Farmland, Water Scarcity, and Real Estate Wealth with George Bravante

George Bravante (00:00)
state of California has this law called the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The acronym is SIGMA.

They’re turning the water off in places where they’re pumping too deep. And that sounds crazy to people back East, right? Because that doesn’t happen back there. But here in California, there’s this giant clay layer in the central valley under the ground. years ago, you’re pumping at 20 feet. There was so much water here. And over the last 50 years, it goes deeper. Now they’re pumping at 3,000 feet. We’re not up here. We’re on the North Valley. But the South Valley by Bakersfield,

And when you pump that deep, the clay layer dries out and it contracts. And when it contracts, there’s settlement everywhere. Highways are crumbling, aqueducts are breaking up. So the state stepped in and said, hey, no more. We’re going to regulate how much water you can take out of the ground going forward. You’re doing it and it’s going to be finalized, the amount in 2030. So kind of the fields we did earlier, my crowdfunding platform for Bravante Farm Capital.

The whole thesis is when that happens, supply and demand is going to go upside down. ranches are going to double in value or more, and the commodity prices are going to double in value, which will make this very exciting.

Quentin (02:41)
everyone. everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds and I am indeed excited to be here today. I have another, again, fantastic guest and you’re going to see at the end, once this is all said and done, you’re like, that was a good episode. I know you are. And so I have someone who has a wealth of knowledge. I cannot wait for him to tell you what he’s involved in, what he has cultivated over the years.

George Bravante (02:56)
Thanks,

Thank

Quentin (03:09)
And so I’m so excited. I’m so excited to introduce you all to Mr. George Bravante Mr. George, how are you, sir?

George Bravante (03:11)
Thanks.

I’m great, great to be here, thank you.

Quentin (03:18)
Absolutely, man. I’m so glad that you’re here. And listen, from your own admission, you’re cool with this. So I’m the type that like to dive in. You said you’re a diver, so I like to dive in. So I want you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, Mr. George, give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got into the space that you’re in. And then tell us what part of the world you’re in as well. So what you’re up to, your origin story, and where you are. Mr. George, sir, you have the floor. Yes, sir.

George Bravante (03:33)
now.

Okay, thank you.

My origin story is a sad story, but we’ll start there. So I grew up in New Jersey. My dad was a mailman, my mom was a teacher. I went to the University of South Carolina in pharmacy school, quickly figured out that wasn’t for me, transitioned to a business program in accounting, came to a public account at Ernst & Young, and then I segued into the real estate business and basically went to work for a giant private equity firm, at first a CFO and then as president.

called Colony Capital in Los Angeles. And we worked for the Bass family for many years also in that capacity. We did some really large transactions that pretty fun. But I was a single guy, never got married until I was late. I got married at 34. Started having kids, decided, hey man, this isn’t for me. We’re a global private equity firm. We are never home. And my dad is a mailman. We had dinner every night at five. Every night, no matter what. And I kind of wanted that for my kids and more of a…

You know, everybody does it their own way, but I felt like I wanted to be around more. So started doing small real estate deals, which segwayed into an opportunity. I was kind of a troubled desk expert at this time. And I basically picked the pockets of credential insurance who had a broken citrus deal in Isalya, California, where I live today. And we bought the first 600 acres for virtually nothing. It was, everything was kind of on its ass back then.

you all these ag commodities to ebb and flow over time. So we bought this thing really cheap and then we bought another one, bought another one, bought another one, built a packing house, built a cold storage, that sales company. And that’s kind what we do today still. We specialize, not specialize, but we have a packing house and a cold storage. So we do citrus in the winter, all citrus varieties. And we do table grapes in the summertime and a little bit of snow for it.

And table grapes are the ones you eat. And the citrus, everybody knows what that is. And so anyway, we’ve been doing this for a long time. And a couple of years ago, I just did it with friends and family starting out, because prices were a lot less. And we built like a 4,000 acre group of properties with friends and family. Friends and family are now 80 years old or older.

Quentin (05:53)
Yeah.

George Bravante (05:53)
no longer

investing in. We’ve kept the ranches all the time. We just kept improving them as we went. Maybe they’ve become very good long-term assets. And about four years ago, three years ago, we had a little private equity fund in the space. And it came, it timed out at 10 years. So we had a chance to buy some really premium assets at a good price. And we started the crowdfunding operation we have, is called Bravante Farm Capital.

Quentin (06:01)
Yeah.

George Bravante (06:18)
And it basically was new people and old people. had webinars and we did five transactions for about 25 million, about 50 % equity. And it’s worked out really good. the properties, mean, you can’t survive buying a bad asset in the ag space. mean, they don’t build the Costco next door out here, which saves you like real estate, right?

You know, we were very, very careful. We only have a deal every year or two new ones because it is hard to find things that make sense. And it takes somebody’s bad fortune. You have good fortune kind of in the space. It was pretty tight. So, so anyway, that’s kind of where we are. And so we’re in the packing facility, our office office, our headquarters is in Reedley, California, which is about 20 miles south of Fresno.

And this area is like the epicenter of great soil conditions, great water assets, great microclimate. mean, most of the stone fruit and citrus and grapes in the world come from this area. I mean, they grow in other countries, but in America, way the weather works here is it’s a high desert climate. So it’s kind of cold in the winter, gets down in the 30s, hot as

really hot in the summertime, which is the heat it takes to really grow things effectively. And the spring and fall are just really wonderful. But it’s a really great climate to grow premium fruits and vegetables and nuts. We’re in the middle of a giant deal right now. We’ve gone under contract for about a year, which is a stashio solar play. a big play. We brought a big financial partner in to do it. We’re doing that right now.

Quentin (07:47)
Absolutely.

George Bravante (08:00)
which is kind of different than our core business we’ve been talking about. But anyway, it’s neat that we’re doing. We’re running 30,000 acres. I think we’re gonna do 15,000 of solar and 10,000 of pistachios are there and they’re existing and they’re really good. So that’s something else we’re kind of, my son, my youngest son went to University of North Carolina and he studied business and environmental science. And then he went to Italy to study at the Bacone School in Milan.

renewable energy economics. He was the only one of my three sons that liked the ag space at all. So he came home two years ago and said, Hey, let’s combine ag and solar and go do something big. Your dream came true. we’re in the middle of it. I don’t know what’s going to happen or not, but it might happen. So he could be as his brother said, he’s a lucky son of a bitch. ever live with this fun in our family. you going to matter? My three sons are pretty competitive. It’s pretty fun.

Quentin (08:27)
Mmm.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I love it, I love it.

George Bravante (09:40)
So anyway, so we’re out there looking for things. We just don’t find much. We have investors, our smallest investor is 20,000, I think. Our average investment is 150, something like that. We just don’t have a lot to offer. When we find something, we queue it up. If anybody has interest in any of this, our website, BravanteFarmCapital.com

We have a lot of videos about how things work here. How water works, the microclimates work, how the packing house works. You can get on a waiting list with us just to be able to see what we’re doing or invest with us.

It is kind of a, you know, this is not a complicated business. You you plant a tree in the ground five years later, you take an orange, I’ll put it in a box and send it to somebody to give you money. I mean, there’s no derivatives. There’s no, you know, there’s no fool. You know, it’s not like the boogeyman is going to give you money. It’s like pretty simple business. And it’s a pretty wholesome, good business. I I like it a lot because you live around the growing season, which sounds corny, but it’s really cool. mean,

Like in the springtime, the water’s flowing and flowers are blooming and trees are blooming. And you get to the summer and you feel like you’re in the Sahara desert, you’re going to die. And we get through it. And then the fall is amazing. And then the winters are pretty nice because here it might be 30 at night, but it’s 65 of the day. You know, if the sun’s out, it’s nice. So the high desert climate is pretty, pretty, pretty good, actually. I mean, the summer’s kind of harsh because it didn’t get to 110. It doesn’t happen very much, but

When it’s over 105, it’s really bad here. know, there’s stuff, if have water, there’s the trees and stuff, love it, but know, humans don’t like it too well. So, so anyway, I mean, that’s kind of a thumbnail sketch of where we are, what we do, how we think about it. I mean, going forward, we believe the play is,

Quentin (11:16)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

George Bravante (11:27)
state of California has this law called the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The acronym is SIGMA.

They’re turning the water off in places where they’re pumping too deep. And that sounds crazy to people back East, right? Because that doesn’t happen back there. But here in California, there’s this giant clay layer in the central valley under the ground. years ago, you’re pumping at 20 feet. There was so much water here. And over the last 50 years, it goes deeper. Now they’re pumping at 3,000 feet. We’re not up here. We’re on the North Valley. But the South Valley by Bakersfield,

And when you pump that deep, the clay layer dries out and it contracts. And when it contracts, there’s settlement everywhere. Highways are crumbling, aqueducts are breaking up. So the state stepped in and said, hey, no more. We’re going to regulate how much water you can take out of the ground going forward. You’re doing it and it’s going to be finalized, the amount in 2030. So kind of the fields we did earlier, my crowdfunding platform for Bravante Farm Capital.

The whole thesis is when that happens, supply and demand is going to go upside down. ranches are going to double in value or more, and the commodity prices are going to double in value, which will make this very exciting.

And that’s kind of what we’re after. And it’s kind of a tale of two cities. South of Visalia, where I live, which is 15 minutes south of where sitting, that’s kind of the demarcation line where it gets deeper and deeper and deeper. There’s not any grid ground. There’s not a of good surface water there because of where we are.

There’s a lot of snow in the mountains and a lot of infrastructure that gives us surface water, call it, groundwater. So, I mean, that’s basically our thesis. Guys, some guys are gonna run out of water and they’ll only be able to farm a portion of their land. That’s gonna create less supply. So demand is gonna increase for good ranches as well as good commodities or produce. And we’re gonna be winners. And that’s the whole pitch. It’s that simple as milk. It’s not complicated.

You know, the whole world is, the heat index is rising, we’re making less and less of everything. So we think the food space is a good place to be. I mean, it has rough spots. I mean, I was telling Quinn, you know, what’s been going on with the Trump administration is really, I mean, the farmers are for Trump, supposedly, but he’s killing us. I mean, in the first administration, they cut off China, which was 25 % of our exports.

blew the industry up. we had, because what happens when you cut off China that takes 25 % of everything. That means that produce, we had no time to react and that’s being dumped back on a domestic market. And the sell and the buyers knew this and they’re like, Hey, we’re going to, we want, we want 20 % off. We know you have too much. Right. Took us years to work out of that. Now what’s going on with these tariffs that we’ve been dealing with. I we do a lot of business with Mexico and Canada. mean, this tariff stuff with them, they’re not happy with America.

as a trading partner, right? I mean, they’ve been really hard on us. They’re paying us less. They’re fighting us all the time. And now with this Iran thing, with oil prices going up, everything we do, there’s input from oil, from shipping stuff out from California, across the country, which we ship a lot to fertilizer, plastic, boxes, you name it. So I mean, our costs have gone up 25 % across the board. So I mean, you know, that’s hard.

I mean, it’s just a hard thing. It’s just like a geopolitical thing that really hurts us. It hurt attack or stuff like that, exactly. So it’s not all roses all the time. I mean, I think we win in the long run, and probably in the short run too. But there are issues that this year that we’re not going to make as much money this year. It’s not because the second half of the year we got all this petroleum headwind. So it’s a great, it’s a fun space too.

It’s really the people in it are like people used to be before these giant financial companies took over everybody. People you buy a deal you buy it from a guy. It’s that simple. He’s me. That was a real estate business in the 70s and 80s. Everything was that way. Some guy had a mini storage, you you got sick of it. know, there’s this house got a kitchen table. You buy it from the bag is still that way. So it’s kind of it suits me better anyway.

Quentin (15:26)
Yeah. Well, I mean, you really transitioned me to a question I want to ask you. So when you hear this word, Mr. George, I would love to get your philosophy or your thought around it. When you hear the word relationship, what comes to mind to you specifically in the space that you’re in?

George Bravante (16:15)
You know, I mean, it’s a double edged sword, right? Because farming people don’t trust anyone. So we could make a lot more money if we worked together. But I mean, like in table grapes, it’s a great example, right? There are eight families that control 90 % of the grapes in California. They’re all like the Hatfields and McCoys. They all have some feud because you were dating my girlfriend in high school in 1947.

Quentin (16:31)
Mmm.

George Bravante (16:40)
You know, I’ll never forgive you. And I mean, it sounds crazy in the world we live in. These guys are rich. mean, these are big company. mean, they’re fabulously wealthy. These people, right? They can’t work together. And the thing they don’t understand is the retailers are using AI to work together and against us. Right. Our guys are still using an abacus to do their checking accounts. Right. I mean, and they don’t understand not that I’m a genius or anything.

But I’ve worked in other industries. I was in airline business for a little while. mean, places where there’s competition and people have worked together to bring it together and make more. Ag does not do that. And we have the ability to have federated co-ops, which let us do it. And we just can’t get people to work together. They just don’t trust each other. So those relationships are strange and weird to me as an outsider a little bit. I’ve only been doing it for 25 years. I’m the first generation guy in it. So I just want to make money and have a good life.

So, you know, those relationships are not helpful. There’s other relationships with people that have farmed for us or picked for us. I think I’ve been doing this 25 years here and I think we have a 97 % retainage of people that work for us that haven’t gotten sick. I mean, we’ve lost a few people that have died from different sicknesses, I mean, we have…

Quentin (17:49)
Wow. Yeah.

George Bravante (17:56)
There’s a lot of relationship stuff. You take care of your people and do a good job. You know, mean, this is not, you know, the, the ag space has not been kind of the workers, you know, 50 years ago, it was really brutal on workers. So there’s a lot of good relationship there. The brokerage community of you, you know, I have a couple of guys that all my dreams actually have come from. got a real good relationship with them. They’re high quality, high integrity. So there is relationships though. That’s very important also. So.

I mean, it’s, you know, and it’s still kind of a, you know.

It’s a little mom and pop industry somewhat. I it’s like, I bought a big ranch from a husband and wife that were eighties. And I mean, I swear to God, it was like I was back in Mayberry, you know, sitting with Aunt D at the table. You know what mean? It was something else. And they’re, they’re selling me a $20 million asset. You know what I mean? They’re like, well, I remember in 1937 when grandma sold this to us, you know, and we, we like it to go to a good home. I’m a good home.

Quentin (18:51)
Yeah. Right.

George Bravante (18:55)
So

it’s kind of an interesting, it is changing. There’s more institutional people coming all the time. So it is a matter of time probably before it gets like everything else, but the people are fighting it pretty good in a way. So anyway.

Quentin (19:08)
Mr. George, you and I, have some symmetry here. My wife grew up in Jersey, so that’s one thing. Roselle Linden area, that area? Yes.

George Bravante (19:16)
We’re done.

Oh yeah, I

I actually lived in Kenilwanda.

Quentin (19:23)
There you go. And so, you know, I was a mailman for many years. Your dad was a mailman. My wife is a counselor, but was a teacher for 10 years. And so, your mom was a teacher. that just as you started talking out, I was writing some things down, just some similarity. I would love to know from you, Mr. George, you know, lived, been in this for 25 years. I mean, obviously, you know, you did pharmacy school and just different iterations of your life. What has the journey taught you about yourself?

Like, know, what is, I say destiny has no wasted moments. That’s a line that I say on a podcast. And so each moment has been teaching us something. So just a little philosophical question. What has the moments taught you about? Hmm.

George Bravante (20:44)
I can tell you this, I’m a collector of people.

very relationship-oriented person, like really relationship-oriented. I mean, my son got married last weekend in Chicago, my middle son. And I, know, and as the father of the groom, he wanted me to have a toast. And I’ve told my sons and anybody who will listen, you know, your life is an accumulation of the ride you’re on and the friends and family you make on the ride and the people you…

that you know and love as you go. Right? And it’s hard to love everybody. But I said, you know, my life, I feel like I have an exceptional life. I’ve had so many people reach up to me and help me when I need help. And I’m paying it forward. You know what mean? The same way. you know, and I mean, you know, and I’m a unique personality. just, I have no limit for time and energy to help my friends and be responsive to them. And subsequently I have

Millions, not millions. have lots of people out there that count on me. I count on them and really good friendships. And I mean, you know, friends and family are everything to me. And it’s, and it’s, it’s kind of paid off in a way. I mean, I’ve always been a guy who in my, in my purview of people that worked with me, I’m always the best for the little guy and the worst to the top guy. It’s my theory on life. And, you know, it’s funny years ago, I worked for the Bass family.

We bought American savings, which was the biggest fail thrift in the nineties. Like it was 1989 and blew up and we bought this thing. Bob Bass was the money and the guys we all worked around him in the real estate business. So anyway, they split this from a good bank to a good bank, bad banks with the FSLIC back in those days. So this was a giant thing. 20 billion of good, 20 billion of bad. Nobody wanted to go to Stockton, California kind of shitty place to live.

do the bad thing. I was 29 years old. I said, I raised my hand for these guys and I said, I’ll go. I was thinking, you know, I didn’t have any money. I’d have anything to lose. And there’s 20 billion up there. I’ll get some of it somehow. ⁓ But anyway, the moral of story is I was a number two guy and there was this older, more elegant, more better resume, better education guy who was a total shit head.

And he flew in once a week, you know, once a month for a week, kind of never really did it. And I was there making everything as good as I could. but he’s the employees there through all the turmoil. We’re not treated very well. So, I mean, I stabilized the place and I had this theory, you know, the lowest person gets the most support from me. The next low starts to get second most. And the guys who were making all the money that worked for me directly, I was like, ruthless of those guys. I I was expecting a lot. mean, I.

So anyway, I got sick of the number one guy. went to the guy, this guy, David Bonderman, who was the chief investment guy for Bob Bass. And I said, David, I love you, man, but I’m out. I’m not working for this guy anymore. Said he’s, I’m I’m it or I’m out. I said, and he goes, you can’t do this to me. I’ve you get to where you are. I said, listen, you need to help me a little more or I’m out because I’m not working for this guy. So Bonderman says to me, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll hire.

a high-end consulting firm, they’ll come in, they’ll review the situation. If they say, can do this, I will give you the job. But if they say you’re not ready, you stay.

Right. And I’m like, I said, deal. mean, but you’re, I’m going to, they’re going to, they’re going to go with me and you have to do it. And he goes, don’t be so cocky at blah, blah, blah. And they came back and said, he, he owns all these people. They love him. They, can’t do this without him. And it was because not because I’m a great guy, because I did the right thing. I supported the people that need the support. And I was hard on the people that were kind of, and, and, and through this, this, there was like, I mean, this is like,

a $200 million budget business I’m running back in 1989. I mean, this is a big thing, right? And invariably in those days before the Me Too movement, there was a lot of bad behavior going on, which, know, I was like really close to my mom. I’m kind of a protector of woman kind of thinker guy. We go so close to my mom and my sister. So not only did I do the right thing, but I mean, I, I figured out who the bad guys were. We blew them away quickly and stabilized all the thing. People saw me as a

Relatively good guy, guess. So, I mean, it just shows you, right? Do the right thing, be a good guy, help the people who need help. And it pays, you know, and I didn’t do it to get something. I just did it because it right thing to do. But as I, my kids, that’s their favorite story. You know, doing the right thing and you know, and also they thought they couldn’t believe it. And the worst part is this guy, Bonerman was like a very, he’s an amazing.

Quentin (25:04)
Yeah.

George Bravante (25:14)
stories or he just passed away. He’s one my mentors. He’s 83 years old. He’s one the richest guys in the country, guy. He made a film. But I’m going down. We had this meeting. Either I’m up or out or blah, blah, blah. I’m not working for this guy anymore. I’m in the elevator going down. The guy calls me. Did you tell Bonderman I’m no good and you were never going to work for me anymore? And I’m like, yeah.

Well, anyway, I mean, it’s a tangential idea, but I mean, it kind of defines how I think about things. You know, money is not that important.

Quentin (25:46)
Yeah, yeah. Mr. George, sir.

Yeah, man, thank you, sir. This has been absolutely wonderful. Thank you for taking us on your journey, telling us what you do, and just life experiences, how you look at things, what has groomed you. I really appreciate it. So Mr. George, if someone wanted to reach out to you, and I know you mentioned your website before, but we want to do it again. So they want to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate. How can they get in contact with you, Mr. George?

George Bravante (26:11)
It’s Bravante is [email protected]. B or G at Bravante Farm Capital.com. And anybody listening, if you want to come out and see this, come see us. It’s close to San Francisco, three hours in San Francisco, three hours from LA. We love showing people what we do here. I mean, it doesn’t take a long time. You get it fast. But you know, I love doing that. So if anybody who’s, I I don’t want.

Quentin (26:16)
Beautiful, beautiful.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

George Bravante (26:37)
If you never have any interest in it, don’t come. But you know, if you have interest in ag and you want to see what goes on here, we’ll see how packing or our packing house in the winter is great to see how we run fruto that citrus over root. So I mean, you know, even if you’re not interested in investing, but you want to come see it, come see us. love that. You know, it’s you know, we’re pretty lonely here. It’s not a place people come to visit much, but it’s it’s really fascinating and fun in the summertime. The great thing is more in the field.

Quentin (26:40)
Yeah, right.

George Bravante (27:04)
So, know, we’re close to Sequoia National Forest. We’re close to Yosemite. know, guys are, people are going on vacation or just, people come to California, sit or wait or just carve out a day and come see us. And on our website, you can get ahold of me. I will call you back. Also, my cell number is 559-280-9033. So don’t call me, text me, I’ll call you. Cause I just get a lot of calls and I just don’t.

Quentin (27:30)
Absolutely.

George Bravante (27:30)
I just

can’t pick up calls all the time. I get back pretty good.

Quentin (27:33)
Yes, Mr. George, sir, let me say three things to you. First, thank you for your time. I think time is our most precious commodity. So thank you, for your time and you making time for us today. Secondly, thank you for your story. Thank you, what I call the gift of your vulnerability, the gift of your authenticity, and the gift of your integrity. Stories have a way of planting seeds in people. We may never see the growth.

but the seed is still there and that seed can grow at any given time. So thank you for planting today. And lastly, so I thank you for your mindset. Thank you for the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform. I greatly appreciate you coming on today, Mr. George.

George Bravante (28:07)
Okay, thank you, I really enjoyed it.

Quentin (28:09)
Absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard Mr. George. His information is in his show notes. Get in contact with him. Go out there. Let him give you the tour. You can see his world and see how beautiful it is. So please get in contact with him. Definitely make sure you’re subscribed here, because I promise you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. George. So sir, I say thank you again. And everyone else, have an incredible day.