In our travels, we have seen all of these places. Since 2004 we have viewed more than 15 projects in or near western towns, and more than 40 ranches in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and California. Many of these were worthy of investment and protection, others lacked a special feature or an adequate market demand, or were sadly surrounded by too much development. The more properties we visited, the more we found ourselves looking not just for a place; we found ourselves seeking the feel of a place, trying to connect with its special heritage.
A brochure and a section line on a topo map may suggest a terrific property, but the combined qualities of a ranch or a community development property seem to create a recipe for a place that works or doesn’t work. What excites us about the process is the discovery of a different ambiance on each property we see.
Often several trips are required to understand the subtlety of these combined ingredients; and it might take a walk in the starlight, with barely discernible hill shapes and ridges, to begin to hear what a particular landscape has to say for itself. Often we fall in love, only to discover the asking price is ahead of the market. |
