How a Rural Land Business Actually Grows: 1992 → Today

A Business Anatomy Lesson, Not a Success Story

This is not a success story.

It’s a business anatomy lesson.

Most people see a deal, a revenue number, a year that looks good or bad. What they rarely see is the full arc: the false starts, the reversals, the long plateaus, and the quiet decisions that determine whether a business survives long enough to matter.

This is the real operating history of Mountains West Ranches, from 1992 to today—not framed as a highlight reel, but as a record of how a rural land business actually compounds over decades.

1992: Where the Business Actually Started

Mountains West Ranches did not start as a land company.

It started as a firewood business.

My dad and my grandpa purchased a handful of rural lots. The original intent wasn’t development or appreciation—it was practical. They cut firewood off the land. When the wood was gone, my dad did something simple but important: he listed the remaining land in the Salt Lake City newspaper.

The lots sold.

There was a small profit.

That moment mattered—not because it was big, but because it revealed a pattern. The land itself held value beyond its original purpose. There might be a repeatable business here.

There was no master plan. No long-term vision deck. Just entrepreneurial pattern recognition.

Around this same time, my grandpa’s health began to decline, and he wasn’t meaningfully involved in building the business going forward. What followed was largely my dad experimenting on the side, seeing what worked and—just as importantly—what didn’t.

1992–2001: A Part-Time Business Focused on Survival

From 1992 through roughly 2001, Mountains West Ranches was not a primary focus.

My dad’s main career was with USANA, where he was a top income earner. MWR existed alongside that work, selling a small number of lots each year.

There was no real team.

No infrastructure.

No systems.

No ambition to scale.

The goal during this phase wasn’t growth.

It was simple: don’t lose money.

This phase is important because many people underestimate how long real businesses sit here. A decade can pass before something looks like a “company.” Most businesses fail because they can’t survive this period long enough to learn.

2001–2007: The First Real Build Phase

Around 2001, after my grandpa passed, my dad made the decision to take Mountains West Ranches more seriously.

This was the first real transition—from side experiment to operating company.

During this phase, several foundational pieces were added for the first time:

• Dedicated salespeople

• A marketing function

• Loan servicing

• Note sales and early investor conversations

From 2001 to 2007, the business grew from under $1M in annual sales to approximately $5M.

This wasn’t explosive growth. But it was real, earned progress. The business was learning how to operate with more moving parts and more responsibility.

Then came the market.

2007–2011: Going Backwards

The 2007–2008 financial crisis hit land hard.

From 2007 through 2011, Mountains West Ranches’ sales fell back to roughly $1–2M per year.

Going backwards is never easy—psychologically or operationally. This period stripped away any illusion that growth is linear or guaranteed.

There was no hype.

No tailwind.

No easy capital.

Just survival.

This phase taught one of the most important lessons in the entire history of the company: survival skills matter more than growth skills. Businesses that only know how to grow tend to break when conditions tighten.

2011–2016: Rebuilding With Everything on the Table

I joined the business in 2011. My first full year was 2012.

The year before I joined full-time, the company had done approximately $1.5M in sales. My first goal was modest and specific: get us back to $2M.

We hit it.

From there, the business began growing again, roughly $1–3M per year:

• 2012: $2M

• 2013: $3M

• 2014: $5M

• 2015: $7M

• 2016: $9M

This was a scrappy period.

The team was small:

• 1 acquisitions person

• 2 development people

• 1–2 salespeople

• 1 loan servicing person

• A bookkeeper who handled accounting, assisted with notes and investors, and helped with documents and recordings

I personally handled an unreasonable number of roles. A typical day could include:

• Running marketing in the morning

• Making sales calls

• Hosting a land tour

• Closing a deal

• Returning to the office to create closing documents myself late at night

This was not scalable.

But it was deeply educational.

When you touch every function, you learn where businesses actually break—and where they quietly leak money, time, and trust.

2017–2019: Structure Begins to Replace Heroics

From 2017 through 2019, the business crossed a meaningful threshold.

Revenue grew to:

• 2017: $11M

• 2018: $13M

• 2019: $15M

More importantly, structure began to form.

We added:

• A second loan servicer

• A dedicated closings and documents role

• Expanded the sales team to 2–4 people

• A dedicated note sales and investor liaison

• Additional marketing capacity

• A legal contractor to assist with complexity

This marked the transition from effort-driven growth to system-assisted growth.

Heroics were still present—but no longer required everywhere, all the time.

A Regret: Thinking Too Small

This is where one of my biggest leadership regrets sits.

For most of my tenure at MWR, we hit our goals.

On the surface, that sounds positive.

But looking back, it reveals something uncomfortable: we weren’t thinking big enough.

If you consistently hit your goals, it usually means they aren’t forcing you to become someone different.

At the time, I was younger and still educating myself in business. And to be fair, the company wasn’t yet prepared for a much larger scale—our systems, leadership depth, and processes weren’t ready.

But that’s precisely the lesson.

Big goals don’t exist to be comfortably achieved. They exist to force better strategy, stronger systems, and higher-quality leadership.

One of the biggest lessons I carry forward now is this:

Set goals so big you probably won’t hit them—because even missing them will produce better outcomes than playing it safe.

2020–2021: The Anomaly Years

• 2020: $21M

• 2021: $23M

On paper, these were the biggest years in company history.

In reality, they were unhealthy.

Stimulus money flooded the market. Buyer quality dropped. Back-out rates spiked. Behavior across the industry became distorted.

When normalized for fallout, 2020 effectively sits closer to $12M in real performance as of today.

These years taught hard lessons:

• Disciplined sales processes matter

• Buyer qualification matters

• Note sales must align with long-term performance

• When everyone is greedy, operating conservatively is the correct move

We are still cleaning up decisions made during this period—particularly around note sales relative to back-out percentages.

This is why long-term roadmaps matter so much in land.

2022–2025: Cleanup, Maturation, and Leadership Development

• 2022: $16M

• 2023: $15M

• 2024: $13M

• 2025: $11M

These were intentional cleanup years.

The focus shifted away from headline revenue and toward durability:

• Better systems and documented processes

• Developing core leaders

• Expanding marketing into a 3-person team

• Expanding sales to 5–6 people with dedicated sales development roles

• Adding a dedicated documents role to support closings and note sales

• Installing new leadership over sales and marketing

• Adding operations and HR support

We also invested heavily in professional training through Cardone Ventures.

The professionalism, clarity of communication, and quality of conversations across sales and marketing increased dramatically.

Here’s the paradox most people miss:

From 2022–2025, actual cash into the business was higher than at any point in company history.

Better buyer qualification, fewer back-outs, and cleaner notes mattered more than top-line revenue.

2026 and Beyond: Durability

We are entering 2026 with the machine built.

Low target: $16M

High target: $22M

Business issues never disappear. That’s reality.

What changes is your ability to diagnose and fix them cleanly and quickly. Today, when something breaks, we know exactly where to look and how to correct it.

That is durability.

The Real Takeaway

This is how a rural land business actually grows.

Not fast.

Not cleanly.

Not in straight lines.

But correctly—over decades.

And once you’ve lived through this full arc, you stop selling outcomes.

You start sharing operating systems.

That’s what ultimately led to Grant Group.