Reno land broker sees room for more builders in market

Reno land broker Mark Krueger has been able to order off the senior menu for quite some time now, but contrary to the rumor mill, Krueger is definitely not contemplating retirement.

In fact, he just doubled down by leaving his longtime commercial brokerage house to open a Northern Nevada office for Land Advisors Organization. The land-only brokerage headquartered at Scottsdale, Arizona, has more than two dozen offices serving 16 states.

“The No. 1 land team in Reno joined forces with the No. 1 land brokerage in the U.S.,” Krueger told NNBW during an interview recently. “They are, in fact, the nation’s biggest land-only brokerage. That's all they do, and that's what I like about them.

“They are a very professional organization, and they just bring a lot more resources to the table than we have had in the past,” he added.

Krueger spent the past 12 years at ArchCrest Commercial Partners. The Krueger land team includes Ryan Krueger (son) and Erin Seipel (daughter). The new office is located in Damonte Ranch at 10631 Professional Circle, Suite B.

Krueger has been a land broker since moving to Reno in the mid-1990s to help kick off residential development in South Meadows. The Krueger land team has brokered more than $1.2 billion in land sales over the past 20 years, which resulted in the creation of more than 36,000 single-family homes and 5,000 multifamily apartment doors in Northern Nevada.

Notable land deals include some of the most well-known residential communities in the greater Truckee Meadows, including Somersett, Pioneer Meadows, Wingfield Foothills, Double Diamond Ranch, Stonebrook and Talus Valley.

Krueger said the switch primarily stemmed from the size and scope of Land Advisors Organization.

“We had a good partnership at ArchCrest; it was just time to make a change,” Krueger said. “I wanted a bigger reach. We had teamed with Land Advisors a few times with some bigger projects here, and it went really well. After working with them on some deals and proposals, I got a real good taste of what they can do.”

The switch to Land Advisors Organization significantly expands the potential pool of national home builders who have been looking at expanding their footprint in growing markets across the country, Krueger said. Currently, three national home builders – Lennar, D.R. Horton and Toll Brothers – dominate the local home building arena.

That may change, though, as Reno continues to become a bigger target for investment capital and development activity from more national home developers and institutional investors.

“Reno has always been seen as a local market, but that is changing,” Krueger said. “We are getting interest from national organizations and home builders. The market has expanded, and we're getting a lot more exposure nationally. That's what Land Advisors is bringing to us – they have an almost unlimited source of developers, investors and builders, and these are companies that I have never dealt with before who want to look at Reno. That is one of the reasons why we joined up – to get more reach and activity.”

The landscape for national builders in Greater Reno-Sparks continues to evolve, Krueger added. In the early 2000s, the only national builder with a significant presence here was Centex Homes, which was constructing approximately 150 homes annually, Krueger said.

Back then, the regional home building market was dominated by local general contractors. Over the past few years, though, as interest rates soared, most smaller local builders have struggled to move their projects forward due to the high cost of capital and exorbitant development costs.

As a result, a handful of national home builders with much deeper pockets have erected the majority of new subdivisions in Reno, Sparks and the ever-growing outlying markets.

D.R. Horton, Toll Brothers and Lennar have pretty much taken control of the home building market in Northern Nevada, Krueger told NNBW.

“Private home builders are feeling serious pressure,” he said. “It is just hard for those guys to compete due to the cost of capital. The public companies can borrow money so much more cheaply.

“We are doing a lot of deals where the private guys are selling to the public builders because they can get their profit on the land and the public builders can move the projects forward,” Krueger added. “Those three titans (Lennar, D.R. Horton and Toll Brothers) are all building in excess of 500 homes each year.”

Land Advisors Organization has deep ties to other home builders with a national footprint, such as Pulte Group, Meritage Homes and Taylor Morrison, Krueger noted. That extensive reach should help the Krueger land team get more bids and field more competitive offers on regional land deals, he added.

“We are so dominated right now by the top five or six companies who can actually afford to buy a 100-lot subdivision that they are kind of dictating the show,” he said. “We need some fresh blood.

“I think there is room (in Reno-Sparks) for another couple of builders to come in and get their piece of the market, and Land Advisors can help us with that because they are connected with all those builders.”

Krueger said he ultimately plans to hand off much of the day-to-day duties to son Ryan. Stepping away from full time work allows him to spend more time with his eight grandchildren, he said. In the interim, though, the elder land broker plans on maintaining Krueger land team’s edge in regional land deals.

“Ryan is kicking butt and is probably the best, most active land advisor in all of town,” Mark Krueger said. “As a team, we are still going strong, and I am recommitted to seeing this thing through.”