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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, Kristen interviews Zachary Taylor, a land specialist and principal broker at Cowboy State Property Group in Wyoming. They discuss the booming real estate market in Wyoming, the appeal of the cowboy lifestyle, and the unique challenges and opportunities in the land market. Zachary shares his passion for land, the importance of transparency in real estate transactions, and how cryptocurrency is being integrated into property purchases. He also emphasizes the need to adapt to new technologies like AI while maintaining a personal touch in real estate.
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Zachary Taylor (00:00)
from what I know of, I’m the first and only real estate agent to buy and sell real estate using, let’s say, Bitcoin or ⁓ Ethereum. There’s been several transactions and that is a, it’s its own animal. Let’s just say that when it comes to buying land with cryptocurrency.It’s not impossible. Wyoming is actually a safe haven for cryptocurrency. We’re one of the few states that doesn’t frown upon it.
reason i got into as well because i’m into crypto pretty big myself i’ve been in it for well over ten years and there has always been a stigma on it about it ⁓ everyone’s always ⁓ you have bitcoin what kind of illegal illegal business are you doing it’s like none at all it’s just a digital gold
Kristen (00:50)
Wow, nice.Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with Zachary Taylor, who’s the owner, principal broker and land specialist of Cowboy State Property Group based out of Wyoming. So we have a lot to talk about today and I’m excited to get into the Wyoming, ⁓ the market and seems like there’s a huge boom there. So thanks for being here Zachary.
Zachary Taylor (02:57)
Yes, thankyou for having me. And you are correct, there’s going to be a giant boom here momentarily. ⁓ The writing on the wall, mean, just besides all the people wanting to move here for a little more freedom than what they have now, it’s always been people’s dream to ⁓ move to Wyoming and live the cowboy life by 40 acres, 100 acres, have a couple livestock, horses, cows.
Kristen (03:25)
Yeah.Zachary Taylor (03:27)
and live the dream of the easy, easy going kind of life. No hustle bustle. Here in, I mean, pretty much anywhere in Wyoming, you can drive across town in 10, 15 minutes in five o’clock rush hour. So when it comes to the communities here, there’s a lot of people that when they move out here, they don’t realize how laid back the flow is until they get here and they’re like, holy cow.This is so refreshing. There’s no road rage. Everyone just, you go along your way. It’s nice. A lot of fresh air, wide open space. that’s, have, because we are in the energy sector, there’s also going to be a fairly large oil boom happening, fingers crossed, when everything gets passed through on the federal side.
And I know for a fact there’s several oil companies that are moving, getting ready to move towards Wyoming to get ready for that boom. We’re seeing the infrastructure growing already. And when it comes to other companies besides the energy sector, we have major data centers that are moving into Wyoming.
Lot of reasons they’re looking at Wyoming is because energy cost is much lower than anywhere else in the country Property tax is extremely lower We don’t have We don’t have a lot of taxes that everywhere else has So it’s very it’s a it’s a giant perk for people to be looking at Wyoming
Kristen (05:01)
Mm.Right?
you shared a really interesting statistic with me earlier about how many people are wanting to come in or projected to come in and how much housing you guys have available.
Zachary Taylor (06:17)
Yes, that’scorrect. So with this boom we’re seeing with several giant companies moving to Neutrona County specifically, there’s scattered throughout the whole state. We’re looking at anywhere from a thousand to two thousand employees, people moving to Neutrona County. And right now we only have roughly 400 homes available on the market. When it comes to land,
we only have 78 properties for sale. that’s a very small number in comparisons to where we were six years, seven years ago.
Kristen (06:49)
youZachary Taylor (07:00)
Along with the lack of housing, we’re also seeing a large increase in property values, always continuing to grow. We’re right around a 6 to 10 % growth rate every year on property value. our average home here in the Toronto County, three bedroom, two bath, one car garage, roughly what?Kristen (07:03)
youZachary Taylor (07:30)
2000 square feet you’re looking right around 360 of 420,000 for a first-time homebuyerKristen (07:38)
Wow, I mean it seems really exciting like the opportunity that’s unfolding over there. And I know that you’re land specialist, so tell us more about that, kind of how you got into that niche of land.Zachary Taylor (07:52)
Well,I hate being stuck behind a desk. That’s, and I really don’t care to show houses. That’s not, I’ll do it. I sell houses. That’s, I can do it. It’s just not my cup of tea. When I hear the buyer walking into the kitchen, aw, the kitchen isn’t my color. The countertops aren’t right. It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard for me. So.
Kristen (07:57)
Yeah.Yeah.
Zachary Taylor (08:20)
I know it sounds horrible, but when it comes to land I My specialty is land. I love being outdoors. I love hiking four-wheeling anything that it involves being outdoors. That’s my cup of tea so Real estate it’s a lifestyle especially being a land broker. It’s something you have to love doing ⁓ When it comes especially here in WyomingOur weather is so bipolar, you gotta be prepared for anything and everything. I can’t tell you how many times this summer I’ve gone camping up in the mountains up in like the big horns and it rained, it snowed, it hailed, it lightning thundered all within 30 minutes of each other. It’s just something, yes, it’s just something you have to be prepared for. And when it comes to selling land,
I prefer to be out in the country, up in the mountains, walking the property, showing it, than hearing, ⁓ the color isn’t right. Instead I hear, ⁓ you hear that? Besides the wind, I don’t hear anything. This is great. This is amazing. It’s a lifestyle. I prefer just be outside enjoying nature than indoors.
Kristen (09:28)
Yeah.Yeah.
Yeah.
Zachary Taylor (09:46)
and growingup on a ranch, it’s just first hand for me. It just comes first hand for me.
Kristen (10:31)
Yeah, that’s amazing. And I feel like that translates into really good work when you’re really passionate about something or when you feel like you’ve found your thing. So I can imagine that’s helped you build the great business you’ve built. And I know that a big part of Cowboy State, ⁓ you you guys are very transparent and honest and you give kind of a personal touch to the process. I would love for you to talk more about that.Zachary Taylor (10:55)
Great, great. Yeah, so when it comes to full disclosures, that’s the first thing. I’m probably the most transparent broker you’ll ever meet. I’d provide all the facts and then let you decide whether or not this is gonna work out for you or not. And perfect example, I wish I had a crystal ball and I could tell every buyer, hey,On this property you’re going to have to drill 800 feet to hit good potable water. I don’t have that power. Though I do know the well drillers, I know of the wells in the area, I’ve done my due diligence, I can tell, and not that property A is going to have the same well depth as property B right next door, but it’s a good indicator that, well, property B, they have a well that’s at 500 feet.
Hopefully yours is less, but maybe you’re gonna have to go deeper. Every property is different and that’s the beauty of real estate, especially land is it’s as unique as we are. There’s not one piece of real estate that is the same unless you get into the cookie cutter residential homes and apartments. So that’s one thing like.
Kristen (12:15)
Right? Right.Zachary Taylor (12:19)
my main one of my main disclosures first disclosure when talking to a buyer especially from out of state or that’s they see all these beautiful pictures online 160 acres there’s a creek going through it there’s mountain views this is awesome well pump the brakes miss mister and mrs. buyer I have to disclose in the state of Wyoming like I said our weather is as bipolar as it can come andKristen (12:47)
ThankZachary Taylor (12:48)
We have a thing here called the wind. It is a windy son of a gun 99 % of the time. And they’re like, ⁓ I’m from Chicago. I’m used to the wind. No, no, no, no. Our wind here, it cuts right to the bones. It’s one of those. I’ve had buyers say, you never told me it’s this windy here. Well, I did tell you that,Kristen (13:02)
HahahaZachary Taylor (13:16)
you’re guaranteed fresh air almost every day because it’ll just it blows in. I did tell you that. So that’s that’s that’s my one one of ⁓ several disclosures and nothing against Californians or New Yorkers or Texans. We do have a lot of them a lot of those people moving into this state and I tell everyone Wyoming we’re the we’re a rare breed of people and if let’s say you’re broke down on the side of the car.Kristen (13:20)
Yeah.Zachary Taylor (13:46)
or on the side of the road. Whether you have a flat tire, you’re stuck in a snow ditch, drift, whatever it may be. The first three four people that drive by, unfortunately, the first two are Californians every time. It’s just a fact. The next couple are someone else from like Texas or New York. Nothing against them, but I’ve seen it with my own eyes multiple times. The next six people that stop,are all going to be Wyomingites stopping to make sure everyone else is okay. It’s just a beautiful thing. Though we’re very, we’re very generous. We’re, the majority of us are willing to give our shirts off our backs to help, help the fellow person beside us, our neighbors. Though we do appreciate the Wyoming laws when it comes to our land and most Wyomingites
Kristen (14:15)
Yeah.Zachary Taylor (14:40)
The reason they live out in the country, out in the county, is because they like the privacy. They stay in their lane, they stay between their property lines, and life is good. ⁓ If you need, God forbid you run out of sugar during a snow blizzard, yeah, come on over, knock on the door, we’ll help you get whatever you may need, but for the most part, everyone kind of minds their own P’s and Q’s.Kristen (15:48)
Yeah. That’s amazing. Yeah.Zachary Taylor (15:50)
So no, it’s itis it is the freedom here the wide open space not too many people Know about it the secret. I mean the secret has been let out since COVID and we’ve had a Giant spike and people want to move here because everyone’s like, my god, you can do that You can walk out on your back 40 and shoot your guns. yeah
Kristen (16:04)
Mm-hmm.That’s amazing and I’m sure you have a lot of repeat buyers with you because it seems like you’re a big community person and that’s awesome that you know the area so well. know another really cool thing about Wyoming is the crypto protections over there. Tell us more about that and kind of how you’ve utilized that.
Zachary Taylor (16:40)
Well, from what I know of, I’m the first and only real estate agent to buy and sell real estate using, let’s say, Bitcoin or ⁓ Ethereum. There’s been several transactions and that is a, it’s its own animal. Let’s just say that when it comes to buying land with cryptocurrency.It’s not impossible. Wyoming is actually a safe haven for cryptocurrency. We’re one of the few states that doesn’t frown upon it.
reason i got into as well because i’m into crypto pretty big myself i’ve been in it for well over ten years and there has always been a stigma on it about it ⁓ everyone’s always ⁓ you have bitcoin what kind of illegal illegal business are you doing it’s like none at all it’s just a digital gold
Kristen (17:30)
Wow, nice.Zachary Taylor (17:46)
and when it comes to havingcryptocurrency in Wyoming that’s taxed and regulated the same as real estate so it only goes hand-in-hand with each other and had several clients buy land outright with Bitcoin and I’ve also had clients where they’ve gotten a loan against their cryptocurrency to buy the land and with Bitcoin increasing roughly 50 % every year
Kristen (17:58)
Mm.Zachary Taylor (18:21)
They pretty much bought their land for free.So it was a, it’s pretty neat. And when it comes to the process in the transaction, I can’t really tell my trade secrets, though there’s a lot of things happening here in Wyoming that are gonna make the purchasing and selling real estate with cryptocurrency much easier. ⁓ I’m in cahoots with several.
Kristen (18:38)
you.All
Zachary Taylor (18:53)
crypto companies that areputting real estate on the blockchain and when it comes to
The whole process, it’s very fascinating. Wyoming is one of the only states that I’m aware of, or we’re the first state to come out with an altcoin, it’s called the Frontier Coin. so we are the founders, the leaders in the crypto world. And there’s a lot of Bitcoin mining here in Wyoming. Because they’re able to use
Kristen (19:18)
youZachary Taylor (19:33)
the natural gases, methane gas to run their mining operations versus tapping into a grid.So they’re killing two birds, one stone, which is really neat.
Kristen (19:42)
Very cool.Yeah.
That’s awesome. I mean, it gives you guys more, it gives more flexibility, more options. And it’s cool, like the way you can utilize it and actually get the tax benefits. That’s really interesting. And I know that it’s kind of a part of this larger conversation of how all of this stuff is fitting into not only the job market, but real estate in general, like with AI as well, kind of like adapting with the times and embracing all of the new technologies rather than fighting against them.
I would love for you to talk a little bit about that.
Zachary Taylor (20:20)
Yeah, so…And not to put anyone down, I mean we all get old, we all get set in our own ways. And it’s easy to get content. Especially when life’s treating you good and you’re on the easy road. Though I’ve always had the mentality, as soon as you start getting content, that’s when mistakes start happening. That’s when you stop wanting to learn.
because you have your feet up and you’re now relaxing. And me personally, I can’t operate like that. I see the writings on the wall and I don’t want to become a dinosaur. Not yet at least. I want to be able to provide my clients, whether they’re sellers, buyers, investors, with the newest and most up-to-date technology there is. When it comes to cryptocurrency,
Kristen (21:07)
brain.Zachary Taylor (21:21)
There’s a lot of people in California, all over the world, especially California, that are going to be needing to park their crypto somewhere else other than California. California’s trying to overtax the people there in every way possible. perfect example, they’re trying to pass a law that says if you don’t touch your cryptocurrency,within I believe three years, the state will take your crypto from you.
Kristen (21:55)
Wow, I didn’t know that.Zachary Taylor (21:55)
Which, yeah,which the whole idea behind owning cryptocurrency is to buy and hold. That’s how you’re gonna be making your money. So for California to be thinking, already thinking this, I think it was shot down in the beginning, but it was reinstated. I haven’t really kept up on it just because I’ve been so busy here in Wyoming and focusing on staying in my lane.
Kristen (22:05)
Yeah.Zachary Taylor (22:25)
Though when it comes to like AI, I see the writing on the wall with that as well. I was one of the first people to say, no, AI is not gonna replace any of us real estate agents. It’s just some computer. I was never wanting to conform and use AI. Though it’s a tool. It’s another tool in the toolbox.and like I said I don’t want to become a dinosaur so I jumped on the bandwagon the AI bandwagon and fully immersed myself in how to use it to make my brokerage work better in more ways than one. ⁓ When it comes to
Kristen (23:13)
Yeah.Zachary Taylor (23:18)
the whole AI robots. Once again, we’ve all seen the movie I robot. We have a stigma of, it’s just a robot. No, no it is not. When it comes to residential real estate agents, they very well could be, there’s a large group of them that could be losing their jobs to AI. And a perfect example was a AI robot.has sold over a hundred million dollars in assets and I believe it was somewhere down south like Venezuela, Brazil, somewhere like that I’d have to double check on the exact location but I know for a fact it was a hundred million dollars it sold and it was a robot so when it comes to what I do I shouldn’t say AI is not going to be able to take take my job and
reason I say that is because I’d like to see a robot that can drive through the prairie without crossing the neighbors north 40 to get to the location and then to be able to walk all the corners with the client. That is something that I take great pride in. I don’t just send my clients a GPS say, hey go look at the property and call me back. Tell me what you what you think.
Kristen (24:35)
Yeah.Zachary Taylor (24:45)
That’s not my SOP at all. ⁓ So I take great pride in being able to show people property that’s off grid that GPS’s can’t get to or can’t show you where they’re at. So when it comes to the whole AI, I imagine they’re going to come up with something in time, but until they can drive a four wheel drive vehicle and not drive through someone’s fence, I think I’m pretty safe.Kristen (25:16)
It seems like it for sure. It seems like a good industry to be in. Well, thank you so much Zachary. You’ve given such good, you know, inspiration, stories, advice, all of that. And I think people probably learned a lot from this. Tell people where to find you and Cowboy State Property Group.Zachary Taylor (25:34)
Yeah, soCowboy State Property Group, just www.cowboystatepropertygroup.com. I’ll take you on my website and or you can feel free to call text me. Phone number is 307-309-1313. Happy to help however I can when it comes to buyers, sellers, investors. That’s my deal, especially when it comes to farm, ranch, recreational properties, commercial property.
And when it comes to land rights, mineral rights, there’s a lot of variables that a lot of people aren’t aware of, such as the mineral rights. I’m a land man, I’m a land specialist, but I’m not a land man. I don’t sell oil, I don’t sell the minerals, but I know ⁓ a good land man if they so desire to go down that road.
And when it comes to the property rights, a fun fact, Wyoming is a fence out state. So let’s say you bought 160 acres out in the middle of nowhere and you see a bunch of cows just munching on your grass. You can’t do a thing about it because we’re a fence out state. A lot of people don’t know what a fence out state is. Fence out state is
the property owner, if you have an issue with the neighboring rancher letting his cattle graze on your property because we’re open range, that you would have to fence those animals out. Most people, buy property here, they start building their house and they’re like, you can’t, your cows, they’re eating my grass. You can’t have that. That’s just another fun fact why…
AI, I don’t believe will ever be able to replace me, it’s because it’s the little tidbits like that that they don’t know or know how to pass on to the consumer.
Kristen (27:36)
youRight, amazing. Well, thank you so much again. I think this has been awesome.
And thank you everybody for listening. Hope you got some inspiration for your own business. Learned a lot and we will see you back next time.
