For the Love of Land
During his final semester at Harding University in Searcy, Ark., William Hardin gave a presentation for his sales class’s final exam. One of the evaluators, a real estate agent, called him later to talk about turning Hardin’s love of the outdoors into a real estate career. “I asked him what it paid, and he said it’s all commission. I told him that will never work,” says Hardin, 29, who was raised on a family farm that his grandmother has managed for 50 years. But he changed his mind and now co-owns a thriving real estate brokerage specializing in land and rural properties. His slogan connects him with clients: “We are hunters, farmers, conservationists, landowners, and habitat managers, just like you, operating a real estate brokerage for you.” Hardin says he can get very close to his clients, one of whom put him in his will to handle his real estate issues. “He told me I am his guy,” says Hardin.