Michael Earl is an Omaha native who – after an injury led to him giving up a baseball scholarship at the University of Northern Colorado – attended University of Nebraska at Omaha, pursuing a degree in business. In college Earl got an opportunity to buy Sir Knight, a men’s formalwear store he worked at. With the help of a partner, he purchased the store. After five years he sold his half of the business to his partner. He then opened Munchville, a popcorn eatery, with the help of some friends. They had locations in Crossroads Mall, Westroads Mall, and Mall of the Bluffs. Munchville was eventually franchised and then was sold. Earl continued starting and selling businesses until he started in commercial real estate in 1988.

Earl has been a broker at Lund company since 1992. He currently holds the position of sales manager. A lot of their agents come in as interns and get experience before being hired on. They have a good team who help in the training of new hires. Earl tries to make sure they have staff to take care of the little things so agents can focus on making sales. To maintain an efficient business, Earl makes sure each agent has a specialty. Their area of expertise could be residential, commercial, or industrial, but agents will have an area of focus.

Though he is the sales manager, a majority of Earl’s work is spent making deals. He works in land and investment. When a client needs a certain amount of land to build on, it is Earl’s job to go out and find it. Currently he is working with clients who need anywhere from 23 acres to 600 acres of land. Earl used to frequently work with the owner of Bucky’s before they sold to Casey’s. He works with most of the convenience stores in Omaha, finding and putting together plots.

Earl has worked through three recessions since beginning his real estate career in 1988. Though the housing market’s demand is heavily outweighing the supply, it’s nothing Earl hasn’t seen before. When he joined Lund, the mantra was “Stay alive to 95” and they continue booming to this day.  Earl is seeing interest rates on the commercial side of 4.5-5.5%, which is lower than it had been in months. He sees a resiliency in Omaha during recessions. People tend to slow down a little bit and avoid damage seen on the coasts.

Sourcing clients is the most exhaustive part of Earl’s job. One of the things he enjoys most about real estate is that he gets to be his own boss, but the flip side of that coin is that he must go out and find the business; at times he’ll be so focused on taking care of the clients he has, he doesn’t put the necessary time in to farm for new work. Not every client buys or leases property, so an agent will put in work for each client and only around 50% of deals close. For Earl, helping his clients find their ideal property makes the heavy workload worth it.