Brittany Murphy, ALC

Ironhorse Land Company is growing its Nebraska team with the addition of Carson Rhodes, a land agent based in Gothenburg with roots in the same central Nebraska ground he now helps buyers and sellers navigate. Long before real estate entered the picture, Carson learned land from a tree stand. He grew up hunting leased ground around Gothenburg, spending enough mornings in stands and blinds to learn that what makes a property good on paper and what makes it good once you're actually on it can be two very different things. Cover matters. Access matters. Where wildlife moves when the pressure changes matters. So does everything happening beyond the property line. At the same time, generations of Carson's family worked cropland, giving him an early look at another side of Nebraska land. Productive ground has to work year after year, and its value cannot be understood from acreage alone. Those two parts of Carson's upbringing, agriculture and hunting, gave him a perspective on land that feels particularly at home at Ironhorse. Learning to Read the Ground There are things about a property you can learn from a map, a soil report, or a listing sheet. Then there are the things you understand once you've spent enough time outside. Carson grew up paying attention to the latter. Years of hunting taught him to notice how cover, terrain, access, water, neighboring properties, and human pressure change the way a piece of ground functions. His family's agricultural background gave him an appreciation for the productive side of the land and the work required to maintain it. Today, those experiences shape the questions he asks when walking a property with a client. A recreational buyer may need to know how they can enter and exit a property without disturbing the ground they intend to hunt. A farm buyer may be looking at soils, water, access, and long-term productivity. Someone considering an acreage may care about many of those same things while also trying to picture what everyday life there would actually look like. Carson's job is to understand which details matter for the person standing next to him and make sure they aren't overlooked. That is especially important in Nebraska, where properties can change character quickly as you move across the state. Cropland, pasture, river and creek corridors, cedar draws, native grass, and recreational habitat can all influence what a property offers and who ultimately sees value in it. Knowing the ground means understanding how those pieces work together, not reducing a property to a price per acre. Making the Process Easier to Understand For all the time Carson has spent learning land, one of the things that stands out most about the way he works has very little to do with acreage. It is patience. Buying property can be intimidating when you have never done it before. Financing, inspections, offers, contingencies, contracts, deadlines, and closing all become familiar language when you work in real estate every day. For the person on the other side of the table, they may be completely new. Carson pays attention to that. He would rather slow a conversation down and explain what happens next than assume a client already knows. He walks buyers through the process, answers the questions they may be hesitant to ask, and tries to remove as much uncertainty as possible before it becomes stress. That approach carries into his land work too. A buyer looking at their first recreational tract shouldn't be expected to know every question to ask. Neither should someone buying farmland for the first time. Good representation means knowing which questions need answers before a client commits to the ground. Sometimes that also means telling someone a property isn't the right one. At Ironhorse, we believe an agent's value shows up as much in the deal they tell a client to walk away from as the one they help close. Carson fits naturally into that standard. From Nebraska Hunting Land to the First Place You Call Home Carson works across both sides of the real estate business in Nebraska, representing land and residential clients. On the land side, his background lends itself naturally to farms, ranches, recreational properties, hunting ground, and acreages. He understands why a hunter may walk a property differently from a farmer and why an acreage buyer may be evaluating the same ground through another lens entirely. On the residential side, the details change but his approach doesn't. A first-time homebuyer deserves the same patience as someone evaluating a farm. A family moving to an acreage needs someone willing to explain the process just as clearly as a landowner preparing to sell ground that has been in the family for decades. Ironhorse has expanded into residential real estate for exactly that reason. Our clients' real estate needs don't always begin and end at the property line of a farm or ranch. Sometimes selling land means buying a home. Sometimes buying a home is the first step toward eventually owning an acreage. We want our clients to have someone they trust on both sides of that transition. Carson gives buyers and sellers in Nebraska that option. Why Carson Fits Ironhorse We don't bring agents into Ironhorse simply because there is another territory to cover. We look for people who understand the ground they represent, who can speak plainly to a client, and who recognize that knowing when to listen is as important as knowing what to say. Carson grew up around the properties he now represents. He knows what Nebraska ground looks like from a hunting blind and what productive land means to the families who work it. Just as importantly, he understands that the person buying their first home deserves the same level of preparation and attention as the person buying their fifth farm. That combination of local knowledge, patience, and willingness to slow down when a client needs it is exactly what we want associated with the Ironhorse name. Carson lives in Gothenburg with his wife, Destiney, and their two dogs. When he isn't working with clients, chances are he is back outside, hunting or spending time on family ground. For us, bringing Carson onto the team feels less like introducing someone to Nebraska land and more like giving someone who already knows it a larger platform from which to represent it. Work With Carson Rhodes in Nebraska Whether you're looking for Nebraska farmland, ranch land, recreational or hunting property, an acreage, or a home, Carson is available to help you understand the property and the process before asking you to make a decision. Carson Rhodes Nebraska Land Agent | Ironhorse Land Company Gothenburg, Nebraska (308) 529-1597 You don't need to know exactly what you're looking for before you call. That's part of the conversation.

Ironhorse Land Company is growing its presence in Iowa with the addition of Joel Koehn, a northeast Iowa land agent based in Fayette and serving landowners throughout the Driftless Area. Joel works across a part of Iowa where row crop ground gives way to timber, valleys, streams, and steep bluffs, and where understanding a property often requires looking well beyond the number of acres on a listing sheet. His path into land brokerage is not the conventional one. Before real estate, much of Joel's career was spent in emergency medical services as a critical care paramedic, educator, and leader. It is a background that taught him how to listen carefully, process complicated information, communicate clearly, and stay steady when the person sitting across from him is making a decision that carries real weight. Those skills followed him naturally into real estate, where the circumstances may be different but the responsibility to the person in front of him remains much the same. A Career Built Around People Years spent in emergency medicine gave Joel an understanding of something we believe deeply at Ironhorse: people deserve clear information when the stakes are high. For a landowner, selling a property can be one of those moments. The ground may have been farmed by the same family for generations. It may represent years of work, an inheritance shared among siblings, a retirement plan, or simply a place someone is not quite ready to let go of. The financial side of a transaction matters, but it rarely tells the entire story. Joel approaches those conversations the same way he has approached much of his career. He listens first, works to understand what actually matters to the person making the decision, and gives them the information they need to decide what comes next. He is not interested in telling a seller an inflated number simply because it is what they hoped to hear, or pushing a buyer toward a property that does not fit what they are trying to accomplish. His job, as he sees it, is to understand the situation well enough to give an honest answer and explain the reasoning behind it. That philosophy fits naturally at Ironhorse. We have always believed good land brokerage begins with understanding the people behind the land, because acreage rarely changes hands without a story attached to it. Understanding Northeast Iowa Land Based in Fayette, Joel serves buyers and sellers throughout northeast Iowa, including Fayette, Clayton, Winneshiek, Allamakee, Chickasaw, Howard, Bremer, Buchanan, Delaware, and Dubuque counties. His work spans row crop farms, timber and recreational tracts, hunting properties, acreages, and residential real estate. It is a diverse territory, particularly as you move into Iowa's Driftless Area. The landscape here does not fit the flat-farmland stereotype much of the country associates with Iowa. Productive agricultural ground can sit alongside wooded ridges, creek bottoms, steep terrain, and exceptional whitetail habitat, sometimes within the same property. That mix creates opportunity, but it also means properly understanding and marketing the ground requires knowing what each part of the property contributes. A neighboring farmer looking to expand may value a tract differently than a recreational buyer searching for hunting ground. Another buyer may see an acreage, timber value, income potential, or a long-term investment. Joel's role is to understand those different perspectives, identify what makes the property valuable, and make sure it reaches the people most likely to recognize that value. That starts long before a property goes on the market. Access, tillable acreage, timber, improvements, habitat, surrounding land use, location, and current buyer demand all help tell the story of what a piece of ground is worth and how it should be positioned. Joel would rather spend the time getting that story right than reduce a property to acreage and an asking price. The Right Fit for Ironhorse As Ironhorse continues to grow, we are deliberate about the agents we bring into the company. Geography matters, but simply putting another pin on the map has never been the point. We want agents who understand their territory, care about the people they represent, and are willing to give a client an honest answer even when the easier answer might win the listing. Joel brings exactly that approach to northeast Iowa. His years in emergency medicine and education shaped the way he communicates, but they also shaped the way he shows up for people. There is patience in his process and a steadiness that comes from a career spent dealing with situations where listening matters and details cannot be overlooked. He understands that his responsibility is not to manufacture urgency around a decision. It is to help a client understand the ground, the market, and their options well enough to make that decision with confidence. For Ironhorse, that makes his addition to the team a natural one. Joel knows northeast Iowa, understands the particular character of land throughout the Driftless Area, and shares the standard we are building the company around: know the ground, tell the truth about it, and take care of the people who trusted you with it. Work With Joel Koehn in Northeast Iowa Whether you are considering selling a family farm, looking for hunting or recreational ground, evaluating an acreage, or simply trying to understand what your property could be worth in today's market, Joel is available to start with a conversation. Joel Koehn Northeast Iowa Land Agent Ironhorse Land Company Fayette, Iowa (563) 412-8313 Sometimes the first step is listing the property. Sometimes it is deciding not to. Either way, Joel's job is to make sure you have the information you need to know the difference.

A year ago, Ironhorse Land Company did not exist. No listings, no team roster, no sign post pushed into the ground with our name on it. Just three people who believed a land brokerage could be built differently, and the sense that the industry needed one. Koby Rickertsen, Brian Reynolds, and I sat down in September of 2025 with more conviction than certainty. Twelve months and one award-winning recognition later, the conviction has held up. This is not a highlight reel. It's what a year actually looks like when you build something instead of borrow it. A Land Brokerage Built for the People Behind the Land From day one, the idea was simple. Land deals aren't spreadsheets. They're family decisions, generational transitions, and sometimes grief. A landowner selling ground their grandfather cleared needs a broker who understands the weight of that, not one reciting square footage. So we built Ironhorse around the people first and the land second, on the belief that the land takes care of itself once the people are handled right. Koby brought two decades in land brokerage and the discipline that comes with holding an Accredited Land Consultant designation. Brian brought a builder's patience and an ear for people, which turned into a Chief People Officer role before we ever thought to call it that. I came in believing marketing should sound like the people doing the work, not like every other brokerage's website copy. Somewhere in those first few months, that belief became the whole approach. Twelve States, Three Divisions, One Standard A year in, Ironhorse holds licenses across twelve states: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. That reach didn't come from chasing territory. It came from agents who wanted to do land work the Ironhorse way and happened to live somewhere we hadn't gotten to yet. The company grew into three divisions this year, each one solving a real problem instead of padding a website. Ironhorse Ranches took shape for the acreage that calls for a different kind of buyer conversation. Homes by Ironhorse gave agents who already had residential clients, like Ashley Pittman, a way to bring them along instead of walking away from them the day they joined us. Ironhorse Auctions opened a lane for sellers who need a clock and a crowd instead of a listing that sits. None of it happened because a business plan called for it. It happened because a real agent or a real landowner needed something we didn't have yet, so we built it. The Recognition We Didn't Ask For This spring, The Land Report named Ironhorse one of America's Best Brokerages for the Great Plains region, an award-winning distinction we didn't submit a polished package or hire someone to chase. The work made it. That matters more to us than the recognition itself. An award only means something if you keep earning it after the fact, and we intend to keep proving that in the years ahead. Somewhere alongside all of it, the American Land Seller Podcast kept doing what it does best: putting Koby across the table from people who actually work the ground, one honest conversation at a time. No script, no pitch. Just land people talking to land people, which is the whole point. The People Who Made the First Year Real A brokerage isn't a logo or a listing count. It's Joel Koehn covering the Driftless bluffs of northeast Iowa between paramedic shifts, because land work and saving lives both run on showing up when it matters. It's Joel McCartan working west-central Iowa with the kind of patience that never rushes a seller who isn't ready. It's Carson Rhodes and Nate Bahe building their Nebraska territories from scratch this year, the same way the company itself did twelve months ago. None of them needed a script handed to them. They needed a brokerage that would get out of their way and back them up when it counted. What an Award-Winning Land Brokerage Owes Its Second Year Pride is easy after a good year. Staying useful is harder. The work ahead looks like better onboarding for the next agent who joins us, a playbook worth handing over instead of a folder of good intentions, and content that keeps sounding like us instead of drifting into whatever the industry considers normal. Growth was never the goal. Being the kind of brokerage a landowner tells their neighbor about, that's the goal. Everything else is just how you get there. A year ago, Ironhorse Land Company was three people and an idea. Today it's a team spread across multiple states, still built the same way it started: land people, working for the people behind the land. We're proud of that. We're nowhere near finished with it.