You're building on land. Talk to someone who knows good ground from bad.
When growth means buying land, every site and every deal carries risk you can't afford to get wrong. A bad site or a botched closing costs months and millions. Zoning, title, entitlements, easements, the way a deal actually comes together: I've lived in that world, and I sit on your side of the table.
The hardest part of building isn't your product. It's the ground it sits on.
Teams that have to acquire land are usually excellent at their core business and new to real estate. The expensive mistakes hide in the parts nobody on the team has done before.
Assumptions about dirt
Zoning, entitlements, title, easements, water and access rights. The assumptions baked into your model that no one has pressure-tested against how land actually trades.
How deals really close
Diligence, contingencies, who signs, what kills a transaction at the table. The mechanics that look simple in a pitch deck and sink companies in practice.
What the ground is really worth
Years of sourcing and trading land have given me a feel for what a parcel is actually worth, why it's priced the way it is, and whether you're looking at a real opportunity or someone else's problem.
A seat at your table, and skin in your game.
An advisor with a stake in the outcome, on call for the decisions that matter.
Advisory board seat
Ongoing counsel on strategy, real-world risk, and the calls that need someone who's been on the other side of the deal.
Reality-check diligence
I pressure test the land and deal assumptions behind your plan, the zoning, title, access, and feasibility questions that decide whether a site is real, before you find out the expensive way.
A pro in your corner
When a real deal is in front of you, I help you read the terms, spot what's off, and push back, so you're not negotiating against seasoned brokers and sellers for the first time alone.
Built for companies that have to acquire real estate.
Luke Crawford
I run Crawford Lands, a land acquisition search firm. My work is the real business of land: sourcing, acquiring, structuring, and closing on the ground, not theorizing about it. Most recently our firm helped build a 4+ GW data center land pipeline, the kind of large, complex sourcing effort that separates the people who know this market from the people who talk about it.
To date, our firm has facilitated over $100 million in contracted development deals across single-family, multi-family, industrial, and data center projects. Sourcing and closing real estate is the part of the business most teams underestimate, and the one they have the least lived experience in. I advise the people doing these deals, so the wrong assumption gets caught early, the deal behaves the way you expect, and a door that would otherwise stay shut opens.
I work for equity.
The name is the model. Earnest money is the deposit that proves a buyer is serious. They have something real on the line. I take an advisory equity stake for the same reason, so my outcome is tied to yours, and you know the counsel you're getting is the counsel I'd give if it were my own company.
It also keeps things clean for an early stage team. No invoices, no hourly meter running while you think out loud, just an aligned partner who wins when you win.
- Advisory equity, not cash. A modest stake with standard vesting, aligned to a multi-year relationship.
- A real seat. Ongoing availability for the decisions that matter, not a logo on your website.
- Right fit only. I take on a small number of companies where land and real estate are genuinely core.
- Start with a conversation. We figure out together whether I can actually move the needle for you.
Building on land? Let's talk.
Tell me what you're working on and where land or real estate risk shows up in your business. If I'm the right advisor for it, you'll know quickly.