Buying a Ranch

The right ranch for you and your family:

Western United Realty LLC knows how to find those ranches that may not be readily available to the market, listed by brokers without a great marketing presence, or not actually for sale until someone asks.  There are a large amount of ranches for sale out there that you can’t find on the Internet or in advertising.  Not every one is web savvy yet!

The following questions and many others we review with buyers to narrow down to a focus list of amenities to find in a property and exactly where to search. 

Access? Amenities? Recreation types? Privacy? Agricultural operations?

All of the above questions entail a multitude of answers and investigation and which of these unknowns are most important to your family will guide the search for your ranch. Western United Realty LLC has the skills to answer these questions and help a buyer determine what there true needs are. 

• Access: Many buyers tell us they are looking for private, remote ranches. Out here, remote can mean 80 miles to the nearest town, and those towns only have a post office and sometimes a single open gas station.  A buyer needs to define just how far away from town they really want to be.

• Privacy:  With private ranch neighbors or government land (Forest Service or BLM land) as your neighbor? We research the area to define the current uses and what the traffic in the area might be.

• Fishing, hunting or other outdoor activities? Are these or other recreation opportunities equally important or is one more important than the other?

• Existing improvements or build new? Usually depend on what the existing ones are. Graze yearling cattle or a year-round cow calf operation? Hay requirements? How good are the water rights on a particular ranch compared to others in the area?

One question we get asked a lot is: "Has this ranch ever been surveyed?" The answer is... Well, yes and no. The following links take you to relevant details about the government's rectangular survey system used out west.
(Clicking the following links opens a new browser window.)

http://www.answers.com/topic/public-land-survey-system
http://nationalatlas.gov/articles/boundaries/a_plss.html

Many other items will come to mind which will suit the buyer in particular. Give us a call and we’d be proud to help you find that ranch.

Found! Now what?

You’ve looked for months to find the right ranch and together we finally found one for you. You’ve negotiated the contract with our help and your legal council, now the investigation and work begins.

Due Diligence:  While some ranch transactions will be simpler than what many buyers have been accustomed to in real estate investment and commercial transactions, most will require a different set of inspection items than what most investors are accustomed  to. Western United Realty LLC has handled hundreds of transactions, and as part of our attention to detail we assist the buyer and their attorney in reviewing the details. These include, but are by no means limited to:

• Water rights. (Click to download a summary on Wyoming Water Law in PDF format.)
• Verification of legal descriptions, conservation easements, access easements to the property.
• Title Report Review for exceptions and what they truly mean.
• Leases
  • Grazing leases to outside operators.
  • Livestock trailing agreements.
  • Leases from state and other government.
  • Leases to outfitters for hunting or fishing. 

Depending on the nature of the property, we have seen a due diligence period of a little as 30 days or as long as 90+ days.

Closing the Deal: Now that everything checks out and you’ve learned the fine details of the property, you’ve decided to close on this transaction.  Most ranches will have some form of government lease transfers to complete to the new owner at closing. We typically handle those at closing in conjunction with the title/escrow company.  Many ranches will have existing grazing leases to other operators were the ranch is the lessee. Those will typically stay in place until the end of the grazing season and will be prorated.  Hunting and fishing leases can also be in place and will carry through the seasons or year-end and are again prorated. Most sellers will have 30-45 days after closing to finish moving the personal property off the ranch and conduct an auction. Western United Realty LLC will work through the closing and afterwards to ensure a smooth transaction.

Additional Western United Realty LLC Services

Western United Realty LLC now has the ability to provide additional land stewardship services for investigations during the due diligence process and for after the sale. Utilizing Land Stewardship Associates exclusively, the vital needs of property range and ecosystem management, along with planning are now available to our clients. Disciplines include forestry, water hydrology, watershed restoration, forest ecosystem and rangeland management, land assessments, wildfire rehabilitation, fuel hazard assessments, fire ecology, noxious weeds, sensitive species, plant collections, and other land related ecology issues. You can learn much more about these valuable services by visiting the Land Stewardship Associates web site. more...

Western United Realty LLC Representations

Seller Representation: Western United Realty LLC and primarily all listing brokerage companies are agents of the seller on all listings. The seller’s exclusive agent primarily has a fiduciary responsibility of integrity, honesty and loyalty to the seller, with a responsibility of honesty and trustworthiness to the buyer.  Some companies operate as intermediaries or transaction brokers, with a duty of honesty, but only loyalty to the transaction.  Western United Realty LLC takes the approach that our clients (sellers) are entrusting us with a lifetime of efforts, and we treat it as such with strict client confidentiality and representation to the seller on all listings.  For more about our seller services, see www.ranchbrokers.com/Contactus.htm

Details of the transaction and the learning curve on buying a ranch: While this brief summary of the ranch buying process is by no means meant to be a complete detail of all that goes on, these guidelines summarize the main points and ideas for our customers to review. We hope this helps answer some of the questions that may come up!

Buyer Representation: With Western United's knowledge base of where to find the best ranches in the Rockies, we represent buyers in their search for the ranch that suits them best. We would appreciate the opportunity to help you find that special place. We are confident that your research of our firm will show us capable of handling your project, and doing an outstanding job. If you have any questions or need further information, please feel free to contact us.

- James Rinehart, Associate Broker

Considering buying a ranch, resort or hunting and fishing lodge in Canada?