Trophy-property ranches hit the market as more heirs chose to sell

For more than 116 years, Deanna Davis’ family has owned Reynolds Ranch, spanning 7,600 acres in California’s Central Coast region. With the heirs in disagreement over the homestead’s future, Reynolds Ranch is now on the market for $30.7 million.

“It’s so hard to make decisions together as a family about the ranch,” she told CNBC. “If I had the cash, I would buy the whole thing right now and cash everybody out and start over and take the title in a LLC.”

It’s a common predicament for family trees that have too many branches, said Davis, who runs the ranch. Her mother, who died last December, was the last family member who grew up on Reynolds Ranch. Now the family is scattered across the country and some of her relatives live overseas. Some family members who can only visit once or twice a year would rather cash out.

Families like Davis’ are increasingly choosing to sell these long-held properties, high-end ranch brokers told CNBC.

The legacy properties are in big demand — even if not at pandemic highs — as deep-pocketed buyers crave wide open skies and a slower pace of life. The so-called “Yellowstone” effect remains in full force, with fans of the Paramount show seeking sprawling properties in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and other Western states.

“All I know is whoever buys this property, when they sit on the porch in the afternoon, sipping their margarita or iced tea, they will think they landed in paradise,” Davis said.

Ranch brokerage Live Water Properties currently has $700 million in listing inventory, up from under $200 million in May 2024, according to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, broker Latham Jenkins. Many of these properties are legacy ranches that are on the market for the first time in generations, he said.

One such listing is Antlers Ranch in Meeteetse, Wyoming, which spans 40,000 acres — nearly three times the size of Manhattan — and is priced at $85 million. Antlers Ranch is on the market for the first time in five generations.

“Large historic properties are less common as many have been broken up and sold off,” Jenkins said. “Those that remain are highly desirable.”

These legacy ranches can demand a premium for reasons other than acreage, he said. Many historic ranches, like another one of his listings, Red Hills Ranch, a 190-acre property asking for $65 million, are surrounded by public lands that cannot be developed. Buyers are drawn to that privacy, as well as the ability to hike and fish nearby and see wildlife up close.

“When you sit next to a running river, watching sunrises and sunsets, seeing an elk calf be born, there’s nothing quite like it,” Jenkins said.

Families usually come to him when the next generation has little interest in taking over the ranch or the heirs can’t come to an agreement. He described it as “bittersweet” when these one-of-a-kind properties become available for the first time in generations.

“That’s the thing with real estate. The land is perpetual, but the ownership is not,” he said.

Bill McDavid, a broker at Hall and Hall, represents Rocking Chair Ranch, a 7,200-acre Montana ranch that has been in the same family for more than seven decades.

“The adult children just got to the point where they realized, ‘No, it’s time for this family to move on and do something else,” he said of the sellers behind the property, which is listed at $21.7 million.

As ranching has been on the decline for decades, many multigenerational ranches have already changed hands, according to McDavid, who is based in Missoula, Montana. However, he is also seeing a rise in families looking to sell ranches they bought 20 to 30 years ago. The owners typically don’t have family ties to ranching and decided to buy trophy properties after making their fortune in tech or finance.

“For the buyer who made their money in the dot-com era, they had a grand idea about a family legacy, or whatever,” he said. “And then their kids got older, and they didn’t move to the ranch because nobody ever moved to the ranch. I mean, the dot-com guy, he came out and visited for at most the summer.”

He added of the heirs, “it was never in the cards for them to take over the ranch.”

Davis said she hopes a local ranching family will buy her California property, which has abundant grazing pastures and water sources. However, she said its likely a buyer from Silicon Valley will snap up Reynolds Ranch, which is only an hour and a half drive from San Jose and can accommodate a landing strip for a private plane.

John Onderdonk, who advises on agricultural properties for wealth manager Northern Trust, said the generational transfer of wealth is shaping the market. He is also a fourth-generation cattle rancher and said he is fortunate that his brothers agree on keeping their central California ranch in the family. However, he said many of the families he works with that choose to sell do so because of finances rather than disinterest.

“Real estate is a capital-intensive asset class, and if there isn’t liquidity in the portfolio, and the rest of the family isn’t able to support that, tough decisions come into play,” he said.

Legacy ranches, which may come with livestock and cropland, are attractive but require much due diligence, according to Ken Mirr of Mirr Ranch Group. For instance, these ranches are usually run by long-tenured managers who might leave when the property is sold and are hard to replace, said the Denver, Colorado-based broker. Or, they stay and have a rough time adjusting to new ownership, Mirr added.

“Those managers who have been here a long time start thinking that they own the place, right?” he said. “Sometimes that’s not the best person to be managing the ranch.”

Buyers expecting complete privacy can get a rude awakening. For instance, Mirr said, the previous family could have a longstanding verbal agreement with a neighbor allowing them to cross through their property. Depending on the state, members of the public may also be fish or wade in rivers located on private property, he said.

McDavid said buyers with deep pockets can have unrealistic expectations, wanting a rural property without sacrificing convenience. For instance, many want to live within 30 minutes’ driving distance of a major airport. Buyers also prefer move-in-ready properties, and multigenerational ranches may lack modern amenities.

As for the sellers, they get a windfall but aren’t able to replicate the lifestyle that comes with a legacy ranch.

“It’s just kind of a unique thing when you’re sitting on your porch and you look around and you own everything as far as your eyes can see,” Davis said. “It’s extremely difficult, the concept of losing the place, but on the other hand it’s going to make the next family very happy.”