Brittany Murphy, ALC

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.

Nebraska Land Agent Nate Bahe Joins Ironhorse Land Company We are glad to introduce Nate Bahe, a Nebraska land agent joining the Ironhorse Land Company team. Nate works with buyers and sellers of farm, hunting, and recreational ground across eastern and central Nebraska. He is based in Wahoo, in Saunders County, which puts him about half an hour from both Lincoln and Omaha. Nate did not arrive at land through a career change spreadsheet. He grew up in it. Raised in Central Nebraska Agriculture Nate grew up in a small town in central Nebraska, the kind of place where you knew whose ground was whose and what everybody had in it. Agriculture and hunting were not weekend hobbies at his place. They were how the calendar worked. Fall meant something specific. So did spring. That upbringing changes how a person looks at a property. You do not see acres. You see what somebody built and what it took to build it. For a landowner deciding who to trust with a family farm, that difference matters. In addition, it shows up in the small things, like knowing why a field edge sits where it does, or why an old fence line still gets talked about at Thanksgiving. From Collegiate Athlete to Teacher and Coach Nate earned his degree at Nebraska Wesleyan University, where he played four years of college basketball. The part that stuck with him was not the games. It was the film sessions. You sit and watch the same forty seconds twelve times until you finally see what was actually happening. As a result, you learn that it is almost never what you thought was happening while you were out there. Slowing something down until you genuinely understand it turned out to be a habit worth keeping. After college, Nate taught and coached. That experience shapes how he works today more than anything else. Coaching teaches you that people lead with the easy version of their problem. A kid says he is fine. A parent says it is about playing time. Usually it is neither. Land works the same way. A decision to sell is rarely only about the ground. Instead, it is tied to family, timing, taxes, a lease that stopped making sense, or something nobody has said out loud yet. Because of that, Nate starts with the conversation and not the number. How This Nebraska Land Agent Approaches a Property Nate does the front end of this business the slow way, and we think that is the right call. He walks a property rather than pulling it up on a screen. He wants to see the access, the water, the field edges, and what a place looks like in more than one season. Meanwhile, he is asking about the family and about what the next stretch of someone's life is supposed to look like. That answer usually changes the recommendation. Here is why that matters on the marketing side. Every piece of land has a specific audience. The buyer for 240 acres of hunting timber and the buyer for irrigated cropland are not the same person. They do not look in the same places. Furthermore, they do not respond to the same information. That gap is even wider in this part of the state. A lot of recreational demand comes out of Lincoln and Omaha, and those buyers are working from a completely different set of priorities than a neighbor expanding his operation. Getting a property in front of the right group instead of the widest group is most of the work. It is also where ground ends up sitting on the market longer than it should. Habitat, Conservation, and Why It Affects Value Nate is a member of Ducks Unlimited and Pheasants Forever. Part of that is because he hunts. The other part is more practical. Habitat is what makes recreational ground worth anything in the first place. A property with good cover, water, and a plan behind it holds value in a way a bare tract never will. Consequently, that is worth understanding whether you are buying or selling. For sellers, it often means there is value on the place that is not showing up in the asking price. For buyers, it means knowing what you can realistically build over the next five years. Serving Eastern and Central Nebraska Nate and his fiancée live in Wahoo. Most of his work runs through the counties around Saunders and out into central Nebraska, including: Saunders County Butler County Dodge County Colfax County Douglas and Sarpy Counties Cass County Lancaster County Seward County Platte and Polk Counties If you own ground in this part of the state, or you are looking to buy in it, Nate is close by and easy to get ahold of. Get in Touch Whether you are years out from a decision or ready to move this season, Nate is glad to talk it through with no expectation attached. He will walk your ground, give you a straight read on it, and tell you what he actually thinks. That last part is worth more than most people expect. Contact Nate Bahe, Nebraska land agent with Ironhorse Land Company Phone: (308) 201-0321 Email: Nate@IronhorseLandCompany.com | Based in Wahoo, Nebraska