Ag Agents Become Executive Realtors

Heather Keenen
Heather Keenen

LINCOLN -- Two Realtors with Team Ag in Lincoln have achieved their executive broker status.

Heather Keenen and Kim Jones are now executive brokers/realtors with Team AG Real Estate & Appraisals, a locally owned firm at 1721 E. Pridemore Drive.

Greg Cheshier is owner and principal broker of Team AG.

To become an executive broker, real estate agents have to complete 90 hours of classroom instruction and work under a broker for two years. As executive brokers, Keenen and Jones can sign their own paperwork.

It means, Cheshier said, that he is able to delegate some of the supervisory responsibilities to his executive brokers.

"It frees up my life,"Cheshier said. "I can invest in the business by training others or hiring more agents. It serves customers better but it also takes some of the load off me."

Keenen of Prairie Grove also is the firm's business manager. She grew up in Prairie Grove and owns a cattle ranch and crop farm in southwest Missouri.

Keenen grew up a home builder's daughter and says she has always had a passion for real estate. Her sales background developed her knack for negotiating and her years of appraisal management, review and research for Team Ag has given her a level of real estate knowledge to set her apart from the competition.

In addition to her real estate responsibilities, Keenen is active in the Lincoln community as president of Lincoln Area Chamber of Commerce for the past two years. She also serves on Lincoln Pound Pals Board, Bright Futures Lincoln Advisory Board and is the Northwest Arkansas Riding Club Secretary.

Keenen and her family are active in the Arkansas Cattlemen's Association and Arkansas Farm Bureau where she currently serves on the Washington County Board of Directors. She and her husband were honored to have been selected to receive an Excellence in Ag Award from Arkansas Farm Bureau last year for their contributions to Arkansas Agriculture through their jobs and volunteer advocacy.

Jones started on the ground floor of a mortgage company in 1986, and has built a successful career in real estate over the past 30 years. She said she prides herself with knowledge from her years of personal experiences.

Growing up on a poultry and cattle farm in Lincoln, Jones said her parents instilled in her core values, individual responsibility and character that she carries with her wherever she goes.

She often says, "One of the best feelings I have is handing the keys to a first-time home buyer and knowing that I was a part of one of the biggest decisions they will ever make."

She and her husband raised two children on their cattle farm in Lincoln and enjoy time with family and friends.

Team Ag has been in its office on U.S. Highway 62 coming into Lincoln since March 2014. Before that, Cheshier worked out of his home.

Cheshire said he underestimated how much the presence of an office on the highway would help the firm, especially on the real estate side.

Team AG had a record year in 2016 for real estate and appraisals, Cheshire said.

He projects 2017 to be similar but cautions there are some unknowns because of the new presidential administration.

"It seems like there's a little hesitancy out there," Cheshire said. "There's the unknown and it's more volatile."

Team AG sells real estate in Arkansas and Oklahoma and conducts appraisals in the two states, along with Missouri and Louisiana.

Others in the Team AG firm are agents Dustin Cowell and Jima Jetton, who also runs the front office.

General News on 02/15/2017