Opening Keynote Speaker

Amber Erickson-Hurdle

Author, Speaker, Brand Expert

Positioning Your Land Brand For Success in a Post-Pandemic World

Bio: Amber Erickson-Hurdle is recognized among the top 10 branding professionals in the world, according to Global Gurus, thanks to her proprietary branding philosophy. Amber teaches the combined value of business brands, personal brands and employer brands to increase market share and profitability, reduce turnover, and amplify satisfaction among customers and employees alike. She is a featured expert in an upper-division college public relations textbook, has won multiple business awards, and has been covered in Entrepreneur Magazine, Fortune Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek and beyond. Passionate about helping companies and leaders define and position their unique value, Amber uses her super power of emotional connection to drive consumer behavior and to help her audiences learn their own language of influence.

Watch Amber's one-minute take on why personal branding matters and how to open doors at NLC23.

Closing Keynote Speaker

Dr. Lawrence Yun

Chief Economist, National Association of REALTORS®

Recession or Not in 2023? What does it mean for real estate, both commercial and residential and most importantly for the land market?

Bio: Dr. Lawrence Yun is Chief Economist and oversees the Research group at the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®. He supervises and is responsible for a wide range of research activity for the association including NAR's Existing Home Sales statistics, Affordability Index, and Home Buyers and Sellers Profile Report. He regularly provides commentary on real estate market trends for its 1.4 million REALTORS®.

Dr. Yun creates NAR's forecasts and participates in many economic forecasting panels, among them the Blue Chip Council and the Wall Street Journal Forecasting Survey. He also participates in the Industrial Economists Discussion Group at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. He appears regularly on financial news outlets, is a frequent speaker at real estate conferences throughout the United States, and has testified before Congress. Dr. Yun has also appeared as a guest on CSPAN's Washington Journal.

APEX Awards Guest Speaker

Wyman Meinzer

Cowboy, Consummate Outdoorsman, and the only Official State Photographer of Texas

Bio: Born in 1950, Wyman was raised on the 27,000 acre League Ranch as a cowboy and consummate outdoorsman, in Knox County of the Texas rolling plains.

Meinzer is a self-taught photographer and historian who lives in Benjamin with his wife, Sylinda. Along with his photography, Meinzer enjoys working with wood, hunting with rifles, pistols and bow. He is a licensed single engine pilot and commercial drone operator, using both in his photography endeavors.

His images have appeared in Smithsonian, National Geographic Books, Natural History, Ebony, Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, Audubon, Sports Afield, Field and Stream, Outdoor life, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Highways, Korea GEO, German GEO, Das Tier, Airone, Horzu, BBC Wildlife, and a host others.

His writing endeavors have also appeared in dozens of magazines including “The Smithsonian,”magazine, “Outdoor Photographer Magazine,” “Sports Afield,” Texas Parks and Wildlife,” magazine, “Texas Highways,” Texas Wildlife Association,” magazine, “Petersen’s Hunting,” magazine, “Korea Geo,” “Field and Stream,” and many others.

In 2019 Wyman and his wife Sylinda became agents under the Chas. Middleton Ranch Real Estate Brokerage firm in Lubbock, Texas.

David Baxter, former editor of Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine, described Meinzer best when he called him a man with the eye of a nineteenth-century impressionist painter and the soul of a buffalo hunter.

Read Wyman's full bio and list of achievments.

Breakout Sessions

Land Leases: A Turnkey Profit for Landowners and Agents

Speaker: Chris Baumann, CommonGround

The buying process shouldn’t end once the paperwork is signed. Your clients may have just invested in a property they can pull additional income from through the form of hunting leases, farming leases or both! The key to finding those qualified tenants for your landowner isn’t through a Facebook group, coffee shop banter or word-of-mouth - it’s you. Explore how technology resources allow you to expand your strategic business relationship with your client while increasing your bottom line through facilitating yearly or multi-year leasing agreements. 

There is high demand for land leases of all facets across the country. A simple recreational or tillable land purchase could return high investments with a leasing contract for the landowner(s) and a percentage to the facilitating agent. Leases open a new pipeline of opportunity with not only new but previous clients to strengthen business partnerships and broker revenue.  There are technology resources available to land professionals to seek out the high quality 
tenants for their clients which provide profiles and background information to find the most suitable tenant.

Read Chris's bio.

Water Rights Due Diligence

Speaker: Kendall Burgemeister, Law of the Rockies

Water rights are important in the west. You cannot simply rely on what the seller and their vesting deed says about the water rights being transferred, and what goes into conducting due diligence on water rights in conjunction with a real estate acquisition.

In this session you'll learn: (1) How to determine what scope of water rights due diligence is required; (2) common reasons why record ownership of water rights is more complicated than ownership of land; (3) non-record title matters that affect the value of water rights.

Read Kendall's bio.

Selling Land with a Commercial Business Aspect

Speaker: Gary Hubbell, ALC, and Jake Hubbell, ALC - United Country Colorado

Learn the basics of selling a rural property with a business component to it. Every competent broker should know the basics of valuing acreage and improvements, but a productive business or income property brings a completely new dimension to the sale of the property. RV parks, mini-storage units, restaurants, resorts, outfitting businesses, orchards, vineyards, cattle ranches, wineries--they all have an income component that can be difficult to value and transact. This presentation will cover the basics of valuing, listing, and selling rural real estate with a business component.

You'll learn how to value rural commercial real estate; how to value the business component of that real estate; and how to list and transact the sale of a business with real estate attached.

Read their bios.

The Impact of Location and Market Conditions on the Valuation of Conservation Easements

Speaker: Kevin McCarty, McCarty Land & Water Valuation, Inc.

Learn techniques for valuing conservation easements for various purposes including claiming a federal charitable donation and for Natural Resource Conservation Service funding. The impact of location and market conditions on value losses associated with conservation easements will be examined. Colorado’s state tax credit program will be discussed with an emphasis on the state’s oversight of appraisers and how that has influenced the integrity of the program.

Read Kevin's bio.

1031 Exchanges

Speaker: Joe Michaletz, Discipline Advisors

Do you have potential sellers who are hesitant to list with you because something is holding them back? If so this session is for you. We will discuss how 1031 exchanges and the use of Delaware Statutory Trusts (DSTs) can be a solution for your clients who are hesitant to list and sell. We will go into detail on a number of common issues holding potential sellers back and how DSTs could be the solution to get more seller’s off the fence and list their property with you.

Read Joe's bio.

Update on Ag Policy and Outlook for 2023 Farm Bill

Speaker: Dr. Joe Outlaw, Texas A&M University

There are a lot of new players involved when it comes to writing the next farm bill. The current farm economics has motivated stakeholders to ask for changes in commodity supports. This session will discuss the potential changes and provide a assessment of the chances of getting the bill completed this year.

Read Dr. Outlaw's bio.

Other Session Descriptions Coming Soon!

• How to Make Money in a Down Market - David Light, Land Broker Co-Op
• Time Management for Leaders (3/6); Advanced Goal Setting (3/7) - David Linsmeyer, Southwest Consulting
• Campfire Chat - Kasey Mock, Mock Ranches

General Session Speakers

• DC Update Inside the Beltway - Russell Riggs, NAR Senior Policy Director/ RLI Legislative Liaison
• Panel Discussion: More than Just Land: Realtors Making Money in the Energy Industry - Hosted by LandGate with Craig Kaiser as Moderator and Panelists: Chip Bubella - Bubela Real Estate; Peter Mazeine, ALC, CCIM - National Land Realty; Joette Schalla - Fay Ranches; William “Bill” Lewis, ALC, CCIM; Diana Rivera, Lightsource bp. Read about the Moderator and Panelists.

While the REALTORS® Land Institute (RLI) selects professional speakers who deliver content relevant to the land real estate industry, the views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of RLI.