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Rural System? Just Dreaming …
A For-Profit Conglomerate for
Meaningful Jobs
Healthful Communities
and Improved Natural Resource Management
by Robert H. Giles, Jr., Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
2007
Chapter 25. The Realtor Group
Dreaming: Fundamentals …spaces and volumes for people … cave-like… to slow the energy being sucked away by touching things, always touching and losing … blown away … and then rain teamed-up with wind to sparkle and dance the death steps… oh if only a house or a home … but the words do not make or reflect the difference … we need special personal spaces …multidimensional, in which we can discover our group humanity. Just Dreaming …
| Not yet developed, the imagined Group addresses expanding urban interests in nearby rural areas, flips the role of the realtor, and advances an alternative to land use zoning. It shows the potentials of synergism among of the separate Rural Inns Group, an energy group, a viewscape group, a warehouse function, and affiliation with an architect. |
"To know it is to love it" may be true for land. Rural System holds that land will be better used and managed than it is now if people learn about it, come to appreciate it, and learn how to respect its limits and to exploit its potentials for the long-run. Beside gaining the long-term well-being of the owner and neighbors (all of us), realtors, after gaining and providing deep knowledge of land through the Realtor Group, are likely to increase sales and gain repeat contacts, improve satisfactions for buyers, and enhance their role within the region.
The business model of the conventional realtor is now flipped by Rural System and its Realtor Group to one of providing entrance to long-term regional productivity and to becoming a community stabilizing force. It links land owners to the Land Force and Rural System Tracts, to the Warehouse and Rural Inns Groups and provides land value enhancement (related to later sales). The Group becomes a major broker of sophisticated, modern, high-quality long-term resource management. Rather than being the sales person, the realtor becomes a new middle agent of land as being satisfying, of land as meeting the real needs of people, providing benefits and reducing losses and risks. It connects responsible buyers with land units (each of which is unique). The Realtor Group recognizes that how the people of a community feel about themselves affects land value, probably as much as 5%, and so one of its missions is to enhance that feeling. A 5% increase on any investment cannot be ignored. Communities can "get down" on themselves and feed off of rumors and bad news. They need to continually reflect on their strengths, opportunities, and positive history. The Group can assist in this…for financial reasons alone… but there are evident other reasons.
In Chapter 5 the meaning of "place" was discussed. There is a related meaning when youths say, "There's nothing to do around this place." There is a common understanding about their meaning, about human needs for diversity and excitement, for novel activities, for interacting with others, for something to talk about. Small communities, at least in comparison to large ones, and in comparison to elegant TV selections of "fast" places, may seem like there is nothing to do. The Realtor Group believes that having something to do (other than essential work) is part of a high quality of life, a characteristic of a land unit mine the average temperature. Knowing about being in a good place is a part of the value of land and thus a part of the real value of land and water. Gaining such awareness has small costs and high returns over time in increased real estate value from providing diverse events, activities, sports (e.g., Novosports) and the effects o many organizations related to the Groups of Rural System.
Land to sell and land available for alternative uses are re-emphasized realtor topics. The US lost over 86,000 farms from 1997 to 2002. Virginia's part of that was 1760 farms. Whether the task is to reduce taxes, increase energy efficiency, share high-priced equipment, or to increase and sustain land productivity may be questions for the farmer on the verge of bankruptcy. Eighty percent of US citizens now live in cities but the major rural problem is the reverse flow… residential expansion outward from cities into rural lands. The chief new problem in forested areas is that of housing being placed in forests where wildfires increase and protecting homes becomes more difficult. "Absentee owners" increase and thousands of acres are left unproductive, unmanaged, and often degrading. Rural System staff thinks that these are topics for if not problems for the realtor, for the question is now who will buy marginal land and for what will they use it? What will make a satisfied customer, one who will help build the realtor's customer base, the company's future appeal, and maintain local land values?
A basic tenet of economics is that land resources are employed in their highest and best use. For private lands, such use is typically equated with the greatest market return. Highest and best use is a well-known real estate phrase for a building or tract of land but it skirts questions of for what, for whom, over what period, and how far into the future? What is the name of that use, what is its amount, and how will it be attained are hidden within the phrase. The questions about such "use" as for a human life are ultimate, very personal, and about very singular statements of life objective(s). The problems for the best uses of land parallel those for the human life. Which is best, (1) to die on the mountain climbing it (very personal); (2) to die recognized as having fought to the last for a failed cause (a process or action objective); (3) to be happy, quietly, and serenely in some lowly condition called by most "poverty"; or (4) to die a millionaire, happy with success, surroundings, and knowledge of having just funded a disease-cure center?
In real estate, the highest and best use of a land site seems to be that for the latest best idea that will make the customer the most money with the least hassle... or what the law and local people say are the limits of its use. For some, the only criterion is what will allow the owner a breakeven existence for an imagined period or life expectancy. The Realtor Group can take an idea (e.g., a proposal for a special factory) and its characteristics and find the very best place within a region (using GIS) for it to be implemented for the long run. There may be several identical places. Then that property can be sought. Failing acquisition of that probably-best place for the idea, secondary sites may be sought. These, obviously, are not "best sites," but may be superior for a socially very beneficial use or development. It is unlikely that existing sound structures will be destroyed to achieve "highest and best use" of a site but this is done. Alternative procedures are to state a set of weighted objectives and to find all places that may satisfy those objectives. There may be several "best sites," lands displaying all of the stated and weighted characteristics.
The more frequently-used practice is to have a unit of land for sale and then to explore potential uses of that land …and thus for the real estate sales person, to identify possible first-cut customers for contacts.
| I live here and I love it and let me show you why. Join us for our future together |
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The Realtor Group is a system for people who are appraising, buying, selling, renting, or developing land. It is a system for realtors and their real or potential clients. It started as a partnership development in which Rural System invested with local realtors in efforts to sell or rent land. It was trying to discover the role of the modern sophisticated real estate broker in the welfare of the county and its future. A small percentage of the commission of the current realtor was shared with Rural System. The alignment was clearly for strong financial incentives for both. Rural System improved its services allowing the realtors to sell more properties and thus both made gains … as did society.
Most people believe that they know what they want and they express these needs or wants in simple terms such as "a good piece of land" or "a place in the country." It takes work to get people to describe exactly what they want. Even more important is the problem of describing what they will get. Most people do not even know the categories, what questions to ask about land, or what information they could get if they knew how to ask for it. Few people have much practice in making big purchases. Most only do it one or two times in a lifetime. Stating wants and needs, especially for rural conditions, becomes increasingly more difficult as the society becomes more urban.
The Realtor Group provides an expert system analysis of lands that may meet the criteria and interests of a prospective buyer. It includes three financial plans for assisting in achieving a sale or purchase. The report is like a medical "work-up" on a patient. It can also be compared to military intelligence. It is a system that produces reports, maps, and illustrations that help realtors sell land by providing the answers to questions that clients actually have or may ask about land. It is the best information currently available within a dynamic database and it is provided in cost-effective phases. It connects responsible buyers with land units (each of which is unique). It attempts to increase the chances that customers will be pleased, the land and resources will be used well, the people of the area will prosper, and the users of the real estate business component of Rural System will become increasingly prosperous. Buyers take only a few days to select a realtor, but they take as long as four years to collect information before they are comfortable enough to buy a home (Herbert Research for Home Values, Inc. July, 2005). The sales process takes an average of 9.3 months, 6.9 months of which are for doing research. One of the objectives and competitive strategies of the Realtor Group is to deliver a major website unit, a sales "document" that reduces that research period substantially. The document itself then become part of the real estate that is purchased. The document is like the provenance that increases the value of an antique. The document adds significant value to the land. Agents working with an electronic version of the document can help the buyer or owner understand the land and its potentials as well as limits. While any realtor can study a property and deliver a significant document about it, the cost of doing so is very high. Using a computer system to produce that document significantly reduces the costs and increases the scope and quality of the product for both the realtor and the client.
A group of scientists can study a small tract of land for their entire careers and pass it along to their children for more study. There is no end to interesting questions about every piece of land. The Realtor Group does not answer all questions, only delivers information in four phases and in sequence. Each phase is of different intensity and depth.
The Realtor Group staff can also develop a unique program of long-term studies for a client. Besides great taxation benefits, the public relations gains can be great. Such studies can provide a baseline analysis as protection for the buyer against future claims of excessive changes and abuses. Strategic project selection can usually be of direct benefit to companies (for legal, environmental, and product development). Phase 1 The e-catalog offers an expert system response to the stated needs of a client, one that sifts through available properties based on the prospective buyer's interests and requirements and gives each a "score" for how well the objectives and criteria are likely to be met. It shows sweeping digital pictures of tracts and their surroundings and lists characteristics such as crop production, forest yield, recreation potentials, hunting, birds, geology, and opportunities. It begins suggestions of how the purchaser of each tract might benefit from lasting management.
Phase 2 of the work for a prospective land buyer of a particular tract or structure provides information about the state and relevant counties. It gives the ecological region and general information about the forests and wildlife of the area. It provides exact location, rainfall, monthly temperatures, growing season, and an estimate of the number of species present. It analyzes area, boundary length and adjacent owners and problems and benefits. The most exciting unit is the maps. Based or a boundary map supplied by the realtor, the area is displayed within a topographic map "window" of about 25 miles on all sides (8 1/2 x 11 size).
The report includes several GIS maps. An attractive, three-dimensional picture (in color) of the shape of the land surface is presented along with the rough boundary. One map shows a 3-dimensional picture of the land within the boundary that is for sale. Links are provided for answers to questions about local conditions. Much of the text is general and educational, applicable to many local sites, but many sections are site specific. It uses satellite and other information sources. Expert survey sources are suggested and detailed mapping arranged as needed.
Most of the above will be available on a web site (with security for the owner) or delivered on paper (or both). On the web, changes are made as they are found or occur in the neighborhood of a tract. The agent helping the prospective owner see the potentials for land use and Rural System involvement tends to increase sales.
Phase 3 lists the major species known or likely present, analyzes the slopes, soil, aspect (direction downhill) of each unit, and provides extensive documents (all of these may be on a web site) about the forests of the area. A vegetation map is supplied. It includes a map based on the latest analyzed satellite images. Five other maps are presented - slopes, aspects, solar radiation, elevations, and watersheds. Phase 4 provides other information about the area, but its emphasis is on ideas for development, ecological limits, financial options, ecotourism potentials, hunting and fishing potentials, and bird watching and nature study and research potentials. Gross forest potentials are estimated, but clients are referred, e.g., to relevant Groups equipped to move past the Realtor Group documents, to use them and the investment made in them. A computer "fly-over" (giving the observer at a computer monitor some of the feeling of flying slowly over a property or part of a county) was developed for large tracts.
After the sale, if appropriate, staff typically offers to help gain and then market the productive potentials of the land for the purchaser. It offers to supply sophisticated cost-effective services to enhance the land and stabilize its productivity and potential profits. Such services (and financial rewards) seem much more than real estate sale gimmicks. Rural System can assist landowners in having their lands classified as Certified Forests by Smartwood (discussed below).
Making connections and marketing for the Realtor Group, Rural Inns, and the architects (discussed below) were encouraged for foresters, wildlife managers, the Land Force and other groups of Rural System. Boundary signs were sold; dynamic plans suggested; Trust-land tax benefits arranged; fencing offered; trails connecting to a local system were suggested; restoration of small units of land was offered; the list grew. The connections were especially valuable for the absentee owner for they helped assure the potentials of increasing land productivity and value.
Rural Inns
The Rural Inns Group was developed following noting the great difficulties and costs of trying to attract major lodging firms with extensive facilities for tourists, meeting rooms, and parking lots or to develop a diverse, dispersed lodging resource for the region. There must be abundant tourists to support abundant lodging facilities. "Fill the beds" is the working rule. To have abundant tourist income, there must be abundant, high quality tourist accommodations. At least initially, an option of dispersed facilities seemed worth exploring It tends to overcome many of the undesirable aspects of unmanaged tourism.
There are specialized needs for housing for tourists and others in the region. Rural System can hope for and depend upon others to provide these facilities some day or it can utilize its resources and capitalize on the advantages of unifying such an operation within its framework of providing for the advantages and opportunities, large and small, within the region. Gaining significant capital for motels and their extensive infrastructure for large group activities has seemed unlikely. A solution was seen in dispersed inns of different quality and services throughout the region. Some of the existing economic problems within the region result from sales areas having been centralized (the malls) and from requiring potential customers to move to them for service at high energy costs and loss of time.
The Rural Inns Group strategy is built on the premise that coordinated, centralized work can provide for dispersed, diversified economies. Staff joked about "a single motel widely dispersed throughout the region." Risks can be dispersed and kept small. Owners and their families can live in their places; places can be maintained and renovated, work will be available for interested local citizens, and the inns can enhance the beauty and quality of living spaces within the county. Inns can reduce the travel time and costs to sites of interest. Of course, there have to be year-around activities (outlined for the other enterprises) to stabilize customers. Of course new inns or energy efficient alternatives may be built, justified by the appearance of visitors.
Rural System offered advertising and marketing, Internet connections and services, and increased occupancy rates in healthful, comfortable, low-cost facilities for visitors to the county and to the other services and resources of Rural System. The Inns related well to local restaurants and several provide unique dining opportunities.
There were soon 50 units linked by central booking, serviced by a unit of the Land Force, repaired, renovated, provided insurance, provided signage and facilities and equipment from a common pool, inspected regularly and assured of meeting high health and corporate standards … all to give the owners of especially fine old homes within the region an opportunity to join and become one of the Rural Inns.
The inns provide new income potentials for an aging population. There are almost no proposed capital investment costs incurred by the county or town governments. The services were only slightly competitive with existing motels but augmented and assist in their marketing. The inns provided a new vitality to the real estate tax base. Linkages were made with local establishments to provide small bakery, food, and beverage services. Crafts and related sales were offered within the Inns. Centralized laundry services reduced stresses on rural water and sewage systems. Spaces now available for local functions of all types were so advertised, but the Inns main year-around customer base was that of the increasingly active Rural System.
Special programs of the Rural Inns Group were developed for people to "get away" for extended periods, writing, reflecting, and recuperating from illness. A cooperative work-study and educational program was arranged with students and faculty of hotel management at a local college.
The Inns was a growth enterprise. Ten owners were recruited to join, two on Rural System Tracts, and began providing services. Two existing inns become affiliated and one took a leadership role. The "bottom line" was very clear: success will be in developing year-around activities in Rural System. Having living spaces is essential for ranging success. Staff confronted a conventional chicken-or-egg problem for the two - a diverse active system and living spaces for the participants. It was partially solved by developing charter-member incentives, dispersed marketing, and minimum risk-taking on all sides. A meeting place for short courses, training programs, and business meetings was seen to be needed. It seemed likely that such space, perhaps with renovations, can be rented from one or more of the churches of the county as part of a "stewardship of God's creation" premise. Variations in units available, occupancy days, and pricing all together continued to produced a wide range of positive financial outcomes.
An Affiliate: Architects
Systems people know that they are really "subsystems" people. Depending on their perspective, most things are a subsystem. Groups are subsystems of Rural System. Several large subsystems became evident and were formed. One was the architectural or structural unit. Determined not to compete with existing progressive companies, we offered a small architectural firm ways that we might work together. They were eager to grow. They recognized the potentials of diversification but could not afford to achieve them. Diversification has high costs as well as potentially new risks for which the existing company members do not have expertise.
We made our contacts at the crest of new interest in global warming. Somehow it became noted and named and the massive forgotten efforts of the energy crisis of the 1970's were given new birth in 2006. Presenting what we could offer seemed reasonable but, in starting, we had little to offer but ideas and prospects for the future. We began by suggesting the likely positive benefits of stated intent to cooperate, thus open communication and forming the preliminary nodes of a network. We shared contacts, web links, publications, and offered participation of experts in their list of experts and cooperators. We suggested work with our groups related to the elderly and how to design structures to reduce the chances of falls.
The first real contribution to them was a space within our e-catalog as well as listing with us as a cooperator. Such listings imply affiliation with principles and practices and thus may have undesirable connotations to some potential customers. We contacted a firm that we believed had our orientation toward the land. We would work together a common potential client base, not a universal one. We offered free advertising, new customers, expansion of their reputation, more contacts, ideas, and several new "venues" for a small rural community architectural firm. We could see the potentials of net growth in their business profits of at least 10% over a few years. Our objectives were to be achieved in their expanded employment, their expanded tax contribution to the community, property value enhancement, generally improved esthetics and energy budgeting of the community for their clients, ease of access to services and information to other Rural System groups, and small financial gains from specific contracts and services. They had contacts and designs for repairing old structures for converting them to inns and for retrofitting them for energy conservation.
We expected minor conflicts and began discussing their potentials early in our "net-working." There are many differences in views of architects, landscape planners, and landscape ecologists. Their education differs as much as concepts of beautiful places "from their childhood memories." Their insistence upon "art" winning in some ongoing dialogical battle with "science" is usually resolved in the appearance of their structures or projects several years after construction. For some of them, "design" happens. For others, design is the listing of objectives and criteria (Chapter 7) and the selection of specific well-quantified elements from among thousands available that fit those lists very well, if not perfectly… then with a little "extra" at low cost and low risk thrown in, signifying the artist having his or her personal life-force payoff. The artist concerned with exterior wall color compatibility may not have the interest or education to deal with shrink-and-swell potentials of the soil under buildings or roads and suitable landscape plants for each soil condition. The interests and abilities are vastly different and very diverse.
We proceeded to discuss and to try to find ways to work together on a set of interests, largely to build our profits together. At a minimum, the Realtor Group could provide the architect the fundamental dimensions of the building site and an expert system analysis of land.
Viewscape Group
We continued to explore potential relations with the architects. Working with the Viewscape Group seemed reasonable. That group had a regional landscape beauty analysis software package for sale but its greatest applications were in analyzing views from potential construction points - the "picture window" or office panorama. Some customers may desire or use possible before-and- after simulated views of change resulting from constructions (e.g., powerlines or proposed structures or shadows cast by proposed buildings). The services of the Soundscape Group were gaining a market as effects of noise levels on human health became better recognized. The group was temporarily housed with the Viewscape staff. Their landscape specialists worked with wildlife specialists on landscaping that combines benefits for wildlife (food and cover) as well as wind protection and shading for energy conservation. Wildlifers gave unique insights into housing design that reduced vertebrate pest problems. Landscaping has many different professional viewpoints but when the sale property or ownership is seen as the "canvas" and the structures as well as vegetation and natural objects are the materials to be added to or removed from that canvas to achieve beauty for the client, expertise is needed. Gardens may be one such element in that artistic work and the Gardens Group could provide an important service to match size, shape, colors, seasonally with the design to match soil and water considerations simultaneously with the shadows cast (thus suitable plants) by the existing or proposed structures.
The Energy Group
The Energy Group was convinced that color of a house, both roof and sides had an effect on energy conservation, and that it varied with latitude and the topographic shadow in which the structure was located. They explored that idea together. Increasing local crime rates related to financial difficulties of people in rural areas, coupled with increasing drug use, required new security. Work with the Safety and Security Group was easily arranged.
The Certification Group Smartwood is a recent development in forestry and wood processing generally. The Rain Forest Alliance and the Forest Stewardship Council (created in 1993) have developed a set of criteria for well-managed, sustainable forests. When a forest meets the criteria, it may be certified as environmentally sound and under sustained conditions. Special attention as well as economic incentives follows. Like a "Good-Housekeeping Seal-of-Approval," the designation significantly increases the value of the products from the areas. The Realtor Group works with The Certification Group, for in the process, forest land may become better known and will achieve higher prices from its products and better management than without it or than if independently pursued. Certification is a voluntary verification of good forest stewardship by an independent third party according to set standards. For forest-product processors, a product labeling system differentiates their products in the highly competitive forest products markets. Presumably environmentally conscious and concerned citizens would prefer that the wood they use be from certified forests. Smartwood is an organization that has been formed to perform the certification. Advertised in national magazines and frequently given radio spots, SmartWood-certified wood is becoming well known in the Eastern US. (The ISF and another group work in the western US.)
Major wood sales companies have featured it in their yards. A program following a "chain of custody" from forest to finished manufactured product (e.g., the pencil, furniture wood) has also been established. Wood from certified forests brings higher than standard prices wherever it is sold. Citizen acceptance is limited but growing. Contractors advertise homes built with certified wood. Export markets are reported to receive 10% more for certified lumber than other lumber from the same sources. Over 4.6 million acres in the US have been certified as well managed (2002) and 154 processors have established a chain of custody for products.
Following advertisements and other announcements, a landowner, member of The Realtor Group, or member of The Certification Group would contact Smartwood to become certified. After preliminary evaluations, a team of 4 people visits the land to observe it. The owner presents all of the information requested; several days are spent in the field. A report is filed stating full certification or the needs for conditional certification. Opportunities are made for expert review of the report and comments or rebuttal from the owner. Once the conditions are met, the land is certified and it may sell wood as being from a certified forest. Periodic inspections are held to be sure that the criteria are continually met.
Rural System proposes to have all of its lands certified. More importantly, it proposes to become a brokerage or liaison for the services needed to become certified. The process is expensive and complex but the rewards can be substantial, especially as they become part of a greening strategy. The plan that is required for certification is long, complex, and has high cost. The Trevey (Chapter 19) operates to significantly reduce that cost and enhance its quality. The typical landowner needs to have a staff "get ready," prepare an effective presentation to the visiting team, make field arrangements, present a summary, and continue correspondence about technical matters. Expedient certification is the byword. Usually The Certification Group would assist in making presentations of such information and making subsequent updates and announcing when conditional elements could be removed. It could also assist in inspections by making presentations and taking the inspectors to named sites.
The Warehouse Group
Within the Realtor Group is the Warehouse Group. In some areas of the county near rail and highways there are areas that are unproductive of trees or pastures (often of anything!). There are soil borrow areas, dry ridges, and even areas with toxic materials.
In the new world of e-commerce it seems that pleasing surroundings for visiting customers to sites may not be needed. The appearance of a company (Amazon.com for example,) is never involved. The book seller needs only a warehouse, willing workers, and connections to transportation systems for personnel as well as shipping products from the site. Some areas of the state are unsuitable for urban development and high human populations but may serve well as places for the new warehouses for e-commerce. Some land, removed from intensive benefit production, may serve.
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Notes for an Imagined Letter to Realtors You can sell your forests, hunting, and recreation lands more rapidly and at a higher price than normal by becoming affiliated with and using The Realtor Group of Rural System. These services are available for local realtors and they produce satisfied customers that spread the "good word" about you and your company among potential customers. Each realtor has special needs, so we can customize analyses for you from among a set of options for you and your special customers. Typical analyses for areas include those such as:
One alternative for getting started is for us to develop the system together, and then engage in marketing it together to other realtors. Another alternative is for us to invest in the system and have exclusive rights, then offer it as a service to you at a specific cost per report produced. Another is to work together for a small percentage of your commission on each property on which the system is used. We work with you, enhancing your profits through sales. If our services do not work for you, there is no cost to you. (The more you make, the more frequently, the greater are the incentives.) There may be other options; let's work together. |
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