Focusing on tech and social media

A current resident at an upcoming RHA Land and Lake property in Tyler, Texas. [Photo: RHA Land and Lake]

Tech and innovation play key roles in Healy’s businesses—something he says has been true for decades.

“I’m kind of like real estate’s Olsen twins,” Healy told us. “I’ve grown up in the business, and I’ve done this since I was 21 years old. I’m about to be 42, so literally half my life. We’ve been pacesetters as far as technology and social media are concerned. I was the first realtor in the country to do social media. And I feel like there’s always a target on my back to kind of be the front runner for new opportunities.”

“What I’ve learned about technology is crucial. It increases efficiency and effectiveness—but you still have to have a heartbeat behind it. I think that’s what has worked about us, especially lately. We’re able to go and scale, and that’s been a lot of fun.”

Celebrity clients help fuel his brands

One thing that gives Healy’s companies sizzle is their focus on celebrities and star athletes like Khloe Kardashian and former Dallas Maverick Lamar Odom. Last July, RHA Real Estate inked a multi-year partnership with the Dallas Mavericks as the team’s official real estate partner. And Healy Global Real Estate and Relocation has relocated “countless high-profile athletes and celebrities since its inception,” according to the company.

“At six-feet-five-inches tall, the spiky-haired Healy looks more like a pro athlete or television star,” D Magazine wrote in a 2016 profile, noting his “celebrity clients and millennial charisma.”

With his new Land and Lake business, Healy is trading at least a little of that glitz and glamour for the down-to-earth, mud-caked-boot life of rural Texas.

Bosque County is hot—and so is ‘Texahoma’

So what rural hot spots does Healy see popping up?

“Bosque County has always been hot,” he said. “It’s due south and DFW is on the far, far north end of Bosque County. I’m a big fan of East Texas. I love Smith County. I love Lindale, I love Mineola. I love Winona. I think anything within 80 miles of where you live is magic. Some people here  might want to go west of Weatherford, some people might want to go north of McKinney.”

North of the border, Oklahoma is heating up too, Healy says.

“For now, the goal is to keep Rogers Healy and Associates a Texas brand,” he said, even though his new firm is seeing strong sales in Oklahoma—”or Texa-homa”—as well. 

“We can help people all over the world,” he noted. “But Texas is our wheelhouse.”

Single-family home sales aren’t the only thing sizzling

Like single-family homes across North Texas, rural land sales are sizzling these days. Speaking on availability, Healy quoted a saying: “I don’t want all the land. I want all the land that touches mine.”

“I heard that early on,” he said. “It strikes a little different a chord with me, where I feel like people that only do land sales eventually sell themselves out of a job. But for us, it’s a complement. Today, we’re seeing it firsthand in a different speed—especially me. I think we’ll always have opportunity.”

But yes, he says, “I think that it’s interesting to see stuff get swept up at a historic rate.”

Second homes vs. rural relocations

People look for rural properties for different reasons, Healy says.

“I’m not a lake house guy,” he points out. “My wife loves her family’s lake house, but I feel like if I’m going to go out of town, I don’t want to see people I live down the street from. But some people love that. So it’s a combo.”

“It’s somewhat rare that someone says I want to pack it up and I want to move 80 miles north, south, east, or west because I can’t deal with the city—when they’re going to drive in the city three to five times a week,” he added. “That’s not a normal occurrence. But a lot of people just want to get away, and a big reason people have second homes is to go and recharge their battery. They can fall in love with that lifestyle and figure out a way to adjust.”

Healy acknowledged that a lot of the land in Texas, including between Dallas and Austin, “is really flat. But it’s all relative. Maybe people are moving from the mountains, and they want to just have land where they can see everything. That’s why we do what we do—you just never know who the buyer is.”