Where Have All the Landmen Gone?

Recently, I have been reflecting on the history of my career as a landman and on the difficulties and unpredictability of my industry over that time.?

Now many of you might not be aware of what a landman is. I sure didn’t when I started back in 1996. We go by different titles such as site acquisition specialists, right of way agents, land representatives, and so on.?But whatever you call us we are an integral part of developing, building, and maintaining infrastructures projects throughout the US and other parts of the world.?

“Right of way is the legal right to travel over land owned by another, subject to any restrictions or conditions that may be specified by grant or sanctioned by custom. This grant may specifically be used as either a public road, thoroughfare, footpath or in the form of an easement granted or reserved over the land for access. Rights of way are necessary to build and maintain public and private infrastructure systems which allow societies to operate. Examples include road and railway systems, tunnels, bridges, mass-transit systems, power stations, wind farms, hydro-electric dams, electric transmission lines and distribution, telephone and fiber optic cabling, cell phone towers, airports and much more. “?(About IRWA, 2022)

We are always at the forefront of the beginning of a project and the last boots on the ground at the end the project.?We help maintain these assets throughout their life cycle and the dismantle and/or abandonment, when they are no longer needed.

The reasoning behind my recent reflection is mainly because there has been a shortage of good land agents in the market now a days.?I have been trying to find good agents to work on projects from Oregon to Florida and everywhere in between.?When I reach out to others in the field, they all say the same thing; they are looking for agents also.?

So, I ask myself “How did we get here?”.?Now I am aware of the labor shortage, referred to as The Great Resignation *(please see reference below), in almost all industries for various reasons; however, I wanted to focus on the career that I am a specialist in and part of **(please refer to the link at the bottom to see my credentials).

I’ve seen dips before in the industry where there were declines in work. After the crash of 9/11 or the recession after the housing market bubble in 2008 are a couple of examples. However this is a unique time for landmen that I have observed coming for about seven or eight years that started while working on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline out in Virginia. ?There have been great upheavals politically, economically, and in technology for our industry and I will try and explain what I and others in the industry believe has happened.??

There can be several catalysts or reasons that can cause a decline in the availability of skilled talent.?This ranges from lack of necessity to rapid growth of a market and everything in between.?I believe all industries and careers must evolve and go through growing pains to remain relevant and profitable or they disappear. With that in mind, there are four main reasons that there is a shortage of good land agents.

1.???Flood of unqualified work force.

2.???Decrease in compensation and perks.

3.???Increase in individual workloads and assignments.

4.???Increase in requirements and prerequisites.

Flood of Unqualified Work Force.

Because historically, the prerequisite to work in land acquisition was that you needed to know someone that could get you in the business and then all you needed was a high school diploma or equivalent, a good temperament and a decent work ethic. That was it. ?Then, Once you were in, it was on the job training or trial by fire. As for myself, I was trained by my stepfather and then heard about a job from a friend.?Eventually this method of hiring lead to a flood of land agents with a variety of backgrounds and skill sets.?I worked with agents that were doctors, attorneys, car salespeople, and even high school dropouts.?The growth was so fast and furious, I could not tell you who was who and soon there were too many land agents for the available projects.

Decrease in Compensation and Perks

Now this might make you wonder why, aside from the effortless entrance, so many people from all levels of society would want to be in the landman business, and the answer was simple.?Great money, straight commission or day rate, no tie downs, travel all over the US, and mostly you made your own schedule Additionally, you got per diem, mileage, computer, and phone reimbursement (all tax free).?I remember working a cell phone tower job for Bell Atlantic where you would get paid $3,000.00 for a SCIP (Site Candidate Information Package) and $4,000.00 for an executed lease.?In six months of work, I cleared six figures and worked a few hours every other day at the most.?Now-a-days this type of career and benefits are more common and not a big deal but back in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, this was rare.

But like all careers, there was the downside.?Most jobs were contract positions with no promise of when or where your job would be and how long that job would last.?You were on a constant deadline where everything was due yesterday.?You had people always yelling at you and sometimes shooting at you for coming on their property.?You always had to be on call 24 hours a day ready to pick up the phone or meet with whomever, whenever.?And it was common that you were covering all your expenses such as office supplies, insurance, training, education, moving costs and more.?But the pros outweighed the cons.?

The industry started to change around 2015. Clients started cutting back on capital projects, which led to the industry moving toward service companies where agents were classified as employees. People that were used to being 1099 agents, and now were W2 employees and the cut in pay for taxes was a big adjustment. We saw a big cut in rates, per diem being slashed and normal expenses such as mileage, cell and computer being cut altogether.?This did not change any of the cons and costs that came along with the career and overtime the cons started outweighing the pros.?Agents had to start leaving their families in one location and go to work projects without them, again with no promise of when or where your job would be and how long that job would last.?Some would take inhouse positions for half what they made before, just for security and stability.?

In the end those agents that could find work elsewhere left the industry and left those agents that could not leave to pick up whatever work was left competing against agents who were considered substandard for substandard rates.

Increase in Individual Workloads and Assignments.

With clients starting to cut back on projects and the amount allotted to the projects the companies were forced to hire fewer agents for the same amount of work.?Again, many of these agents were subpar.?This caused the competent agents to pick up more of the slack from those subpar agents for fear the project would be taken away from their company and they would be out of a job.?Soon all the projects and clients suffered from large delays and excess spending, while service companies struggled to supply clients with quality work and agents.?Service company’s reputations were being tarnished and very few of the smaller companies survived.?The clients became fed up with this and began demanding better quality work and agents without the increase of funding.?

Increase in Requirements and Prerequisites.

?????????In an effort to meet the clients' demands of quality; the service companies began screening agents by focusing on available verification or certifications. They would require a bachelor’s degree, real state licenses, IRWA Certification, several years of experience, an understanding of real estate law, and so on. (“Right of Way Agent: What Is It? and How to Become One?” ZipRecruiter, 2022) This did help weed out a lot of the subpar agents but also the ones that were great.?Companies were expecting agents to spend a small fortune to get a job that paid the same amount as other jobs that required this, with the exception that those jobs did not have the same downside as a landman.?So, the agents stated asking themselves “Why bother?”

?????????In the end, this changed my industry into a harsh and undesirable place to work.?I have reached out to dozens of landmen in several disciplines in the industry and they have all asked the same question “Where have all the landmen gone?”.?

?????????So where do we go from here??Clients have begun to accept that they need to pay more.?Per diem has started to come back on some projects.?Service companies have started to offer benefits like medical insurance, paid tuition and training.?And pricing for salaries have started to come back a little.?However, like any industry trying to get more people, they will need to offer more than other industries out there and in my opinion we still have a long way to go.

?

Bibliography

“About IRWA.” IRWA, https://www.irwaonline.org/about-irwa/.

Jennifer Leigh Last Modified Date: October 15. “What Does a Right of Way Agent Do?” Practical Adult Insights, 15 Oct. 2022, https://www.practicaladultinsights.com/what-does-a-right-of-way-agent-do.htm.

“What Is a Landman?” AAPL, https://www.landman.org/about/who-we-are/what-is-a-landman.

Moore, Ryan. “Landman in Oil and Gas Industry: Meaning: Types: Services: How to Become.” Pheasant Energy, 20 Sept. 2022, https://www.pheasantenergy.com/landman/.

Team, ZipRecruiter Marketplace Research. “Right of Way Agent: What Is It? and How to Become One?” ZipRecruiter, https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Career/Right-Of-Way-Agent/What-Is-How-to-Become.

Smiling engineers shaking hands at construction site for architectural project. (ca. 2022). Freepik.com. https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/smiling-engineers-shaking-hands-construction-site-architectural-project_5060977.htm#query=handshake%20outdoors%20construction&position=12&from_view=search&track=sph

Acknowledgement

Bruce Trepl Vice President at Contract Land Staff

Aaron Welles Project Manager - Right of Way Eversource Energy

*“The ‘Great Resignation’ In Perspective : Monthly Labor Review.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2022/article/the-great-resignation-in-perspective.htm.

** https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/aaron-d-estes/

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