Each year The Land Report names a real estate transaction as the “Deal of the Year.” The award, which doesn’t necessarily celebrate a property’s price or size, recognizes a listing that’s truly excellent and distinct. This year, that place was La Bandera Ranch, an 18,054-acre property listed by Texas Land Specialist Joey Bellington.
The south Texas ranch ranked as the largest transaction in the company’s history and sold in just 26 days. Featuring three luxury lodges, a resort-style pool, 5,000-foot paved and lighted runway, the ranch offers a landscape richly populated with quail, whitetail deer, dove and turkey for hunting.
“To receive this kind of recognition from the premiere land publication is something our entire company is proud of,” Dan Perez, Whitetail Properties CEO and co-founder says.
“In our business, and particularly at Whitetail Properties, our Land Specialists must have an authentic understanding of the culture that envelopes rural properties,” says Jeff Evans, National Sales Manager at Whitetail Properties. “Each property’s worth is often uniquely influenced by local agriculture and the recreational pursuits of an area, like hunting and outdoor recreation. And it’s our job to ensure each client understands the nuances of a piece of property because those nuances define its value.”
Given these factors, it’s critical that Land Specialists are armed with an intimate understanding of the territories they represent. Bellington, the Land Specialist and Texas native who represented La Bandera Ranch, is a quintessential Whitetail Properties agent: His strong sense-of-place drives his success. A deep knowledge of land, local agriculture and Texas’ rural economy and lifestyle are the differentiators that separate Bellington, and all Whitetail Properties agents, from the rest of the industry.
Since its founding in 2007, our Illinois-based land company has come to be recognized as North America's top place to buy and sell recreational hunting, ranch, farm and timberland. This fact was cemented in 2019 with more than $1.3 billion in sales, earning the designation of “America’s Best Brokerages” by The Land Report for the ninth consecutive year.
Bellington says a growing interest in recreational properties is positively affecting land sales in Texas and throughout the U.S. A Land Market Survey released earlier this year offers further evidence of the trends Bellington observed. The survey, conducted by the Realtors Land Institute and the National Association of Realtors, showed land sold for recreational use in 2019 had a year-over-year increase of 2.7 percent, even outpacing land sold for industrial and office/retail use, which rose 2.4 percent.
Despite the difficult economic and societal times 2020 has presented, we have recorded healthy growth in April, May and June when compared to the same months in 2019. We continue to experience increased buyer activity in nearly each of the 35 states we currently operate in. In May 2020, our web traffic was up 45 percent compared to traffic recorded in May of the previous year.
Bellington says buyer motives are varied, but land is typically targeted by buyers to serve as a stable investment alternative or to enhance a family’s recreational and lifestyle choices.
“Land continues to have strong appeal for people who love the outdoors and recreational activities like hunting and fishing,” he says. “For many buyers, it fulfills a lifelong dream, something than can enjoy with their families. Now, the current market and historically low interest rates are great incentives to invest in a rural property.”
If you’d like to learn more about investing in rural real estate or how to effectively buy or sell rural property, contact a Whitetail Properties Land Specialist in your area. We are confident you will discover a truly enjoyable and special experience.
