The REALTORS® Land Institute, an affiliate of the National Association of REALTORS®, is proud to announce the winners of its 2022 APEX Awards Program, sponsored by The Land Report. The APEX Awards Program is designed to recognize the excellence and performance of the best in the business by distinguishing agents with these prestigious production-based awards. All winners were announced by RLI CEO Aubrie Kobernus as well as The Land Report’s Co-founder Eric O’Keefe at a special awards ceremony on Tuesday, March 7 in Westminster, CO, during RLI’s 2023 National Land Conference.
RLI recognized Bill Eshenbaugh, ALC, CCIM, with Eshenbaugh Land in Florida, with the program’s most coveted and prestigious award, the APEX 2022 Top National Producer.
Andy Flack, ALC, of Homeland Properties in Texas received the second highest award, the APEX 2022 Wrangler Award for largest number of transaction sides closed in 2022.
RLI is also proud to recognize the accomplishments of the APEX 2022 National Broker of The Year recipients in each of the following eight distinct land categories:
- Ag Land Sales – Crops: Steve Bruere, Peoples Company of Indianola, Iowa
- Ag Land Sales – Ranches: Dax Hayden, Hayden Outdoors, Colorado
- Recreational Land Sales: Jon Kohler, Kohler Land Sales, Florida
- Timberland Sales: Clint Flowers, ALC, National Land Realty, Alabama
- Commercial Land Sales: Ryan Sampson, ALC, Eshenbaugh Land Company, Florida
- Residential Land Sales: Bill Eshenbaugh, ALC, CCIM, Eshenbaugh Land Company, Florida
- Auction Land Sales: Troy Louwagie, ALC, Hertz Real Estate Services, Iowa
- Agribusiness: Ashley McCraney, National Land Realty, Alabama
Agribusiness is the newest category in the APEX Awards, added in 2021 to recognize agents for the sale of land along with any value-added agricultural operations. Ashley McCraney is the first woman to ever receive the award.
All applicants must be members of RLI and have at least five million dollars of qualifying dollar volume in closed land sales in 2022. Each applicant was also recognized as part of the RLI APEX 2022 Producers Club with the twenty highest producing applicants awarded as an APEX 2020 Top Twenty National Producer.
“The APEX 2022 Award Winners are the elite when it comes to conducting land transactions. RLI is proud to be partnered with The Land Report for the sixth year now to give these land agents the national industry recognition as a top-producer that they deserve,” said RLI’s CEO Aubrie Kobernus, MBA, RCE, about the program.
The APEX Awards Program celebrated its sixth year by welcoming 217 applicants with a combined $7.0+ billion in qualifying transaction volume. All land professionals recognized as part of the RLI APEX Awards Program are active members of RLI. For more information on the award winners, make sure to get a copy of The Land Report, one of the industry’s leading magazines for landowners and land professionals, which will be publicizing the top winners in their upcoming Spring 2023 issue. All land real estate professionals are invited to join RLI and apply to the prestigious APEX Awards Program next year. Winners of the 2023 APEX Awards will be announced at RLI’s 2024 National Land Conference next March in Louisville, KY. Learn more at rliland.com/nlc.