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Today We Talk About REALLY BIG RANCHES in Montana Selling For Record Prices. Who is Buying Up Ranchland? Why? and Will The Party Continue?

The first thing you need to know about Montana is it's a "No Disclosure" state. That means there is no public record of what the big real estate parcels are selling for. The only way to get that information is to know someone in the business, somebody like Kim Bennett who has created her own personal database over the last 30 years of appraisals and sales. That is why this is such a special show. We have two of the insiders of the Montana real estate industry, the only way to learn about transactions and trends in this up-and-coming real estate market. Our second guest is Keith Gertsen, head of the U.S. Hedge Fund Practice at Citibank who can speak to the trend as a  ranch owner and investor. 

The second thing you need to know is THIS BOOM FEELS DIFFERENT. Montana has been discovered before. The first time was in 1991 when we were introduced to Montana in the movie "A River Runs Through It" and the second time in 1998 with The Horse Whisperer. There was a bit of a run up in prices in 2007 before the financial crisis, but when COVID hit people from all 50 States arrived, inventory fell and prices Rose. 

Kim Bennett has been appraising farms, ranches, and rural recreational properties in Montana and Wyoming for over 30 years and she has been selling rural properties in Montana for the past 20 years. 

Keith Gertsen, ranch owner and investor, currently working on the acquisition of a 26,000 acre cattle and recreational ranch. He started his career as a Wall Street trader and investor, but his interest in beef cattle and breeding coupled with his love of the outdoors and hunting and fishing took him West. Over the last two decades he's bought and sold over 50 large parcels of ranch land starting with a 20,000 acre property in North Dakota before buying his current ranch interests in Montana. He's currently working on the acquisition of a 26,000 acre cattle and recreational ranch in central Montana. He and Kim are working on that assemblage now. 

We talk to Kim and Keith about:

- What is considered a ranch? Is there a minimum size?
- Does it have to function to be considered a "ranch"?
- Who is buying up ranch land and how is that changing?
- How does the market think about cattle per acre, grass quality, mineral rights, water rights, accessibility to an airport or highway or train, and even valuing dinosaur bones?
- How has ranch land appreciated over time? (spoiler alert, 8.8% avg over the last 20 years)
- How has COVID affected the market for rural spaces now that more people are able to work remotely?

Finally, why are we talking about Montana ranches on a show that has been about New York City real estate and the surrounding suburbs? If you haven't seen Montana license plates in the Hamptons, in Greenwich, and in Palm Beach then you aren't paying attention. Montana is the new Nantucket, and we want to understand why? Is this a fad, or is Montana the newest suburb of New York?

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Roberto Cabrera - With 20 years of experience, I have been recognized throughout the industry for achieving outstanding results: Ranked nationally by REAL Trends as one of "America's Best Real Estate Agents” for avg. sales price of $4.350M. Sold a single family Townhouse faster than any other on the Upper West Side over $10M. I live with my wife and daughter on the Upper West Side, the neighborhood I have called home for the past 23 years. 

John Engel - John Engel is a consistently top-producing agent in Fairfield County, Connecticut. John recently won the 2019 Realtor of the Year Award in New Canaan where he has been the Chairman of the Town Council for the