Empowering with Information for Successful Outcomes
Auctions: Your Terms. Your Schedule
What does dedication to the land and landowners mean to our auctions team?
What does it look like day-to-day?
Every property and every seller has a story. Our biggest accomplishment is when we can fully understand the situation the seller is in and relate to what they are going through. A common thread amongst Hall and Hall Partners is that we have extensive experience and can give sound advice to sellers, as we have probably been in the same position before with a previous client. From an auction perspective, there are hundreds of decisions that get made throughout the process, and each decision is critical. Guiding the seller through this process is essential. Understanding any seller side challenges is job one. Our clients become family and we tend to make their issues our issues.
What is your mindset?
We visit with each seller, explore their position, and provide the advice and service that we would want to receive if the property belonged to us. Working with buyers, we hope to understand what they want to better inform them as auction bidders. Empowered sellers and buyers lead to successful outcomes.
Please share your thoughts about "happy" deals.
Some people say a good deal is one where no one walks away happy. We take a different approach and work until everyone walks away happy. It is nice to add clients to our reference list and know that we have friends throughout the country.
Share an example of challenges owners or soon-to-be owners brought to you this past year.
Owners have approached us with many different challenging situations. We have had a couple of situations where a spouse has passed away and the surviving spouse or children needed to settle the estate. We have had properties that were previously listed privately and the auction served as a catalyst to find excited buyers. We have had family disputes that led to the auction process and we needed to solve the issue of the true market price for the property. We have had farmland investment companies that wanted to maximize returns on their landholdings while giving tenants a fair chance to continue operating farmland.
Describe how your team listened, prepared, and offered an opportunity for an owner to overcome a challenge and how that was successful.
We received a call from an owner of ranchland in eastern Oklahoma. The property had been in the family for many years but had been gifted to brothers who had moved from the area. They had a target “sale date” and wanted a rapid process. A recent appraisal indicated the property should be worth just over $5 million as an entire property.
We studied the area and believed that if offered in smaller tracts, the property would bring substantially more. Through sound promotion and clear explanations, competition for the property was created. When the gavel fell, the property sold for over $7 million. Our client was very pleased; the buyer felt like the process was fair and that he didn’t go too far wrong, given he had only bid one increment over what others were willing to pay.
It not only solved the seller’s situation, but it also established a new way to look at the market in the area.
How does it all honor the Hall and Hall ethos?
Hall and Hall has been in business for over 75 years. During that time, we have worked to create an incredible reputation throughout all aspects of the company. In the auction department, we concentrate on first not messing that up and, secondly, thinking about how we can make it even better. In July, we were awarded the National Auction Marketing Champaign of the Year by the National Auction Association. We believe that taking pride in what we do to help our sellers achieve their goals honors the Hall and Hall ethos.
