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Posted By Kate on April 25, 2010

Tom-Little-Community-BBQ 4-16-10

Note: Very Good Article, Reprinted from the Oconee Enterprise, April 22, 2010:
“Land broker explains volume has increased” by Blake Giles, Editor

Tom Little grew up on a farm. His brothers still farm. He once farmed.
Now Little sells land – and fried chickens too. And he cooks up a lot of barbecue.

Tom Little at the chopping table

“I’ve been cooking hogs all my life,” said Little, one of the principal partners in Southern Land Exchange.
Little says he buys more meat from the University of Georgia than any other person. About 700 of his friends and clients and their invited guests enjoyed a heaping helping of Little’s barbecue last week (Friday).

“It has just sort of evolved over the years,” said Little of the barbecue.

The invitation list numbers 900. Counting spouses and co-workers, as many as 2,000 people could theoretically show up if they all responded. The (Friday) barbecue was just one of about 20 that Little will cook this year. The rest will be for one charity or another. For example, next weekend, he will be cooking up some pigs for the benefit of Relay For Life through the auspices of the Oconee Presbyterian Church.

Preparing barbecue is an avocation for Little, not a vocation. He reserves it for causes that he believes in. Little said that he could not pull off his barbecues without the help and support of his wife Kathy, an Oconee County school teacher and their 2 children as well as the staff at Southern Land Exchange.

Little and partner Steve Ebbert formed their unlikely partnership in 1991. Little had quit farming in the mid-‘80s and gone

Serving up hefty protions

 to work in real estate, specializing in land. Ebbert was doing the same for another company. An almost off-the-cuff remark by Little led to their partnership.

“When we first started talking, I told him that rule No. 1 was that if either one of us was ever mad with the other, we had to talk about it. And rule No. 2 was that we would not take our disagreements home to our spouses. “We are opposite personalities and it has worked,” said Little. “We have had some blunt discussions. I remember one day we cleared the office. But everything was fine the next day. Steve is very trustworthy and we are both hard workers.”

Little has ventured out on his own to purchase 7 Zaxby’s restaurants in the Raleigh, NC area. Having that cash flow to fall back on in 2009 proved essential.

“2009 was a terrible year in the land business,” said Little. He said there were just 5 transactions in all of Oconee County in 2009 dealing with land of 25 acres or more. His company was involved with 4 of them. “I’m glad that 2009 is over,” Little said. “If we have any more years like that, then we will be in trouble.

Southern Land Exchange

Happily, Little reports that the company has already been involved in more transactions in 2010 than in all of 2009. History has shown him that his business is typically front loaded with 75% of his volume accounted before June 1. Southern Land was the broker on 225 acres of land that Sailfish Ventures purchased recently. The land went for $2,500 per acre.

Little said there were some anomalies in the sale of the land that factored into the relatively low price, most prominently the fact that it was an estate sale involving 23 heirs. The land did not have great access. He said the owner bought it as a timberland investment.

Dealing in raw land, as he does, Little said that his company is a leading-edge indicator for the economy. They can predict to an extent the future of the economy. “I think the mini-farm business will be pretty good in Oconee County.” His company recently brokered the sale of Creekside Golf Club and has subdivided in into 25 acre plats, a perfect example of the mini-farm concept.

But Little said that the banking industry must be fixed before the nation recovers. His recipe for recovery is for the government to absorb 20% of the loan guarantee. He believes this would encourage more business startups and put people back to work.
The End.

And they kept coming.....

Note: Little is very mindful of the hardships many citizens are going through now and that’s why he is so generous and giving with his b-b-qs. He feeds a lot of people for free. He says he is so blessed and he wishes to give back to the community that he loves.
Click Here to view pictures of the event. Click on first photo to start slide show, then drag photo slightly to the left.

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