Episode 54: LANDU Bootcamp Survivor Stories | Guests Bethany Kreutzer and Chris Gier

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Welcome to the REALTORS^® Land Institute Podcast, the Voice of land, the industry's leading land real estate organization.

Justin Osborn: This is Justin Osborn, ALC with the Wells Group in Durango, Colorado. On today's episode of the Voices of Land podcast, we're talking to two RLI members, Bethany and Chris, who recently attended the LANDU Education Bootcamp in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and they're here to share their bootcamp survivor stories. Bethany is a land realtor with a decade of experience helping clients buy and sell rural properties. She currently serves on the RLI Oklahoma chapter as the education chair and on the chapter leadership council. When not helping clients, she enjoys spending time on her cattle ranch and enjoying the rural lifestyle. Chris is a licensed land agent in Missouri and vice president at Premier Farm Realty Group, operating in nine Midwest states. He himself specializes in farm and ranch agricultural properties throughout southern Missouri, but also sells recreational and transitional land real estate as well. He is a past Landstar Award Top Producer recipient for acreage through land.com and also an Apex Award Producers Club recipient through RLI. He resides on his own family farm in southeast Missouri. Welcome to the podcast, guys.

Bethany Kreutzer: Thank you.

Chris Gier: Thank you, Justin.

JO: Well, I'm excited to do this. Bethany, it's always fun getting somebody from Oklahoma. You know, I grew up in Rockwell, Texas, and my grandparents ran cows across the Red River in southeastern Oklahoma. So it's always nice kind of going back to the good old days.

BK: That's awesome. I didn't know that.

JO: Where are you located in Oklahoma?

BK: I am in southeast Oklahoma, so the pretty part of the state that a lot of people don't know about.

JO: Okay. Well, like, I know where Durant is, or as the locals say, Durant. So how far are you from that? 

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BK: I am almost two hours from Durant. A little bit north and a little bit further east.

JO: Okay. Gotcha. And Chris, whereabouts in the Midwest exactly are you?

CG: I'm down in southeast Missouri, and I tend to work primarily along the Highway 60 corridor across the southern part of the state between Springfield and Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

JO: Okay. Gotcha. Well, yeah, I did boot camp way back in, I think it was maybe 2014 or 2015 when it was in Arlington, Texas. And, man, we had a good group of us, still a lot of us are pretty close today, but I'd love to hear some of your stories. And I'm assuming that you both attended boot camp because you're working towards your ALC. Is that correct?

BK: Yes, sir.

CG: Correct. Absolutely.

JO: Okay. And then what was kind of the main reasoning behind that? Did you have a mentor pushing you towards it, or did you have some other reasons that led you towards getting your ALC?

Go ahead, Chris.

CG: For me, the short answer was knowledge and credentials. I do have some mentors. Everybody has mentors that they work with and had a leader encouraging me, hey, you ought to go do this. You've got the numbers to do it. But for me, I took the class. I felt like I learned a lot, even though I have experience. And you don't really know what you don't know until you take the course. 

JO: What about you, Bethany?

BK: I've had some people requesting me to go and do it. So that was probably the initial push. But I always feel like any education that I've gotten from RLI has been top-notch. And so I wanted that. And then, actually, as a woman in the land industry, any clout kind of helps, especially with the good old boys club. So it's always a good kind of feather in your hat, I think, when you can hang with them, too.

JO: Well, tell me a little bit about the courses you took. Did you guys kind of drink from the fire hose and do them all at once or a majority at once, or did you crank out a few that was kind of your final classes towards your ALC? 

Bethany, you want to start off there?

BK: Okay. I took all but the last two. I had already... I actually took recreational land with you just in a few years ago. And then I had a mapping class, which took the 1031. And I've taken another 1031 class as well. So I took all the rest of them.

Gotcha. And which one was standing out as maybe one of your favorites, other than the recreational land class, of course?

BK: Well, of course, yes. But this go-around, I would say probably the agricultural land was my favorite.

JO: Nice. Okay. What about for you, Chris?

CG: So for me, I took the whole enchilada. I was there the entire time, all nine days.

JO: That's awesome, man. And...

I just embraced it and went with it. It was a long trip, but I think it was nine days, 10 nights away from home, something like that, but got it all done. And as far as classes go, I mean, I enjoy Ag, but I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed the Land 101 course. It really kind of covered a little bit of everything. And then we dove into the specialty stuff with other courses.

JO: Yeah, Land 101, it's a great course, especially for newer agents or residential agents that are trying to learn a little bit more about land without getting too intense, like some of the other classes. It is exactly what the title says, you know, 101. I think if we look back to our college days, you think about those kind of freshman, sophomore classes, and that's exactly what that is. So glad to hear that you enjoyed that, Chris. Now, on the flip side, was there anything that you were like, oh my gosh, this is a little bit more intense than I was expecting?

BK: Oh, yes. That was Land Investment Analysis, hands down.

CG: Hey, you stole that one from me, Bethany.

JO: Well, I think my alumni from Bootcamp back then, we called it LANDU, would agree with you. But I tell you what, it's amazing to see how much I use that in my business, especially now that it's been 10 years later. I didn't do near the amount of income type properties that I do today. It was a lot of recreational land and still is for me, but there's a lot of income producing properties that I'm selling on cap rates that was just extremely valuable for me to learn that info. And I think a lot of people kind of maybe don't realize how valuable land investment analysis is going to be until they're actually out in the field crunching numbers like, oh, wait, I remember this. 

Right. I would agree with you 100%.

JO: Well, was there anything that you were able to walk away with and immediately apply? Like you're taking notes in class, you get back in the truck or you get back in the office and you're like, okay, I just learned this last week and I'm bringing it into play with this client right now on this transaction.

Go ahead, Chris.

CG: I don't know if there was any one particular thing that stood out for me. It was just good to be exposed to the overall knowledge base. I think I mentioned earlier, you don't know what you don't know until you take a course. You think you know certain things and there's just little, I would say little pieces that I kind of picked up that I was like a light bulb went on and said, oh, I really didn't know that. So it's quite surprising. You'd be surprised when you actually, if you haven't gone through the course, the little things that you learn that you either took for granted or you didn't know that you didn't know.

JO: All right, Bethany, what about you? Was there anything that you were able to walk away with and immediately start applying to your business?

BK: I think there were more than, like Chris said, it's a lot of little things. But I also think that just in talking to people as well as in discussions within the class and even outside of the class, maybe people who have been in a situation that you've maybe struggled with or had a question about or things like that, that you can take away from as well, which are still taken out of classes, but not necessarily on the agenda of PowerPoint things.

JO: Yeah. So it sounds like you're kind of talking about, if I'm understanding you correctly, like bouncing ideas, the networking that happens amongst the groups where you're in between classes, maybe all go to lunch, you're talking about the deals and the hurdles that you're dealing with in your daily business and problem solving.

For sure.

JO: Yeah, yeah. That's so valuable in our organization. It's one of the best things that I love about RLI is, especially from our LANDU Bootcamp class, there's guys all across the country that we pick up the phone... I mean, there's one guy I talk to once a week. We're bouncing ideas off of each other, and he's in a completely different state, but we're talking about what we're seeing with appraisals if we're having Ag deals that are getting financed, and we're talking about the number of 1031 exchanges that we're seeing. It's really valuable, especially where I'm at. There's a lot of feeder markets that feed Colorado. We've got a lot of second homeowners in Texas and Oklahoma and Arizona that, depending on what markets are happening down there, it can really affect my market. So I love talking to different realtors, getting educated on what's happening in their areas. Chris, what about the relationship side of things with you at Bootcamp? Was there a whole lot of rookies in your class that had only been in business for a couple years, or was there some seasoned people that you were talking with on the sidelines?

CG: For me, I mean, obviously meeting other professionals was a big deal. One of the things that I found interesting about the class is, and Bethany will probably agree, it seemed like we had a wide range of age group there. We had some young people, some older people. I realized that some of the younger folks that maybe are new in the business are taking the courses to gain knowledge so that they can use that knowledge to build their credentials and get the numbers. I think for Bethany and I, we probably went into class already having the numbers and kind of doing it backwards the other way. Regardless, you still learn. And for me, the networking was a big thing. I enjoyed the Friday night reception, getting to network with some of the local chapter folks that were there and just spend some time networking in general and getting to know other like-minded people in the business.

JO: Yeah, I kind of did the same thing you did, Chris. I wish I would have started it sooner. I was in the real estate business for about 11 or 12 years before I really found RLI and then started getting educated. And I was selling plenty of rural properties then, not near the amount that I'm selling now that I have my ALC as a result of RLI, but I wish I would have done it sooner. I wish somebody would have told me, hey, you need to go take these classes even if you're not close to getting the volume requirements that it takes to get your ALC, but just to take the classes up front and be educated so that when the first time you're having a client ask you about 1031 exchanges, you say, oh, wait, I remember I took that 1031 exchange class through RLI, or you talk to somebody that's wanting to maybe do a development and you say, oh, I remember taking that site selection class through RLI. There's just all kinds of stuff that newer agents can learn that I wish I would have learned at a younger age and not waiting 11, 12 years to find out about it into my career.

Now, did you guys have a chance to get outside of class and really explore Tulsa much, or was it kind of nose to the grind the whole time?

BK: We did a couple of dinners out and that kind of thing. There was a group of us that went out a few nights and hung out a little bit and took in a few places and enjoyed a little bit.

JO: Enjoy a little bit. That sounds like maybe the liver paid for it the next morning is what that sounds like.

BK: Wouldn't that be a normal, typical RLI meeting? Afterwards, you have to have a little bit of downtime.

JO: Always good times. What about you, Chris?

CG: I did the same thing, had some dinners. I was easy on my liver, though. I'm an older guy. I'm boring, so I got to go to bed a little early and get some rest for the next day of class. I had nine days straight, so after a few days, I was kind of mentally worn out. I'll say that.

JO: Yeah, I can imagine, man. I remember, I think when we did it, I had already taken a couple classes, and so we did, it was either six or seven days straight, but yeah, it was fun times for sure. So let's say you're being interviewed by a newer agent that's maybe sitting on the fence saying, you know, I just can't afford that ALC class, or I can't afford to travel, or I'm only selling residential. I don't know that I'm going to sell land. What would you tell an agent that's kind of sitting on the fence on taking some of these classes?

BK: I would tell them that it is definitely worth it, and you can't afford not to.

JO: That's well said. Yeah, you can't afford not to. I love it. It's kind of, I remember my wife, when we were young, thinking about having kids, like, well, I don't know if we can afford it this year. Well, I don't know if we can afford it next year. It's like, oh, we're still not there, but it's like, are you ever really ready? Can you ever really afford it? You just got to break down and do it, and you'll never regret it.

BK: Exactly.

JO: What about you, Chris? What would your advice be?

CG: So, similar, I mean, if you don't have money, set it aside, plan ahead. If you're serious about your career, I'd tell a younger person or anyone that's trying to build their career, invest in yourself, learn what you can to better serve your clients, to add to your credentials. I mean, if you're new to real estate and have limited knowledge, these courses are going to help boost your confidence and your sales efforts. You're going to get better results. So, if you can't attend the nine-day boot camp, maybe attend the mini boot camp or go at your own pace, take some online courses, but definitely take the courses.

JO: Yeah, the courses are great. Getting the education is great. And, I mean, not necessarily CE credit, but National Land Conference, it's going to be down in San Antonio in March. There's fabulous education at those breakout sessions. I walk away every year learning so much just attending those classes. And so I would encourage our listeners also, if the whole nine days is intense, like Chris and I did, set aside the middle of March next year for San Antonio, come down to National Land Conference with us and do some breakout sessions, and you're going to be learning from some of the best in the industry that literally come in from all over the country just to be a part of that. Well, anything else that you guys would like to share with our listeners here as we've got a few more minutes left?

CG: Nothing other than dive in and go for it. Get your education. It's well worth it. You can't ever learn enough.

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JO: What about you, Bethany?

BK: Definitely. Take any class you can. Even if you take them one at a time or take them all online, I still feel like in person is, in my opinion, the best because of the networking that you're going to get and because you're going to have that extra person that you can rely on or call. And like you said, they may be in a totally different market, but sometimes that's what you need. Sometimes you just need a different perspective on something and it'll make everything clearer.

JO: Yeah, I totally agree. Online classes are great for some people, and other people need the in-person connections. And a lot of side dialogue takes place also in those in-person classes that doesn't happen on the online classes. Well, listeners, if you'd like to get more educated on a variety of land topics so that you can better serve your clients, be sure to take some LANDU courses. We've got virtual courses offered all year, and each summer we have the boot camp where you can take six courses towards your ALC. And in the fall, we have the Mini-Bootcamp that Chris was talking about where you can take three courses towards your ALC. This kind of really formal education, it's going to build your competency and your confidence when you're conducting land transactions, and it's really going to help set you apart from your competition. If you want to see the upcoming course offerings, please go to the RLI website, rliland.com, and click on the Learn tab. Bethany and Chris, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your boot camp survivor stories. If one of our listeners wants to get in touch with you directly, what's the best way for them to do that?

We'll start with Chris.

CG: I can be reached direct on my cell phone. You're welcome to call 573-510-3160, or you could go to land.com and look me up there as well. My name is Chris, C-H-R-I-S. Last name is spelled G-I-E-R.

JO: All right, thanks, Chris. And Bethany, what's the best way for folks to track you down?

BK: Probably my cell phone, be 928-245-7066. And of course, you can look me up on land.com, Land Broker MLS, wherever. Just Google me. The last name, I usually go by Bethany K. Because my last name is a little tricky. It's K-R-E-U-T-Z-E-R. 

JO: All right, well, thank you guys for joining us today. And folks, for more expertise on land real estate topics, be sure to check out the RLI blog, follow us on social media, and of course, tune in for upcoming episodes of the Voices of Land podcast.

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