How One Nebraska Broker Is Helping Farmers Stay on the Land
If you ask Lindsey Feuerborn what she does for a living, she’ll tell you she sells Nebraska farmland. But spend a few minutes talking with the Lashley Land and Recreational Brokers agent, and it’s clear there’s more to her work than selling land.
Feuerborn grew up on a working farm and watched her father struggle financially.
“When I was a kid, I saw my dad constantly struggling financially,” she said. “I saw how much stress it put on him and on our family. When he was about 60 years old, the bank was really leaning on him to sell his farm.”
The experience stayed with Feuerborn and eventually shaped the way she approached her career.
Five years ago, she earned her real estate license and began working with farmers who needed to sell farmland quickly to improve their financial situation. But rather than simply finding a buyer, Feuerborn wanted to find buyers who would purchase the land and lease it back to the farmer, allowing them to continue farming. In some cases, buyers may also provide an option for the farmer to buy the land back later.
How Does She Connect Farmers and Buyers?
Finding those buyers meant educating people who weren’t necessarily involved in agriculture.
Feuerborn began hosting seminars in Lincoln, Kearney, Grand Island and Omaha, inviting business owners, doctors, attorneys and others to learn about both farmland as an investment and the challenges facing farmers.
“You can’t find another investment that is this steady most of the time,” Feuerborn said. “I help them understand that this is a good way to grow their money.”
She also found that privacy was an important part of the process. Rather than publicly listing some properties, she quietly connects farmers with potential buyers.
“When a farmer is going through this, they don’t want their name all over the place, and they don’t necessarily want their neighbors knowing about it,” she said.
Feuerborn said she has been surprised by how many Nebraska investors are interested in helping.
“I have been shocked, totally shocked, by the number of people in Nebraska who want to help,” she said.
One of those investors is Michael Kramer, who runs a large real estate investment company in Omaha. Kramer purchased his first farm through Feuerborn this year.
Initially, he viewed farmland primarily as a way to preserve wealth rather than grow it. But he saw value in a transaction that could provide a farmer with immediate liquidity while giving the investor a return and, in some cases, allowing the farmer to buy the property back.
Feuerborn also helped Kramer understand the emotional connection farmers have with their land.
What's the Emotional Connection to Farms and Ranches?
“She helped me understand that farmers have a unique way of looking at farmland,” Kramer said. “I look at real estate as an asset. They look at it as their identity.”
Feuerborn sometimes takes potential investors directly to farms so they can meet farmers and better understand what is at stake.
“Not only did we teach Michael how to invest in farmland and what that would look like financially, but I wound up taking him out to farms and talking with farmers who were struggling,” she said.
How Can Landowners Overcome Financial Hardship on the Farm?
One farmer Feuerborn helped, who asked to remain anonymous, said the arrangement gave him a way to address his financial problems without immediately giving up farming.
“I have farmed my entire life, but I got into a financial situation,” he said. “Crop prices aren’t where they need to be, costs keep going up, and we were getting further behind. I needed to do something drastic, but I did not want to sell.”
Without family members planning to continue the operation, he eventually faced the possibility of selling the land and giving up farming altogether.
Feuerborn found a buyer willing to purchase the property, lease it back to him, and allow him to continue farming.
The arrangement also relieved some of the stress that came with owning the land.
“It’s a lot less stressful,” he said. “Before, it was something you thought about all the time. I’m still not sure it has totally sunk in yet. But you have to move on and accept change in life.”
For Feuerborn, helping farmers navigate those difficult decisions is about more than individual transactions.
“I’ve coined the phrase, ‘Keeping Nebraska land in Nebraska hands,’” she said.
For farmers facing financial pressure, the lease-back model doesn’t eliminate the difficulty of selling land. But Feuerborn says it can provide a way to improve their financial position while continuing to farm the ground they know.
RELATED: This Nebraska broker explained to American Farmland Owner why it is farmers who drive farmland values.
