Business in Vancouver, May 12-18, 1998
On Wawn Lake four years ago, Jim Brown-John finally found the property he wanted. He had scoped out and walked away from at least 20 potential deals before deciding on this one. But now he was sure. This was the right chunk of land- at the right price. All he had to do was convince his wife, Heather Brown-John. Certainly, she had good reason to be cautious.
Real Estate Weekly, August 28, 1998
We have asked Rudy Nielsen, of Niho Land and Cattle Company, the largest owner of recreational land in British Columbia, to report on why and how investors should consider rural acreage. This is Nielsen’s report:
In 1982 our family changed its focus from small town, commercial investments to recreational land, where there is less risk and a better return.
Sales of all unimproved rural properties in BC rose dramatically from 1989 to 1995.
Vancouver Magazine, May / June 1997
Whistler – we all know what happened there. The Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast? Lovely, and priced accordingly. The Okanagan and the Shuswap – in just five years, between 1988 and 1993, average selling prices more than doubled. Vancouver’s traditional cottage country is no longer a place to get away from it all, if by “it” you mean high prices, big crowds and all that time spent waiting in ferry lineups or otherwise getting around.
Globe & Mail, May 4, 1996
For years, Sandra and Ken Prentice dreamed of homesteading in Northern Ontario. Last May, their dream came true when they moved on to 80 acres of land near Cochrane, Ont., that cost them just $19,900
“We always wanted a back-to-basics lifestyle where we could do some farming and raise a few animals,” Ms. Prentice says. “Now we have our place in the sun- and it didn’t cost us an arm and a leg.”
James Risdon, Business in Vancouver, December 24-30, 1996
OH GIVE ME A HOME….
After years of buying land in the Interior, selectively logging it and reselling it to recreational land buyers, the NIHO Land & Cattle Company is moving on to what it hopes will be greener pastures.
Rudy Nielsen, president of New Westminster-based NIHO, stopped logging land about two years ago, and started looking for another focus for his company.
Jodie Heap, Business in Vancouver, April 23-29, 1996
If you rifle through as many prospective deals as Rudy Nielsen does in a given day, you’ve no doubt developed a pretty thorough selection system.
As owner and founder of Niho Land & Cattle Co. Ltd., Nielsen typically buys 140 rural and recreational properties in any given year. He admits that the system he uses isn’t particularly sophisticated, but it’s methodical and detailed to a fault,
James Risdon, Real Estate News, March 21, 1995
Here’s a quick summary of how to buy recreational land, boiled down from a talk by Rudy Nielsen, president of NIHO Land & Cattle.
Nielsen, one of the biggest buyers and sellers of vacant land in BC, says only 40 percent of his money is spent on buying land: the rest is sunk into research to make sure he buys the right land.
The Vancouver Sun, June 17, 1995
The foyer looks like a Cariboo bunkhouse: leather chairs, a Stetson hanging from a steer’s horn, cowhides tacked to the wall and horseshoes for doorhandles.
It is from here at the 6th Street offices of NIHO Land & Cattle Company in New Westminster, that Rudy Nielsen runs his empire like some shrewd cattle baron from the 1880’s.
But don’t be fooled by the rustic entrance and the blue jeans- out back is a set of computer,
B.C. Ultimate Guide to Buying & Selling, March 1995
When you walk into the offices of the Niho Land and Cattle Company, it’s easy to believe you’ve slipped back to earlier times in British Columbia.
Cattle skulls, guns, knives, frontier pictures and paintings displayed on barnboard walls might not be the norm in real estate office décor but then Rudy Nielsen isn’t exactly your run-of-the-mill guy. When he and his commercial real estate business went belly up in the late 1970’s,
Duart Snow, Cottage Magazine, Fall 1994
Rudy Nielsen has this John Wayne replica Bowie knife. The president of Niho Land & Cattle Company- among the leading players on BC’s booming recreational property market- keeps it as a reminder that his family firm became a winner by being different.
He takes the ornate, foot-long knife from a case in his office and stabs it into a well-used nick in the top of his rustic wooden desk: “It reminds me how it all works… It reminds me to be different.