YOUR PREMIER BROKER FOR MICHIGAN FARMLAND

Heartland Agricultural Services – Helping Farmers and Investors Sell and Buy Farmland

Heartland Agricultural Services, LLC was originally established to provide agricultural real estate brokerage and financing services to Michigan farmers and agri-businesses, and has since expanded to also serve fiduciaries and investors.

• We assist property owners wishing to sell Michigan farmland and hunting property by helping them price their property at the right price point, marketing it effectively both publicly and privately within our network, and ultimately finding the right buyer for their property.
• Among others, we work with both large and small farmers, trustees, estates, private investors, and investment funds. Our unique expertise and extensive experience in farmland helps trustees, personal representatives of estates, and investment managers fulfill their fiduciary responsibilities to their beneficiaries and investors when transacting in farmland.
• We assist expanding commercial farming operations in locating quality Michigan farmland for sale and obtaining financing to complete the acquisition when needed.
• We also assist individuals and companies who may wish to invest in farmland or hunting land to find and acquire the right property for their objectives.
• We’re regularly involved in like-kind exchanges, and often tasked with helping sellers find and acquire replacement properties.
• In addition to buying and selling farmland, we’re also regularly involved in leasing land, and in both private and commercial lending secured by farmland.

Our website can be used to locate Michigan farms for sale by county and by category, whether you are looking for cropland, fruit farms, or hunting properties.

Please browse through our site to see the properties we have listed. If you are considering selling or buying property, please contact us before you make arrangements with any buyer, seller or realtor to be sure you’re getting the optimum price with the minimum amount of difficulties. And if you are looking to purchase property, please call or email us as we frequently know properties for sale or about to be for sale besides those featured on our website.

- The Heartland Agricultural Services Team

About the Principals:

Douglas Oberst

Douglas Oberst is the founder of Heartland Agricultural Services, LLC. Doug is also a founding partner in 12 Corners Vineyards, a Berrien County vineyard operation consisting primarily of wine-grape plantings as well as cherries. A premium winery and small conference center are located on site as well. Additionally, the Oberst family maintains an ag-real estate company known as Oberst Farms, LLC. Doug's writings have been published in Farm Futures Magazine and he is an accredited instructor for the USDA's Farm Service Agency, teaching farm financial management. He has also assisted in special programs to assist minority farm owners throughout southern Michigan.

While attending Alma College where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, Doug continued to maintain an interest in his family's 900-acre farm in the Saginaw Valley. The farm was located in an area that produced sugar beets, dry beans, cash grains, and pickles.

Doug has served on various boards and committees including the Center for the Arts, Humane Society, Cooperative Extension Advisory Committee, and several church boards.

Jaron Nyhof

Jaron Nyhof is both a real estate broker and a real estate and business attorney with nearly 30 years of experience. Jaron has advised his clients in all manner of real estate and business transactions over the years, including in purchases, sales, leases, like-kind exchanges, land divisions, real estate development, construction, zoning, lending and borrowing, entity formation and structuring, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, capital raising, private equity investments, commercial contracts, and dispute resolution. In addition to being a broker at Heartland, Jaron continues to be available to provide legal counsel through his affiliation with Smith Haugey Rice & Roegge, where he was a founding member of the firm’s Holland, MI office. Jaron previously worked in banking in the areas of both commercial lending (including to farmers in Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota) and trust administration (in Ohio).

While Jaron has lived in West Michigan for nearly 30 years, he is originally a farm boy from Iowa where farming goes back generations on both sides, and his older brother still operates the family farm. Jaron received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Dordt College and a Juris Doctorate degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He has previously been an equity owner and leader in both large and medium-sized law firms in Michigan, as well as working as in-house counsel for real estate developers.

Jaron has served on boards of directors and committees for over a dozen nonprofits and banks, is a licensed attorney in both Michigan and Ohio, and is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and Ottawa County Bar Association.