentioned that. Uh, you started out talking about the history of, of land brokers, specifically land real estate, you know, and just, and I think what's interesting is is that, um, for the longest time, like there were really no investor players in the in the ag world at least you know, and so you would have a local guy that knew all of the people around, that knew um, knew the property and and would be able to know you just go visit joe, and joe's gonna do this, and you know we're gonna find a person and what we're gonna do first is ask, you know, the cousins and I'll be everybody in the family if they want it, and if they don't want it, then then joe's our guy. And what's been interesting is is, with technology, you're seeing that that that old way of doing stuff is just so archaic, you know, and and those people that are still kind of in that mind space are just leaving a lot of money, and I think, um, you know, I think the marketing that we've created is it's just pretty impressive, you know, and so, um, so kudos to you and the and the guys that had the vision to do this. That, uh, you know to kind of and and again. Like you know, you mentioned rli, a realtors land institute. You know that's that's just making the industry better. You know, like that's just partnership with, with land broker co-op r and some other folks are just making the industry way better and so, yeah, it's very, very cool.
Speaker 1:So, david, I'm sure that there are challenges you know like, but one of the things I know that you're really really passionate about is your Get Connected program is basically is using not just having that marketing platform so that consumers can go to Land Broker MLS and find listings, but also be that jumping off point to all the other sites that might have and be able to help people sell property. Talk to us a little bit about where we're at with that and kind of how that incorporation is going and kind of how that incorporation is going Sure.
Speaker 4:And I mentioned earlier people. You know listing sites are important in the industry. It's an important way to present your product as a broker to the potential buyers, the public, right, they're very necessary. A big part of what we do at the co-op is Landbrook MLS, which is the website, the front-facing website for the general public to use. People throw around stats all the time but we are legitimately the fastest-growing website in the space and we continue. We continue to push that. However, the competition is stiff when you've got billions and millions of dollars. Um, we've always sort of maintained more of a quality over quantity, but that is also shorthand, for we don't have as much as they have. Right, we're still building. Um, we do believe in the quality side, um, one of the ways we have created a value to the broker. If you put your listings just on the land broker co-ops website, landbroke mlscom, and you became a member and there's a lot of values in there and you're going to get leads and you're going to get discounts and we have a couple of health insurance programs that you know drive, that were designed for us, that drive really good values to the members. You know there's a lot of other things going on, but you're not going to look at the Lambert Cov's website and be blown away by the leads, because it's still growing, although they get stronger every month. And, as you mentioned, we've done a pretty good job of working with others and other technologists. There's some really cool technology in this space now. I mean the ability to create and make maps and understand value through solar and you know all of these different things that are out there which just make a land broker and a land owner smarter, and that's how you maximize returns. So we've partnered with a lot of them. So when you become a member owner of the Land Broker Co-op, your listings go to Land Broker MLS and you upload them, or perhaps your brokerage does automatically. We have a lot of feeds that come in from brokerages. Yes, your listings are going to go on the Landbroker website, which is landbrokermlscom, but they're also going to go to the Wall Street Journal. They're also going to go to the Dow Jones's site, mansion Global. They're going to go to Acres, which is now you get into the industry sites. Is now you get into the industry sites, right? So you've got acres. You've got rpr, which is um. It's more on the commercial side. But we provide the land listings to rpr. We provide the land listings to the realtors land institute, site hunt, stand, land hub, um farms, usa land search, land Search, crexie, landgate, texas Association of Land Brokers, acre Value. Pretty soon we'll have Land ID. That goes live soon. Common Ground goes live soon and Farmland which is part of the farm credit system goes live soon.
Speaker 4:Now all of those sites, your listings, are being pushed there while you sleep, you don't do anything, and all of those sites are included in your $9.90 a year, $990 a year, or your $5.90 a year if you're a member of the Realtors Land Institute and some other groups that we work with that. They've offset and created that discount. I mean, $5.90 a year is what? $1.60 a day, that's a quarter of a cup of coffee. You know, $2.70 a day is three quarters of a cup of coffee, and that's before you put anything fancy in it, right? So if you were to go to the Wall Street Journal and you bought their minimum package of three listings and please don't quote me on this because I'll I'm not going to be exact, but it's hundreds of dollars a month right? All of that is already paid for on your behalf and included.
Speaker 4:Some of those sites have criteria. I think the dow jones property has to be over a million dollars for the mansion global site. There are some criteria in there, but that is a huge amount of value for a one-time payment or you can spread it out monthly if you prefer, with no strings attached. No one's making you sign a contract that you can't get out of a land broker who sits down across the table from a potential lister and says because this is what this whole program gets white labeled, you can put your own logo at the top of this page because you're the reason it's happening. You're a member, owner of this organization. You can look someone in the eye and say when you list with me, right, and you can lay out all the things that you're already doing. But then you can lay out this whole list of platform list Okay, and that is a pretty complete approach to the industry, to say the least.
Speaker 4:And I would say that once you get below the line the Wall Street Journal, the Dow Jones, the big mega sites, as it were and you start looking at RPR and Acres and LandHub and LandSearch and Crexie, et cetera those are industry sites, people whose eyeballs are on, those are already vested some way in the land space, right? So when they react to your listing, it's not a Zillow reaction. Nothing against Zillow. I use it myself, but it's not a Zillow reaction. Nothing against Zillow, I use it myself, but it's not a Zillow reaction. It's not a wow. I'd love to know what the kitchen looks like in that house and I'm never going to buy. There's a level of relevance there, so it's a really powerful tool and, yeah, we're very passionate about it because I think it's a game changer.
Speaker 1:If you don't mind, david, we're going to take a quick break and we will be right. The American Land Seller Podcast is brought to you in part by LandHubcom. Join us today and experience the expertise of LandHub's land marketing professionals, whether you're buying or selling. Let us show you the way in the ever-evolving world of land transactions. Visit landhubcom and discover what the future of land marketing looks like. Landhubcom where your land journey begins.
Speaker 1:All right, we are back with David Light from the Landbroker Co-op, landbroker MOS, and David, I've been a part of the ambassador program with the Landbroker Co-op for a while. Let's talk just a little bit about that. How did that get started? And it's really kind of an interesting difference from other companies in the sense that you have members that are so excited about the program that they're willing to go out and talk to other folks and try and try and recruit people into the to the co-op, and I think I've gotten, you know, 10 or 12 in my time you know that have signed up. So, um, it's, you know it's definitely not a. So it's, you know, it's definitely not a. In my area there's not a whole lot of land brokers out there, but talk about how the ambassador program got started, and what kind of a benefit is that to the co-op?
Speaker 4:You know the ambassador program is. It arguably sums up what the co-op is, right, and you said it yourself. There's a level of excitement and also, just, um, the observation that how important the co-op is for lots of reasons. It's not just a listing site, right, people, people have to get that out of their head. It's, it's a lot more than that, and the ambassadors kind of sum it up really, really well because, um, I don't think we've ever said, I mean, you may have got a free hat out of it, but that's about it. You're doing it, because you're doing it, because you understand the big picture, right, there's a 30,000 foot view here, um, and we have, I think, last count, we have 24 ambassadors around the country who use their own dime and their own time to go out and talk to groups or show up where we can't. We can't be everywhere.
Speaker 4:You know, a co-op is a lean machine. It is not running with some huge war chest. We keep the cost as low as we can and if there's profit at the end of the year, that goes back to the members. In a check Last time I looked, we were the only company sending money back, um, and it it's not a life-changing amount of money, um, but the point is it is a true cooperative and nothing, nothing embodies that better than the ambassador program, and it's been, um, it's been very impacted because brokers don't want to be sold to by another. You know the sales pro hey, buy one, get one. That's not what's going on here.
Speaker 4:This is an industry movement and they want to hear it from their peers. They want to hear it from why are you doing it? Well, let me tell you that conversation is so much more powerful and it's really been the backbone of a lot of what we do. We're always really proud to talk about our ambassadors. We put them in the magazine. The Landbroker magazine Spring issue is going together right now. Another benefit if you're a member of the co-op, you're basically paying costs on that. It's your magazine. Why you would put money in something else when you own your own and you can sit down the listing and say, well, actually I'm one of the owners of this publication through the co-op too. Is is powerful stuff and it's a beautiful publication. Yeah, I think the we would be uh, we wouldn't be half what we are without the ambassador program, because I just it surprises a lot of people. It really gets. It's an attention getter and it's very real. There's a lot of passion behind it, so we appreciate it a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's definitely a group of uh, of sharp. You know, like I'm not just saying that because I'm a part of it, I kind of bring it down.
Speaker 1:But, uh, you know like I'm not just saying that, because I'm a part of it, I kind of bring it down. It's pretty impressive people in the industry that are that are on those calls when we do them and and, uh, that um, uh, that are a part of that ambassador deal, um, and so, yeah, it's, it's definitely uh, it's fun to fun to kind of just go talk to people about it. I know, like I recently um I I changed it. I know, like I recently um I I changed companies last year. I've talked about this on other podcasts and so when I went through that um, I joined a company where I was more of my own land broker and nobody else in my company really did land. I was the only one to there's. Now there are almost 40 of us. Oh, wow, and they're you and we're from six different companies, and so you know, and a lot of the companies and again you know this book from talking to brokers all over the country is a lot of the.
Speaker 1:The brokers still have that old mentality you talked about in the last segment. Let's keep all the information to ourselves. Let's not share. I worked hard for this information. I worked hard for these pictures. I don't, you know, I don't want to share my commission with anybody.
Speaker 1:You know, like the, the, I can do it all myself and and don't bother me, type of mentality.
Speaker 1:And so you know, when you have people that come from that world and then people that come from my world, which is like man rising tight, lifts, all boats, you know, it's all.
Speaker 1:You know, like I'll give you everything I got, you know, and then, cause I'm always thinking about what the next thing is, you know, so it, it makes people, makes the industry better. Um, so you know, like that's just, that's just kind of one of those things where, like, I had a guy that just recently joined this is where my long story is going to get shorter. Um, that was like, like by the time he joined rli landbroker co-op and land up, he had figured out that he had gotten. You know, like, basically, rli was free, you know, by the time it was done because of the discounts that he got from the three different sources, you know, and all three of those sources work together, you know, and so, so and so talk about that, talk about your connection with that RLI aspect. I think at this point all the listings are going to the RLI site or they're working on it or does that change?
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, they're there, they're on the website. You should go to the connections area on the Realtors Land Institute site. You'll see all of the listings are provided by the Landbroker Co-op. Yeah, rli.
Speaker 4:My history with RLI goes way back to the first meeting I ever went to was in Las Vegas. It was on my first day of employment at Farm and Ranch Magazine a long, long time ago, long time ago, um, so I think it was 2000, 2001, 2002 and uh, that was my first day of work at farm and ranch and I went to an rli meeting in las vegas and and uh, proceeded to call everybody realtors, which didn't go down very well. And I met michael landreth there who was, um a very active. He became one of the national presidents, um, but was very active in the Colorado chapter and he invited me along. And I haven't missed too many meetings in Colorado over the years. We sponsor the ranch tour every year. In fact we were responsible for putting that together with a couple of members, steve Fleming in particular, in Colorado. So I mean I've done a lot with RLI over the years. I saw the value day one Anyone who's in this industry, you've got to get continuing ed.
Speaker 4:Why wouldn't you get land-centric continuing ed and it's affordable. They've got great instructors. You don't want to be the guy that says, hey, you're the last one through the door, close the door behind, right? A lot of people are going to come in and out of this industry, as it should be, and that's just the way it is. But rli and the land broker co-op, you know indirectly and directly, are sort of building a wall garden around the industry a little bit. There is a level of knowledge necessary to do land transactions and you know you've got to understand pipeline easements and mineral rights. Water rights is obviously a huge thing. You can get yourself in a lot of trouble if you're doing a one-off deal. So that organization, I think, has always done an exceptional job on their education and making sure people have the tools so they don't get themselves in trouble. So yeah, we're big supporters of them, they're big supporters of us and yeah, we work together very well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and to your point that you know like being a realtor, you know that's part of the rules of being a realtor is you have to know what you're doing right, so to be confident in the realm that you're working on.
Speaker 4:You have a fiduciary duty to your client, right? I mean, that's a pretty serious deal. Duty to your client right I mean it's a pretty serious deal. You can't perform that if you don't understand. You don't see too many land guys trying to sell apartment buildings. There's a reason for that, and vice versa.
Speaker 1:So, david, why is the co-op so important? I mean in your mind, in your heart, why do you think it's as important as it is?
Speaker 4:I think that if the industry continues just to give it all away to huge companies that are not vested in the industry necessarily and there's no bad actors out there, it's just a different mentality, it's a bottom line type scenario for a lot of these companies, and that's nothing wrong with that. So grew this country. I mean, that's all good, but you got to at some point take a step back and go. What is? How do we protect our situation 10 years from now? Right, how do we maintain a level of understanding that when somebody is thinking, well, I'm selling them, selling my house in la, wherever it might be, and you know, I want to buy a ranch in Montana, am I going to use the same agent? Maybe there's a referral in there? Well, no, because they're probably not licensed in Montana. But take it back. Maybe you're just buying a ranch or land in California. There's a difference, right, you're going to go out and you're going to go find someone to do business with that understands and has that knowledge. But it's amazing how few people actually realize that that's needed and and I think we are really good at educating the public as to, you know, use a land broker, use a land broker. This is why we use a land broker. Um, we do that through the front end. We do that through the farm credits, the sponsors. We have the sponsorship side of things. So how this looks in the future. We have a lot of support from farm credit systems and other sponsors.
Speaker 4:Um, some of the people in the get connected program are now turning into sponsors. Rli is a sponsor sponsor indirectly, and our final goal is to get to a point where there's enough revenue coming in from our partners and sponsors. That being a land broker automatically gets you a membership. There is no fee to be part of the co-op. That's the goal down the road. We want people to understand this is a place you can come, a hub in the industry you can come to and you can get what you need. Yes, there's discounts on travel and there's great health insurance and there's discounts at Cabela's and there's all these other things you can do, and your listing, as a result, is being aggregated across an entire industry at no extra cost. Industry at no extra cost.
Speaker 4:Um, it's a centralized. It's a centralized system that is way, way, way bigger than a listing website, and the quicker we have over a thousand members now, the quicker we get to two thousand, the the least expensive it will be because the more value that will be added. And, man, it's like an investment in future savings. And if the co-op hadn't existed in the first place, we drove prices back down. We stopped prices from going up as quickly as they were going, because the very nature of the co-op made a lot of people uneasy and they were like whoa, we better slow our roll here a little bit. I think a lot of people would be surprised how much money the co-op has saved them. They haven't even joined it, right, and I would say, if you're a land broker, if you're in this space, you owe it to yourself and the industry and the long-term benefits um, that become obvious very quickly to join the co-op. Put that cup coffee down, go spend the money at the co-op watch it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's think of other vices for the next segment from david, so that we don't take people's coffee away.
Speaker 4:Well, you know, I'm not putting my cup of coffee down, to be fair, right now, and I do enjoy the coffee.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can make your coffee once or twice at home once a week if you're on dire straits.
Speaker 4:To offset it. That's a good way to look at it. That's a good way to look at it. That's perfect.
Speaker 1:All right, brother. Well, let's take a quick break and we will be back. You got one more segment in you today, maybe 10, 15 more?
Speaker 4:Oh sure, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:All right, been fun talking to you. We will be right back Land isn't just dirt.
Speaker 3:It's where memories are made, families are raised and livelihoods are built. But when it comes time to sell or buy, the weight of the decision is heavy. Where do you even start? Who can you trust to guide you? For too long, land transactions have been treated like a simple exchange Numbers on a paper, a signature on a line. But it's more than that. At High Point Land Company, we don't just list land, we walk it, we learn its story and we find the right buyer who understands its worth. You are not just another deal. You are the steward of something bigger and we're here to help you navigate every step of the way. When it's time to sell, when it's time to buy. We're here Because land is more than just land. It's your legacy.
Speaker 1:All right, we are back with David Light with LandBroker Co-op. Landbrokermlscom is the consumer face, I would guess. I guess that's where people can go to shop for great land listings. Let's talk just a little bit about that, david, because that's important. You know, we understand now, after the last segment, why it's important to be a member for land brokers, but it's also an incredible tool for consumers, correct?
Speaker 4:You know, these days it's all about getting people to the end product as quickly as possible, right? That's sort of a which know I think is very important. I personally don't mind a bit more of a journey, um, but I don't think that's uh good for seo and sem and all the things that drive websites these days, right? So you know they did a great job, um, ct adams runs our operations and he worked with the developers tirelessly and they put together a really great user interface. It's very simple. It has a thing called an elastic search, so you can literally type in a single word and it will fill a criteria. Now, usually you might want to type in farm, karma, iowa and corn, and then you're going to see every listing that's relevant to you. So it has a very intuitive search which makes life easier, and then once the map shows up and you can filter it further.
Speaker 4:There's only so many ways to skin the cat these days on websites, so there's a lot of similarities between all of the sites and the target is always to make the experience as easy as possible. We don't overwhelm people. There's ads everywhere and flashing lights. You see what you search for, so there's no preference given. You see what you search for. So there's no preference given. But if you are looking for 75 acres in Colorado and it must have a horse barn, somebody's listing without the horse barn, which is 40 acres, isn't going to show up because they paid extra. Okay, you're going to see what you search for. It's extremely clean in that, in that respect, and I think that's that's a very, that's very important to people. They don't want to wait through things they didn't ask for so a company can make more money. They want to see what they need to see, um, so we've made sure that that is is searchable.
Speaker 4:The map interface works very, very well. So, yeah, it's, you know, the only advertising you're going to see on there for the Realtors Land Institute. Because we're big believers and supporters. They're not writing us a check for that. That's because they are important. And you'll see a farm credit. You'll see a lender. A lot of people getting into the land space don't understand that there is, you know, so many deals fall apart at the last minute because the high street bank actually only lends on the house and 10 acres. Even if you've got 500 acres, they don't really put value on that extra 500 acres and you really want to work with a lender that understands land and how to put a land deal together. So you will see those two things out there, but it's all about tools and the things that will help you be a better landowner. That's sort of how we like to focus.
Speaker 1:Right, and I think one of the things that's kind of a plus to a two is is that all land brokers are created equal on this site, right? So you're not coming to me and saying, hey, kobe, for a thousand dollars a month, we can make you the premier. You know, it's all about the land. It's not about funneling people to a particular property, like you said. It's not about funneling people to a particular property, like you said, because of the fact that Sam the land broker paid you more money than Kobe the land broker did. It's helping our clients and our consumers find exactly what they're looking for, which I think is epic in this space.
Speaker 4:It's a big advantage for us, because the consumer wants that too. They don't want to have to sift through a bunch of stuff just because somebody paid to have it there. They want to see what they want to see. And the brokers doesn't matter if you you sell a hundred million dollars worth of land a year or a million dollars worth of land a year. You're an equal member, you're an equal owner and you're of equal importance, right? Because, at the end of the day, this industry is driven at all levels, right? So, yeah, it's, it's a level playing field. Um, and uh, that makes our job a whole lot easier. Honestly, it really does.
Speaker 4:Um, and there are some brokers that are like, well, how do I get a premium membership or how do I become a platinum? You don't, yeah, you don't. But do you want people who are contacting you because it's pretty, or do you want people contacting you because it's what they searched for? So you're going to have a high percentage of quality hits that way and not to go back to Get Connected in any major way. But to that point, because of this program, we get copies of those leads. We don't get copies of the person. We're not contacting the people.
Speaker 4:We see a lead came from one of our Get Connected programs to the broker. So the brokers, through that program and through the Lambroke MLS site, are getting a whole bunch of leads every month because of that membership. So, yeah, that's all. That's all part of the whole, part of the value. But we're very proud of the front end of this site and how it affects um searches and how we're able to inform the public of hey, here's, here's how you do it, here's who you talk to and, um, you know, put quality listings in front of them yeah, no, that's, you know.
Speaker 1:Put quality listings in front of them. Yeah, no, that's again. I think your point to Amy Rome is is it's not just about one tool or one you know one agent. It's about making, you know, creating a product that, once the consumer figures out that it's there, that's their go-to right. That's the whole goal is like oh well, you know, I really don't care. You know I really don't care about this. You know this property I want to find, you know, irrigated farm ground in Dawson County, nebraska. Or you know, like I don't want to, you know, have to sift through three ranches and something else when I search for something specific, you know, just because somebody paid a premium price I mean, that's a, it's been a.
Speaker 4:the most positive comment we get most regularly is thank you for showing me what I'm looking for. Directly or indirectly, that comment comes a lot from the public, and one of the reasons we're growing so fast on leads and in the network that is the internet right is because a lot of people we get reuses, reuses, reuses Because the experience is clean and simple and they're not being sold to, they're just getting good information and being able to make smart decisions. So that's really key to the success of the site.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and it's easy to do when you're a co-op and I think the interesting thing is the last several years, I think we've been transitioning from the technology and generation or technology era into more of the information era. People, more and more and more, are getting to the point where, just give me where I need to go as fast as I can, don't lie to me, don't you know? And, and if you can be that trusted space, um, you know in in the, in our industry, which you are? Um, that's incredible. Let's transition to kind of one of the flagships of what we're doing is the magazine Landbroker. What is it? Landbroker MLS Magazine? Yeah, landbroker.
Speaker 4:Magazine. Well, that's kind of more of a passion for me, because I came from the print side, right? So people ask me how does your website do that? And I have to find someone way smarter than me to answer the question, because I'm not a tech guy. Luckily, we've got really good people, but the print side of things, you know, print, has changed a lot. Okay, it used to be the only option for marketing. It used to be the only option for marketing, depending on how a company is set up. Sometimes they will do print because they feel like they have to. Sometimes, though, that means they're not being very creative, in my opinion, but it's a great way to brand a company. It's a great way to improve your opportunity to get listings.
Speaker 4:Plenty of buyers still come through print, there's no question. Um, it's not the same amount, but what drives somebody to a property on a website? These are unmeasurable, right. So I know that when we send our magazine out, if it's a day or two late getting to a particular individual, my phone rings. You know where's the magazine. People wait for it, they expect it. They've been getting it for years. They got it when it was Open Fences magazine and the name change happened when it was acquired to Labrador magazine but it's the same magazine, and they said they'll watch by it magazine, but it's the same magazine, and they said they're watch fire. Now they use it as a quiet mls in some respects. What's new? What are the prices doing? It's something they can pick up and put down without turning on a screen and I I still I'm a magazine guy. I'm a great believer in in the importance of publications, but if I'm going to be in a publication, it has to fit within the budget, because my digital budget's gone through the roof. If I'm going to wrap something, it's probably going to be print. I don't know that that's the right move as we move into a situation where it's going to be harder and harder with all this new stuff that's going on in the world right now, with commissions and lawsuits and et cetera. It's going to be harder and harder for a buyer side broker to get paid and it's going to be way, way more about the listings than it's ever been before and it's always been about the listings, but it's going to be even more so and I'm going to be even more so and and I'm going to want to print element that I'm consistent in and that magazine is the best deal in town.
Speaker 4:If you're a member the first time you put a magazine ad in as a non-member, if you join and get the discount, you've just covered the cost of your membership. Yeah, or most of it. It's a no-brainer right. And Lambroker Magazine has a custom cover program. So for not a lot of money you can put your listing on a couple of hundred copies on the front cover with an ad for yourself on the inside front cover. The rest of the magazine remains the same. Your ad is still in there anyway and that can get directly mailed to a list of your choice local landowners. What to your office, you might want to hand them out. People use them in listing presentations. Here's a national publication, here I am on the cover and the inside front cover and as a member you're getting all this for basically cost. I mean, I think it's cost. They've got to cover a commission, they've got to cover a few things, but it is paper printing, distribution, you know, plus 10% or something.
Speaker 1:It's extremely inexpensive as a member and a huge member benefit More and more people need to utilize, to utilize it's a really great tool and I have, uh, one time I had a property that I did use the color cover um cover deal and it was pretty, pretty smooth it's. Not only was it slick, because my clients thought it was pretty awesome that their, their property was on the cover, but it was was also. I could take it to trade shows and stuff like that and be like hey, this is the kind of marketing that we do. I don't know what everybody else is up to, but where does the magazine go If somebody's interested in getting signed up for it, or is there a cost for the consumer to get it sent to them?
Speaker 4:No, I mean so. No, there's an option to subscribe and have. You can have the digital version for free and you can sign up for that. That's so easy. There's no hard cost to us to do that. So we certainly don't pass that cost, the fake cost, on. But the actual magazine itself? No, no, get with your land broker, get with a co-op member and ask them to put you on the list. They contact us. If it's through a broker, then we'll put you on that list and you'll receive a copy.
Speaker 4:When we started open fences, which was this magazine before the name change, um, we built most of the distribution before we ever sold a page and we have a phenomenal distribution on that publication, a very loyal readership. We can. We have lots of examples of the magazine being the reason. Somebody reached out and we were talking about it earlier and I didn't really finish that point that you can't always track where these leads come from.
Speaker 4:Somebody sees a photo in a magazine. It's usually one or two photos that got their interest. They don't have enough information that is going to drive them to the website. It might drive them to your website directly or to the Landbroker website so they can see more photos, so they can look, look at the mapping, so they can look at a video, and there's the guy or the gal that's representing it. They pick up the phone and someone will say, well, how do you hear about us? Oh, I'm on your website, great, hey, our website Fantastic.
Speaker 4:Well, yeah, your website probably is fantastic and it does a very important job. But rarely will that get tracked back to a print ad. But there are a lot of people that like to read this publication and have done for many years landowners, um and wannabe landowners, the future landowners and people who are considering selling and they want to know well, who does good marketing and they'll pick it up and go. Yeah, these guys are consistent. They obviously have the right kind of budget and attitude. Maybe I'll give them a call. It's important, it's important.
Speaker 1:I think one of my largest clients that I have and he's kind of an active investor. He called me out of my ad in that book. Yep, that's true, it's a great feature and he's kind of an active investor. He called me out of my ad in that book. Yep, sure, so it's a great feature, I think it even I don't know if I'm right on this. Does it go to like some FBOs? Yep, yeah, we have private jet terminals.
Speaker 4:Yeah, fbos, fixed based operators right. Yes, it does. We actually email a pretty large number overseas to potential investors as well. We don't really ship the physical magazine because it's just cost prohibitive. Um, you know, our goal is to keep costs down for brokers, give them as much value as possible for the minimum cost, right, and and? Uh, if we make a profit, we send them a check at the end of the year, and we sent checks the first year the co-op existed and we've sent one ever since, right? So shipping magazines overseas doesn't make sense, but it's very easy to provide them with a digital copy and we do have a good subscriber list on that as well. So it's far-reaching and it's really been around for a long time. Open fences started way back when, um, I mean, we're probably 15 years now of of magazines and over a period of time, if you're paying attention, you can build a really strong readership, right, and we take the readers and the lists very, very seriously. That's the backbone of any publication.
Speaker 1:Well, and it's, I mean, my own personal experience is, it's kind of fun because as an ambassador, I get a case of them sent to me every time, right, and so that's an excuse for me to, you know, throw those in the pickup. And then I go around and visit lenders and you know some of the farm lenders and and someone like you know some of the producers and different things in the area, and I can drop off that magazine to them and talk to them about what's going on, and it it's a once a quarter. It gives me an excuse to get out and go visit some people and and so, uh, it's, it's a fun, it's a fun deal, and there's people that they look forward. They'll call, like you said. They'll call and be like, hey, where's my coffee? Isn't it about time for spring to happen for us here, bud, you know, or the summer, or whatever. So, yeah, it's a cool tool that we have fun with.
Speaker 1:And, again, I think you don't have to be an ambassador If you want a box or something for an event you're doing. Uh, I, even before I was an ambassador, I called me like, hey, I'm going to a trade show, can you send me, uh, some magazines, and they would send me out a box of them um, so that I could send them out of trade shows and surprises, and and um, for a few weeks after the magazine comes out.
Speaker 4:We've got, we've got homes for every copy at the end of the day, so they don't just they don't go to waste, but, um, we always like to make sure we have a few extras laying around. So, um, yeah, no, it's, it's uh, the magazine's just a lot of fun to work on too, and you know it's. I miss it because I don't get a lot, a lot of time. David swalick runs the magazine for us, david z as we call him, um, and he's always happy to talk to anybody about the publication, and, and we're always happy to talk to anybody about becoming a lambroker co-op member, um uh, speaking of that, how do people get a hold of you?
Speaker 1:or uh, who do you want them to get a hold of at the Land Broker Co-op? If somebody's listening to this and they're like hey, I know, the website for consumers is landbrokermlscom. You can search all the land listings. I would imagine thousands and thousands of listings at this point, correct. But if I'm wanting to get directly in touch with you or somebody in your group, david, who do we go to?
Speaker 4:Well, if you have interest in joining the co-op as a land agent, land broker, then drop me a line, david at landbrokercoopcom, and that's just C-O-O-P, just like the hair, and I'll make sure the right person gets back to you very quickly. And, as far as that could be for the magazine, that could be for membership, direct membership, more questions If you want to get on, the curator is a biweekly digital piece we send out to the industry with updates. If you want to get on that list, I'll make sure sort of centralize your information and make sure the right people get it and we'll get you hooked up. If you're in this industry and you're not a member of the land broker co-op, you need to really seriously ask yourself why. Why not? Because there is not a compelling reason.
Speaker 4:There are a lot of compelling reasons to do it. There aren't many not to do it and it just probably is you haven't got around to it yet or you're just learning about it. Either way, reach out anytime. We're happy to talk about it. We love, as you can tell, I don't shut up so we love to talk about it. So please, please, reach out. We want you as members, we need you as members and we want to grow together.
Speaker 1:Perfect, all right, well, awesome. Well, I appreciate you taking the time today. David, I know you're a busy man and a great conversation and I learned a lot in I'm an ambassador, so that's that's good, that there's so much going on that even those of us that kind of pay attention closely are still learning. So any parting shots, anything you want to say before we close it out today.
Speaker 4:Just thank you. It's actually nice. Sometimes you do these things. That reminds you of a lot of things you haven't thought of for a while too. You're like, wow, man, this really is a good deal Forgot how honest I am. I get a joy in it, yeah, so we'd love to hear from everybody. We do appreciate the opportunity and thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 1:All right, and if you're listening to this and you want to receive a copy of the land broker MLS magazine, reach out to me. I'll try and get you on the list.
Speaker 2:And thanks everybody for listening today and we will see you all down the road as we wrap up another episode of the American land seller podcast. Thank you for joining us. Visit wwwamericanlandsellercom and find us on one of your favorite podcast platforms. If you would be so kind and you enjoyed today's insights, please like, subscribe, rate, follow and review us on whatever app you are listening or watching on. Connect with us on social media for updates. Until next week. Kobe wishes you success in your land endeavors. God bless you and have a great week.
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