LandCo | Land Investing and Ownership

In this episode, I chatted with Matt Lynch about all things 2023 Deer hunting including his thoughts on the overall season, his success, and his thoughts on how the Illinois hunting laws are affecting the quality of our deer. Here are some pics of his 2023 bucks! Nicely done!

Hey Guys! In this episode on the LandCo Podcast, I chat about our most recent farm for sale, 42 acres in Peoria County Illinois. If you have any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Click Here to Access the Property Listing Page

In this episode on the LandCo Podcast, we chat about a new listing we have in Peoria County. This 37 acres in the Dunlap School District and has some incredible development opportunities for a private lake and residence.

In this podcast episode, I provide updates to our waterfowl development project if Fulton County, Illinois! We made a few mistakes which we had to correct and learned a bit about how the birds are starting to use our wetlands! We hope you enjoy it. PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION(these are fairly accurate but not perfect…please forgive any errors or inconsistencies) Hey guys, welcome back to the Land Co podcast. This episode is I don’t even know the episode anymore, but it is the Waterfowl Development Series. I’ll put the episode on the notes and the title is probably like episode seven-ish, but I wanted to chat with you guys on the development that we have that Pudik and I have on 135 acres in Canton. Again, we bought that. I think we’re going on a few years now with the goal of making it just like an awesome waterfowl farm. So we’re developing it strictly for waterfowl and. The first several episodes went over what we built the plans and we are at the stage where like we’re we have a few more things to build. But most of the big Earthmoving is done. So now we’re on to like details and getting water to wetlands, getting power places, getting blinds and pits out there. But now where we are at the end of the development, I believe the last episode, we were just getting ready to pump everything full and everything was fine. The only issue we had was if you remember when we we so we pump from our lower wetland and again, I’ll throw pictures on the if you’re listening on like just in your truck like an on Apple podcast hop on the website we we also post these to the website to the, to the blog and on those pages I’ll throw some pictures beneath it if you want to go kind of check out what I’m talking about. But the middle of the 135 is our only like, well, it’s our biggest low ground wetland, like bottom ground, like wet area and it’s I think it’s eight acres, but we pump from there up to a new one that we built that we call a center field wetland, which is historically been like our best dry field. So we’re they seem to like that area. So we’re, we were really excited about that center field wetland. We thought it would do well. Last year we had a. We didn’t have a way to pump water up there. So we were relying strictly on rainwater and it filled it like last year was a good year for filling wetlands with water. And it didn’t even that it didn’t fill it all up. So like it probably folded up halfway. So we never got a sense of how good the wetland was going to be or how much they’d use it. So we knew we had to pump water from the bottom, which we call clam wetland, up about 1000 feet and. We used the corrugated tile and it was like, I don’t think we wouldn’t have done that for a client. I was just sort of curious if that would work. Like you always hear, you know, in our industry, there’s always like all these like old, old legends and like, you know, of what works and what doesn’t. But a lot of them I like. It’s not that I don’t believe them. I’ve just never seen anyone try it like one of them. So like this one, it’s like, Oh, you can’t use corrugated pipe to pump uphill because it’s too much friction and it won’t work. And whatever. We tried it anyways. It was cheaper. You know, we could use that six-inch corrugated like just tile and it was a lot cheaper. So we tried it and again, I had heard that it wouldn’t work, but I’ve never like, I don’t know anyone personally that’s tried it. It’s like, Oh yeah, I tried, but that didn’t work. Everyone’s always like, No, it just doesn’t work. I just know that. All right. Well, we tried it because it was cheaper and like, it didn’t work. So we can officially be like those people that, you know, don’t put corrugated tile into pump uphill because of that pressure. It worked like we got water lay up. But like, eventually the pressure, like not, not like uphill or where it’s coming, like filling the wetland is like the junction. It was just too much pressure. Like it would either blow apart the, like the attachment or like if, you know, because he tried several different things or it was even blowing through the corrugated tile like just past where it attached like the pressure, it was just too much so it didn’t work. Whatever we were, the guinea pigs. We were out a few bucks, but now we know if it worked, we can just save some of our client’s money down the road. So I’m not entirely upset that we tried it, but it didn’t work, so we had to scramble kind of last minute and just do it the right way. And so we had to put in 800 or 1000 feet of PVC tile, kind of like sewage, kind of like drainage tile uphill that 800 to 1000 feet. And once we did, that worked flawlessly. And that’s what we should have done the f

In this episode, I chat about how are waterfowl season has gone to date and what I expect for the last three weeks of duck season.

Farmland for Sale in Peoria County Illinois Property review time! This is a property that I own personally. I bought it a few years back as a parking spot for some money to earn a good return while I continued to search for our next family farm. I can’t tell you how much we enjoyed this farm…so much so that we eventually settled on a family farm less than a mile upstream of this one! This land for sale in Peoria County comes with an amazing return on investment and some incredible recreational value for a farm that returns so well! Take a listen to the podcast for an informal chat about the property. Agent Owned Click here to access the property listing page PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION(these are fairly accurate but not perfect…please forgive any errors or inconsistencies) Hey, guys, welcome back to the podcast. Today’s episode is a property review on 40 acres in Peoria County. So this is a property that I own personally I’ve owned for a few years now, so I’m very familiar with it. It is. I’m here in Dunlap, Illinois, so the farm is super close to me. So it’s just on the let’s see, West side. It’s kind of like Dunlap School district area. So it’s just down Grange Hall Road, if you’re familiar with this area just passed like Kickapoo sand and gravel. Once you cross that Kickapoo Creek on Grange Hall, it is just there on the north. It’s actually Corney Road. It it’s a dead end road that heads north, maybe a mile. And I am back there on the right. So I bought the property a couple of years ago when my wife and I sold our Canton family farm there just east of Canton. And like, we didn’t intend for this to be a long hold. We were just going to kind of hold it while we looked for a farm. When we sold that Canton farm, our goal was to move that money closer to our our home here in Dunlap. And we ended up finding something. I actually found a property in Dunlap that we could maybe build on someday and still be in the same school district. But now that we’ve found something else where we’re unloading this property and I bought it mainly because it was a tillable farm, I mean, of the 40 acres, it’s 27, I believe, tillable. So it was just a good investment, pretty good dirt. I don’t I’ll put it on the website, but I want to say it’s like a 126 ish productivity index. So solid B plus farm, the soils are good. I get 350 bucks an acre cash rent. So you’re talking just under ten grand ish if you were to farm at all. I mean, of course I don’t because we play on it. So we had some in food plots, but you know, if a guy farmed all of it, you’re looking at just under ten grand a year. So that’s why we bought it. It was just kind of a good investment, a spot to park money. And but what we found is we used it like way more than we thought. You know, I knew that we would use it a little bit, just being kind of close to the house. And the south side of this is the Kickapoo Creek. So, you know, I had that in the back of my mind, like, cool. At least we have a little spot to go to to hang out, let the kids play, you know, play in the creek and run around, you know, while we wait to find our kind of like next next farm, next family farm. And we used it a lot more than I thought. The tillable is pretty straightforward. Again, that’s why I bought it. But before we move on from that, like it’s it is floodplain stuff. And because the Kickapoo Kickapoo Creek is there, I’ve never seen it flood. I mean, it floods like. It’s the Kickapoo Creek certainly like raises a lot. But I’ve never seen it go over like the little I’m going to say a levee, but it’s not. It’s sort of a levee just on the the south side of that creek, like kind of where we use as the trail to drive in. It is elevated maybe, you know, four or five feet. So it’s kind of like a little levee. I’ve never seen it crossed that the dude that I bought it from said that he has seen it cross that once. I think in the last 20 or 25 years, it was never an issue to me. So that’s why I bought it again. Good productive, tillable land. But the bonus that we got was it did provide way more recreational kind of value than we expected the creek. I mean, so the Kickapoo Creek is cool. I had never owned a property or really on any creek. You know, I’ve always kind of like the Kickapoo Creek in the spoon. I’ve never owned anything on it. And it was super cool. I mean, so the south side of this property, when we back up a tiny bit, the property of the 40 acres again, most is tillable. But the south side that remaining like whatever that would be 13 acres is it’s either the Kickapoo Creek or just kind of some timber down there. There’s a tiny bit of timber on the north let’s see, north east side. But the majority of that timber is kind of like on both sides of the

Hey guys! Entering that time of year when things slow down before the season starts. This episode touches on what we are doing and planning to lead into the season. Hope you enjoy it! If you enjoy these podcasts, please subscribe to get notifications when we publish new posts and properties! Here are a few pics from the wetlands!

We usually don’t have to release market updates so frequently but a lot has been changing quickly in the land market! Take a listen to get out thoughts on what’s going on and where we anticipate the market going! If you have any Illinois land for sale or are considering selling your property, get in touch!

I have never hunted with anyone that doesn’t love dove hunting. But few people plant sunflower fields for doves. I get it though. On top of being expensive, they are super finicky…especially when it comes to the timing. In this episode, I chat about our experience when you cut sunflowers too early. Ideally, you wait until your flowers are dead and completely dried out…even if you have to hammer them with round-up to expedite that process. But what if you planted your flowers late and don’t have access to a sprayer? Or what if you have access to a brush hog and haven’t had time to spray them? What if you just decide to mow them before they are 100% ready? Then what? Well, this is the scenario that we were faced with this year. And because it was one of our personal fields and not one of our clients, we rolled the dice. Partially because it wouldn’t have been the end of the world if it didn’t work. And partially because I was curious about what would happen. I will note some of the pictures below but for the full explanation, listen to the podcast! In the pic above, the field is prepped and planted. Mid May. In these next few pics, you can see the field moving along through the year. These next three pics are mid August when I was looking at mowing them for the season which started Sep 1. As you can see, it is still clearly green. The seeds are mature but that is it. The sunflower head is still white, fibery, and pretty sticky. We went ahead and just mowed the field as is to see what would happen. I don’t have any great pics of how the sunflower heads looked after it was mowed, but the seed simply did not separate from the head. Most of the field was just whole sunflower heads with all the seeds in tact. Some of the heads did tear or break apart…but even on those, the seed was still attached to the head. It took about a week to ten days, but eventually those sunflower heads did dry out entirely and that is when the birds started getting to the seeds. Here are some post hunting pics for your enjoyment 🙂

On this episode, I sit down again with broker Matt Lynch to discuss this awesome new listing he has in Peoria County. This farm is a blank slate and could be developed easily in several different directions!

In this episode, I sit down with Listing Broker Matt Lynch and chat about his 158-acre listing in Fulton County. If you are in the market for a killer trophy hunting farm, take a listen to this episode!

In this episode, we bring you guys updates on all of our ongoing projects on this farm. We also give a report on last season’s waterfowl hunting out there and chat about where we see it going in the future.  If you enjoy these podcasts, please leave us a review!

If you are in the market for a property with fishing, waterfowl, and good income, you need to take a listen to this podcast. The waterfowl potential has some incredible potential! In the podcast, we refer to a couple of wetlands. Below are some pics of those with a quick mockup of what we believe could be done to expand those wetlands and increase the quality of the waterfowl hunting! – The yellow is the area that can currently be planted and flooded. With a little work, it could be expanded to include the white areas. It is cool now but could be amazing. In our experience, bigger wetlands tend to do better in this area. We believe this would dramatically improve the duck hunting out there.

We all know it. The market has been on a growth trend that we haven’t seen in decades. In this episode, I share my thoughts on where the current land market it, how it got here, and where we think it goes in the future. If you enjoy these podcasts, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts or where ever you get your podcasts.

As in nearly every industry, the entry-level conversation starts with a budget.  How much money have you earmarked for land investment? But that is usually the easy question.  Our clients know how much they have to spend.  Usually, it’s a range, but clearly, most clients have gotten this far in the process when they get to us.  The more important initial conversation revolves around preferred investment strategy.  It involves risk tolerance, position in life, predicted income.  And most often, these elements first display themselves when we discuss down payment strategies. For this exercise, let’s set aside the type of property someone wants…because 1) while that can reveal someone’s risk tolerance, that isn’t always the case and 2) we typically see no difference in down payment strategies between buyers of tillable or recreational land.   In our experience, down payment strategies can be broken down into three main categories.  That doesn’t mean that each down payment falls 100% into one of these buckets.  In fact, most down payment scenarios are a hybrid approach.  But a confident approach comes from understanding each down payment strategy.   Paid in Full The easiest option to cover is a 100% down payment strategy. I am aware that this strategy is not an option for many land buyers.  And just because you can’t pay cash for a property, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get involved in land investing.  This strategy is most commonly used by individuals who are either in or close to retirement and individuals who have accumulated a significant amount of wealth early in life.  The thought process is simple…a land purchase using this strategy is no different than buying stock.  It is moving money from one investment to another. It diversified risk.  Typically, individuals who employ this strategy are educated on the historical performance of land values and see it as a way to decrease risk while enjoying some of their investments.  Monthly Payment Calculation This option typically incurs the biggest risk but also allows the investor to back into his or her exact comfort level in terms of the out-of-pocket expense.   It is the most common down payment strategy.  It is primarily used by buyers who are in the middle of their earning days.  The end numbers are different for everyone but the theory is the exact same.  The questions that you must ask yourself to begin this down payment are as follows.   How much money am I comfortable with putting down on a property? How much money am I comfortable with coming out a pocket annually to pay for the property? The answers to these questions reveal what kind and size of the property the individual can buy.  It doesn’t back you into an exact answer, but it reveals a range of properties you can buy.   For example, let’s say a buyer has $50,000 to put down on a potential property.  And the buyer is comfortable with coming out of pocket with $10,000 annually.  The formula for revealing potential property targets goes like this… Expenses – Income = Net Annual Payment Each farm has its own specific expenses and income but most commonly they are… Expenses Mortgage Payment Property Taxes Maintenance  Income Farm Rent CRP Payments Hunting/Fishing Leases The easiest way to get a range of potential property targets using this method is to run the formula on a property with zero income, and then again on one with 100% tillable.  Sure, you are going to have to apply some logic to your unique situation…if you are looking specifically for a deer hunting property, you may swap out that 100% tillable property with one that has the highest percentage of tillable that you are willing to consider.  For most deer hunters, that typically falls around 50%, but the exercise remains the same.  To start this exercise, it is easiest to make some ballpark assumptions…we can fine-tune these numbers when we start looking at specific farms but this will provide us with a range of farms that fit our financial capabilities. They typically go like this… Assumptions– 100% Timber Property with no immediate income– Property Tax = $1200/annually ($100 Month)– No ongoing maintenance costs Under these circumstances, the formula would be… Comfortable Annual Payment – Property Taxes – Maintenance Expenses = Target Annual Mortgage Payment For this buyer, we know the comfort zone out of pocket is $10,000. So we then plugin that amount and the assumed property taxes to reveal a mortgage amount. For a 100% timber property, we are also going to assume no ongoing maintenance expenses.  $10,000 – $1200 – $0 = $8800 So now we have backed into an $8800 annual mortgage payment ($733/month).  Now simply run that number agai

Hey Guys! LandCo Properties Reviews are back! In this episode, we take a look at 154 acres in Fulton County offered by Don Wagner with LandGuys. Spoiler alert…we like this one. If you are in the market for a fishing/waterfowl property with good income, take a listen!

It’s hunting season! We are getting our first look at some of the new wetlands! And its decision time on some of our projects for next year. Hope you enjoy the episode!

In this episode, we chat about a few projects we have going on at our new waterfowl property! We chat about getting power to our property, applying for a commercial upland license, and completing some wetland projects!

In this episode, we go over the completed wetland construction and go over all the elements of our design!

In this episode, we take a look at where are wetland project sits and go over some potential changes to the project!

Hey Guys! We are back at it with another Podcast Series! In this series we are going to track along side the process of designing and developing a waterfowl property! Watch or listen for more info!

The waterfowl season is here! In this episode, we chat about our experiences throughout the waterfowl season1

The final episode of the Year Round Whitetail Hunter is up and live! Take a listen and hear how Ryan and Matt went about their season and each ultimately harvested a mature whitetail! We hope you have enjoyed this series as much as us!

In this episode, I chat with Jody about what we have up to the last few months as we prepared for the upcoming waterfowl season!

Episode 9 up and live! Next month the season starts!

We fell behind a bit so we decided to combine July and August! In this episode we chat about trail cameras and prepping/planting fall food plots!

OK…so we got so far behind last month that we just combined June and July! We are in the middle of planting and dirt season so we are running around like crazy! In this episode, we cover what Jody and I have been up to the last few months to improve our upcoming waterfowl season!

Ryan, Matt, and I connect remotely and discuss what those two have been up to in June to improve their hunting this coming fall!

Matt Lynch and I sit down and chat about what he has done throughout May in order to increase the quality of his whitetail hunting this coming fall!

May is up and live! Jody and I sit down and chat about the rain filled month of May and what we did to improve our upcoming waterfowl season!

Sorry for the delay! Had a few audio issues last week that prevented us from releasing this episode on time. But here it is! Episode 4. Enjoy!

April’s episode is up and live! Check it out. In this episode, we again sit down with Jody Graff and chat about what we both did throughout April for the upcoming waterfowl season!

A little late to the table with the March episode but here it is! We are getting super close to planting season!

Back at it with the Year Round Whitetail Hunting Crew! This is the slowest month ever so its a quick one! Next month should be action-packed!

Sit down with Jody to go over what we have been doing in February…already in anticipation for the upcoming fall waterfowl season! Take a listen or watch the video!

Episode 2 in the series is out! In this one, the usuals…Matt and Ryan, sit down and talk about what they have been doing this past month to increase the chances of an upcoming successful whitetail season!

Back at it with another Property Review! We are pretty familiar with this one. Ryan, Matt, and I take a look a the potential of this farm. Take a listen on your podcast application or watch the video above!

This series has been on our minds for years! Finally it has landed! We hope you enjoy the first episode where we chat with Jody Graff of Graff Habitat and discuss what we have both been doing in January to prepare for the waterfowl season nearly 300 days away! Take a listen, I am sure you guys are going to learn a lot from Jody, he has designed, developed, and manages some truly special waterfowl properties.

In this listen we break down our new 89 acre listing in Fulton County. Hint – if you are in the market for an accurately priced trophy whitetail farm…go ahead and give this a listen.

We fully expect this to change the course of land marketing, sales, and development. While many ask themselves ‘what can we do better than others’, we often believe the question should be ‘what can we do differently that would bring value to the industry’? Well….this is different. And the value that it will bring land owners and potential land buyers is unquestionable. Take a watch/listen and be on the look out for our first 3D rendering! (We still need a catchy name for this…sorry. Let me know if you have a great idea!)

We are excited to release the first episode of our Year Round Whitetail Hunter Series! In this episode, I chat with Ryan and Matt about what they have been doing in January to improve their odds of harvesting a trophy whitetail in the upcoming season! And if you have seen the quality of deer these guys harvest, you know its probably worth a listen 🙂 Enjoy!

Another look at an upcoming podcast series! In this series we take a look at the monthly activities of waterfowl hunters who continue to achieve annual success. Watch the video for a quick introduction into what we hope to achieve in the series.

We are super excited to announce an upcoming podcast series – The Year-Round Whitetail Hunter! Whitetail hunting is much like many other aspects of life. The outside public sees the results but not the process. And it is our belief that it is the behind the scenes work that takes place all year round that leads to continued success in the whitetail world. In this series, we will track the monthly activities of Ryan Pudik and Matt Lynch…to provide an insiders look into what these guys do throughout the year in order to achieve continued success. Watch the above video or listen to the podcast to hear about the upcoming series!

New Video Podcast Up! In this episode we chat with Matt Lynch again. This time it’s about the deer that he shot! Nice work Matt. Solid deer!

Rapid fire podcasts today. In this episode, I chat with Matt Lynch about his 107 acre listing in Fulton County. This place is legit. If you are in the market for a trophy whitetail farm with some added fishing, give this a listen!

In this episode, I chat with Matt Lynch about the lastest deer activity here in Central Illinois.

Chat with Jason Hire about the latest waterfowl activity around central Illinois.

Busting out a few podcasts today with Matt Lynch. Love this new format where we can record them remotely and video them at the same time. Hope you guys enjoy them as much as we do. In this episode, we chat about what matt has seen in the field and what he anticipates over the next few days. Enjoy!

Hey Guys! Back at the podcast! Trying out a new software that will let us chat remotely and keep you guys up to speed more. So bear with us a bit 🙂 Im sure we will screw it up for a while before we get it dialed in! We are excited about it though. In this episode, I chat with broker Matt Lynch about his 25 acre listing in Peoria County and a few of the trial cam pics he got the last time he was out there! Hope you enjoy!

In this episode, we sit down with Glen Lynch and chat with him about the entire process of pursuing this deer of a lifetime! Glen and his family are LandCo clients who purchased this farm back in 2015 and we immediately put into action a plan to improve the whitetail hunting. The results left us all speechless. Take a listen and see some additional pics below! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Z58Gi8OEMQ