#51 - How AI Is Changing Land Brokerage | Steve Atkinson, Fay Ranches & Pathcrest

Artificial intelligence is reshaping nearly every industry, and land brokerage is no exception.

In this episode of the American Land Seller Podcast, Koby Rickertsen sits down with Steve Atkinson, Principal Broker at Fay Ranches and the creator of Pathcrest, a technology platform built specifically for land professionals.

Drawing from years of experience representing farms, ranches, recreational properties, and investment land, Steve shares why the land industry needed technology designed around the unique challenges of rural real estate instead of adapting tools built for residential sales.

Together, they discuss how artificial intelligence, mapping technology, and better property data are changing the way land is bought and sold, while also helping landowners, investors, producers, and brokers make more informed decisions.

Whether you're a land professional looking to work more efficiently or a landowner wanting to understand how technology is changing the marketplace, this conversation offers practical insights into where the industry is headed and why relationships will always remain at the center of great land brokerage.

Topics Covered

• Artificial intelligence in land brokerage
• The story behind Pathcrest
• Mapping and property intelligence
• Technology built specifically for land professionals
• The future of land brokerage
• Serving landowners, investors, and producers through better data

Connect with Steve Atkinson

Steve Atkinson
Principal Broker, Fay Ranches

Broker Profile:
https://fayranches.com/team_member/steve-atkinson-utah-principal-broker/

Email: satkinson@fayranches.com

Learn more about Pathcrest:
https://pathcrest.io

1.   Instagram
2.   Facebook
3.   LinkedIn

Transcript

Land Tech Built for Houses

SPEAKER_03 0:09

Today on the American Land Seller, technology is changing every part of the real estate business. But when it comes to land, most of these tools available were built for residential real estate and adapted for us. Today's guest set out to change all that. Steve Atkinson is a principal broker with Faye Rangers and has spent years helping buyers and sellers navigate complex land transactions across the West. Along the way, he recognized that land professionals need better technology built specifically for the way we work. That vision led to Pathcrest, an all-in-one platform designed for land brokers. It combines mapping, property data, client relationship management, and marketing tools into a single system, helping brokers spend less time switching between software and more time serving their clients. Today we're talking with Steve about the story behind Pathcrest, why he believed the land industry deserved its own technology platform, and how better access to mapping data and property intelligence can help brokers, landowners, investors, producers, and buyers make more informed decisions. We'll also discuss where technology is taking the land industry and what Steve sees on the horizon for those who make their living on and from the land.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Welcome to the American Land Seller Podcast with your hosts, Kobe Rickardson and Britney Murphy. Kobe is an accredited land consultant and the CEO managing broker of Ironhorse Land Company, a multi-state land brokerage specializing in farm, ranch, recreational, and development land across the heart. Brittany is the chief marketing officer of Ironhorse, bringing top-level marketing strategy, brand development, and creative execution built specifically for the land business. Each week, we bring you real-world insight and expert conversations on land sales, marketing, regulations, economics, and the trends shaping the land market across America. Okay, Kobe, and our special guests, let's get started.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

All right, we are back here with the American Land Solar Podcast. Excited to have Steve Atkinson from Faye Ranches today. Steve, how you doing, bud? I'm doing well.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

How are you today, Kobe?

SPEAKER_03 2:33

I'm doing actually excellent because I think that's the first time that I've gotten both the name and the company right out the gate. So I'm feeling pretty good about this episode, actually. Sounds good. How are things in the sunny state of Utah?

SPEAKER_02 2:47

It's good. Hot and dry. Sunny is a good way to put it. It's hot and dry. But uh loving summer. Summer's going well.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

Yeah, summer is always a good time. We've gotten a little we've had a little bit of rain in our area this summer, but uh it's been dry for a few weeks. So we'd love to see a little bit more since it was so dry throughout the winter. But Steve, uh, I want to talk just a little bit about how long have you been?

Steve’s Path Into Land Brokerage

SPEAKER_03 3:10

You're a landbroker in Utah and also Idaho, correct?

SPEAKER_02 3:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

All right, multi-state land broker. So how long have you been doing this? And kind of give us just a little bit of a rundown on how you got into the industry.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

Sure. Yeah, this goes back to when I was in college, when I was finishing up college at Utah State University. I had the I had the opportunity to work with my father. Um, I studied business, human resource management, and entrepreneurship. And uh at the time there was a program called Cabela's Trophy Properties that uh some folks are aware of. And my father had a large chunk of Idaho that was his territory. And so I jumped straight out of college right into it. Um and that's how I got my feet wet with farm ranch and recreational properties. That was in 2010. So been at it for about 16 years now. One thing led to another, and uh, you know, I'm with Faye Ranches now.

SPEAKER_03 3:59

Nice. You know, I have nothing bad that I can say about Faye Ranches. Great group. Every single uh agent that I and broker that I have met from from Faye Ranches is just top-notch. How do you get uh how do you get into Faye Ranches? You know, like going from the trophy properties, which I know kind of is no longer uh around, or if it is, it's kind of I I we just had recent guests on that talked about that, they kind of transitioned into another another deal. But how do you go from that? You know, are you still working with your dad? Couple couple questions there.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Sure, yeah, you bet. So uh yeah, it was especially you've already if you've already had guests on the show talk about it, but it's it was kind of a surprise when they decided to dissolve the program. It left everybody kind of scrambling, going different directions, and figuring out what the next best move was. And several different paths came out of that. Ultimately, I still kind of focused on it on the niche of Farm Ranch and Rick. I went the route of going with Sports A Field trophy properties for a bit. Um, and then we we kind of just did our own mom and pop shop kind of locally. I saw that Faye Ranches was wanting to open up into Utah, and I I have my supervising broker license, or my I guess in it's in Idaho and Utah, it's the associate broker, and then it turns into the supervising broker. So I had the license to easily turn on the state forum, and we just I like to say we dated for probably about six months. I did some thorough research on them. They they go through their interview process with me, and largely the culture was a big fit, and uh obviously their platform carries a lot of weight for their for where their footprint is. And so that's when we made the jump. We opened Utah Forum in mid-24, officially got the lights turned on. You asked about working with my father. I still work with him. He's we have during this transition, it's kind of switched now, so I'm kind of the lead and and he allows to it gives him more time to maybe do some things he wants to do and allows me to plow forward uh doing what I want to do and continuing to push the growth and development for for land brokerage, right?

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Yeah, no, that's that's cool. I worked with my uh my dad in the trucking business for uh several years, um, years and years ago. And it's it's got its plus and minuses definitely to work with family.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

Yeah. You know, my dad and I I joke with people all the time that it's worked really well for my dad. I obviously love technology, and uh especially even you know, 10 years ago, we'd I'd joke with people and be like, Look, we're a great team because I'm out there with my iPad and I'm showing you exactly the coordinates and boundary sizes. And my father, you know, old school was able to be like, Well, if you see the three cedars that are up on the ridge and you go about, you know, 50 feet, you know, down the ridge and 20 feet this way, that's where the corner is, right? And so we kind of connected with two generations of of landowners, and it's actually worked out really well. But I totally agree with you. It's it's not for everybody to work with family, but it's been good for us.

SPEAKER_03 6:51

Yeah, it's it's definitely an experience. And uh, and again, like it was one of those things where we we were kind of hoping maybe one of our kids would be interested in it. That's not the case. They've gone on and done their own stuff, so um, but it's uh it's definitely a uh a unique experience to work with family. So yeah, not most of the time I can say it was been a good experience for me with my parents and my brother, but definitely a a unique world. Just going into like you're in the land business, and we're we're gonna really want to talk about Pathcrest a lot today because that's kind of your baby that you've your concept that you came up with. What did you like? What were you doing in the world that made you think, you know, we need like to build a lot more, a better technology tool for land professionals specifically, because we have a ton of stuff for residential agents. Yeah. And adapting that stuff to our industry is like not always that easy just because we're not the same, even though we're the same.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Yeah, exactly. You're exactly right. And a great example of that is you're you're correct. They build so many solutions for residential residential brokers. But I'll tell you right now, I'm working with a company that is working on like an immersive 3D walkthrough, not like Matterport, where you jump hotspot to hotspot, but you walk through the property. Case in point, super great technology. It's going to be able to be adapted really rapidly for residential brokers. For land, it's hard. If you're dealing with a thousand acres, that's a lot of data to crunch. But as far as my path goes, even since I was young, my brothers would always tease me. You know, we'd be out doing some project in the yard or some or help my dad with some weekend job. And I'd be over there trying to rig up some ridiculous way to make it easier and be like, Steve, look, if you spent that much time, we'd be done already if you just dove in on it. So it's always been in my nature and hence my degree in entrepreneurship. I always I love creating value with your with the existing assets of what you have access to. And so constantly, especially with the rollout of AI, and I've always had a knack at some technology. And so as AI is rolled out, my mind has just been on fire. Like, oh man, you can take that piece, you can take that piece, and then you can pull it together. But as you said, there are a lot of tools that are that accomplish one thing really well. And it's been interesting, they'll accomplish one thing really well, and then the big models come and they're like, oh, we do this now. And so you see those things

Transition to Fay Ranches Utah

SPEAKER_02 9:10

come and go. So just naturally for me, I was like, goodness, I need a place that can accomplish my tasks in one in one location. And so I tackled some of the things that were the most time savers for me, and that was where it started. That's kind of how Pathcrest happened, is I was able to build my own tool that has grown.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

So yeah, I think uh you said something really interesting there, you know, like the people develop something and then the big companies kind of gobble it up or like and adapt it. And you know, I never would have thought about that as a thing, except for I was I started my real estate career with Remax as a broker with them, and I own my own franchise and stuff. And I was sitting in a meeting with one of their executives talking about a tool that I used, and she looked it up like on the stock exchange or some sort of like investment website, was like, we could probably just buy that, you know, like we just probably buy that and just put it in to our attitude was just you know, well, we'll just to go acquired that company so that we can have that tool as a part of our toolbox. And I was like, don't do that, you'll screw it up, or not and say that, but but uh so when you say that, it's like you're absolutely right. And and again, like the thing I guess I would be curious to know is like I know you've developed this for you initially and kind of rolled it out to the Faye guys, and so so a lot of those guys are using this um program. But do you take into consideration when you're developing and doing all the work on this that it's probably a small niche group of real estate agents that are probably gonna be interested in land-based app?

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Yeah, for sure that's been a consideration. And with my mind always thinking of ideas and opportunities, over the years, you know, I've learned to stay focused on what puts meat on the table. And so ultimately at the end of the day, this is a tool that makes me more effective. I'm gonna be able to sell more properties, I'm gonna better serve my clients, I'm gonna make more commission doing it. And so the fact that it then builds out to more landbrokers, that's great. That's awesome. It allows me to service the niche because it improves my life in other, you know, in my personal career. So yeah, it is a niche. Um, but at the same time, you know, I look at the I look at the need and the way technology's developing, and we talk about things being being bought up or having maybe a short bell curve life, if you will. Take for instance, okay, take for instance shoes back in the day or clothes, you know, they were all they were all like handmade, all tailor-made to fit you, and then all of a sudden everything's mass produced, and now you can go buy a a a shirt at Costco, maybe it fits, maybe it doesn't. And then this kind of brings it back to like maybe you want to uh maybe you want a tailored suit because you got a family wedding coming up or a tailored set of shoes, and it's just gonna fit better. It's gonna work better for you. And so the way I look at it is yeah, there's there's all the mass production of of AI tools, but if we can build something that's just for us, we're gonna find a lot more satisfaction in it and a lot more utility out of it. So I that anyways, that's kind of my journey of thinking on it was originally, you know, I'm I'm building something that's gonna make me more successful.

SPEAKER_03 12:09

Yeah, and I think like a lot of the coolest tools that have been created throughout history are probably created with that same thing in mind. Like, most of those guys aren't sitting there going, like, I could make a million dollars off of this or a billion or whatever. They're just like, I really need to fix this particular problem in my world. Yeah, and somebody, you know, either they or somebody else looks at that and goes, like, man, everybody could use that. So yeah, it's really, really cool.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, I've even other side gigs I've done, I've developed uh physical products that I've sold before and they've got utility patents on them and different things, and it solved the needs, sure, but it wasn't a particular pain point I had. And this is something, I mean, real estate is like I said, it's the main, it's the main income, it's what I do. So it's so fun to be able to to tweak it and tailor it to be just right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

And I think that that's something that makes your tool exceptional, is the fact that you're living in it every day. You're not just somebody that is developing something and then, you know, like you said, answering a need, but not really your need, you know. So this is something that answers your need. And so that's why um I I'm sure like I think let's take a break right now, if you know, like if you don't mind. But when we come back, I think let's talk a little bit about like where does it all end? Because you've got like so many ideas of things to like kind of you know marry with this or or add on to the actual system that you have in place. And so I think it'd be fun to go through some of the ideas and then just kind of walk through people through what PAC Pathcrest is. But let's take a quick break and we will be right back.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

The Land Report. The American Land Seller Podcast is proud to be sponsored by the Land Report. For landowners, investors, and land professionals who want more than headlines, the Land Report goes deeper. Market trends, data-driven insight, and long-form storytelling focused entirely

Why Pathcrest Had to Exist

SPEAKER_00 14:05

on land. This is not residential real estate news. This is land, big land, working land, legacy land. Visit thelandreport.com and see why it remains the most trusted publication in the land industry.

SPEAKER_03 14:22

All right, we're back here with Steve Atkinson from Faye Ranches. There you see, I nailed it, Steve. I've got I tell you what, you got it. If you are a fan of the show, you know that I struggle with that. So uh it's a big deal for me. It may not be much for you, but Steve, let's go into okay, Pathcrest is um this AI tool that you have developed, and it's gotten to the point where you know, like you've you're bringing on staff, you're you're you've got a partner, I think, that you're working with on it, and it's a little bit bigger than it was when you first started. Let's go through, but before we get into that, let's go through what is it? All right. Can you just kind of in a couple minutes explain what is PathGrest? What does it solve for the land professional out there?

SPEAKER_02 15:07

Yeah. And I think I'm gonna try and tackle this question a little bit as to uh what it is for the land professional, but then also hopefully make it so it's interesting information for someone that might not be a land broker, might not be heavy in it right now. I imagine you probably have some followers that are just trying to keep up on what's happening in land, right? We do, yeah, absolutely. So uh the overall is you look at it's a it's a common problem, I think, if you distill it down to big organizations sometimes have a hard time to change. And you've got a lot of big software companies that maybe they've built they've built something over several years, and now they're trying to incorporate AI into it. And mine's the reverse of that. Mine was what can AI accomplish? And then we're gonna build on that. Then we'll bring in the other features into that. And that's kind of how it's developed a little bit. But what PathCrest is, is it's basically it is a central hub and repository for your um for your listings and for your buyers, and a little bit for your dashboard. I mean, a lot of people would say, well, isn't that just a CRM, Steve? You know, isn't that just a CRM that's gonna manage your relationships with your clients? And uh yeah, there's they're akin to each other, kind of a cousin, but but also not. So I'll give you a walkthrough, for instance, of of what I uh use it for at the core some of the core features that were built into it. The job of listing a property and selling a property, and this is whether you're a seller or a buyer or an agent, but that process I think is distilled down to three things. One is your job is to compile it well to gather the real life data. Farmer Joe that's been on the ranch, his stuff's never been put on a computer in in the internet. The smartest AI in the world doesn't know the way he's running his farm and might not know certain aspects about it, right?

unknown 16:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

So our job is to be the human that goes out and learns about the property, the ranch, the farm, gather all that information. And that's been the case probably as long as real estate agents have been around. And then even before internet searches and realtor.com and zillow.com, their job was to then put that into well, you know, back in the day, you just put it all into a physical flyer, write it all down, and get that information so it's communicable. And then the last step is to find the person that's gonna buy it. Where's that buyer gonna be? Are you gonna be where they're at when they need to find you? So, once again, let's back it up, you know, 40 years, and you would have a nice office set up in the center of town because your buyers were driving by out front, or they might be coming to visit town. And so you've gathered the information, you've got it where they can find it, and you've got it so you can communicate it. Those are the three things that I kind of distilled it down to. Well, AI takes that to new levels, right? We've evolved to the internet. People are searching online, trying to find things. But now the amount of data that's online is incredible. So I can take property information and using AI, um, I can let it know exactly where it's at on this planet, exactly how big it is. And uh now I can all of a sudden research the hunting opportunities on the property. I can research the climate. And so instead of guessing, I can tell you what the historical average is for the snowfall in the area or rainfall or what the average highs and lows in the summer. You get the idea. I can research the guts out of these properties. Anything from the recreational appeal to the area or why tourists are coming. I can research all of it because there's so much data online. I can even take the soil reports. Traditionally, we might pull a soil report from the NRCS and we might read off some new soils we've never seen because they're local to the area. Well, now with AI I can understand that. What does that mean in plain English? So it's I take all this information as well as I can take my handwritten notes, I can take all this real world data and I dump it into a repository where AI can help me with it and can help put it in plain English terms. And from there, it's sky's the limit. So now that I've got that, that's where it really tailors to the fact that now we can do all kinds of information, all kinds of things with that information. Some people would say, hey, that's the same as, well, why don't I just do that in Chad GPT or in Claude? You know, I can put in a folder, I can add stuff in, and that's fine. It takes a long time to train it. And when you have consistent needs, well, you can prompt that all the time. Or like PathCrest just has it built in. It understands your company, your branding,

What Pathcrest Does Day to Day

SPEAKER_02 19:35

it understands your voice, it understands the property now, and I can we can generate all kinds of things. Even so far as documents with graphics and pictures and you know, flyers and PDFs. And so uh PathCrest really started on hey, I want to take this lengthy process that I'm using in Chat GPT, and I'm having to revise things and it's generating, and then I re-revise, and then I'm like, oh, well, I'd also like to make this and then I create that, but I remember that I need to go back and find the iteration that was five times ago because now I want to make an email out of that. And it's just like, I feel like if we were back in the Egyptian days, we'd have this big scroll and we'd have to roll clear back to where we were. So Pathcrest is that central location, that central hub to gather that data and now use it, make it usable, make it communicable. I still like to keep human in the loop, so I'm not we're not we haven't built Pathcrest to go out and like do all this stuff for you, especially when when you've got to double check the information. But at the heart of it, I would say that's it. I that's a lengthy answer, but and that that's what it's there for. Well, and I sorry, I should I should jump back in. But even more so than that, we've built it in now so you've got it doing stuff for buyers, or uh, it can give you insights on your property because it's it's like an executive assistant. It understands what you're working on.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

Yeah, I think that that is probably the most powerful part of it is is it's doing like there's a a lot of us use AI every single day. And I hit the third segment. I really want to just dig into like you know, what your thoughts are on AI and how the world's gonna, you know, we're gonna all die in fiery bellies, or what, you know, like where is it going? But this specific, you know, this specific tool I think is it's it's a great tool for organization, like getting everything into one bucket and being able being able to like pick through that bucket, you know, for the things that you need. Whereas before it was even if you're using AI, if you're using AI, everybody that uses it consistently knows you can't just have one per you know, you can't rely on one because Claude may have a bad week, you know. So it's that's the truth. They're they're constantly evolving, and and so you've got to kind of pay attention to that. But I think Like expound just a little bit on like there's more to this. You've got intelligence built into this, you've got buyer service uh aspect of it where we if we have somebody that's looking for a property, you know, Pathcrest is out there, we call it platform because we do disclosure out there that we do use the program, we have them build it for our company. You know, it's it's building that intelligence so that we're smarter for our clients because and that we're able to serve them better. Is that fair to say that?

SPEAKER_02 22:34

Yeah, and I guess I I guess I've kind of undersold a little a little bit. I should I really need to talk to the customization of it, like people you mentioned where you guys have done it. Because it's not it's not meant to be a one size fits all, but it's built to where I can make it custom fit to you. So yes, there is a one size fits all. I should back that up. There's a one size fits all kind of for everybody. If a single user wants to jump in and use something generic, great. But like in your case, we took specific data sets that you're working with and specific branding, and I mean there's a it's built for your brokerage, right? It's built to make your brokerage more successful. And to a couple of the points that you're talking about, we I have built in some social intel to where I can put in competitors, I can put in um specific people that are doing it well, and it'll take my property, and because now it understands everything, it'll tell me who my primary buyer might be, who my secondary might buyer might be, where I can find them, what events they're going to, what things they what uh what uh publications they might be reading. And then it'll also take it'll also tie in, it'll be like, okay, if you want to look at the three platforms of Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, you know, this is how you should competitively position this property. And you should talk, for instance, it'll say you should talk more about lifestyle and legacy rather than just the raw features of the property. And it guides me through that. It'll give me the hashtags, it'll give me the insights I need so that I'm also communicating the right value or the highest value to the most likely buyer. So it really helps also drive that insight. And that's what makes it so customizable, too, is yeah, we talked about generating the information, and that's fine. You can do that on cloud and chat GPT and many places. But now all of a sudden we built in this social intelligence, this buyer intelligence. But let me give you an example. I've had I've had a couple brokers talk to me about this, but I'll give you a live example, one I was just talking to the other day. He said he went he went to go compete for one listing against four of there were four of them, I think, going for this listing. And he went ahead and he went ahead and used my tool, did all the research, did everything, and then he he went and used the uh the actual document creation tool I've got built into it. And so he pulled out several different slides or several different pages that he made. And he said, all four brokers came up with like the same valuation. And they hired him at the end of the day. And he told me, you know, they hired me because I knew so much about their specific property when I showed up to the listing appointment, and because my presentation was so well put together. So he took that, he took that in-depth research, created professional graphics, and he showed up to the listing appointment ready and knowledgeable and professional. And so, I mean, that's that gives us a leg up, and that's what we should be doing in this industry, right? We should be professional, knowledgeable, and ready. So I I thought that was a cool story. I was I was super glad to hear that. That was fun.

SPEAKER_03 25:33

Well, I think it goes to the generational differences that we're facing too, right? Like, you know, like now, like the the younger generation has grown up with computers, they've had a supercomputer in their hand since they were drooling and sucking on a bottle. And um, the older generation has relied on somebody else's expertise, the answer to a problem

Buyer Insights and Better Marketing

SPEAKER_03 25:55

that they may be solving. So, a problem that we're solving is marketing and selling real estate in a specific group, which is land-based real estate. And so, that older generation, I mean, I've just my experience has been though they're not illiterate to the computers and stuff like that, they're absolutely are all over it. Um, they do still require us to have that knowledge. Yeah, and those are the guys that own the land, right? You know, at least the farms and stuff that we're dealing with. And so having that extra mile of research and getting digging into the uh the real nuts and bolts of what their land is and how are we going to position that in front of people. And not only that, but you guys are taking it a step further and saying, we're gonna tell you the people that are gonna want this property, you know, like that's exactly you know, when you're when you're looking at the reports, and I guess you know, we're doing it a disservice by talking about it, not throwing it up on the screen. But, you know, it's got you know, helping us write our descriptions and using the data that we have, the copywriting, the the intelligence on who's gonna buy this piece, you know. And I've been pretty shocked at some of the times where I thought I knew everything about it, but because of something that that Pathcrest has is dug up, it said, hey, this particular person is somebody you ought to talk to, you know, because of the, you know, like I update the land gate report that I have on the property, and it's like, well, we noticed this transformer is within X you know distance from the property. This might be an interest, an interested party. So just absolutely phenomenal at the data. And and again, I think that a lot of younger brokers forget that our clients really are hiring a professional, knowledgeable person to market and sell their properties.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

Yeah. Well, you know, and even speaking outside of Pathcrest, AI is such a valuable tool. I'm I'm actually writing a an article uh for our land investor magazine as well, talking a little bit about AI and the value to the brokers as well as to the landowners. But I'll give you a I'll give you a case in point. I was dealing with a classic, classic old-time rancher. Well, not old-time rancher, classic, as in doing things the way they've always been done. Probably hates his smartphone every, every bit he can and doesn't want to be on the computer, right? Because he loves cows. He loves being out, he loves ranching, that's what he does. And I was working with him and he gave me a conservation easement on his property, and he gave it to me, and and through the due diligence process, like he actually didn't know how many AUMs he had on the property. To he didn't actually know he was overgrazing it per what he was allowed to do. And then he didn't know how many acres were not in the conservation easement because it kind of incorporated a different legal description than his actual property with with AI that's solved so fast, right? You put all that in there and you get those insights like, hey, did you know you're restricted on XYZ? And as a land broker, too, like I had to call him out on that stuff on the conservation easement because he priced it way too high. And in the due diligence, I you know, anyway, so you get the idea. So it's tools like this and others that help us also they they help us with our clients so that they fully understand what the marketability of is their pro of their property is too. And it's kind of like disclosures, right? The more that everybody knows, I think this the better off everybody's gonna be at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_03 29:21

Yeah. Well, and like I I love the fact that you've got in there a couple of little helpers, you know, that um you can ask questions and ask to help you through stuff, you know, because a lot of times, like we're using it from the pitch, like you were talking about with your guy that you were talking to from wherever. We're using it from we're gonna we get a property that we're gonna go pitch the listing to, we're gonna do the research on it, we're gonna put together our list, our you know, our listing proposal. And what we're asking it is like, what are our issues? Like, what are the potential issues we're gonna have? What's gonna be the pushback on the market? What are other things out there that's marketed right now that you know you can go through and just like get so much information? Whereas before I had to go to like 17 different places to find all of this.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that's the goal. The goal is to bring it all in there and just make us more knowledgeable and professional for sure. Yeah. I'm glad I'm glad you guys are using it in the pre-research. I think that's a huge value for brokers, is you know, it's not going to take you days to get ready for your listing appointment anymore, especially last minute. You can really learn a lot quickly.

SPEAKER_03 30:27

Yeah, and I think like, you know, like one one, I think you said this earlier, but it's kind of learning our company as it goes, and the more it learns our company and gets our personality, because you know that, like our company is a different personality than Faye, you know? Oh, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 30:41

Well, yeah, your market's completely different too, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

We have different focus, we have different, you know, things that we're trying to accomplish. And though we are competitors in some aspects of things, we still have, you know, there's there's Faye has a certain personality that I know, you know, like just from hanging out with the guys that and we're a little bit more, I think, rednecky than maybe you guys are. I know I say that with all the love of my heart. We have a different stuff. A little a little bit more gritty style, I think, than than Faye does. But hey, bud, we're gonna take a break. And when we come back, I just wanna I'm gonna pick your brain on like what your thoughts are on where AI is taking the industry, how how uh we as land professionals, aside from using Pathcrest, what could we be doing? So if you've got another 10 minutes or so, let's uh let's come back after the break and and talk about something. We will be right back.

SPEAKER_00 31:41

The American Land Seller Podcast is proud to be sponsored by Ironhorse Land Company. At Ironhorse, land is not a side business, it is all we do. From farms and ranches to recreational and development properties, our team brings deep land expertise, boots on the ground experience, and high-quality marketing to every listing. Whether you own land today or are planning for the future, Ironhorse Land Company helps landowners make confident, informed decisions. Visit Ironhorcelandcompany.com to learn more.

SPEAKER_03 32:17

All right, we're back here with Steve Atkinson from

Will AI Replace Land Brokers

SPEAKER_03 32:20

Faye Ranches. He is the managing designated principal, whatever you call it in Utah. He is the top Utah dog for Fae Ranches. And uh, we are super excited to have you on here today, Steve, because you and I are gonna talk for one segment about something that I absolutely am probably not quite as geeky on as you are, but I'm close to that geeky.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

I think so. I think you're there.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

I think I'm pretty close, man. But I don't know. You you guys, you're like your intelligence is way higher than mine. So I'm here to dumb it down if you start talking about things on like says the man that owns his company. Yeah. Well, if you got enough, if you got enough courage and money, you can do anything you want in America. But let's talk about the future. Okay, so where we're sitting with AI, I think that there's still, even though it's kind of a it's kind of amassed itself and a faced itself to the point where we kind of see what the idea behind it is, right, at this point. Yeah. And so, but there's still a lot of people out there that, and especially in our energy industry, where we have a lot of, you know, like we've had a lot of those seasoned, really awesome older brokers that have been doing this for a very long time and are very good at what they do. But they may be a little bit nervous about this replacing, like AI is gonna replace our jobs. What's your feeling on that, I guess? And yeah, let's just talk about that for a second. Because I think that's the elephant in the room when you're talking about AI, is it's just gonna become the land broker in five years.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Yeah. And that's a common concern for a lot of folks. And you know, it's gonna take more time than that. It's going to, it's going to, I think, I think it can reduce the amount of land agents in the market. But I but right now the fear isn't necessarily for me that it's going to replace agents. You know, the land industry is unique. And people usually come, I think, to land brokers because they can be a little bit more complex, dealing with water rights, easements, access, boundary disputes, I mean, all kinds of topics that can make them more complex. As opposed to like, I think I'd be more worried if I was selling in one specific subdivision where 10 homes are all equal just with reverse layouts on the footprints. Maybe I'd be more concerned because that's just a plug and play repeat sales process. But as far as AI goes for us, right now, I feel like it's just empowering land brokers to be more effective. It's not going to replace that human connection. Think about it like buying antiques or buying something special at an auction. It's it's unique, it's different. You need a little bit of specialty advice. And AI can provide a lot of specialty advice, but I think people really value that agent that has got their back, understands them, and is human, and that they can talk to and reason with. I mean, everything I said here, AI is working towards a lot of those features, right? But there's still something to be said for standing in the dirt on the farm looking at the field. So, no, it's not going to replace us, but what it is gonna do is the I think you'll see over the next five, 10 years, probably a lot sooner than that. I'm probably way overestimating that. You're gonna find the brokers using AI are going to be wildly successful with some of the younger generations that are inheriting these properties and these farms.

SPEAKER_03 35:27

Yeah. That's I think well, and I it's just like we were talking about too. I think you're you're f gonna be popular and are popular right now if you're using it because of how much data and how much more knowledgeable you can be about specific properties in specific places, right? Like you look at I have people say that all the time, like, oh Kobe, you sell farms in Nebraska, you know, that's pretty much all the same. To which, you know, like I can honestly tell you it's not, you know, like there's you know, there's uh there's southwestern Nebraska, northeastern Nebraska, and they're two different planets, you know, and so doing the research on on the things, but even that, you can't, you know, what is it you could you say this all the time when you're trying to talk to people about selling your product? It will get you 90 to 95 percent to the finish line, but there's still that not that 10 to 5 per 5 to 10 percent that still has to have that human review, right?

SPEAKER_02 36:24

Yeah, yeah. People are saying it all the time. They're saying human in the loop, or you know, trust but verify. Yeah, I'll give you another case in point, another, another uh client that I'm dealing with, one of my clients, a higher profile guy. I work with his staff more than I work with him. And uh, you know, when we initially got the listing, I I did a lot of research on the property, met with it, put it all in AI, and it it threw together an awesome email. But then you can guarantee I went back through and edited it, made sure it was phrased the way I wanted it to be phrased. It took a huge chunk out of the middle of my timeline, but I still had to do the work on the back end, and uh and his staff was like, Man, and you're an agent that knows how to write an email, you know? And it's you're gonna see things like that. I was able to better communicate. Um, it didn't replace me, it just uh it elevated me, right? It it enabled me, I should say.

SPEAKER_03 37:14

Well, and I'm I'm known in some circles as a little bit of a hothead at times. Like I'm very passionate. That's the word I like to use. My wife has other words for me. But I will say though, that I can sit and I can turn my microphone on and I can tell chat or kick uh Claude or Grok or Gemini, one of them, whichever one I'm using, I can tell it exactly what I think of a situation, and it will change my negative, nasty, cursing attitude into a more professional email that now I can send, you know, and so you know, uh like before that I would just tell people what I really think, and you know, whereas now it's like, and it's really helped, you know, at least in that aspect of to make me a better communicator, have it so that I'm clear, you know, in what my message is, yeah, and not coming across as just an angry hothead that you know that doesn't need their opinion listened to, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 38:10

Yeah. Well, I you know, I think the other part of your question was kind of where AI is going too, if if if I understood your question right. And I think I think the stuff that we're kind of talking about is is even several years old now for just rephrasing something in our in our tone. And it's just so interesting, you know, it's evolving so fast. Now that they have AI writing its own coding for the next version that it's going to come out with, you know, you can virtually stage properties, you can put people into properties that look incredibly realistic. You know, I I believe what is it in California? I think you have to label if you've modified anything specific on the picture with AI because their laws now make you liable. Because you might be like, oh, that faucet's broken, you know, or the chandelier's not it's not right, but the sellers are gonna replace it anyways. I'm just gonna replace it with AI. Guess what? Some states have you on false advertising. So a lot of the reality, we have it's gonna be harder and harder for us as people to to know what's real and what's not in marketing. Unfortunately, that's gonna be abused.

SPEAKER_03 39:10

Yeah, I I that that's the thing I think that uh I don't know, makes me f hopeful a little bit and fearful to some extent, is that, you know, like when you start hearing about governments and they're like looking at it for regulation and things like that. I I you know, I think there may be something, you know, especially when you're talking about likenesses and things like that, that people's likenesses. But I also think that AI and some of the platforms out there like YouTube and even LinkedIn. Now you're seeing LinkedIn giving a little bit of a like a notice to people of like, you know, this is this is uh detect AI detection or whatever they have on it. Yeah. So I've I actually was pretty excited when I saw that because like, you know, it's it's gotten real easy for even marketing departments to be like you can see everything's just made by AI. There's like absolutely they just like, hey chat, do this for me, or hey rock, imagine make me a graphic for my thing, and there's no real creativity that goes into it. Yeah, for sure. And so I think I think that's some of the fun stuff. Do you think that uh like if you were a brand spanky new to AI, you have you know, like lived under a rock and have not had the opportunity to uh to well, I mean, you know, there's people out there that are afraid.

SPEAKER_02 40:25

That's why I laugh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:27

So they're uh so they're just now kind of warming up

How to Start Using AI

SPEAKER_03 40:30

to it because you know, you and I are sitting here talking about how it's helpful and now they want to get into it. If you're a baby in it, what's your first step for somebody? What do you think they ought to try and and just kind of work their way into it?

SPEAKER_02 40:41

Yeah, you know, I can I can tell you this because I've told it to a couple of people already. Uh and it it might not be new to AI, but maybe they're new to a certain AI feature. And I've had people ask me, like, I just need a course. You know, I just need someone to teach me how to use AI. I just need someone to show me how to use Claude, show me how to use ChatGPT. Well, really, if I were day one right now, I would sign up for Claude and I would just ask it and be like, I don't know what to do with you. This is who I am and what I do. Where do I start? And it'll tell you. And so I think even as a land broker, and I see people I I talked to a broker the other day out of Las Vegas, and she just got into some of the infographic generation stuff, and she was super excited because it lined out all the specific details and features and information she wanted on one sheet, and it's because she played around with it and she just got started. So it's hard to tell someone to like just go and do it. But really, that's what she gotta do with AI. You don't need you don't need to pay for a course that's already six months outdated.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

Yeah. I I like that's one of my favorite things. I love to tell like my staff is just go break stuff, you know. Like there's nothing we can't unless it's a human being, like there's nothing that we can't put back together or fix or replace, you know, and so it you gotta go dig into it, you gotta, you know, like break it or whatever, you know, like try and try and do your worst to it. But I think the thing that I've really realized over using it for as long as I am is like the you do there's really no limits, you know, to what you can ask it to try and do as long as you're willing to do that 10 check it and make sure that uh that it's correct. Or and so I go back to what we were talking about earlier, is that 10% really is where the professional comes in, right, Steve? Is that you still have to know your stuff enough to know when something is off, you know, like you still need to be able to go look at that and know the hunting rights and laws and things like that in a certain w in the world enough to go, okay, well that's I'm gonna have to go look into that because that doesn't even sound like shoot an elk in June in Nebraska, you know, that doesn't sound right.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

So yeah, I think to put it kind of in perspective of the way the world has worked traditionally, imagine that we all could hire an executive or you know, a chief of staff or an executive assistant or a personal secretary, and imagine we only had to pay him like a dollar a day. Imagine that that was so cheap. Well, what does that require of you? It requires that you are a better leader, that you can ask the right questions, that you can see the value, that you can understand what needs to happen. And that's what it's doing. I think the agents that know how to use it effectively, it's that they are more empowered, but they have they have to know their stuff. Well, I mean, they can fake a lot of it, but it's gonna come out in that 10% when it shows, you're gonna look like an idiot. So, so really, yeah, you've got to double check everything. It's gonna help you, but you've got to be more of the leader, more of the executive. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:36

That's so smart too, because that's realistically like that's how I do use it. I use it for my research team. I use it for, you know, like that executive's pos, you know, assistant spot. And then that person that's supposed to be my executive's assistant, we're we're moving them more into critical thinking, you know? And so now we're like we're trying to help like I want you not I don't need you to do these mundane tasks. I need you to think more about how do you solve problems before they get to my desk. How do we how do we take care of some of these things and and take ownership and use the tools that we have at our disposal.

SPEAKER_02 44:11

But you gotta on that 10 on that 10% though, I mean ultimately the buck stops with you. Right? If you get that 10% wrong and you falsely advertised, guess who they're gonna sue? You. So it's very much so like it's a very powerful tool, but remember who's liable.

SPEAKER_03 44:26

So that is absolutely no joke. So Steve, before we finish up, just wanted to talk just a little bit about you have started doing some education stuff for the Realtors Land Institute to the point where I think you were one of the classes at the National Land Conference this year, you actually got to teach that class. Talk a little bit about like how has that been to come on kind of you know you you kind of were minding your own business as a broker in Utah and now all of a sudden within like a short amount of time you've created a technology company and are now on tour as a as an educator speaker. How's that transition been? Like do you find enough time now to to still work on the stuff you love marketing properties for your clients?

SPEAKER_02 45:09

Yeah yeah of course you know like I said that's that's at the heart of all this that's what that's what uh my profession is and what puts meat on the table and and so yeah there's there's still time for that it's been it's been fun though. You know I really like the land industry. For the most part clients are more down to earth. I I feel like we can be more genuine but also the colleagues and I think you know that and you've talked to other RLI folks it's it's neat how well people can work together even though they're competitors. And so the chance to be able to I've told people to the the chance to be able to give back in my way and to be able to educate at at the national conference and be able to have those discussions with people. It's really been a pleasure and selfishly it's been it's I've been grateful for the opportunity to give back to some of these folks that have built decades long careers and they help me out when I when I don't know something or I need to call on somebody to learn to learn something. It's been fun. It's a it's my way of integrating with everybody and it's it's been really fun.

SPEAKER_03 46:07

Yeah I and it's it I always tell people it's a you know like if the first time that you ever ate yogurt it was plain yogurt and you didn't know that you had to mix it up. You know you just drank the yellowy looking fluid off the top and that was your first experience with yogurt you probably aren't ever going to get yogurt again. But if you learn if you figure out that there's other things out there, you know, like strawberry and that you mix it up and things like that. And I I talked talk to these people all the time that I had a horrible experience with like a a professional real estate agent, you know, on whatever level it is you know and I'm like man you you know like if you went to one bad McDonald's would you never go back and have McDonald's again? You know like you need to you need to do that education. You know, that's your job as the consumer to go interview agents, pick the one that's going to be fit with you, your family, your situation and then be don't feel like you have to sit there. You can call us you know if agent gets busy and they're not calling you call or text them. You know reach out to them. So but I will say to echo what you said in RLI and the people that we hang out with most days, it is the top of the industry.

SPEAKER_02 47:11

Every single one of them has been exceptional to deal with that I've dealt with and so it is but there are people out there that are professionals in our industry that don't give us a very good taste in your mouth and so to that I would say it's we're no different than anybody else out there well you know it's like they it's like they say you know you should you should sur you're what the average of the five people you hang out with most and not to say I hang out with RLI members the most, but each chance to hang out with the good guys there is is a pleasure.

unknown 47:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:45

Good guys and girls I should clarify nowadays you have to clarify right but now that we now that we uh have uh I forget where I was going with that I guess.

SPEAKER_03 47:53

Throwing a blank but now that we've come to the end here I just wanted to can you tell people know how we can get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_02 47:59

Yeah well I'm easily findable just like most agents online you can Google who I am and find me. But uh yeah I'd say just uh you can email me you know for real estate it's as atkinson at fayranches.com.

RLI, Contact, Final Takeaways

SPEAKER_02 48:11

My cell phone's online you can always reach out to me and uh give me a call or a text I'm happy to help.

SPEAKER_03 48:15

So and and we'll put in the show notes for all the sites we're gonna put your email address and the link to your um page at Fay Ranches so people can easily find you from this episode. What uh what words of wisdom do you have for the folks as we kind of ride off into the sunset today? Anything in bold amazing uh things that you've got to share with us right before we leave?

SPEAKER_02 48:38

No other than I think the the only thing I would say because where we're on the topic of AI so I'll relate it to AI would be if you've been wanting to try something in AI, just set aside two or three hours and just start. You you just gotta you just gotta log on it's it's incredibly easy. You'll be amazed at how easy it is just start.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

Yeah. It's uh it's it's fun to play with stuff and if you really want to just have a lot of fun goofing off I've been having a lot of fun with Grok Imagine right now so it's it's really fun to do some you know change your logo into liquid or into metal or and then animate it. It's it's fun. So if you really want to just do some goof off stuff that's one and again uh Claude is Claude they're all got their own pluses and minuses in my mind. And I feel like it's beneficial if you have the subscriptions to all of them to just copy and paste into the next one what the one said and tell it what you know it's no do they're no different than people. They get a little fluffy when you're working with other other AIs. So this is what this this is what XYZ said. What do you think about this? And then they'll Yeah well these are the good points these are the bad points type of things.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

Yeah well I can give you a a great example that could be fun and applicable for a lot of folks it's a little dated now but for instance you can just upload the whole big beautiful bill just give them the link and then you can just say how does this apply to me you know uh what what changes affect me and so something as simple as that AI is so good at synthesizing and processing data that that will start to open your eyes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:10

And what and once you're consistently using it make sure you s take the time to go through and set it up so that it's listening to you. You know like and and my last thing is and my staff will love to hear me say this because they love they hear me say it three or four times a day is don't have the long dashes the EME and dashes take those out take the emojis out take the emojis out take the dashes out and spend some time you know telling it I don't I don't say stuff like that. Spend the time to to say it in your words but use it as you know like a research and and tone and things like that. So well Kobe thanks for having me on today. Yeah but it was so much fun man I I always learn so much when I'm hanging out with you and I appreciate your friendship and all you've done for Ironhorse with helping us get our Pathcrest our we call it the platform the Iron Horse platform helping us get that all set up and it's a pleasure man going for it. I know once my guys finally wrap their heads around it it's going to be a a crazy crazy awesome tool for us. So no that's great. We will uh we appreciate you and uh love all the guys at Faye Ranches so hopefully they can you can share this out with your team so they can so they can maybe follow and and like and follow the American Landseller podcast it's got some great information and some always some awesome people. Sounds great all right well that's all for today and we will see you all down the road.

SPEAKER_01 51:43

Thanks Bill as we wrap up another episode of the American Landseller Podcast thank you for spending part of your week with us for more episodes resources and updates visit www.americanlandseller.com and be sure to find us on your favorite podcast platform. If you found value in today's conversation please like subscribe follow rate and review the show on whatever app you are listening or watching it helps more landowners and land professionals find the podcast. You can also connect with us on social media for updates, new episodes and behind the scenes content. Until next week Kobe and Brittany wish you stick in all your land endeavors God bless you and have a great day.

SPEAKER_00 52:34

The American Landseller podcast is brought to you in part by the Land Report. The Land Report is the premier publication covering land ownership land markets and the people shaping the future of land in America from farmland and ranches to timber, conservation and legacy properties, the Land Report delivers deep reporting, trusted insight, and long form storytelling focused entirely on land. Learn more at thelandreport. We are also proud to be sponsored by Ironhorse Land Company, a multi-state land brokerage specializing in farm, ranch, recreational and development land across the heartland. Built by land professionals, Iron Horse Land Company sets the iron standard through high quality marketing, real world land expertise, and a boots on the ground approach that puts landowners first. To learn more visit Ironhorse Landcompanies dot coming out of the