The Land Podcast - The Pursuit of Land Ownership and Investing

Welcome to the land podcast, a platform for people looking to educate themselves in the world of land ownership, land investing, staying up to date with current land trends in the Midwest, and hearing from industry experts and professionals.

On today’s episode, we are back in the studio with Shan Twit.

We discuss:
- Shan closes on 170 acres on the Kentucky River in Woodford County with his dad and father-in-law in January 2026.
- Shan and his dad each buy out one of two Seattle partners for a third, with no bank and no financing.
- Shan pays for his share with money he set aside 50 and 100 bucks at a time for 22 years.
- Shan explains why Kentucky’s one-buck rule beat Tennessee’s three tags and Wisconsin’s wolves and draw waits.
- Shan says you can fix habitat, plots, water and screening, but never the “deer is mine” mindset next door.
- Shan’s most common shortfall is a canopy too mature to grow browse, which makes up 80% of what deer eat.
- Shan says to kill bush honeysuckle and other invasives before you ever open up the canopy.
- Shan weighs the veneer oaks on his steep north slope against the turkey roosts they provide.
- Shan sets off 90-second military smoke grenades at every stand because the wind apps are often wrong.
- Shan says it takes three years to really know a farm, and small parcels leave almost no room for error.

And so much more!

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:11 Who is Shan Twit? Palmer grad to Team 200 cameraman
6:42 170 acres on the Kentucky River and the workshop dream
9:25 Jake’s head tilt: what a chiropractor actually fixes
11:45 Why he waited to buy, and why Kentucky over Wisconsin
20:33 What you can and can’t fix on a hunting farm
24:34 Preserving the family farm: the partner buyout
27:39 Where most farms fall short: canopy, roads, neighbors
31:03 The $100,000 walnut: cut it or keep it?
35:27 The 2027 punch list: honeysuckle, soil tests, lime
41:22 Stand access, smoke grenades and three years to know a farm
49:58 Off-season scouting and small-parcel room for error
54:45 The March 13 workshop and what onX can’t show you

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would’ve been possible without them!

- Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding
-Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_
-OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt
-Painted Arrow: bit.ly/PaintedArrow
- Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/
- Use code ‘HOFER’ to save 10% off at www.theprairiefarm.com
- Massive potential tax savings: ASMLABS.Net

Welcome to the land podcast, a platform for people looking to educate themselves in the world of land ownership, land investing, staying up to date with current land trends in the Midwest, and hearing from industry experts and professionals.

On today's episode, we are back in the studio with Abe Aryan.

We discuss:
- Abe explains why food plots, screening and quiet access can make hunting-land buyers stretch their budgets.
- Abe explains how his family's commercial real estate deals shape his approach to hunting-land ownership.
- Abe weighs direct seller negotiations and financing costs before committing to recreational ground.
- Abe describes how grazing changed a Nebraska lease and helped push him toward owning his hunting land.
- Abe recounts a Kansas auction that led to a first purchase of roughly 864 acres near Bow Creek.
- Abe recounts buying his first three farms using satellite maps and trusted people on the ground.
- Abe includes interest, taxes and agent fees when calculating whether a property protects his downside.
- Abe learns why a local farmer's 400-acre field gets priority over his three-acre food plot.
- Abe buys his own tractor and no-till drill, then uses courses and AI to learn food-plot planting.
- Abe introduces Modern Woodsman and its approach to combining buck history, weather and property data.

And so much more!

Chapters:
0:00 Why hunting-land buyers stretch their budgets
1:09 Meet Abe Aryan
6:02 Family real estate lessons and financing
14:26 Improvements that help a hunting farm sell
23:19 From a Nebraska lease to land ownership
29:09 Budgets, deer access and fixer-upper farms
30:48 The Kansas auction and buying three farms
43:13 Protecting the downside and using a land agent
50:50 Food-plot mistakes and buying his own equipment
55:30 Learning habitat management with courses and AI
1:01:07 Modern Woodsman and trail-camera data

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them!

- Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding
-Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_
-OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt
-Painted Arrow: bit.ly/PaintedArrow
- Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/
- Use code 'HOFER' to save 10% off at www.theprairiefarm.com
- Massive potential tax savings: ASMLABS.Net

Welcome to the land podcast, a platform for people looking to educate themselves in the world of land ownership, land investing, staying up to date with current land trends in the Midwest, and hearing from industry experts and professionals.

On today’s episode, we are back in the studio with Jack Huston.

We discuss:
- Jack says you need close to 2,000 acres to control your own destiny, so the neighborhood decides most farms.
- Jack explains why 80 acres next to 700 unhunted acres can beat 500 acres with seven people around you.
- Jack calls the lone 500-acre owner doing all the habitat work his least favorite setup: it becomes the doe factory.
- Jack warns buyers against limiting themselves to one county or insisting on road frontage for access.
- Jack says fruit trees and directional fencing don’t move the needle like TSI, herd control and a good neighborhood.
- Jack shares his own results: 120 does and 300 acres of TSI in four years, and about 25% more mature bucks.
- Jack explains why Kansas, northern Wisconsin and the U.P. may not need doe harvest, with coyotes doing that job.
- Jack’s drone detection systems show Ohio flights running about ten times what he sees anywhere else.
- Jack counts roughly 25 genuinely good small farms, about 2,500 acres, in his half-million-acre county.
- Jack and Jake go rapid fire on big acreage, creek bottoms, CRP, standing corn and owning land next to public.

And so much more!

Chapters:
0:00 Buy 40 acres, hunt the 2,000 around you
2:50 The farms people regret buying
9:30 Red flags from the air: the lone manager’s doe factory
12:00 What buyers overvalue: one county, road frontage, poaching
14:46 When a farm has hit its ceiling
16:14 Is shooting does and TSI worth it? Jack’s 120-doe results
22:17 Shooting does on 40 and 80 acres, and where not to
28:30 Drone detection: why Ohio’s flights run 10x
36:12 How rare is a really good farm?
42:55 Regional genetics: Kansas bodies, Oklahoma racks
49:10 Sanctuaries vs. habitat quality
53:23 Rapid fire: overrated or underrated?

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would’ve been possible without them!

- Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding
-Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_
-OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt
-Painted Arrow: bit.ly/PaintedArrow
- Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/
- Use code ‘HOFER’ to save 10% off at www.theprairiefarm.com
- Massive potential tax savings: ASMLABS.Net

Welcome to the land podcast, a platform for people looking to educate themselves in the world of land ownership, land investing, staying up to date with current land trends in the Midwest, and hearing from industry experts and professionals.

On today's episode, we are back in the studio with Connor Lokar.

We discuss:

- Connor sizes up the economy as "three yards and a cloud of dust," with industrial production at a 4.5-year high.

- Connor explains why new homes, autos, and boats and RVs are struggling with rates and a glut of used COVID inventory.

- Connor expects to see a mortgage rate starting with an 8 or 9 before one that starts with a 4 or 5.

- Connor explains why a Fed rate cut can lower prime for land loans while mortgage rates climb with the 10-year.

- Connor blames government debt and money printing for what land, mortgages and credit cards cost today.

- Connor tells younger buyers that cash beyond three months of expenses "should be poison" with inflation where it is.

- Connor recommends a one-to-two-year farm emergency fund and agreeing on an exit line with your spouse ahead of time.

- Connor says carrying land debt is fine, but not stacked on an 84-month truck loan and a home equity line.

- Connor lays out ITR's call for a five-year "great depression" from about 2030 to 2035, with stocks down 40-45%.

- Connor explains how data centers turned a client's $40 million warehouse into a $60 million one in 24 months.

And so much more!

Chapters:

0:00 An economist's odds on a 2030s Great Depression

0:53 How's the economy right now?

3:03 Where the economy is weak: housing, autos, boats and RVs

8:59 Where interest rates are headed next

13:43 Prime vs. mortgage rates, explained

21:15 Is now a good time to buy land?

29:42 The farm economy and future land supply

35:13 What could trigger a big drop in land values

38:20 Farm emergency funds and land as an inflation hedge

43:36 Carrying debt on land, and the '80s farm crisis

49:05 ITR's forecast for a 2030s Great Depression

55:00 Data centers and the cost of building

1:00:30 How likely is it, and where to follow Connor

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them!

- Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding 

-Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_ 

-OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt 

-Painted Arrow: bit.ly/PaintedArrow 

- Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/ 

- Use code 'HOFER' to save 10% off at www.theprairiefarm.com 

- Massive potential tax savings: ASMLABS.Net

Welcome to the land podcast, a platform for people looking to educate themselves in the world of land ownership, land investing, staying up to date with current land trends in the Midwest, and hearing from industry experts and professionals.

On today's episode, we are back in the studio with Ryan Kirby.

We discuss:

- Ryan explains why the North Carolina mountains grow Fraser fir Christmas trees and cattle, not row crops.

- Ryan breaks down his Christmas tree sharecropping deal: he pays for land and inputs, the grower supplies labor.

- Ryan has 27,000 trees on 20 acres, bought as $1.40 seedlings, with wholesale at $50 a tree this year.

- Ryan figures the harvest pays off the $300,000 he paid for a 34-acre mountain hayfield and leaves $150,000.

- Ryan explains why Christmas trees carry more risk than corn: no futures market, no storage, and an 8-year wait.

- Ryan saves his input deductions for the harvest year so one big check doesn't become a huge tax bill.

- Ryan recalls buying his first Hancock County 40 sight unseen for $117,000 and telling his wife at bath time.

- Ryan explains why running a farm 40 minutes from his parents' place pushed him to buy ground a mile away.

- Ryan used a 120-day close from the loggers who won an auction to 1031 his 40, which sold in a week for about $296,000.

- Ryan shares Terry Drury's advice to never get emotional about a piece of land.

And so much more!

Chapters:

0:00 He bought his first farm sight unseen

0:53 Fall art season and coaching youth football

7:55 Why North Carolina grows Christmas trees

11:43 Penciling out 27,000 trees on 20 acres

21:50 Is the Christmas tree math too good to be true?

26:09 No futures market and no storing the crop

32:16 Buying his first Illinois farm sight unseen

36:49 How the first farm got his wife on board

40:12 Why the first farm got too far away

44:58 The auction he walked away from

50:45 Mennonite loggers, flip phones and the timber he missed

56:07 Terry Drury's advice: don't get emotional about land

1:00:23 Where to find Ryan Kirby Art

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them!

- Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding 

-Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_ 

-OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt 

-Painted Arrow: bit.ly/PaintedArrow 

- Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/ 

- Use code 'HOFER' to save 10% off at [www.theprairiefarm.com](https://www.theprairiefarm.com)

- Massive potential tax savings: ASMLABS.Net 

Welcome to the land podcast, a platform for people looking to educate themselves in the world of land ownership, land investing, staying up to date with current land trends in the Midwest, and hearing from industry experts and professionals.

On today's episode, we are back in the studio with Steve Hanson.

We discuss:

- Steve explains why he stepped away from outfitting and wanted to spend more time hunting again.

- Steve describes how Iowa's nonresident draw and public-land camera rules shape hunting access.

- Steve says premium Iowa hunting farms still command strong prices while average farms have plateaued.

- Steve weighs access, wind, food, and neighboring buyers when evaluating a hunting property.

- Steve recalls buying a $430-per-acre farm after passing on a $350-per-acre strip mine.

- Steve explains why records matter when a chain of 1031 exchanges is eventually unwound.

- Steve considers why higher rates and thin cash flow make land purchases harder to justify.

- Steve connects Iowa's nitrate concerns, corn production, and stream buffers to land values.

- Steve shares Iowa's right-hand fence rule and a 16.5-foot strip missing from a farm title.

- Steve favors one $1 million farm over four smaller ones, despite attention from neighbors and drones.

And so much more!

Chapters:

0:00 One big farm or four smaller farms?

2:30 Why Steve stepped away from outfitting

7:34 Public-land trail cameras and hunting pressure

10:50 What premium Iowa hunting farms are worth

15:18 Steve's first farm and finding value

19:35 Tracking 1031 exchanges and tax basis

25:27 Can hunting land ever pencil out?

29:53 Iowa water quality and farmland values

36:22 How interest rates affect land deals

38:26 Fence law and hidden title problems

47:03 The big-farm tradeoff: control versus attention

50:28 Turning $100,000 into land equity

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them!

- Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding

-Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_

-OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt

-Painted Arrow: bit.ly/PaintedArrow

- Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/

- Use code 'HOFER' to save 10% off at [www.theprairiefarm.com](https://www.theprairiefarm.com)

- Massive potential tax savings: ASMLABS.Net

Welcome to the land podcast, a platform for people looking to educate themselves in the world of land ownership, land investing, staying up to date with current land trends in the Midwest, and hearing from industry experts and professionals.

On today's episode, we are back in the studio with Caleb Richardson.

We discuss:

And so much more!

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them!

Chapters:
0:00 The $3,500 Tax-Lien Warrant
1:00 Meet Caleb Richardson
6:53 Five Years Searching for the Right Farm
11:04 Going 1099 to Fund Land Purchases
18:08 The Kentucky Tax-Lien Nightmare
33:39 Buying and Negotiating His First 100 Acres
45:43 Transforming a Clear-Cut Into a Deer Mecca
53:42 The Sight-Unseen Kentucky Farm
58:34 Acting With Conviction and the 640-Acre Goal

Welcome to the land podcast, a platform for people looking to educate themselves in the world of land ownership, land investing, staying up to date with current land trends in the Midwest, and hearing from industry experts and professionals.

On today's episode, we are back in the studio with Bryan Tanner.

We discuss:

- Bryan explains the six-times rule of thumb he used to price pipeline right-of-way offers in oil and gas.

- Bryan buys a 20-acre owner-financed Montana parcel six months before the Yellowstone boom hits.

- Bryan says his 5- to 50-acre tracts routinely double or quadruple in value over two to three years.

- Bryan knows a trend has peaked when lower-third parcels start selling at full market value.

- Bryan makes the case for 8- to 10-acre tracts that consistently kill big bucks in Buffalo County.

- Bryan's client allowed zero hunting on 700 Ohio acres and had no deer over 155 inches four years later.

- Bryan's investors make $143,000 in three weeks on a 110-acre farm that sat unsold for a year and a half.

- Bryan values a central Ohio farm listed at $6,000 an acre closer to $2,500 for a deer hunter.

- Bryan builds a 40-foot wildlife crossing over a drain after deer start using his access culvert.

- Bryan admits he passed on deals for years out of analysis paralysis and was wrong every time.

And so much more!

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them!

- Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding

-Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_

-OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt

-Painted Arrow: bit.ly/PaintedArrow

- Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/

- Whitetail Master Academy https://www.whitetailmasteracademy.com

- Use code 'HOFER' to save 10% off at [www.theprairiefarm.com](https://www.theprairiefarm.com)

- Massive potential tax savings: ASMLABS.Net

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

0:57 Meet Bryan Tanner

2:22 21 Years In Oil And Gas Land Work

5:17 How Eminent Domain Really Works

8:02 Why Companies Won't Just Pay 20X

12:33 The Six-Times Rule For Right-Of-Way Offers

16:43 Why He Buys Small Tracts

17:22 Buying Montana Before Yellowstone Took Off

23:20 How He Knows When To Sell

25:14 Finding The Next Buffalo County

30:55 Big Bucks On 20 Acres In Western Illinois

32:20 Hunting A Small Tract Next To An Outfitter

35:02 EHD And The Coming Shift In Herd Management

39:25 Where The Deals Are Right Now

41:42 Biggest Mistakes Land Buyers Make

45:30 Be Careful About Market Value

47:06 Flipping 110 Acres In Three Weeks

51:37 Cheap Improvements That Sell A Farm

56:31 Building A Wildlife Crossing Over A Culvert

59:01 Advice To His Younger Self

1:01:09 Where To Find Bryan

Welcome to the land podcast, a platform for people looking to educate themselves in the world of land ownership, land investing, staying up to date with current land trends in the Midwest, and hearing from industry experts and professionals.

On today's episode, we are back in the studio with Sean Asada.

We discuss:

- Why August in Iowa runs as slow as January, and why sellers read it as something worse

- February and March as the window for recreational ground, and April for acreages

- Sean's case that now through November 1 is a strong time to list hunting land

- The 60% rule: gather most of the information, decide, and accept you'll never get the rest

- Buying a farm after fifty yards out of the truck, and how many reps that actually takes

- The buddy who texted that some idiot just paid $6,300 an acre for crap cattle ground

- Why three neighbors at 1,800 acres matter more than the dirt you are actually buying

- The property Sean let slide over $2,250 an acre and the $68,000 it cost him

- The argument against shooting a deer on the farm you just bought

- Food plots are ROI, bedding is stewardship, and why most owners overrate their own farm

And so much more!

Chapters:

0:00 Intro

1:04 Who Sean Asada is, and selling two Iowa's at once

3:04 Why August is as slow as January

8:11 Gut-feel buyers vs the forty-step checklist

15:37 Land against the stock market

21:21 The $2,250 an acre he let slide

31:06 You don't have to shoot something

41:56 Food plots for ROI, bedding for stewardship

47:45 When the trail cam history is lackluster

58:23 Base hits, black swans, and a bet on the Fed

62:55 Where to find Sean

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them!

- Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding

-Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_

-OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt

-Painted Arrow: bit.ly/PaintedArrow

- Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/

- Whitetail Master Academy https://www.whitetailmasteracademy.com

- Use code 'HOFER' to save 10% off at [www.theprairiefarm.com](https://www.theprairiefarm.com)

- Massive potential tax savings: ASMLABS.Net

Welcome to the land podcast, a platform for people looking to educate themselves in the world of land ownership, land investing, staying up to date with current land trends in the Midwest, and hearing from industry experts and professionals.

On today's episode, we are back in the studio with Michael Engelmeyer.

We discuss:

- Michael buys his first 80 acres as a tax play and leases it back to his own photography studio.

- He "liberates" an underground spring with a bulldozer and has four gobblers on the dam by sunrise.

- Michael doubles his money in three years, going from $1,400 an acre to $3,000 an acre.

- He sells the farm himself with a full-page newspaper ad built from his own trail camera photos.

- Michael skips the 1031 exchange on purpose, pays the capital gains, and invests the proceeds.

- He explains how a 90-day 1031 clock pushes buyers into farms they never should have bought.

- Michael walks away from a 3,400-acre Ozarks ranch over $200 an acre and gets it a year later.

- The sellers refuse $1,500 an acre at auction, then call him back and take $1,100.

- He argues square and rectangular parcels hunt better than odd-shaped ground at any price.

- Michael's due diligence starts with a drone and a call to the sheriff about meth in the area.

And so much more!

Chapters:

0:00 The 1031 Everyone Does, and Why He Didn't

0:58 Meet Michael Engelmeyer, Great Outdoor Studios

1:31 From St. Louis Fashion Shoots to the Outdoor Industry

4:27 Why He Bought Land in the First Place

5:13 The 80 Acres Between Two Big Tracts

6:19 Trading Hunting Rights for Construction Equipment

7:19 "Liberating" a Spring to Build a Pond

9:55 Four Gobblers on the Dam at Sunrise

10:58 Leasing the Farm Back to His Own Business

13:17 Doubling His Money in Three Years

17:40 The Neighbors Lowballed Him

19:36 Selling It Himself With a Full-Page Print Ad

22:39 $1,400 an Acre In, $3,000 an Acre Out

23:36 Why He Skipped the 1031 Exchange

27:20 Square or Rectangle: The Property Shape Rule

31:56 Finding the 6,000-Acre Ozarks Ranch

36:15 The Auction and the No-Sale

39:52 The Call a Year Later: Bought at $1,100

44:09 Treat Your Twenties Like Boot Camp

46:55 His Punch List: Drones, Aerials, and the Sheriff

51:04 Keep the Farm Within an Hour of Home

52:34 If He Started Over With $100,000

54:29 Why He'd Never Buy Land With a Partner

57:16 Patience, and Why Land Keeps Going Up

59:26 Where to Follow Michael

Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them!

- Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding 

-Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_ 

-OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt 

-Painted Arrow: bit.ly/PaintedArrow 

- Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/ 

- Use code 'HOFER' to save 10% off at www.theprairiefarm.com 

- Massive potential tax savings: ASMLABS.Net