2026 America’s Best Brokerages – Midwest
2026 America’s Best Brokerages – Midwest
ABB_FEAT_Midwest2026
2025 Sales: $250M–$500M
Who: A farm real estate, management, appraisal, and auction firm serving landowners, farmers, heirs, trustees, and investors throughout the Midwest since 1977.
WOW! Sold a nearly 500-acre property at $17,500 per acre. Also completed appraisal and valuation work on approximately 75,000 acres across 122 counties.
What was your take on 2025? We moved beyond the post-COVID surge into a more disciplined, thoughtful environment where buyers were decisive, not reckless. High-quality farmland with the right fundamentals continued to attract strong competition. But the gap widened between truly premium farms and land with constraints, tougher layouts, or weaker soils.
How is 2026 shaping up? We expect strong demand for high-quality farms, particularly those with proven productivity, good improvements, and well-presented offering packages. We also anticipate ongoing pricing separation. Buyers will pay up for the best while being more analytical on average or challenged tracts. On the supply side, we expect more decision-driven listings tied to estate planning, generational transitions, and owners simplifying their holdings.
2025 Sales: $100M–$250M
Who: A land brokerage firm in the Eastern Corn Belt with 35 full-time agents offering private sales, auction sales, acquisitions, appraisals, and farm management. Our agents have an average of 20 years of experience in rural real estate.
WOW! Halderman Real Estate co-brokered the 2025 Farm-land Deal of the Year with Moore & Warner: more than 5,700 acres in Greene County, Illinois. Our 2025 listings sold for 8 percent more than our sales in 2024 despite rising input costs and lower commodity prices.
What was your take on 2025? Land prices remained steady due to good demand from investors as they looked for a hedge against inflation.
How is 2026 shaping up? Lenders are concerned about the erosion of working capital, along with rising debt-to-income and debt-to-asset ratios. Demand is still strong overall, while the supply of land on the market is steady but below typical levels. As a result, overall land prices will remain mostly steady, but lower-quality or less-desirable farms will see reduced buyer interest and may experience slight price declines.
2025 Sales: $500M–$1B
Who: A multistate brokerage, auction, appraisal, and farm-management business, primarily focused on Midwestern farmland.
What was your take on 2025? The market was largely stable, coming off a year of slight weakness in 2024. Production agriculture in the Midwest continued to struggle through a second consecutive year of low commodity prices and low/no profit margins, resulting in less overall demand. However, sale volume decreased even more than demand did, which helped stabilize the overall land-price environment.
How is 2026 shaping up? The land market has stabilized relative to a year ago. There are fewer land sales, but there is enough demand to absorb the supply at level prices. It seems most of the bad news has been factored into the current commodity-price environment, including major tariff disruptions with long-time trading partners, huge crop supplies on hand, and stiff production competition from South America.
2025 Sales: $250M–$500M
Who: A family-owned farmland real estate brokerage specializing in Iowa farmland, offering a full-service auction platform as well as traditional listings.
WOW! Sold multiple farms owned by Abigail Farms for nearly $19 million. Located in Hardin County near Alden, Iowa, the farm consisted of 1,350 acres of premium cropland with a strong CSR2 average of 78. Farms like this are hard to find and can take a lifetime to put together.
What was your take on 2025? The Iowa market was stable, with land values remaining strong in most of the state. Overall, Iowa land prices increased 0.7 percent in 2025, which has steadied the farmland real estate market. Limited land supply, stronger-than-expected yields, steady commodity prices, and plenty of cash buyers helped keep land prices stable. Overall, we saw 75 percent local operators and 25 percent investors buying farms.
How is 2026 shaping up? It could be slightly volatile depending on the amount of land offered to the open market, the condition of this year’s crops, and commodity prices. So far, prices on top-tier Iowa farmland remain stable. We feel like we are in a holding pattern with fewer farms coming to the market and trending back to a more traditional sales volume. The long-term outlook remains positive, with the market expected to remain stable until it turns strong again.
2025 Sales: $250M–$500M
Who: Our team of more than 75 agents and staff matches exceptional properties with extraordinary people.
What was your take on 2025? It continued to be a strong market for farm, ranch, and recreational land.
How is 2026 shaping up? Land sales started the year strong, and rural lifestyle property is in very high demand. It has been neither a buyer’s nor a seller’s market but a very robust market for exceptional properties.
2025 Sales: $50M–$100M
Who: A full-service real estate brokerage and auction company specializing in land, farms, recreational acreage, and high-value rural estates.
What was your take on 2025? We saw a noticeable increase in landowners choosing the auction method over traditional listings. Auctions performed particularly well when sellers sought certainty and control over the timeline. Traditional listings required stronger positioning, more precise pricing, and higher-level marketing to capture attention. Overall, serious sellers succeeded, and overpriced properties sat.
How is 2026 shaping up? The outlook is strong, particularly in Central Ohio, where economic expansion continues to drive land demand. Growth related to advanced manufacturing, logistics, and data center development is creating sustained pressure on transitional farmland and large-acreage tracts along major corridors. High-quality tillable farmland and premium recreational properties remain resilient, supported by limited inventory and steady buyer demand.
2025 Sales: $50M–$100M
Who: Specializing in land throughout Illinois, with a team of agents with backgrounds in agriculture, hunting, land management, rural development, and investment analysis.
WOW! Our total sales volume nearly tripled versus 2024.
What was your take on 2025? It was strong. Low inventory and interest rates presented challenges, but consistent demand for quality land continued to drive activity.
How is 2026 shaping up? Buyer demand is still strong. We are off to one of our strongest starts yet, with solid activity across agricultural, recreational, and rural residential properties.
2025 Sales: $50M–$100M
Who: Specializing in land and rural properties across Indiana. Our agents have backgrounds in agriculture, hunting-land management, rural development, and investment real estate.
WOW! Three of our team members were named to the MOP 3rd Quarter Pinnacle Club, recognizing the top 10 agents in the nation for sales.
What was your take on 2025? It was a strong year across residential, agricultural, and recreational land sales. Low inventory and consistent interest rates made the first two quarters more challenging. However, we closed out 2025 on a strong upswing and carried positive momentum into the new year.
How is 2026 shaping up? Inventory remains tight. Interest rates continue to hold steady. But demand remains strong. Buyers are still actively seeking quality land, especially well-managed tillable farms and premier recreational tracts. The start of the year was excellent. If the trend continues, we anticipate one of our best years.
2025 Sales: $100M–$250M
Who: A brokerage based in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, we specialize in the land and residential markets of Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas. We are two-time winners of the MOP National Office of the Year award.
WOW! Brokered more than 400 properties for the year, highlighted by a 1,642-acre parcel in Wayne County, Missouri.
What was your take on 2025? Finished the year much stronger than anticipated.
How is 2026 shaping up? We expect to be busy enough that we have added a dozen people to our team to better assist our clients.
2025 Sales: $50M–$100M
Who: A family-owned brokerage serving Iowa and Missouri since 1989.
Specializing in land-auction services, traditional listing sales, management of highly tillable farmland, investment-grade combination farms, pastureland, hunting and recreational properties, and investment land.
WOW! Assisted a long-term client with the sale of their 660-acre recreational farm after years of development and improvement.
What was your take on 2025? The land market gained momentum near the end of the year. Strong buyer demand and low inventory continued to support pricing, but sales were increasingly dependent on location, productivity, and long-term fundamentals.
How is 2026 shaping up? Buyer demand remains the primary stabilizer in the market. Prices will be specific to the property and location, with strong farms continuing to command interest and more marginal tracts facing tighter pricing ranges. While the market remains healthy overall, select opportunities may emerge where negotiating leverage favors buyers, while pricing overall remains historically elevated and supportive of sellers despite being off peak highs.
2025 Sales: $250M–$500M
Who: A multistate land and lifestyle brokerage specializing in recreational land, hunting properties, farmland, timber tracts, legacy ranches, and rural estates.
WOW! In 2025, we were the top brokerage in the nation within the United Country network.
What was your take on 2025? We saw 50 percent year-over-year growth in several markets, with per-acre pric-ing stabilizing and returning
to more sustainable apprecia-tion patterns. Buyer demand remained strong from land investors, 1031 exchange buyers, agricultural operators, and recreational users, especially for income-producing tracts and properties with habitat upside. The market clearly rewarded accurate pricing, high-quality marketing, and land-specific expertise.
How is 2026 shaping up? It started strong, and we expect another solid year. Demand for high-quality tracts remains healthy, particularly for properties with income potential, access, water features, and recreational value. We anticipate stable values with measured appreciation on top-tier offerings. Inventory remains selective, so well-positioned listings should stay competitive. We expect continued opportunity from generational land transfers and legacy-property transitions.
