What a ride!
I cannot believe it's been 25 years since my father, Mark struck off on his own and started Faulkner Agency in a tiny (600 square foot) office on main street in Ulysses, Kansas. I remember helping he and my mom, Suzanne, scrape the old tile (probably asbestos laden) off of the concrete slab floors of their new office space. The office was a modest cinder block building with barely enough space for a few desks. Over time the business grew and my family made the big decision to knock a hole in the north wall of our quaint office and double our space to a modest 1,200 square feet. Our office space wasn't the only thing that changed over time; our name did too. As I mentioned above, we started as Faulkner Agency. Dad was a born salesman and couldn't satisfy his appetite initially with real estate alone, he sold insurance for A.L. Williams among other things; like watermelons out of Radio Flyer wagon when he was barely old enough to walk. After real estate in southwest Kansas took off for dad they decided it was time to re-brand the office and re-named it Faulkner Real Estate. Dad was just reflecting today about how many agents and clients have walked through our doors over the last 25 years. Probably almost 50 real estate agents or REALTORS in southwest have been licensed through Faulkner Real Estate at one time or another.
Now, 25 years later we've moved into a new office in Ulysses, Kansas! We've only added about 400 square feet, but I had the privilege
of designing the space myself to suit the specific needs of a professional real estate office. Now our 13 licensed agents working out of Johnson, Hugoton, Ulysses and Rolla have a professional space to meet with clients, in confidential, as well as a comfortable and productive work space. I invite you to stop by some time yourself to see the great improvements we've made to better serve our customers. We're now located just down the street at 120 South Main Street in Ulysses Kansas, katy-corner to the Grant County Bank.
The other tremendous thing I'd like to talk a little bit about is the record land sales we've experience over the last year. In 2010 we experience rapid growth of our "Private Auction" sales method. After fourteen years of successfully selling land using the Private Auction we utilized it to market and sell over 25,000 acres of land in Western Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle and Eastern Colorado. That was 25,000 acres for over 50 Sellers in 9 counties and 3 states! The credit for developing the sales system goes to dad. The credit for selling that amount of land goes to our well-trained staff and Realtors. We're very blessed to have such a hard working bunch of agents who pride themselves on staying on top of the market and continually advancing their knowledge and skills in regards to farm ground, mineral and water rights. The past year I have felt a strong sense of passion, pride and professionalism radiating from our office. I have never been more proud of the service we are offering to real estate buyers and sellers in the high plains. We're a small office of 12 agents (6 specializing in land) compared to the 120 agents I once shared space with at Coldwell Banker in Fort Worth, Texas, but we're mighty. So many agents are out there looking for the big score, the big acreages. We've quietly kept our noses to the grind stone, working for the big seller and the small seller and we've put up big numbers. Land sales in general are up in the last year and I can't say it's all because of us that we sold more land. That said, I can say we continue to expand our service throughout our region and we have most definitely increase our market share in our core service area. I am 100% convinced that if you are considering selling land in our area you will experience as good of, and most likely better, results using the Private Auction. I hope you'll give me, or one of our agents, a call.
Faulkner Real Estate's agents specialize in land primarily in the Western half of Kansas. Our core market is comprised of southwest Kansas as well as the Oklahoma Panhandle and Eastern Colorado. We have also started selling more mineral rights over the last 5 years. While 2010 was not a record year for mineral sales, primarily because natural gas prices were still off, Faulkner Real Estate has sold a large quantity of mineral rights in the Hugoton Natural Gas field and continue to have a large list of mineral and land buyers always looking for a good investment. Please give me, or one of our agents in Ulysses, Hugoton, Rolla or Johnson, a call to day. We are results driven.
Posted by Chris Faulkner on
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