Farmland Broker, Appraiser, Farm Manager, and Auctioneer

Steve Slonaker

Centerville, Indiana

About

Steve Slonaker is a farmland broker, appraiser, farm manager, and auctioneer with Schrader Real Estate and Auction Company and the owner of Slonaker Farm Management, serving landowners from his base in Centerville, Indiana. Steve has spent his entire career in agriculture, and his experience spans nearly every side of the farmland business - lending, appraisal, management, brokerage, and public policy. That unusual breadth lets him solve problems and recognize opportunities that might escape others. He also owns and operates 450 acres just northwest of Centerville, giving him a working landowner's perspective on the decisions he helps families make.

Steve earned a B.S. in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University and has held his real estate broker license since 1977, a year after completing his first farmland appraisals. From 1983 to 1986 he served as a senior officer of the Farm Credit Bank of Louisville, responsible for supervising the Indiana Production Credit Association and Federal Land Bank Associations, which together carried $2 billion in outstanding agricultural credit. During that time he testified as an expert witness before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit and Rural Development (1984), and in 1985 he was named one of the Outstanding Young Men of America. In 1986 he launched his own practice as a regional farmland broker, appraiser, consultant, and farm manager. His years in farm lending give him a clear view of land from the lender's side of the table - knowledge that proves valuable whenever financing, valuation, or estate questions come into play.

Background

Over the course of his career, Steve has completed appraisals on an estimated 500,000 acres in Indiana and, as a broker of agricultural properties throughout the United States, sold more than 89,000 acres between 1986 and 2012. He serves as professional farm manager for more than 5,000 acres on behalf of private owners. Since 1995 he has also represented more than 75 Pennsylvania Amish families resettling in East Central Indiana, guiding them through land purchases in a new state - work that depends on trust and careful attention to each family's needs. He has built on that field experience with numerous farm management and appraisal courses taken throughout the United States.

Additional Information

Steve has long been a leader in Wayne County civic life. He has served as Chairman of the Board of the Richmond/Wayne County Chamber of Commerce, Chairman of the Wayne County Board of Zoning Appeals, Board Chairman of the Reid Hospital Foundation in Richmond, and a Trustee of Ivy Tech State College Region 9. He is a Director and Chairman of the Board of Wayne Bank & Trust in Cambridge City, serves as Trustee and Secretary-Treasurer of West Grove Cemetery in Centerville, and has been a member of the Richmond Kiwanis and Centerville Lions service clubs.