How to Develop Rural Land Into Profitable Mini-Farm Communities

Alisha Cherry (00:00)
And the little trade secret that I have, I’ve tried to tell people over and over again that goes along with what we just said is find a community that you want to work.

and find the smallest local cafes there are, show up early, have breakfast and visit with people.

And that’s the best advice I can give anyone.

Michelle Kesil (01:51)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Alisha Cherry, who is a realtor for 35 years in the Oklahoma area, as well as a developer focusing on commercial projects. So excited to have you here today, Alisha.

Alisha Cherry (02:11)
Good to be here. Don’t get

Michelle Kesil (02:12)
Great, so let’s dive in. First off, for those new to your world, can you share what your main focus is?

Alisha Cherry (02:18)
My main focus is the agricultural industry, ⁓ your small many farms ⁓ to large farms, equine-related properties, communities that are being built for the equine industry, and a lot of the commercial development is all over the Tulsad metro area, small communities now starting to grow, and we’re bringing in a lot of more commercial development.

Michelle Kesil (02:41)
Right. And what do you feel are some of the main keys that have allowed your business to be able to grow and run successfully?

Alisha Cherry (02:50)
⁓ to be honest with you, what I feel is self-employment is not for everyone. ⁓ it’s it’s really more of a it doesn’t matter how what industry you’re in, it did could apply to all of that. ⁓ you have to be self motivated. You have to be able to get every morning up and have a schedule of what you know you need to do and what you need to accomplish. being in a self employment industry.

You you really just have to have the drive to get up every day and whatever comes that day, you deal with it and you move on to the next day. it is also involving being conservative. It’s involving managing your financials because you are self-employed, to be prepared for the next day or the next month. be prepared to work very hard. sometimes the perception of the real estate industry is they think they see a lot of people with a lot of

easygoing money and they just make a living easy. And that is not true. We put in just as many hours, if not more hours than your average factory worker that’s going to put in and work in overtime. ⁓ we do a lot of hours. ⁓ if you don’t then you won’t be successful and you will have ⁓ large gaps throughout the year that you’re just not you’re not being productive.

Michelle Kesil (04:06)
Yeah, absolutely. And what do some of the commercial real estate projects that you work on look like?

Alisha Cherry (04:13)
there’s a lot of ⁓ development when we have an economics ⁓ area where we’re trying to grow. You go in and and ⁓ I worked with a lot of the cities of Bixby and been involved in some projects of selling and helping promote ⁓ the smaller suburbs of Tulsa ⁓ to grow and bring in this industries that will actually support the community. that’s been a very, very and it’s and it’s very desirable to do that.

⁓ also some large commercial side of the e-coin industry where there are large product products that can come in and with those utilized being used, you can bring in a a lot of tax dollars and throughout the year ⁓ to help generate more for the communities also. So it depends on the project, but I’ve been doing it 35 years. So there’s a multiple of things that I’ve done to bring in ⁓ all kinds of industries into the world.

Michelle Kesil (05:52)
What have been some of the biggest obstacles or challenges that you’ve overcome in your real estate career?

Alisha Cherry (06:00)
Probably some of the biggest obstacles in real estate is being able to truly understand your clients and needs, ⁓ being able to know how to field your calls and ⁓ have the right questions. So you can you can put your clients in categories to know how to work with them, how to find out what they need and help to help guide them to find the things that they’re seeking. That is very difficult. And if you don’t truly know how to read people really well.

then you can have a lot of time that’s used ⁓ for for properties that are necessary. So probably the key has been working with clients and really understanding what they need, making sure that we’re time is being used in the areas that they really are prepared for. And just just making sure that everyone is channeled in the right direction and reading that and using the time that you spend with them.

to gain the information to help keep moving forward in the right direction.

Michelle Kesil (06:56)
Yeah, absolutely. And how do you work with real estate investors on your projects?

Alisha Cherry (07:02)
Typically I get texts constantly every day from all my investors that are looking for specific type properties. ⁓ or I have properties that I work on that I have multiple of people will call me and tell me when they’re ready to sell and I help put the buyer and sellers together. So my investors basically contact me so I can get them the product, the products that they’re looking for. I get it, I put the buyer and sellers together so everyone can have a win.

Michelle Kesil (07:28)
Yeah, absolutely. And what are you most focused on solving or scaling to next?

Alisha Cherry (07:33)
Solving probably ⁓ we’ve got some ⁓ large tracts of lands that I’m gonna be working with. That’s that’s kind of ⁓ a lot of working with the counties to make sure that your projects can fit. So there’s a lot of meetings on solution brainstorming to make sure that those can go. ⁓ there are some problems in the communities that I’m working in that I actually am trying to help get ⁓

Just get some more

I guess educated people on on board to ⁓ help out with the infrastructure of what’s coming forward so that we don’t have infrastructure that is not set up for what is actually coming quickly.

Michelle Kesil (08:10)
And what are you most looking forward to or excited about with any opportunities that are coming your way?

Alisha Cherry (08:16)
Well, actually, at my age I enjoy doing what I do for a living and real estate is a really great profession to be in and I’ve met some wonderful people and have made some lifelong friends. ⁓ but in my my love and passion is horses and and a farm that I have and I have some opportunities that I am basically gonna be utilizing ⁓ for my ⁓ the equine side of things. So

⁓ I will be probably doing a whole lot more of the larger farms and ranches, which has always been a goal at this many years into the industry. So those are some things that I’m really looking forward to. And I think all the years of my experience of being in the industry, my contacts and my love of horses and the rural communities is the direction I’ll be going.

I would call it probably the last quarter of my life of being in real estate problem.

Michelle Kesil (09:09)
Right. And what advice would you give to someone that’s wanting to get into real estate?

Alisha Cherry (09:17)
Well typically I get that asked a lot. don’t quit your day job. ⁓ it takes two to make it work for a long while. ⁓ find someone that’s been in the industry for a long time, be kind, buy them lunch, get them to give you their trades, their their secrets to help keep moving forward and stay busy. listen, seek out

people in multiple industries in the in the industry, new construction, insurance, taxes, you name it, and spend time talking to them because all that knowledge helps gain a transaction that you’re going to be involved in when you’re in real estate. There are so many moving parts that that all have to work to get a final ending that you could resource all of those things and gain to learn from everyone. So therefore when you are in a pinch and you don’t have an answer, you have someone to call.

Or you may have you have met asked the question once before and am able to answer a question and move forward and where typically maybe something may not happen. A transaction just can’t get moved forward. But you may find something by by definitely brainstorming with others and finding mentors to help you in the future.

And the the little trade secret that I have, I’ve tried to tell people over and over again that goes along with what we just said is find a community that you want to work.

and find the smallest local cafes there are, show up early, have breakfast and visit with people.

And that’s the best advice I can give anyone.

Michelle Kesil (11:21)
Yeah, that is great. Thank you for sharing. And how did you build your network? Is there anything that’s made the biggest difference there?

Alisha Cherry (11:28)
I think the reason why I’m where I’m at is it’s I’m very driven. ⁓ my nickname in the industry is the steam engine. ⁓ if somebody can’t get something done, then they call me and I get it done. So I guess ⁓ it would be more that just I don’t quit. ⁓ no matter how hard it is, I find a way to get it done. ⁓ I have I’m very driven when it comes to that and I’m very passionate about my clients and want to see them successful.

whether it be a new development or a commercial project that they’re wanting or a small hundred and fifty thousand dollar house. It’s the first couple’s home that they want to start the family in. I’m very driven. Whatever it is they want, I I want to see it see it through and make sure it happens.

Michelle Kesil (12:11)
Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned development. Can you share more about what types of projects that you are developing?

Alisha Cherry (12:20)
Sure. There are a lot of the rural communities where we’ve gone in and created with the counties, gotten with counties to find out what the ⁓ the the rules are gonna be, which is subdivision, basically subdividing. ⁓ we are having a few pushbacks for for some communities, but for the most to go in and create small mini farms for a lot of the ⁓ people that are moving to Oklahoma.

⁓ five acres to 10 acre tracks with new construction where we put together a lot of multi several of really, really great new construction builders who build a cost efficient home ⁓ from scales from a starter home all the way up to a a retiring someone who wants to retire home ⁓ and put all that together with a development that is within a reasonable range of a of a large large city for commute.

⁓ and just put those developments together right now and are ⁓ working on some large ones right now to just see how well they’re gonna pan out. We’ve got several interested parties and a great group of people that we should be able to put that together for a lot of the people that are looking to be homesteaders and a little less inner city driven.

Michelle Kesil (13:31)
Yeah, amazing. And are these projects typically investors that are involved or just your normal

Alisha Cherry (13:41)
There are investors that we have, a team of a few people that work together to go in and develop. We have bankers involved, bankers that are involved in the project. Then we have our are basically our developer that likes to come in and do those projects. And they lean on me to find the property, bring in the new construction builders that could come in and put the bids and and then of course the infrastructure, ⁓ the type of and I do a lot of the meetings with the county.

lot of meetings with the zoning boards to make sure that all of it is going to fit ⁓ so that when we get ready to start we have all of it ready. I meet with a lot of the ⁓ electric electric companies and a lot of the the water companies to make sure our engineers are on board and everything can work properly for that. So I do a lot of the lead work for my investors. So we are kind of prepared ⁓ when we get ready to move forward. And so I’m I’m really in depth involved in the the sh the baby basically putting the project together.

Michelle Kesil (15:19)
Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing all of that.

Before we begin to wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect, and stay up to date, where can people find you and connect with you?

Alisha Cherry (15:30)
The best way to find me would be my website, which will link them to multiple of my social media platforms, which is just the alishacherryrealestate.com that is the best way to reach me. they can find my cell phone number. And then in the horse industry, ⁓ I’m actually I have a product called Equicleanse that I promote and it is a healing product for horses. And they can see that too. That all works together with my real estate.

So ⁓ a lot of the people in the world of horses across the nation, ⁓ I communicate with them and we work together and so they can find me that way on the horse industry or they can find me on the real estate industry. And sometimes they can find me in a little bit of both.

Michelle Kesil (16:15)
Perfect. Appreciate your time and your story. Thank you for being here.

Alisha Cherry (16:18)
Yeah, thank you.

Michelle Kesil (16:19)
And for the listeners tuning in, if you got value, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations with operators like Alisha who are building real businesses. And we’ll see you on the next episode.