Talk to the team at Live Water Properties, which has licensed brokers in each of the aforementioned states and can help you realize your ownership dream of a recreational ranch—or if you’ve already achieved that dream, they can help you with ownership succession. The headquarters office of Live Water is on West Broadway in Jackson (just outside the neighboring town of Wilson and not far from Teton Village and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort) and the firm comprises 3 other commercial field offices, all of which support a network of about 30 agents throughout the 9-state region in which the company is licensed to do business. Their annual sales now top $165 million a year and they’ve totaled more than $1.25 billion in sales since the firm’s founding in 2001. If there’s a key to this success, it’s that each Live Water broker simply understands what makes the sales areas—and the individual property being considered—special, and they have an understanding of and commitment to hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation. Indeed, many of the brokers previously were hunting or fishing guides or worked with conservation organizations. The firm puts an emphasis on relationships, positive communication with clients, and values in the many senses of the word. Economic valuation is paramount in real estate, of course, but so is a property’s intrinsic worth.

For Live Water staff, their passion extends to the land and the ecosystems, the flora and fauna.

Live Water augments its mission statement of connecting “agricultural and scenic landscapes with people who value them” with a culture statement called “Preservation Principles—Preserve and Enhance,” which reads: “While respecting and maintaining the region’s rich agricultural and livestock heritage, we strive to protect, restore and enhance wildlife and trout habitat as changes in private ownership take place. The importance of each link in these precious ecosystems intensifies as our nation’s populations migrate to pristine mountain regions and our natural landscapes experience additional human traffic.”

Live Water has Mother Nature’s back, in other words—and inasmuch as they broker real estate deals, they help buyers and owners protect and sustain the environments on which the agency’s success depends.—Joe Healy

The full “Land Values” feature is published in the April-May 2016 issue of Covey Rise.